Arnold, Benedict, Continental General and Traitor

The trek of America's Hannibal to capture Ticonderoga. To the Albany Committee of Safety, the newly commissioned Colonel Arnold writes: "Being appointed, by the Congress of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Commander of a Number of Troops, Now on their March, for the Reduction of the Fort at Ticonderoga, & having Directions, & Authority from the Committee of Safety to supply the Troops with Provisions &c. I now take the Liberty to Request you to forward [to] Lake George, Twenty Barrells Pork, Forty Hundred Good Bisquet. If not to be procured imediately Flower in Lieu therof. also, One Hogshead Rum—& that you will give Directions in Case we Succeed in the Reduction of the Place, to have a sufficient Number of Carriages ready at Fort George, to Transport Thirty Pieces of Cannon of 18 lbs & 24 lbs to Albany, which will be of the utmost Consequence to the Army at Cambridge, & for which I have [the] General's Particular Authority."

On 3 May, Arnold persuaded the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to let him lead an expedition against Ticonderoga and seize the cannon and ordnance stored there.  He was commissioned a colonel and authorized to raise 400 men. Before leaving Williamstown, Arnold learned that Ethan Allen and a force of  about 150 men were heading toward Lake Champlain without waiting for their rations of biscuits and salt pork, whence the need for Arnold to order a ten-day supply of provisions ordered be sent on to Lake George. On the evening of 9 May, Arnold reached Allen and claimed command. Allen's Green Mountain Boys refused to follow Arnold and threatened to return home.  A scheme of joint command was parlayed. At about 4 o'clock in the morning on 10 May, Arnold and Allen, with only a third of their men, seized the commandant of the garrison, Captain Delaplace, without so much as firing a shot. Allen's boastful account of the attack did not include Arnold as a participant. It was one of the first of many slights that Arnold would suffer before finally trading his American commission in for a British one.