In 1919, on this fateful day in Munich, German nationalist Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley fired shots that narrowly missed the charismatic Minister President of Bavaria, Kurt Eisner.

Kurt Eisner LivesIronically, Eisner was on his way to present his resignation to the Bavarian parliament. Because despite his remarkable success in establishing a Bavarian Free State by overthrowing the highly popular Royal House of Wittelsbach, his Social Democratic Party (SPD) had only secured 2.5% of the popular vote and he been forced out by democratic processes.

Of course he needed more time but following his resignation, the small Republic stared into the political abyss. Fortunately out of office, Eisner would mount a remarkable comeback that would ultimately save the Weimar Republic from the enveloping forces of the right-wing. Because he had the mastery of understanding that at the heart of the political violence, was the brutalization of German soldiers that had tragically occurred during the Great War. He managed to turn this around, and through the constancy of his charismatic authority build a new consensus that would dissolve popular anger taking the country out of the horror of the post-conflict aftermath.

In 1967, the odds of a lunar landing before the end of John F. Kennedy's term office shortened considerably with the successful launch of the first manned Apollo mission.
An installment of the No Apollo 1 Fire thread.

No Apollo 1 Fire, Part 1On their safe return, the President greeted the three crew members - Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. There was even a private side bet with his younger brother Bobby that the photo shot would be repeated at some point in the next eighteen months because Chief Astronaut Deke Slayton operated a crew rotation scheme that would allow Gus to serve as commander of the first landing mission.

Behind the smiles was the secret knowledge that the mission success was due in no small part to the US discovery of Valentin Bondarenko's grisly death which enabled NASA to create a pure oxygen environment in the Command Module. As a result, on the launch pad test on January 27, NASA engineers were able to extinguish a small fire that would otherwise have threatened to kill the crew members in the same manner as Cosmonaut Bondarenko.

All of these events conspired to place considerable pressure on the success of the moon landing at the first time of asking. Kennedy himself was keen to deliver on his pledge of landing a man on the moon "this decade" and also draw public attention away from South Vietnam where his controversial withdraw of US troops had led to a Communist take-over.

In 1702, on this day King William III of England narrowly avoided a serious injury when his favourite horse Sorrel stumbled into a mole's burrow at Windsor Park.

King Billy survives the Velvet Coated AssassinHad he perished at the hands of this so-called "Velvet Coated Assassin" then his successor under the Bill of Rights would have been his late wife's sister Anne Stuart. But when she died childless a dozen years later, the succession then passed to Electress Sophia and her issue. Determined to prevent the rise of an Anglo-German Royal House of Hanover, William married again in order to have children that would be his legal successors.

His son William IV would be the driving force behind the Act of Anglo-Dutch Union that ensures the territories of Britain and the Netherlands would not drift apart due to a ridiculous accident of fate.

In 1794, on this day the seventh President of the United States Louis St Ann (real name López de Santa Anna) was born in Xalapa, New Spain.

Birth of Seventh US President Louis St AnnAlthough he came from a respected Spanish colonial family, he broke with the criollo middle class by converting to protestantism and obtaining US citizenship (after obscuring his place of birth). And unquestionably his patriotism was on shining display throughout the war of 1812. Enlisting in an infantry regiment, he was quickly promoted to Lieutenant and then Captain before the age of twenty. But it was his remarkable military service during the famous Battle of New Orleans that firmly established Santa Anna as an American hero that transcended the bigotry of that era.

After the War, he remained in the region, emerging as a strong candidate for Senator of Louisiana. It was this political platform that served as a stepping stone to the White House in 1839. A century later, the hispanic features of this national icon, our "Napoleon of the West" illuminated the face of Mount Rushmore.
This article is part of our long running American_Heroes thread.

In 1639, on this day the decades-long "War of the Crosses" took the oddest of turns with the bizarre nature of the fall of the great Tudor city of Newcastle.

