As we all know, Arnold was cheated out of glory several times....
Are there any alternate histories where he becomes Commander in Continental Army then the first US President?
If your solution has Patrick Ferguson killing George Washington in Sept 1777, more kudos to you.
I think Arnold is actually a ready candidate for that arch-plotter of the early Republic, Alexander Hamilton. I think that Hamilton formed his basic political ideas about national unity and centralized government very early on, and was working to get his political ideas enacted already through Washington. Basically, I think Hamilton saw the army as the vessel that would deliver the unity of the country. I think Hamilton was largely working under Washington's direction, doing the things that the gentlemen warrior Washington couldn't (so Hamilton was basically Washington's political arms, doing things that Washington couldn't dirty himself with), the C-in-C of the Army, ended up as President of the country, and Hamilton used the army in 1782(3?) for the Newburgh(sp?) Conspiracy to attempt to force more national unity.
Arnold was an excellent battle field commander, I think you could say that he just lacked the strategic vision, that might be the wrong word, foresight perhaps, to turn that tactical command into a longer term sort of a thing. So if we have Washington get killed, post-Saratoga and post-whatever-battle-Gates-ran-away-from, then Arnold is probably the next choice for C-in-C of the Continental Army.
So Hamilton is going to use Arnold, except that the relationship is going to be different than with Washington. Hamilton is going to be the one manipulating Arnold, the one running him, rather than Washington running Hamilton. And this is going to result in some rather major differences. Arnold doesn't strike me as a man who will give up command of the Army easily, and he does strike me as a man who is perfect for the kind of military-national-unity-Army-as-the-State guy. And I can easily see Hamilton deciding that the Army is the only path to national unity.
So whose for Arnold as President-for-Life with Hamilton as his [Prime Minister, Chancellor, Consul] of the Senate (elected for life).
Talk about conspiracy theories. Have to laugh at the talk of Washington using Hamilton. washington had to be dragged kicking and screaming back after the war-but I guess some people just have to try and make something out of nothing.
Arnold was tactically brilliant, strategically pretty sharp as well. His problem was that he had a hard time being diplomatic and really did not play well with others. And lets face it- you have to have a serious deficit of SOMETHING to do what he did in the OTL= so odds are something would have happened in the other time line to set him off.
So you are saying that wearing his uniform and thus becoming CinC means that he is plotting to become dictator or something like that. This despite all his actions during the war when he COULD have done that and did not; and his leaving to go back to Mt Vernon after the war and pretty much staying out of politics for the next several years. Trying to say that the Apollo Landings never occurred would be easier to support then this one.
I think Hamilton was largely working under Washington's direction, doing the things that the gentlemen warrior Washington couldn't (so Hamilton was basically Washington's political arms, doing things that Washington couldn't dirty himself with), the C-in-C of the Army, ended up as President of the country,
Unless you have some real evidence to back this up, its nothing but a wank.
I think you need two PODs to help bring this about. First, solve Arnold's financial problems, since they were one of the key reasons he turned traitor in the first place, and were a source of friction between him and the CC. Second, have his future wife in Philadelphia (whose name escapes me at the moment) marry someone else before they ever meet. She and her father were Tories, and her sympathies went a long way to turning him against the Colonials....
A lot of Arnold's financial difficulties were because of his second wife, Peggy Shippen, so this may be a way of killing two birds with one stone.
If Arnold's first wife, Margaret Mansfield, doesn't die in 1775 and/or John Andre proposes to Peggy Shippen before she meets Arnold, this is credible.
Having Horatio Gates catch a bullet at Saratoga would help, too.