The Traitor's Wife: A Novel (61 page)

After the revolution, Arnold moved with his wife and children to London, where he struggled to find regular employment and earn a living for his family. Arnold worked for a period as a merchant in the West Indies. There he tried his hand at business, but he argued with his partners, became embroiled in a series of lawsuits, and he returned to England having gained little monetary success. Later in his life Arnold was granted a large property in a remote region in northern Canada as a reward for his service in the British ranks. Due to his failing health, Arnold never made a home there for his wife and children.

As had been the case earlier in life, Arnold faced no shortage of critics and rivals in England; Arnold feuded with colleagues in the British Army, members of the British government, and his business partners. He struggled with debt and physical maladies for the remainder of his life. The gout infecting his earlier war injuries spread, causing Arnold lifelong pain. He also suffered from dropsy, which is a buildup of fluids in the body’s tissue, as well as asthma.

On June 14, 1801, Benedict Arnold died in London. His wife labeled the cause of death “a perturbed mind.” Legends surrounding the war hero and traitor allege that during his last moments of life, Arnold recalled his days in the American Revolution, and asked God to forgive him for ever trading in his first uniform.

Peggy Arnold returned to her parents’ home in Philadelphia
immediately following her husband’s defection. She remained there for a time, but faced some hostility from the patriotic population in her hometown. Peggy eventually left Philadelphia and she and her son were reunited with Arnold in New York City. They had a second son in August 1781.

After the war, Peggy sailed for England with her husband. At first, the Arnolds enjoyed substantial popularity, and Peggy even realized her dream of meeting the royal family at court. But her happiness in England was not to be long-lasting; as her family’s economic situation worsened, Peggy settled with her husband and five surviving children in a poor neighborhood in London.

Though much younger than her husband, Peggy Shippen Arnold outlived Benedict Arnold by only three years. Her husband’s death left Peggy strapped with financial debt and anxiety over how she and her five children would provide for themselves. Peggy died from cancer in 1804 at the age of forty-four and was buried next to her husband in a London cemetery. Those who knew her in England remembered her as a loving and devoted mother. It was rumored that Peggy Shippen Arnold kept a lock of John André’s hair until the day she died.

A NOTE ON HISTORY AND SOURCES

T
HE INSPIRATION
to write this novel came from a New York State Historic Marker in my hometown in the Hudson Valley. I happened upon the spot a few years ago while walking my dogs in the woods across the river from West Point. My mother and I paused to read the post, which describes “Arnold’s Flight” and the conspiracy to sell West Point.

A few paragraphs told me what I, as a local to the area, already knew: that I walked the same trail traveled by General Benedict Arnold, centuries earlier, as he fled from George Washington to the British warship
Vulture
. Many American schoolchildren grow up learning the history of this notorious traitor and his coconspirator, John André, and I had grown up knowing that I lived near where Arnold and his family had once lived.

What I had
not
known, however, was whose face belonged to the portrait of the beautiful young woman beside Benedict Arnold’s. I stared at the image of the fine-featured woman, her hair piled high atop her head, a quizzical smile on her face. She was described
as a devoted wife, a loving mother, and a popular socialite who, with suspected fealty to the English Crown, might have incited Benedict Arnold to his infamous treachery. As I continued my walk on that cold, clear morning, I could not stop thinking about this figure, largely obscured in history’s forward march. Who was Peggy Shippen Arnold? How must she have felt about the events that unraveled around her? And what role, if any, did she play in this mesmeric plot?

As I began to dig deeper into the history, I uncovered a tale and a cast of characters that proved truly Shakespearean in its scope and drama. Peggy Arnold is a confounding character—charming yet dangerous, loyal yet duplicitous, cunning yet reckless.

This novel is a work of fiction, but many of the characters and events depicted in
The Traitor’s Wife
are based on the historical record. How could they not be, when history had provided me with such a salacious and intriguing framework?

Margaret “Peggy” Shippen did in fact preside over Philadelphia society during the social seasons of 1777–1778, during which time the British occupied the city and a certain Major John André caught the eye of the popular young socialite. Peggy did in fact wear dresses made at Coffin and Anderson dress shop and sip Champagne with the likes of General William Howe and Lord Rawdon. She did in fact exchange love letters and poetry with the dashing Major André; she did in fact compete with fellow socialite Margaret Chew for his attention; and she was in fact thwarted from attending the Meshianza Masque by her parents, who were becoming increasingly concerned with their daughter’s very high-profile social life and the Turkish harem theme of General Howe’s farewell party.

Major General Benedict Arnold, on the heels of his heroic military feats at Saratoga; Fort Ticonderoga; Valcour Island; and
Ridgefield, Connecticut, did in fact march into Philadelphia and take control of the city to the backdrop of a grand parade. With Washington as his staunchest supporter, Arnold imposed martial law. What happened next was what got him into trouble. Arnold closed the shops and began a black market trade with the help of a local merchant, Joseph Stansbury.

Details relating to Arnold’s crippling injury, his military accolades, and his worsening financial situation are factually based. So too are the details related to his lavish spending, at times abrasive personality, and increasing bitterness toward the colonial cause. This bitterness was only exacerbated when Arnold found a vocal critic in the leader of Pennsylvania’s Executive Council, Joseph Reed. The acrimony that developed between Arnold and Reed did in fact culminate with Arnold demanding a court-martial to clear his name, and Washington reluctantly issuing a public reprimand to the junior officer for whom he’d had such high hopes.