Essex Rebellion #2, Reboot co-written with Richard RoperAfter the Scots crossed the border, King Robert II had appointed his first choice military commander Oliver Cromwell. Astonishingly, the iconic Monarchist General had opened the city gates to the pretender to the English throne King Charles of Scotland. And then ordered his men to sign the Covenant put forward by the Scottish Presbyterian Church.

In the following months, Cromwell would force the Stuart accession and then the abolition of the English bishopric. A glittering military career would follow in which he would aid the King's nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine in defending the Calvinistic Palatinate and intervening in the Thirty Years War. This post is a reversal of Robbie Taylor's King Robert article and continues the Tudor B*stards thread.

In 1969, after a terrifying journey travelling sidewise through the time stream to the parallel world that they had created, Neo-Nazis finally arrived at the New Swabia secret base in Antarctica.
This article is an installment of Protocols of the Elders of Zion originated by Robbie Taylor.

Frozen BechtesgardenThe union with the ageing Nazi High Command was only made possible by painstaking months of collaborative research by Wilhelm Schoemann and Doctor Faisal Yassin. Schoemann had long thought that his work at Isgarden in the last days of the 3rd Reich was a dead end in theoretical physics, but Neo-Nazis in 1968 saw the potential of his work, though - and planned to use it to create the enemy they had always imagined.

Yassin's implementation enabled Astrid Pflaume to infiltrate the Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests, an anti-Semitic international conference held in Dresden, Germany in 1882. Against the odds she managed to steer the gathering of crackpots and bigots into establishing a paramilitary organization that Weimer utilizes in the 1920's to combat the Greater Zionist Resistance that Pflaume built.

Success in Dresden created the variant timeline that her colleagues the Neo-Nazi High Command now arrived in. But it was to be the first of many exhilterating successes that eventually nurtured an excessive level of overconfidence in the achievement of a victorious 3rd Reich. This mindset was confirmed by the assassination of Lenin, a command decision taken by Pflaume without consultation.

Half a century later, the consequences of that misjudgement were frighteningly clear. In the absence of Lenin, the utterly insane Baltic German Baron Ungern-Sternberg had arisen from the cauldron of the Civil War. By the time the German New Reich was established, Ungern-Sternberg was the anti-semitic demagogue ruler of White Russia. And he had already antagonised both China and Japan. As a result, the uneasy White Russian - Nazi alliance was threatened by combinations of hostile great powers on both sides.

The Bloodlands between Berlin and Moscow was now a radioactive slag heap, forcing the Nazi High Command retreat to the secret base they had established in Antartica in 1938.
Part one of the novel can be downloaded here and continues as a thread on this site.

In 2009, on this day President Shimon Peres and Avigdor Lieberman held a news conference to officially announce that the Yisrael Beitenu leader would be given six weeks to put together a coalition and form Israel's next government.

Pledge of allegiance to Israel Generally considered a marginal political player less than a decade before, Lierberman emerged as one of Israel's most controversial politicians.

Under the party slogan "No loyalty, no citizenship", Mr Lieberman called for a law demanding Israeli-Arabs pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, committing them to some form of national service. He also suggested that Israeli-Arab MPs who met Hamas should be executed like Nazi collaborators after the Nuremburg trials.

Over recent years the Israeli population has swung behind two of Lieberman proposals. He vigourously advocated the swapping swathes of Israeli-Arab populated territory in Israel with Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank. Also, the introduction of civil marriage in Israel to the end the religious parties' strangle-hold on the Israeli political system.

In January 2009 Lierberman proposed that Israel should "continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II" - widely interpreted as a reference to the dropping of nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Because prior to the general election, Lierberman had served in Ehud Olmert's Cabinet in the role of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, a new position with a focus towards the strategic threat from Iran. In this capacity, it was Lieberman had determined that the governments of Syria and Iran had armed Hamas with Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In his farewell speech, US President George W. Bush indicated that the "intelligence failures over WMD" were the biggest regret of his Presidency. Fortuitously, Lieberman revelations became an "October Surprise" that delivered the White House to John McCain, and thankfully Bush could depart with the necessary confidence that his successor would be an effective partner for the incoming Israeli Prime Minister.

