God Save Benedict Arnold

October 1, 2023
An invitation to accompany America's most notorious traitor and weigh him in the balance. Kelly, author of Valcour and The Edge of Anarchy, presents the complete story of Benedict Arnold (1741-1801), one of the Revolutionary War's most brilliant strategists, including the personal and professional slights (real and imagined) that drove him to commit the act of treason that made him infamous. The author weaves Arnold's upbringing into the narrative of the American uprising against the British, focusing in particular on his keen business acumen, invaluable experiences as a trader on the high seas, and his father's alcoholic downfall ("one of the key passages of [his] life"), which sidetracked his formal education and fueled a lifelong sensitivity to insults and disrespect. Kelly's accounts of Arnold-led land battles, marches, and naval operations are vividly descriptive, placing readers alongside Arnold and his men to feel the harrowing tension, physical courage, and bravery of those involved. Especially deft are the author's portraits of Arnold's march through the Maine wilderness en route to invade Quebec, the taking of Fort Ticonderoga, and the Battle of Saratoga (his military apex). Kelly also excels in detailing the stinginess with which the Continental Congress allotted funds and supplies and determined promotion and rank. Arnold's fragile ego and sense of honor were routinely wounded as individuals he considered inferior took credit for his strategies and victories and were elevated in rank and esteem. Kelly also ably explains Arnold's relationship with George Washington, who, more than most, recognized his genius and importance to the American cause and interceded with Congress on Arnold's behalf during court-martials and inquiries. The author chronicles Washington's supreme anguish after his firsthand discovery of Arnold's treachery and explains how they became polar opposites in the hearts and minds of Americans. A dazzling addition to the history of the American Revolution.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 16, 2023
Historian Kelly (Band of Giants) endeavors in this novelistic biography to present a fuller picture of Benedict Arnold, the Continental Army officer who betrayed the American Revolution. A brash and moody military strategist, Arnold came under the admiring eye of George Washington after a victory over the British at Fort Ticonderoga in New York and an unsuccessful expedition to capture Quebec. But, lacking a “gentleman’s” background, Arnold never found the wealth or military honors he desperately sought. Wounded at the battle of Saratoga, he spent a painful convalescence as the military governor of Philadelphia that ended in a court martial for financial corruption. Disillusioned with the revolution, Arnold began funneling information to the British. Assigned a command at West Point, he planned to surrender it without a fight, but missives detailing the plot were intercepted. After serving out the rest of the war on the British side, he spent his postwar exile in England and Canada. The narrative is at its best when detailing the grim realities of 18th-century warfare; the account of the Quebec winter expedition is particularly riveting. Yet Kelly’s analysis of Arnold’s treachery, which casts him as “an enigma, his motives lost in the impenetrable alchemy of the human heart,” doesn’t come to grips with his complexities. Revolutionary War buffs will enjoy the skillful narration, but there are few new insights here.

November 1, 2023
Kelly's life of Benedict Arnold is a deeply researched, insightful page-turner with useful maps and period illustrations. Kelly brings more women into the story than previous chroniclers, including a positive reappraisal of Arnold's second wife, Peggy, and an account of teenager Sybil Ludington's Revere-like ride during battles between Arnold and the British in Connecticut. Kelly condemns Arnold for planning to give West Point fortification plans to the British even as he recounts how, in bitter winter, he led a volunteer force over mountains and bogs to besiege fortified Quebec City. Arnold created the U.S. Navy on Lake Champlain, deftly using his ships to delay British invaders from Canada with maneuvers right out of a Patrick O'Brien novel. When the British invaded in 1777, Arnold's leadership helped defeat them in the battle of Saratoga. Kelly reveals that Arnold undermined his talents with hot-headed responses to real or imagined slights. As for motives for Arnold's betrayal, Kelly suggests a desire for status, fear of repeating his father's financial ruin, and an interest in action rather the thinking that drove such patriots as Washington and Adams.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.