During the Second Battle of Saratoga, Benedict Arnold was severely wounded in the leg. Arnold said it would have been better if he'd been shot in the chest.

What if he had? How would things be different if he'd died at Saratoga?
 
He'd probably be remembered as a martyr for the Revolution, rather than a traitor, but given that his treason was intercepted his death at Saratoga probably wouldn't have had much impact on the overall course of the war.
 
@Arcavius probably has it right here.

You probably see a lot more kids being named Benedict going forward, a lot more public art pieces celebrating his heroic death in the name of Independence and democracy and whatnot.
 
You will always have detractors or traitors. Some come. Many go. A very dynamic situation. It could have turned out better. It could have turned out worse. My opinion only.
 
People in the United States would have to find another shorthand for traitor. Yes, I know saying Benedict Arnold is longer than saying traitor. The point is that he's so well known for his betrayal that his name became a synonym for traitor in the US. I don't think losing him at Saratoga affects the war too much really.
 
How would we teach the children; would Arron Burr today be our go to traitor? We would actually need a guy to fill the role, is there a lesser 'Benedict Arnold' in our history we could move into place?
 
Well his death most likely butterflys away the battle/massacre at Groton Heights and burning of New London CT on 9/6/1781 since that was a attack planned and lead by Benedict Arnold in a area he grew up in.

Which means Lafayette is going have to scream something else when the French and American forces charge the ramparts at Yorktown since he screamed Remember Fort Griswold (the fort the local militia defended on the Groton Heights side of the Thames during the battle)
 
Not everybody thinks Burr is a bad guy. Note the most calm detached biography I could find of him.
www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=804252012663

From a website called "bad-ass-of-the-week" -- yea not everyone! LOL

Should play well in the public school system.

I use to have a copy, I don't any longer, of Aaron Burr's final open letter to posterity, written the night before the duel. In it he promised all his ex lovers, who he remained nameless (especially the married ones), that he had taken all their love letters, bound them to a rock and sunk them deep into a near by New Jersey lake. Ensuring them they would never again see the light of day. The man had a real Trump-like in ego. A real ass hole, not a bad ass. --- Actually I retract, he was both, and ass hole and a bad ass. LOL
 
From a website called "bad-ass-of-the-week" -- yea not everyone! LOL

Should play well in the public school system.

I use to have a copy, I don't any longer, of Aaron Burr's final open letter to posterity, written the night before the duel. In it he promised all his ex lovers, who he remained nameless (especially the married ones), that he had taken all their love letters, bound them to a rock and sunk them deep into a near by New Jersey lake. Ensuring them they would never again see the light of day. The man had a real Trump-like in ego. A real ass hole, not a bad ass. --- Actually I retract, he was both, and ass hole and a bad ass. LOL

I think the destruction of the letters, and his support of women's and minority rights shows more concern and care for others than a certain bloody rhino head in the room who we are supposed to mention only in chat.

A lot of the founders were both bad ass and ass hole, including the one with the musical currently on Broadway.
 
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I think the destruction of the letters, and his support of women's and minority rights shows more concern and care for others than a certain bloody rhino head in the room who we are supposed to mention only in chat.

A lot of the founders were both bad ass and ass hole, including the one with the musical currently on Broadway.

Agree and don't agree! Had the letter been released (assuming his defeat in the duel) it would have put every woman that ever made the mistake of befriending him, suspect in the eyes of her husband. That would have been messy. That he was ensuring them was the correct thing to do, but he should have done it on the QT. I felt when reading it, that he was strutting.

Then again he sure as hell showed up for the duel so I guess he had the right to strut a little.

I grew up in a small town in New Jersey next to a very old home he was married in, and for a short while lived in, in Ho Ho Kus; so I have kind of a weird interest in him, but so much of his story is full of malfeasance.

To be fair he was acquitted of treason, so I guess we must respect the jurisprudence; or then again we can assume him very lucky for finding himself wedged nicely between Marshall and Jefferson's hatred for each other.

I am not suppose to mention that name? Wow! OK, I guess.
 
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