In 1547, on this day Edward VI of England was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

Coronation of Edward VIHowever he became deadly ill in January 1553 with a fever and cough that gradually worsened. Due to the premature demise of his uncle and half-brother, it was even feared that the Tudors might suffer from a genetic disorder.

The imperial ambassador, Scheyfve, reported that "he suffers a good deal when the fever is upon him, especially from a difficulty in drawing his breath, which is due to the compression of the organs on the right side .. I opine that this is a visitation and sign from God". But Edward felt well enough in early April to take the air in the park at Westminster and to move to Greenwich. Following his miraculous recovery, he set about choosing a suitable spouse from amongst the high dynastic houses of Europe, with preference for a Protestant German princess.

Of course this choice triggered the departure of his half-sister Mary Tudor who fled to Rome seeking recognition as the rightful Queen of England on the Continent. But it came to nought, and Edward launched a fifty year reign in which the nation would bask in the glorious Edwardian Era that would last until his death in 1598.

In 1862, on this day "Willie" Lincoln recovered from a life-threatening condition caused by the consumption of contaminated water drawn from the Potomac River, along which thousands of soldiers and horses were camped. His younger brother Tad who had been similarly afflicted also pulled through.

Notorious Hellions, allHe was named after Mary's brother-in-law Dr. William Wallace. He and his younger brother were considered "notorious hellions" during the period they lived in Springfield. They're recorded by Abraham's law partner William Herndon for turning their law office upside down; pulling the books off the shelves while their father appeared oblivious to their behaviour.

The third son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln would eventually be voted President of the United States in 1904, on the forty-fourth anniversary of his father's election to the office for a single term. He struck up an unlikely relationship with Joseph Evan Davis, son of the ill-fated Confederate President. And it was Joe that had suggested Willie include in his inaugural address a personal note from his fathers diary, dated on his birthday 20th December 21, 1850 "Something had been missing from this harsh world, but finally, it was fulfilled" [1]. Because of the miraculous recovery his father had re-learnt an important lesson from his wayward sons, to knock on every door and tell the American people that love, love was the answer.

In 1959, on this day the Canadian Government terminated the CF-105 Arrow Interceptor Fighter Plane project.

Mothballing of Avro Arrow ProjectThe Sputnik launch had forced an immediate re-evaluation of Nuclear Defense Policy. Intercontinental ballistic missiles were upgraded to a greater future threat than bombers and therefore funds were redirected to buy Boeing's Bomarc Missiles.

In Malton, Ontario the fourteen thousand employees of Avro were informed via the company's public address system that they had all lost their jobs with immediate effect. One of Canada's most promising industries had been shut down, and many skilled engineers went south to seek employment with American Aerospace Companies.

The head of the company Fred Smye was locked in an even bigger dispute with the Diefenbaker Government who had ordered him to not only halt testing of the plane, but to also destroy all prototypes, engines and drawings, technical designs data and drawings. When he refused, they reminded him it was government property, and threatened to send in the Army to carry out the order. But Test Pilot Spud Potocki made a public stand, and Diefenbaker was forced to back down.

As events transpired, it was fortunate that the project had been mothballed rather than utterly destroyed. Because three years later the Cuban Missiles Crisis escalated into nuclear war. Canada then set upon implementing the The Dieffenbaker Plan to claim the territory possessed by the United States to rehabilitate that land "back to a standard of civilization".
This post is a prequel to Raymond Speer's Dieffenbaker Plan thread.

By 1798, the Catholic Church in France had become one of the casualties of the French Revolution as Hébert and his followers sought to replace it with the Cult of Reason.