Arnold and Peggy did in fact meet at a reception at the Penn mansion, given by its new tenant, Benedict Arnold, in honor of the French ambassador, the Count Conrad Alexandre Gérard. During their courtship, Arnold was in fact turned down by Judge Edward Shippen in his suit for Peggy Shippen’s hand. Arnold did rehabilitate his injured leg in order to win over the much younger and more attractive Peggy Shippen. And he did buy Mount Pleasant for his bride, though he never could afford to occupy it.

Clara Bell and Caleb Little, as well as the Quigleys, the Breunig sisters, and Robert Balmor, are all fictional, and so are all of the plot developments relating to them. In order for the reader to be able to witness the events from an outsider’s perspective, I felt that the narrator had to be similarly situated. The historical record refers to Peggy Arnold as having a lady’s maid with whom she traveled, and so Clara was created.

This is a work of fiction, but the remaining cast of supporting characters: Little Eddy Arnold, Major David Franks, Joshua Hett Smith, Joseph Stansbury, Neddy and Betsy Burd, Judge and Mrs. Edward Shippen, Dr. William Shippen, Margaret Chew, Christianne Amile, Becky Redman, Lord Rawdon, General William Howe, the Marquis de Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton, and of course George Washington, are all characters plucked from history who did in fact inhabit roles similar to those developed throughout
The Traitor’s Wife
.

George Washington was indeed at Benedict Arnold’s home on the morning of September 25, 1780, when he received word of John André’s apprehension. Peggy Arnold did feign a hysterical fit during which she tore at her gown and screamed some of the incoherent quotes and accusations that I’ve included in this novel. Her fit, whether genuine or conjured, served to distract the men and convinced them of her innocence. Believed by Washington to be a victim in the entire affair, Peggy was nursed back to health, brought flowers in bed, and eventually allowed to return to her husband. Throughout her life, Peggy remained largely shielded from the enmity and ridicule that haunted her husband. It wasn’t until after her death that historians discovered the significant role Peggy played in her husband’s treason.

The meeting between Arnold and André did in fact occur at and near the home of Joshua Hett Smith in Haverstraw, New York, in the days leading up to André’s arrest. Though Peggy Arnold was not actually in attendance at those rendezvous, she was the integral figure who initiated the written correspondence between Arnold and André. Letters remain to this day showing her handwriting in the messages passed between her husband and her former suitor. After André was captured out of uniform and charged as a spy, Arnold did attempt to swap places with André to save his coconspirator
from the gallows. That offer, like his letter explaining his motives to Washington, went unanswered.

Though I’ve tried to weave this story with as much historical fact as possible, this novel is historical fiction, and there were points at which I took license to alter what is in the historical record. A few points of note are included here:

Prior to meeting and marrying Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold had been married once before, to Margaret Mansfield Arnold. The first Mrs. Arnold died in 1775, leaving Benedict Arnold a widower and the father to three sons. All accounts point to the fact that Peggy Shippen Arnold was a loving and caring figure in the lives of her stepchildren, none of whom lived with their father and his new bride.

Since Caleb Little is a fictional character, so too is the role he played in the apprehension of John André following his meeting with Benedict Arnold. The true credit goes to militiamen John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart. I apologize for omitting them and not giving them their proper due for the role they played in saving the American Revolution.

Peggy Shippen was the youngest in a family of five surviving children born to Judge Edward Shippen and his wife, Margaret. For the purpose of the plot, I’ve written about only one sister, Elizabeth, in my novel. But Peggy’s additional older siblings included sisters Sarah and Mary, as well as a brother, Edward. Elizabeth did in fact marry Edward Burd, and Peggy was described by many as her father’s favorite daughter.

I began my research where the plot itself began—Philadelphia. The city’s old quarter, specifically Society Hill, is remarkably well preserved, and one can walk through the Shippens’ former neighborhood and imagine briefly that they have stepped back in time; at any moment, Peggy Shippen’s carriage might roll by. Other locales
along the way included Williamsburg, Virginia, where General Washington was in residence during some of the years covered in this novel, as well as Manhattan, Garrison, and of course West Point, New York.

The New York Public Library has countless archives on colonial history. Of special interest was its collection on antique maps from the period of the Revolutionary War. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was invaluable in helping me to learn about early American architecture, clothing, and furniture. Similarly, the New-York Historical Society is a trove of not only colonial history but the furniture, history, literature, and art of the period as well.

Books read for research include:
The Traitor and the Spy
by James Thomas Flexner;
Patriot John, The Man Who Saved America
by Philip B. Secor;
Washington: A Life
, by Ron Chernow;
Benedict Arnold: Traitor of the Revolution
by Ronald Syme;
Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor
by Willard Sterne Randall;
West Point: Legend on the Hudson
published by the
Poughkeepsie Journal
; and
1776
and
John Adam
s, both by David McCullough.

Other thanks go to the Federal Museum in New York City; the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York; the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site; and the Putnam County Tourism Department.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS