Margaret "Peggy" Shippen was the highest-paid spy in the American Revolution, and was the second wife of General Benedict Arnold.
Shippen, c. 1783-89
Chief Justice Edward Shippen of Pennsylvania, painted by Gilbert Stuart
Image of a coded letter: Peggy Shippen Arnold's handwriting is interspersed with coded writing in Benedict Arnold's hand; Arnold's writing would have been in invisible ink.
Benedict Arnold was an American-born military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defecting to the British in 1780. General George Washington had given him his fullest trust and had placed him in command of West Point in New York. Arnold was planning to surrender the fort to British forces, but the plot was discovered in September 1780, whereupon he fled to the British lines. In the later part of the war, Arnold was commissioned as a brigadier general in the British Army and placed in command of the American Legion. He led the British army in battle against the soldiers whom he had once commanded, and his name became synonymous with treason and betrayal in the United States.
Portrait of Arnold in 1776
Dedication plaque on Groton Monument in Groton, Connecticut to victims of Arnold's slaughter following the Battle of Groton Heights:This monument was erected under the patronage of the State of Connecticut in the 55th year of the Independence of the U.S.A. in memory of the brave patriots massacred at Fort Griswold near this spot on the 6th of Sept. AD 1781, when the British, under the command of the Traitor Benedict Arnold, burnt the towns of New London and Groton and spread desolation and woe throughout the region.
A 1766 political cartoon on the repeal of the Stamp Act
Quebec Governor Guy Carleton opposed Arnold at Quebec and Valcour Island.