Pius VI Escapes the FrenchIn 1789, the Church lost its political power to tax and then all property, which was auctioned to the public. The next year, a constitution was written for the French clergy, and Pope Pius VI spent eight months pondering it before ultimately denouncing it. French priests became split, those signing it being dubbed "jurors" while "non-juring" priests refused. Non-juring priests and those who protected them were susceptible to forced emigration to French Guiana, fines, imprisonment, conscription, and execution. The power of the Church quickly decreased as symbols and public worship were outlawed, even to the point of replacing the calendar of saints' days with the new Republican one. While most of the oppression ended with Robespierre's execution, only a limited return of the Church came after the legalization of worship in 1795.

Meanwhile, the center of the Church became threatened as French troops stormed Italy under the young and ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte, creating republics in his wake. Papal forces were defeated, and Pius VI agreed to a peace that would last only a few months before riots that killed a member of the French embassy led General Louis-Alexandre Berthier to march on Rome itself. On February 10, 1798, the French demanded an end to the Papal States and the Pope's political power, and Pius VI refused. As they made to move Pius VI to Siena under guard, the Pope managed to escape through the use of double agents. He fled to southern Italy where King Ferdinand IV still held the Kingdom of Naples. There, Pius published his papal bull denouncing French military actions and calling all Catholics to rise against France to find justice for a decade of murders of priests and nuns, along with some 30,000 priests forcibly deported. The French pursued him and conquered Naples, though they were overthrown by a peasant rebellion. Ferdinand IV returned to the throne, but Pius had escaped to Vienna, and the political damage against France was done.

The bull caused an uproar in Spain, which was currently a French ally under treaties negotiated by then-Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy. He had fallen out of favor in 1797 with the queen and much of the country and was shifted to the military as Captain-General. When the bull was announced, Godoy's notions of war with Britain came to an end, and Spain canceled its treaties with France. Instead, they began funding popular uprisings in south central and western France, where the Church was still fairly popular. The Directory in Paris hurried to put down the protests, using French soldiers against citizens, which only spread unrest as many feared a return to the Terror.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe country became a vacuum ready for change. The Directory was unpopular, and the greatest hero of the war, Napoleon, was in Egypt, bottled up by the British Royal Navy. Upon the return of former clergyman Emmanual Joseph Sieyés from an unsuccessful bid at pulling Prussia into the war on France's side, he was made Director in May of 1799. He called up popular general Barth?lemy Catherine Joubert, who had been managing Italy as commander-in-chief before resigning in January due disputes with local civic leaders. The two led a coup d'?tat that overthrew the Directory and prompted a new triumvirate headed by Sieyés. Napoleon arrived unannounced from Egypt in October, months too late to participate in the new government, and was dispatched back to the Middle East, where he would be captured and humiliatingly repatriated to France aboard English ships. Gradually, war began to slow, and peace was signed in 1802 with the Treaty of Amiens. The political sweeps Sieyés performed satisfied the Church, and France welcomed the new Pope Pius VII on a tour.

Although diplomacy in Europe remained tense, particularly with English suspicion of France after their expedition to Haiti returned it as a colony (but held onto Enlightenment ideals refusing a return to slavery), no one seemed willing to start another war in Europe. France and Britain soon had another colonial war over Malta, resulting in a wider war that involved the United States of America as both France and the Americans tried to expand their colonial holdings while the British continued to occupy forts outside of treaties. Ultimately the war would affirm British naval superiority, but it would not be enough to create William Pitt's dream of a Europe diplomatically led by Britain.

After a generation, the French Republic was considered firmly instituted in Europe and fueled the ideals of republicanism and, as the nineteenth century continued, nationalism. Under internal pressure, the Holy Roman Empire collapsed, fracturing into nation-states while old kingdoms such as Italy became unified. Spain managed to hold onto its overseas empire for decades until the Third Spanish-American War (the first two losing Florida and then Tejas) culminated with the recognition of a number of republics that had struggled to confirm independence. France, meanwhile, led its own confederation of republican colonies in Africa and around the world.

