[GreenLanternCorps]

Before he was a traitor, he was a hero, and indispensable to the American cause.

He has monuments at Saratoga and West Point that honor his deeds, but do not mention him by name.

[Fiji Hill]

Before he was a traitor, he was a hero, and indispensable to the American cause.

In October, 1777, Arnold was badly wounded at the Battle of Bemis Heights, one of the most decisive American victories of the war. Had he been killed (and he later said he wished that he had been), he would have been regarded as one of America's greatest heroes. Ships, freeways, towns, cities, mountains, and maybe even a state would have been named after him.

[sargon]

Before he was a traitor, [Benedict Arnold] was a hero, and indispensable to the American cause.

He has monuments at Saratoga and West Point that honor his deeds, but do not mention him by name.

So very true. This is what makes Arnold's treason live on in such pathetic, surpassing infamy—his audacity, pettiness, and vindictiveness; his piss-poor judgement and error; his utter shallowness of character, and consequent fall from grace, tumbling from the pinnacle of Patriot glory. Adjectives fail the historian and the reader alike in describing Arnold's lot.

As for Saratoga, it was General Gates who—probably inadvertently—sealed Arnold's fate by shamefully omitting Arnold's genuinely heroic behavior on that day—an unforgivable and dishonorable act of vindictive hate if there ever was one during the War. This final act of brazen disrespect seems to have pushed Arnold over the edge, if he wasn't already there. Arnold's treason was virtually guaranteed at this point.