The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery

Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America’s first, most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also one of its greatest Revolutionary War heroes. 

Steve Sheinkin’s accessible biography, The Notorious Benedict Arnold, introduces young readers to the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing American Revolution battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale from history. 

The Notorious Benedict Arnold begins with Arnold’s childhood, showing how his father’s downfall led Arnold to desperately seek the attention and approval of others throughout his life. As an adult, Arnold was a wealthy merchant who understood that when the British began taxing Americans, he had to fight this injustice. However, his motivations went beyond patriotism: “Yes, he believed in the cause of American independence, but there was much more to it. War would be a heaven-sent chance to wipe out the marks against him, to soar up and over everyone who’d ever dared to judge him.” 

Arnold refused to wait for others to take action and hatched a plan to attack the fort in Quebec, Canada. Traveling through untamed land was excruciatingly difficult, and Arnold’s men almost starved to death. Despite these harsh conditions, Arnold and his men successfully took the fort. On the battlefield, Arnold’s reckless fearlessness helped him win battles, though many disliked him, refused to take orders from him, and spread false rumors about him. When Arnold returned home, however, “people who recently considered themselves too good to associate with him were now coming over uninvited, just to ask how he was, congratulate him, and wish him well.” 

Rather than portraying Arnold as simply a heinous traitor who almost handed George Washington over to the British, the book weaves a compelling story showing how Arnold’s intelligence, bravery, and recklessness allowed him to win one of the most decisive battles in the American Revolution. Readers come to understand not only Arnold’s motivations but also the political workings of the time and how they affected his military career. Many readers will ultimately feel compassion for Arnold, whose craving for recognition and approval brought about his downfall. 

The Saratoga battlefield monument perfectly symbolizes Arnold’s complicated legacy in American history. It features “a small stone sculpture of a lower left leg. No person, just a tall boot. A plaque reads: In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army who was desperately wounded on this spot. . . winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution.’ Nowhere does the monument mention the name Benedict Arnold.” This anonymous tribute captures the tragedy of a man who was simultaneously one of America’s greatest heroes and most infamous traitors. 

Although The Notorious Benedict Arnold is non-fiction, it reads like an exciting adventure that is hard to put down. Even though everyone knows how Arnold’s story ends, learning the facts about his military history and interactions with other important historical figures proves enlightening. Readers gain new understanding of the political leaders of the time and discover why Arnold ultimately turned against the Americans. 

The Notorious Benedict Arnold will appeal to readers who love fast-paced adventures featuring exciting battles, political maneuvering, and the quest for freedom. While everyone remembers Benedict Arnold’s treachery, this book reminds us that he was also one of America’s greatest military heroes—a complex legacy that continues to fascinate readers today. 

Sexual Content  

• One American general, “spent his nights. . . singing and drinking and amusing himself in the company of the wife of a commissary, who was his mistress and, like him, loved champagne.” 
• A song popular among the British soldiers had these lyrics: “Sir William, he snug as a flea, / Lay all this time a-snoring; / Nor dreamed of harm as he lay warm / In bed with Mrs. Loring.” 