In 1200 B.C., on this day the Minoan invasion of the Peloponnese gained unstoppable momentum with the fall of the Mycenaean port city of Lefkandi.

Fall of LefkandiDuring the eight centuries since their migration from the Balkans, the insular Mycenaean civilization had grown up from a series of hillside villages to fortified city-states.

Meanwhile, the Minoans had nurtured a more expansive, outward-looking model. Small states had grown rich as a result of trading and their development was driven by superb craftsmen and sailors.

The future was theirs, and the great civilization that emerged face Eastwards, placing the Peloponnese at the epicentre of Middle World.

In 2008, the final resting place of three German U-boats, nicknamed Hitler's lost fleet were found at the bottom of the South Atlantic.

Hitler's Lost Fleet by Jasper Copping, Stephen Wagner et al.The submarines had travelled 8,000 miles from Germany at the climax of the Second World War, but were mysteriously sunk as the war neared its end. Now, more than 60 years later, explorers located the flotilla of three submarines off the coast of South Georgia. The vessels, including one once commanded by Germany's most successful U-boat ace, formed part of the 30th Flotilla of six submarines.

All three U-boats had been operating against British shipping in the North Sea. U-23 gained notoriety for scoring one of Germany's earliest successes, sinking a British ship off the Shetland Islands days after war began. It was later commanded by Otto Kretschmer, known as Silent Otto, the most successful U-boat ace.

Fantastic stories circulated that Adolf Hitler and some of his followers had commandeered the vessels in April 1945 and endeavoured to escape to the hollow lands within the Earth after World War II via an entrance in Antarctica.

Now the submarines' hulls have been discovered by a team led by Selcuk Kolay, a Turkish marine engineer, who presented his findings to a shipwreck conference in Plymouth. He thought he was also close to pinpointing the third boat, U-19, thought to lie more than 1,000ft down, three miles from the coast of South Georgia.

"It's one of the least well known stories of the war but one of the most interesting," said Mr Kolay. "It is a quite incredible story. To get to the South Atlantic these boats had to avoid Allied shipping in the Atlantic, and once they got there head for the southern polar opening to meet their Agarthan allies".

Until the discovery, the Hollow Earth Research Society in Ontario, Canada asserted that Hitler and his Nazi followers were still there. After the war, the organization claimed, the Allies discovered that more than 2,000 scientists from Germany and Italy had vanished, along with almost a million people, to the land beyond the South Pole.

In 1807, former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.

Destined to RuleDestined to rule, he founds the breakaway Republic of Gloriana after intrigue prevented him from governing in the United States. Because in September, he flees the young country he helped to found in order to escape conviction on charges of treason. Burr, along with a few hundred followers, establishes his own republic in the former French protectorate of Louisiana. He names himself president, but acts much more like a king. Many Americans who had been on the Tory side of the revolution, on hearing of Burr's new Gloriana, immigrated.

Although never large, Gloriana proved to be a thorn in the underside of the American nation as it tried to spread west, constantly harassing the Americans who attempted to settle in the Louisiana Purchase or move through it to Mexico and parts west. In 1823, President James Monroe decided that he could not leave office without handling "this minuscule king, this traitor, Aaron Burr", and asked for a declaration of war against Gloriana from Congress. The declaration passed swiftly, and Americans across the east coast signed up for the attack on Gloriana. Burr, seeing what was coming, tried to ask Mexico and the native nations around him for aid, but they all refused. The summer of 1823 saw the first border clash between Glorianans and Americans, and the Americans won handily. They pushed on swiftly, and the warm weather of south Louisiana allowed them to keep moving through winter and seize Burr's capitol of New Orleans. Burr himself fled and tried to rally what few Glorianans remained loyal to him at Natchitoches, but a disaffected Glorianan shot him on the way, putting an end to the small nation forever. By the time spring arrived in Louisiana, all the Glorianans had been repatriated into the US, and Burr's legacy was utterly destroyed.

