Benedict Arnold’s Connecticut Raid

Matthew Reardon, an educator and the executive director of the New England Civil War Museum & Research Center, gives us a thought-provoking, insightful look at Benedict Arnold’s New London Raid. Planned by Sir Henry Clinton, the raid was in an attempt, to divert George Washington from his operations in Virginia. The title reminds us both that Arnold was a native son of Connecticut and a traitor to the American Patriots’ caus.

While he covers events from September 4th through the 13th, his focus is on the desperate fighting at Groton Heights / Fort Griswold, on September 6th. Arguably the bloodiest day of the American Revolution, about 150 Patriot troops were attacked by about 800 of Arnold’s 1,700 British, Hessians, and Loyalists. Virtually the entire garrison was killed, some even as they attempted to surrender; Patriot losses were about 80 killed and 60 wounded, many mortally (c. 93%), while Arnold’s losses were 52 killed and 142 wounded (nearly 25%).

Reardon researched the events deeply. He found five detailed accounts by British, Hessians, or Loyalists, and some 100 American accounts. Though unbalanced toward the Patriot side, this research did enable him to offer an hour-by-hour look at the events, from officers and ordinary soldiers on both sides.

Packed with information not likely to be widely know by even people rather well familiar with the Revolutionary War, The Traitor's Homecoming is an important book that will useful to scholars and more casual students alike

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Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, A Fine Opportunity Lost, The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West, The Limits of the Lost Cause on Civil War Memory, War in the Western Theater, J.E.B. Stuart: The Soldier and The Man, The Inland Campaign for Vicksburg, All for the Union: The Saga of One Northern Family, Voices from Gettysburg, The Blood Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah: The 1864 Valley Campaign’s Battle of Cool Creek, June 17-18, 1864, Union General Daniel Butterfield, We Shall Conquer or Die, Dranesville, The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism, “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain", The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1, Dalton to Cassville, Thunder in the Harbor, and All Roads Led to Gettysburg.

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Note: The Traitor's Homecoming is also available in e-editions.

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