Together Again: Reuniting Benedict Arnold’s and John Steven’s Letters
Left: Benedict Arnold’s letter to John Stevens. Right: John Stevens’ response.
Posted on May 21, 2025
Together Again: Reuniting Benedict Arnold’s and John Steven’s Letters
On this day 250 years ago—May 21, 1775—Benedict Arnold sent a letter from Ticonderoga to Captain John Stevens, commander of the American garrison to the south at Fort George. On May 23, Stevens wrote back. Two hundred fifty years later, these letters have been reunited. The Fort Ticonderoga Museum recently acquired Arnold’s May 21 letter to Stevens, bringing together the letters and providing insight into the weeks after Ticonderoga’s capture.
On May 17, Arnold had led a raid on the British fort at St. John’s, capturing the only British sloop on Lake Champlain. On his way back, he crossed paths with a group led by his rival Ethan Allen, who intended to capture St. John’s. Allen’s expedition was much less successful. “Col. Allen & his Party is Just Arivd from St. Johns, when they were Attacked,” a slightly smug Arnold writes, “& were obliged to make a precipitate Retreat… They have returned without Provision, & much Fatigued.”
Arnold asks Stevens, “Pray Send On all the Provisi[ons] you have immediately & then Men who will Engage for the Summer”. He is planning to travel to Crown Point “& make a stand there In Order to Secure the Cannon at that Place”, but he is not worried about British attacks, since after his capture of the British sloop, “we are masters of the Lake”.
In Stevens’ reply, he reports news from Albany in response to Arnold’s pleas for provisions and men: “the City of Albany and Country are sending in Provisions Continually… I am informed there is A Great Quantity More Coming from Different Parts of the County ”. His news about recruits is less promising. Stevens had sent agents south to enlist men to serve under Arnold, but “the People Below Opposed Inlisting men among them… Saying that thay Should want the same men to fill up their own Levies”. While one agent had managed to recruit “12 or 15 Men”, the troops to defend Ticonderoga would have to come from elsewhere.
View Arnold’s letter to Stevens (MS.7853, in memory of Mr. George M. Jones, III) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database here. View Stevens’ reply (MS.7025) here.