by letting himself join the British military it would somehow weaken the American forces and quest for liberty. In 1785, Arnold returned to American soil as a commander of British forces in his native Connecticut. The most famous of these battles would be the burning of New London. This would be Arnolds gravest decision for he turned traitor to the losing side and lost his position in his Native country. Benedict Arnolds name lives in infamy. He stands as the American embodiment of treason, yet he was brilliant, and without his military genius, the country would have been lost on three occasions. No other general in American history has ever commanded a single battle that, if lost, would have spelled defeat for the entire nation, yet Arnold commanded three such battles: Valcor Island, the Mohawk Valley, and finally Saratoga.Had Arnold been killed at Saratoga, today there would have been cities and states named after him, and no one except Washington would have been so revered for his accomplishments. But his treason has erased much of his glory. He died deeply on debt, as an obscure, pitiful figure in London in 1801. He is buried in a common grave with his wife, Peggy, and daughter, Sophia, in a crypt in the basement of St. Marys Battersea Church in London, where British officials have inscribed an epitaph that says: Arnold was sometimes General for His Majesty and sometimes General for the Colonies....