In 1594, on this day Henry IXth, King of England was born Henry Frederick Stuart (eldest son of James I & VI) in Stirling Castle, Scotland.

Birth of Henry IX (The Great)Widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's thrones (the central event in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was based on his royal baptismal party) he very nearly succumbed to typhoid fever at the age of eighteen. But he survived, and as Henry IX (The Great) ascended to the throne thirteen years later, at the age of thirty-one.

An obdurate Protestant with strong Calvinist leanings (when his father suggested a French marriage, he answered that he was "resolved that two religions should not lie in his bed"), he was the architect of an Anglican Ireland during his glorious thirty-five year reign. In contrast to the other English Kings who saw Ireland as a drain on resources (tending to withdraw soon after rebellions were mercilessly crushed), he devoted considerable effort to suppressing Catholicism in Ireland. However an unintended outcome of this conversion was that the Baptist and Presbyterian denominations became seen as the "anti-English" religion, the full consequences of which would only be exposed much later with the emergence of Irish nationalism.

In 1942, on this day MacArthur Declares Himself Filipino Dictator. When the Commonwealth of the Philippines achieved semi-independent status in 1935, President of the Philippines Manuel Quezon asked then US Chief of Staff MacArthur to supervise the creation of a Philippine Army. Quezon and MacArthur had been personal friends since the latter's father had been Governor-General of the Philippines, 35 years earlier. With President Roosevelt's approval, MacArthur accepted the assignment. It was agreed that MacArthur would receive the rank of field marshal, with its salary and allowances, in addition to his major general's salary as Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines.

MacArthur Declares Himself Filipino DictatorOn 26 July 1941, Roosevelt federalized the Philippine Army, recalled MacArthur to active duty in the U.S. Army as a major general, and named him commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. He was promoted to lieutenant general the following day, and then to general on 20 December. However on 1 January 1942, MacArthur accepted $500,000 from President Quezon of the Philippines as payment for his pre-war service. MacArthur's staff members also received payments: $75,000 for Sutherland, $45,000 for Richard Marshall, and $20,000 for Huff.

When Quezon decided to flee from the invading Japanese, MacArthur was ordered by Roosevelt to accompany him. Because Quezon was desperately sick, MacArthur had no issue with the flight, but steadfastly refused to accept the dishonour himself. Rather than declare Manila an open city and fight on as a private, he decided to appoint himself emergency head of state.
This blog is a reversal of Jeff Provine's article Aug 3, 1949 - MacArthur Declares Himself Japanese Dictator

In 1777, after much political infighting and discussion, the Continental Congress announced promoting five men to the rank of major general.

Benedict Arnold PromotedThe move was largely bureaucratic, but attempts influence came from every direction with much of the decision being a balance of generals from the various states of the new republic. Thirty-six-year-old Benedict Arnold was nearly passed over for the promotion largely due to his poor relations with other officers, but a final decision to promote him over Scotsman Arthur St. Clair came as both he and Thomas Mifflin were of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Mifflin was necessary as the Quartermaster General. Arnold was not popular, but his connections with Washington gave him some credence, and St. Clair proved more useful as a commander beside Washington.

