Benedict Arnold (AMPU)

Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 – June 14, 1801) was an American military officer and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A general during the American Revolutionary War who fought heroically for the American Continental Army, he is widely seen as the founder of the nation's military structure and an instrumental figure in the integration of America's native peoples into the country as both Governor of Quebec and as America's first Secretary of War.

Arnold led the War Department as a trusted member of President Washington's first Cabinet. In this role he oversaw the development of coastal fortifications, worked to improve the preparedness of local militia, and oversaw the nation's military activity in the Ohio Tory War. He was formally responsible for the nation's relationship with the Indian population in the territories it claimed, articulating a policy that called for treating Indian tribes as sovereign communities within the States and territories. Arnold's idealistic views on the subject were tested by several instances of fraudulent land transfers involving Indian lands, and the rights of natives and non-natives to settle in eachother's lands.

He retired to what is now Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1795, where he oversaw the growth of a river shipping business empire. He died in 1801 from a fever he contracted after a long battle with gout.