Talk:Military career of Benedict Arnold, 1781/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: JonCatalán^(Talk) 05:16, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Comments:

This is a great article. One major thought is that it would be interesting to cover Arnold's defection to the British Army in greater detail. That is, the causes for his defection. The reader can infer at least one — his dissatisfaction with the fact that Congress was not granting him greater rank in the Continental Army —, but there must be more. Was there monetary incentive? Did the British promise him future commands? The reasons for his defection, at least to me, are more interesting than his actual military career, although I am not suggesting you should give undue weight to the former. Rather, I think that within the context of the American Revolutionary War, the reasons for the defection of a revolutionary to the British Army are extremely pertinent and interesting → although, not necessarily completely relevant, is there any overwhelming reason for joining the revolution? This is indirectly relevant in the sense that if it's established that his incentives were largely monetary, or for military glory, rather than for outright agreement with the revolution, this will also serve to clear up his intentions behind his defection to the British Army.

Otherwise, the article looks good (I figure the military career of Benedict Arnold is something you're interested in ultimately making a featured topic, or something similar).

Keep up the good work! JonCatalán^(Talk) 17:05, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Well, the subject of Arnold's defection is certainly interesting. However, there are no obvious smoking guns explaining the exact reason, and his own public justification can be dismissed as propaganda. At some point I will probably survey some of his modern biographers for opinion on the matter; my personal opinion is that it was a combination of factors, with his marriage into the Shippen family as the tipping point (for an interesting view of this, see Peggy Shippen); money was probably further down the list than respect and recognition, but there's lots of room for interpretation here. I've deliberately left the details of his treason, negotiation, and defection at Benedict Arnold; it only really needs to be written once. (I'd like to get BA to FAC at some point; the articles on his military career needed to be written first, to get full depth.) Thanks for your review! Magic♪piano 17:27, 12 October 2010 (UTC)