 Several descendants of William Arnold became prominent in either the military or the civil affairs of the United States . A great @-@ great grandson , named Benedict Arnold , became one of the great generals of the American Revolutionary War but was better known for his betrayal of the American revolutionary cause . Other well @-@ known descendants include U.S. Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush ; Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry , American hero of the Great Lakes during the War of 1812 and his younger brother Commodore Matthew <unk> Perry who was sent across the Pacific in 1852 by President Millard Fillmore to open Japan to western trade ; and Stephen Arnold Douglas who debated Abraham Lincoln in 1858 while vying for the Illinois Senate seat and winning the contest , but later losing to Lincoln in the 1860 presidential race . Stephen A. Douglas descends from both sons of William Arnold . Rhode Island colonial Deputy Governor George Hazard is another descendant . The hall of fame rodeo cowboy and western artist Earl W. Bascom is also a noted descendant . A published line of descent from Arnold to U.S. President James A. Garfield was later disproven . 