Violence  

• The book includes frequent violence, which shows Benedict Arnold’s fierce temper as well as the Americans’ struggle with the British and the Revolutionary War. Not every instance of violence is included below.  
• The book begins with a description of a hanging. “The prisoner would have to climb onto a wagon with the rope looped around his throat. Horses would jerk the wagon forward, and he would tumble off the back. The force of his falling weight should be enough to snap a man’s neck.” 
• As a teen, Benedict was embarrassed and angry that his father had lost the family’s wealth. During a celebration, “Benedict got his hands on a purchase of gunpowder, dumped the powder down the barrel of a small cannon on the town green, followed it up with a lit match, and leaped backward. He yelled ‘Huzza!’ as the cannon spit fire past his face.” 
• A French gentleman was interested in Benedict’s sister Hannah. Benedict warned the man to stay away. When Benedict came home and saw the man in his house, Benedict and his friend devised a plan. “While the friend walked toward the door, Arnold loaded and cocked a pistol and crouched in the shrubs beneath the window. The friend opened the door. . . Thinking it was Hannah’s overprotective brother, the Frenchman leaped from the couch, tripped to the window, lifted the glass, jumped out, and sprinted down the street. Arnold took a shot toward the bouncing figure, purposely aiming just a little high.” The Frenchman never returned. 
• One of Benedict’s sailors, Boles, planned on informing the authorities that Benedict was not paying British taxes. Benedict told Boles to leave town. When Boles was found in a tavern, a group of sailors “dragged Boles outside and across the street to the whipping post, where, in Arnold’s words, Boles received nearly forty lashes with a small cord.” Then Arnold’s crew carried Boles to the edge of town and dumped him on the muddy road. 
• Daniel Morgan was “a leader of a group of volunteers from the woods of Virginia. . . Morgan annoyed a British officer, who responded by slapping Morgan with the flat side of his sword. Morgan turned and decked the officer, for which he was sentenced to receive 500 lashes. Morgan stood, teeth clenched, while they slashed his back into strips of pulpy flesh.” Morgan healed but was badly scarred. 
• The Americans invaded a British fort in Canada. When American artillery fired, “explosions blew off arms and legs, shells ripped open the buildings, sending brick and glass spinning through the crowded space.” The British surrendered. 
• The Americans attack a fort in Quebec. A group of soldiers was going through a barricade, when a cannon exploded, “shooting flames and a swarm of grapeshot. . . Montgomery [the commander] was struck in both thighs, his cheek, his head, and was dead before he hit the snow. Eight other soldiers were killed by the blast.” 
• During the attack, Arnold “felt something rip through the flesh below his knee. . . Arnold fell, got up, stumbled to the wall and leaned, unable to put any weight on the leg. Blood flowered in his boot and gurgled out into the snow.” Arnold survived his wounds. 
• During one battle, many Americans were injured. “John Lamb was shot in the cheek. He pulled out a handkerchief, tied up the hole in his face, and went on firing. Archibald Steele had two fingers blown off his hand. . .” The Americans were forced to surrender.  
• During a battle between the British and the Americans, Dyer, an American soldier, accidentally killed himself when he “rammed a new gunpowder cartridge into a muzzle, the other men heard an explosion, and saw Dyer blown overboard. His body bobbed in the water, the sponging rod blown clear through his chest. A few feet away floated his hands.” 
• Later during the same battle, “cannonballs crashed into ships on both sides, sending limbs flying, leaving dead and unconscious men lying in spreading puddles of blood.”  
• After the battle, the Americans set their ships on fire and they exploded, “killing a badly wounded officer who’d been left behind in the chaos. The men watched his broken body tumble high into the air and crash down in the lake.” 
• During an extended battle, about 600 British and 300 American soldiers were killed. “Wounded men lay all over the battlefield, calling out for help, crying for a drink of water. . . British burial parties quickly dug pits and dumped in the dead, leaving arms, legs, and even heads above ground. Wolves feasted that night on the dead and dying.” 
• British General Grey led an attack on Philadelphia that came to be known as the Paoli Massacre. People “could hear the sounds of steel blades plunging through flesh, and the cries of dying men. . . Grey’s men went on thrusting and slicing, even after the Americans tried to surrender.” 
• Andre, a British officer, was accused of spying and hanged. “Andre grabbed [the noose] and placed the loop around his own neck, drew tight the knot. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and tied it over his eyes. . . His body swung gently at the end of the rope. ‘In a few minutes,’ said one soldier, ‘he hung entirely still.’” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• After two of his children died and his business collapsed, Benedict’s father turned to alcohol. Captain Arnold had “always enjoyed his rum,” but after the tragedy, he started drinking more frequently and heavily. 
• Captain Arnold’s drinking became a constant problem. “Night after humiliating night, the younger Arnold was sent out to search the waterfront taverns for his father. He often had to literally drag the goading, puking, crying man through the streets to their home.” 
• Arnold became an apprentice and learned how to make “various cold cures and an aphrodisiac called ‘Francis’ Female Elixir.” 
• Benedict goes to a tavern. “He could hear men inside shouting in drunken voices. . . He could smell the sour stink of booze-soaked floors. Arnold hated the smell, and he had a reason to hate it.” 
• British prisoners of war were given a meal and “pitchers of rum.” 
• While Arnold was in Philadelphia on military business, he filled his mansion with “expensive food and wine.” During this time, Arnold was spending time with an unmarried woman. He sent this woman’s father “a few nice bottles of wine.” 
• To convince two brothers to row to a British ship and bring Andre, a British officer, back, the brothers were given “big cups of rum.” 
• After taking over a fort, the Green Mountain Boys, a group of American rebels, “found ninety gallons of rum in the supply room and decided to drink it all.” 

Language  

• Damn is used infrequently. For example, a man tells Benedict, “You are a damned Yankee, destitute of good manners or those of a gentleman.” 
• While taking over a fort, an American tells a Red Coat, “Come out of there! Come out, you damned old rat!” 
• “Good God” and “by God” are both used as an exclamation once.  
• Goddamn is used twice. For example, after a battle, a soldier said, “Goddamn you!” 
• A British prisoner called the locals “perfidious dastards” and “a greasy committee of worsted-stocking knaves.” 
• After a battle that the Americans won, a general said, “If Old England is not by this lesson taught humility, then she is an obstinate old slut, bent upon her ruin.” 

Supernatural 

• None  

Spiritual Content  

• While Benedict was in boarding school, he received a letter from his mother informing him that the family was sick with yellow fever. She wrote, “What God is about to do with us I know not. We have a very uncertain stay in this world.” Two of Benedict’s sisters died. 
• Arnold and a group of men demand to be given the colony’s supply of gunpowder. When a man refuses to give it to the group, Benedict yells, “None but Almighty God shall prevent my marching!” 
• While taking over a garrison, the British are told to surrender “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.” 
• When Arnold showed up on the battlefield, he told the soldiers, “God bless you. . . If the day is long enough, we’ll have them all in hell before night.” 
• When two American soldiers arrested a British officer, he said, “God bless my soul.” 
• When Benedict Arnold’s plot to have the British attack West Point failed, some believed it was the “hand of God.”