George Canning Hill

“ Arnold himself marched on New London after capturing Fort Trumbull, and set fire to the town. It is said that he climbed up into the belfry of a steeple, and from that perch looked down, like Nero upon Rome, on the devastation of which he was the author. Families fled on this side and that in wild dismay, unable to save anything from the sudden wreck of their household treasures. The rich became poor in an hour. All were placed upon a common footing, and all became sufferers and destitute alike. ”

“ The officers of the British army scorned and detested him, and Sir Henry Clinton saw how unwilling they were to serve near his person; he therefore offered him a passage with his family to England, and in the month of December, 1781, the outcast set sail accordingly. It were better to have even an enemy upon our soil, than the foot of a traitor. ”

“ He sank gradually out of notice. For twenty years after this he lived, and made an effort to be a man among men; but the load of infamy which he had to carry on his shoulders, was as much as mortal man could bear. ”

“ She was absolutely driven out of Pennsylvania, and forced to rejoin her husband in New York. The people were so incensed at the conduct of Arnold, that they burned him in effigy in almost every town and village. Of course, journeying on to her husband, she could not but be made aware of these transactions; but she never was treated with any disrespect herself on her husband's account. She came into one village just at evening; the inhabitants were making ready to burn him in effigy ”

“ Washington took a deep interest in the plan, and would have been rejoiced to take the traitor alive; but circumstances alone protected him. If he had been captured by the Americans, it was Washington's fixed resolution to have him hanged at once.
While Arnold subsequently held command of the army in Virginia, General Phillips having died there and left it to him, he sent a flag of truce to Lafayette, with a letter. ”