Arnold was in the West Indies when the Boston Massacre took place on March 5 , 1770 . He wrote that he was " very much shocked " and wondered " good God , are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties , or are they all turned philosophers , that they do n't take immediate vengeance on such miscreants ? " Arnold began the war as a captain in the Connecticut Colony militia , a position to which he was elected in March 1775 . His company marched northeast the following month to assist in the siege of Boston that followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord . He proposed an action to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to seize Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York , which he knew was poorly defended . They issued him a colonel 's commission on May 3 , 1775 , and he immediately rode off to Castleton in the disputed New Hampshire Grants ( Vermont ) in time to participate with Ethan Allen and his men in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga . He followed up that action with a bold raid on Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu River north of Lake Champlain . A Connecticut militia force arrived at Ticonderoga in June ; Arnold had a dispute with its commander over control of the fort , and resigned his Massachusetts commission . He was on his way home from Ticonderoga when he learned that his wife had died earlier in June
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Benedict Arnold