Benedict Arnold is born into a once-prosperous Connecticut merchant family that later falls into hardship and public disgrace.

Arnold is elected captain of the Connecticut militia and seizes weapons from New Haven's town leaders as the Revolution begins.

Arnold and Ethan Allen jointly lead an assault on Fort Ticonderoga and capture the British garrison in ten minutes.

Arnold proposes to General Washington a daring march through the Maine wilderness to attack the British-held city of Quebec.

Arnold leads over a thousand men on a grueling, near-fatal trek through the Maine wilderness and into Canada.

American forces attack Quebec in a blinding snowstorm; General Montgomery is killed and Arnold is shot in the left leg.

Wounded Arnold directs the continuing siege of Quebec from a hospital on crutches and receives a promotion to general from Washington.

A massive British counterattack forces the Americans to retreat from Canada; Arnold burns the fort at St. John's and escapes by canoe.

Arnold positions his small American fleet in a channel at Valcour Island and fights the British navy in a costly battle.

Congress passes Arnold over for promotion to major general in favor of five officers who are his juniors.

Arnold disobeys Gates's orders at the Battle of Saratoga, charges the British redoubt, and is shot in the leg before his men win.

Arnold is appointed military governor of Philadelphia, conducts questionable trade deals, lives extravagantly, and marries Peggy Shippen.

Arnold's court-martial ends with acquittal on the most serious charges and a formal reprimand delivered reluctantly by General Washington.

Arnold flees West Point by boat to the British ship Vulture after learning that André has been captured by American militiamen.

André is convicted as a spy and executed by hanging; Arnold later leads raids on Virginia and Connecticut before dying in London.

Benedict Arnold rises from a disgraced merchant family to become one of the most daring officers in the Continental Army, leading bold campaigns at Fort Ticonderoga, through the Maine wilderness, and at Quebec. After surviving grievous wounds and building a makeshift navy to stall the British at Valcour Island, Arnold finds his ambitions repeatedly blocked by Congress and rival generals. Appointed military governor of Philadelphia, he makes questionable trade deals, lives extravagantly, and marries the Loyalist-connected Peggy Shippen. A court-martial clears him of the most serious charges, but mounting resentment drives him to secretly negotiate the surrender of West Point to the British. His plot unravels when his British contact Major André is captured and executed, and Arnold flees to the enemy side. He spends the rest of his life as a reviled traitor, leading British raids on American soil before dying in obscurity in London.

The rise and fall of Benedict Arnold's Revolutionary War career.

Arnold's father descends into alcoholism, loses the family's fortune, and is jailed for debt; Arnold is pulled from school.

Arnold finishes his apothecary apprenticeship, establishes a merchant business in New Haven with his sister Hannah, and marries Margaret Mansfield.

Arnold sails up Lake Champlain, surprises the British at Fort St. John's, and captures the strategically vital warship George.

Arnold is ordered to hand command of Fort Ticonderoga to Colonel Hinman and then receives word that his first wife has died.

John André is introduced as a young, cultured British officer assigned to patrol Fort St. John's in Canada.

A colonel secretly abandons the Quebec expedition and takes the last of the food; Arnold's starving men are reduced to eating candle wax and boiled leather.

General Montgomery captures Montreal and joins forces with Arnold to plan a combined assault on the heavily fortified city of Quebec.

John André is taken prisoner of war when the British commander surrenders Fort St. John's to General Montgomery.

After the retreat from Canada, Arnold proposes building an American fleet to block the British on Lake Champlain and is named Commander of the Lakes.

Arnold's battered fleet slips past the British at midnight after Valcour Island; British ships pursue but ultimately turn back toward Canada.

Arnold sends Hon Yost to spread exaggerated tales of American troop strength, causing the British and their Indian allies to abandon Fort Stanwix in a panic.

André participates in a nighttime raid at Paoli, Pennsylvania, in which British soldiers bayonet at least two hundred sleeping American soldiers.

