mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on both
shores of the river. His batteries commanded its whole width, but
shore batteries were ineffective against moving ships. The embarking
of Clinton's army meant that he planned operations on land. He might be
going to Rhode Island or to Boston but he might also dash up the Hudson.
It was an anxious leader who, with La Fayette and Alexander Hamilton,
rode away from headquarters to Hartford.

The officer in command at West Point was Benedict Arnold. No general on
the American side had a more brilliant record or could show more scars
of battle. We have seen him leading an army through the wilderness to
Quebec, and incurring hardships almost incredible. Later he is found on
Lake Champlain, fighting on both land and water. When in the next year
the Americans succeeded at Saratoga it was Arnold who bore the brunt of
the fighting. At Quebec and again at Saratoga he was severely wounded.
In the summer of 1778 he was given the command at Philadelphia, after
the British evacuation. It was a troubled time. Arnold was concerned
with confiscations of property for treason and with disputes about
ownership. Impulsive, ambitious, and with a certain element of
coarseness in his nature, he made enemies. He was involved in bitter
strife with both Congress and the State government of Pennsylvania.
After a period of tension and privation in war, one of slackness and
luxury is almost certain to follow. Philadelphia, which had recently
suffered for want of bare necessities, now relapsed into gay indulgence.
Arnold lived extravagantly. He played a conspicuous part in society
and, a widower of thirty-five, was successful in paying court to Miss
Shippen, a young lady of twenty, with whom, as Washington said, all the
American officers were in love.

Malignancy was rampant and Arnold was pursued with great bitterness.
Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania,
not only brought charge against him of abusing his position for his own
advantage, but also laid the charges before each State government. In
the end Arnold was tried by court-martial and after long and inexcusable
delay, on January 26, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but the
imprudence of using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove private
property, and of granting irregularly a pass to a ship to enter the port
of Philadelphia. Yet the court ordered that for these trifles Arnold
should receive a public