Arnold, Benedict, Continental General and Traitor

Autograph document signed ("Bened^{t Arnold, Capt."), one quarter page (3 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.; 90 x 182 mm), Cambridge, May 1775, to the Treasurer of the colony of Connecticut, being an order to pay out 20 pounds to James Lockwood; long tear in upper right corner affecting 4 lines of text, tear in upper left corner touching one line of text, hole (presumably a seal tear) in left margin affecting 2 words, stained. Blue cloth folding case, tear morocco spine lettered gilt.}

New Haven was among the first New England towns to answer the alarum at Lexington. At the time, Arnold was captain of the Governor's Guards in Connecticut. He summoned his corps on 20 April and immediately set out for Lexington and thence for Cambridge with forty men, among them James Lockwood. In December 1775 Lockwood published four engravings of the Battle of Lexington after drawings by the Loyalist Ralph Earl, which subsequently became pro-Revolutionary propaganda prints.