Significant Others: A Sneak Peek at the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal

to the podcast over the years that I'm a huge fan of history, and I would like to tell you

about a history podcast from Team Coco, and it's called Significant Others. And I mention

it because it happens to be written and hosted by my own significant other, Liza Powell O'Brien.

You know us both. You prefer Liza, don't you?

All right, let's take it easy.

Yeah, she's just such a pleasant person.

might not know about a person you probably do. For example, Liza did an episode where

she explores the story of Peggy Shippen. Now, I pride myself on knowing a lot about history.

I didn't know much about Peggy Shippen. She was married to Benedict Arnold. And if it

weren't for Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold may never have turned on his country and become

sort of synonymous with treachery. And so these are characters in people's lives who

help sometimes in good ways, sometimes in bad ways, sometimes both.

Peggy's involvement in one of the most famous acts of treason in history.

was becoming the driving force behind Arnold's going over to the British. Far more than just

an observer, she had become a go-between, a delicate negotiator and the diplomat who

kept the negotiations alive. All of this, we might add, while she was the 20-year-old

mother of an infant whose husband was embarking on a very risky plan that could cost him his

life.

In the midst of all this, court-martial proceedings against Arnold were finally progressing. The

end result looked like it was going to be a slap on the wrist at worst and possibly

even a full acquittal. At this point, Arnold was still perfectly happy to remain with America

if he got the treatment he believed he deserved. And the court-martial hearings went well enough

that he might have put all thoughts of espionage behind him. In fact, he believed they went

so well that he paid to have the entire 179-page court record printed so that it could be circulated

in America and France. But though he was technically exonerated by the court, their sentence recommended

that Arnold receive a reprimand from General Washington. Arnold thought, no big deal, he

and Washington were tight. In fact, he was so sure it wasn't a problem, he went ahead

and proposed a big new position he had cooked up for himself, all while saying it was the

Navy's idea. But once again, he underestimated the depth and breadth of his enemy's influence.

Rather than awarding Arnold an exciting and impressive new job, Washington did much more

than reprimand him. He bitch-slapped him, publicly.

on an officer who had rendered such distinguished services to his country as Major General Arnold.

But in the present case, a sense of duty and a regard to candor obliged him to declare

that he considers his conduct as peculiarly reprehensible, both in a civil and military

army, which of course then got picked up by the press. Publicly, Washington was calling

Arnold's conduct imprudent and improper. Privately, he hated the mess Arnold had made.

He chastised him for not having been— Guarded and temperate in your deportment

in high esteem. And he also knew that public opinion rewarded not just bravery and success

but humility, a quality Arnold could never be said to have cultivated.

When Arnold read this letter, he was incensed and more determined than ever to go to the

other side. He was also more determined than ever to get paid. His new plan was that he

would get himself put in charge of West Point, which the British considered the Gibraltar

of America, and then weaken it to the point that General Clinton could easily take control

of it. In yet another overly optimistic move, he sent word to Clinton that he was certain

he could make this happen. He also stated his price—£20,000 and full

financial restitution for everything the war had cost him. He maintained that, were it

not for his family, he would provide this service at a much lower price, but we all

know by now this was probably bogus. Again, Peggy was instrumental to the proceedings,

and she knew long before her husband did when General Clinton finally agreed to pay him

the £20,000 if he could deliver what he promised. When George Washington heard that Arnold wanted

to be put in command of West Point, he was inclined to let him have it. He wasn't sure

Arnold would be of much value on the battlefield with his injury, and he might have thought

it would be easier to say yes to the determined, contentious Arnold than no. But as he watched

his army grow increasingly demoralized and depleted, Washington decided he needed Arnold's

strategic gifts in the field more than ever. So rather than installing Arnold at West Point,

Washington decided to put him in charge of the entire left wing of the army. This appointment

would have been a vote of such confidence that it could have completely rehabilitated

Arnold's reputation. It would have restored for Arnold all the esteem he so grudgingly

claimed he had been wrongfully denied, and which spurred him to turn against Washington

in the first place. But according to Washington himself, when he offered Arnold this post

of honor,

or expressing any pleasure at the appointment, never opened his mouth.

for Peggy, when she heard the news at a dinner party that Arnold had not gotten the West

Point job, she went into what one bystander called fits of hysteria and then fainted.

The next thing anyone knew, Arnold was making a big show of limping around headquarters,

insisting he could not serve on horseback due to his injury, and that really all he

was fit for was to hold down the fort at West Point. This seemed strange, but eventually

Washington gave in.

Peggy had been doing her part in Philadelphia by lavishing attention on the visiting Chancellor

of New York, who was in a position to recommend Arnold to take control of West Point. Arnold's

sister, on hand to observe all this, read it as pure flirtation and wrote Arnold in

a huff about a certain Chancellor who is, by the by, a dangerous companion for a particular

lady in the absence of her husband.

and of numberless B.A. due, if I had an inclination to make mischief. But as I am of a very peaceable

temper, I'll not mention a syllable of the matter.

wife. As soon as Arnold was installed at West Point, she and their six-month-old son made

the long, uncomfortable journey to join him.

The mood, when she got there, was tense. Committing treason is anxious business, after all. Espionage

activities were heating up while the couple were surrounded by patriots who scanned everything

they said or did for suspicious remarks or behaviors.

other stories like how Amelia Earhart might have never disappeared over the Pacific had

it not been for her husband, George Putnam. You'll also hear voices from familiar friends,

Andy Richter, Flula Borg, Krista Miller, and more. Hey, I'm in a couple of Significant

Others, aren't I?

Oh, are you?

Every now and then I show up.

Huh.

Yeah.

Anyway, listen and subscribe to Significant Others. I know I'm biased, but I think it's

an absolutely fantastic podcast, and it's available wherever you get your podcasts.