André is released in a prisoner exchange, returns to New York, and rises rapidly to become General Clinton's chief of intelligence.

Arnold uses the unwitting Joshua Hett Smith to ferry André from the Vulture to shore; American officers then fire on the ship, forcing it to withdraw.

Angry crowds across America burn effigies of Arnold after learning of his treason; Arnold family graves in Norwich are desecrated.

As Arnold forges his military reputation, a parallel story unfolds through the life of British officer John André, whose path will eventually intersect with Arnold's to fatal consequence for both men. Arnold's early hardships—his father's ruin, a forced apprenticeship, and the death of his first wife—fuel his desperate hunger for glory and recognition. His secondary military victories, from capturing the British warship George at Fort St. John's to tricking the British into abandoning Fort Stanwix, show his tactical brilliance but never fully satisfy him. André, meanwhile, rises from prisoner of war to Clinton's chief of intelligence, driven by his own ambition and desire for revenge against the Americans. The mechanical steps of Arnold's treason—the secret contact through Stansbury, Smith's unwitting ferry service, and the firing on the Vulture—reveal how the plot was set in motion and why it unraveled. Its exposure triggers public outrage across America, from riots in Philadelphia to the desecration of Arnold family graves in his Connecticut hometown.

The supporting events and parallel stories that shaped Arnold's betrayal.

Young Arnold runs off to join the French and Indian War but races home learning his mother is gravely ill; she soon dies.

Arnold forces the town leaders of New Haven to hand over weapons and gunpowder when his militia prepares to march to war.

Arnold violently clashes with Allen's officer James Easton after the Fort Ticonderoga victory, earning a reputation as a man out of control.

Arnold's starving men are forced to kill and eat a fellow soldier's dog before Arnold sends cattle and sheep ahead to feed them.

While held as a prisoner of war in Pennsylvania, John André meets and befriends Peggy Shippen, who will later become Arnold's wife.

Arnold's surviving soldiers in Quebec are captured after scaling the city walls; Arnold continues directing the siege alone on crutches.

News of the Declaration of Independence reaches Arnold's men while they are building ships on Lake Champlain to resist a British advance.

Before the Battle of Valcour Island, knowing he faces overwhelming odds, Arnold draws up his will and sends it to his sister.

After routing a British raid on Danbury, Congress promotes Arnold to major general, but he remains outranked by generals promoted before him.

Gates sends Congress a battle report omitting Arnold's name, then removes Daniel Morgan from Arnold's division and strips Arnold of his command.

André organizes a lavish entertainment spectacle called the Meschianza for General Howe as British forces comfortably occupy Philadelphia.

Arnold secretly initiates contact with the British through a Philadelphia china dealer named Joseph Stansbury, offering to switch sides.

Arnold petitions Washington for the command at West Point, claiming his wounds prevent active field command; Washington reluctantly grants the request.

Washington arrives at West Point to find it in disarray and reads the intercepted papers confirming that Arnold has betrayed him.

At the Saratoga battlefield, a sculpture of a disembodied left leg honors Arnold as the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army without naming him.

Arnold's trajectory from hero to traitor is shaped by a series of pivotal decisions, emotional ruptures, and bitter revelations that accumulate across his life. From his boyhood trauma—watching his family's good name destroyed by his father's failures—to his violent clashes with fellow officers and his near-starvation in the Maine wilderness, each hardship deepens his hunger for vindication. His growing closeness to Peggy Shippen, whose future husband André had already befriended, draws him toward Loyalist sympathies even as he continues fighting for independence. The injustices Arnold perceives—Gates stealing credit at Saratoga, Congress ignoring his sacrifices, the court-martial humiliation—push him past the breaking point into secret treason. When three militiamen discover André's hidden papers in Tarrytown, the entire plot collapses, and Washington is left stunned to find that his most trusted battlefield commander has sold him out. The final, wordless monument at Saratoga—a leg carved in stone, no name attached—captures the impossible contradiction at the heart of Benedict Arnold's life.