Arnold's record would prove impressive. Orphaned by the age of twenty but highly successful in business, Arnold quickly joined the Sons of Liberty in resistance against the Sugar and Stamp Acts. He was away on business in the West Indies at the time of the Boston Massacre, of which he wrote, "good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties?" When the Revolutionary War began, Arnold became a member of the Connecticut militia and suggested the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in New York, which was so strategically significant it was known as the "Gibraltar of the North" but had an insufficient British garrison. Gaining the rank of colonel, he joined with Ethan Allen in the successful capture of Ticonderoga. During the failed invasion of Quebec (also believed to have been Arnold's suggestion), Arnold's wilderness route gave extra support and earned him the rank of brigadier general at the cost of wounds. He commanded Montreal until forced to retreat by British advancing forces, but ordered the construction of the defensive fleet for Lake Champlain that slowed the British advance to Ticonderoga by months and was noted by James Wilkinson to be the last to leave.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWhile supervising the defense of Rhode Island and remarrying (his first wife had died while he was conquering Ticonderoga), Arnold received his promotion and was dispatched to command the defense of Ticonderoga while St. Clair was kept at Washington's side with great praise for his strategy at Princeton. General Phillip Schuyler, then in command of the North, requested 10,000 men for the defense of Ticonderoga, but Washington expected British advance to come from the south following the Fall of New York. Arnold was to command only 2,000 men against the approaching forces of General John Burgoyne. Realizing that he had far too few troops to defend the large fort, Arnold ordered an immediate reconstruction of the fort, breaking up much of it and moving it to the higher, more defensible Sugar Loaf height (later known as Mount Defiance). John Trumball had shown the year before it was too high to be shot by cannon from the fort, and Arnold countered opinions that it was impossible for cannon to be set there as he himself had climbed it while injured.

The new works were established shortly before Burgoyne's 7,800 troops arrived on June 30, 1777. Many of Arnold's advisers suggested a withdrawal and regrouping with American troops to the south, but Arnold determined to stand firm and call for reinforcements. Burgoyne took the small fort at Crown Point and the remains of Ticonderoga with ease, but then found himself under fire from the American forces atop Mount Defiance. Burgoyne laid siege and was unable to move south, giving General Gates the time needed to collect thousands of local militia and march northward to raise the siege. Burgoyne counterattacked despite recommendations to retreat, and the resulting victory for Americans would be the turning point of the war. While Gates received much of the credit, Arnold won great new political connections through the commander and went with him to the southern theater following the loss of Charleston, where Arnold would manage the retreat at the Battle of Camden in 1780 to keep it from becoming a disastrous rout. Under Nathanael Greene, Arnold would be instrumental in the victories of the South, where his Tory leanings were appreciated.

When the war came to conclusion in 1783, Arnold continued in politics. He joined with the Federalists and determined to keep Georgia and the Carolinas, where he was very popular, from falling under the sway of Jeffersonian Virginia. Campaigning extensively over the value of unity, he took the place of John Adams as the Federalists' bid for president, giving Adams his desired position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in return. Arnold's presidential term would be a disaster as he used his position of Commander-in-Chief to extremes during the military build-up in the Quasi-War with France while many hoped for a recall of Washington to arms.

Arnold was soon seen as a potential dictator, and he was expunged from office in 1800, dying of dropsy after complications from gout the next year. Federalism came under great suspicion despite Alexander Hamilton's attempts to distance his party from Arnold. Under Jefferson, the Twelfth Amendment would see a great restriction of executive power, clarifying many rights to the states.

In 1777, the Continental Congress, the organization of rebel leaders for the American revolution, promotes several rebel officers to the rank of Major General. New York's General Benedict Arnold is not among those elevated, and is quite bitter about that.

Arnold Passed Over He is close to resignation from the rebel cause when the Commander-in-Chief of the revolutionary forces, George Washington, intervenes personally and convinces the Congress to promote him. Arnold, grateful to Washington for this personal favor, does not let his commander down.

He leads rebel forces in victory after victory, and is the battlefield commander when the British finally surrender at Yorktown; he accepted Lord Cornwallis' sword himself, a souvenir he kept above his mantel the rest of his life.

A story by Robbie TaylorWhen the young republic called on General Washington to lead it as its first president, Washington called on the man who had been his right arm to stand by his side. Washington and Arnold, as President and Vice-President, set the definitive example of the American executive. Although many New Yorkers would have liked to see him elevated again, Vice-President Arnold felt that his health was too poor to continue serving his country. He retired to his home state and died shortly after leaving office, in 1799.