Yes, Peggy Arnold did have that breakdown at West Point after her husband defected. However, it was COMPLETELY staged! She was left behind at West Point with her son Edward who was still a baby. George Washington had breakfast with her that morning. Lafayette reproached Washington playfully, saying how the young men (mostly aides) waited their breakfast with “ravishing” Peggy Arnold. Washington said in return:
“Ah, I know you young men are all in love with Mrs. Arnold … You may god and take your breakfast with her and tell her not to wait for me.”
Two aides, Samuel Shaw and James McHenry went ahead and told Peggy that a large party of guests had been delayed but would shortly arrive for breakfast. When Washington dismounted at the Robinson House where the Arnolds were stayed, one of Arnold’s aides, Major David Franks explained that Arnold had been summoned to West Point on an urgent call and that Peggy Arnold lay abed upstairs. Late into the afternoon there was still no sign from either Peggy or her husband. Arnold had long hopped on a barge that André was supposed to be on and Peggy staged her scene.
It was Lieutenant Colonel Richard Varick who initially notified Washington of the “delirious” behavior of Peggy Arnold upstairs. he had found her roaming the halls in a state of partial undress and coaxed her back to bed where she insisted that “there was a hot iron on her head and no one but General Washington could take it off.” When Washington went upstairs to calm her, he found her hugging her child, Edward, to her breast. She pretended not to recognize Washington. “There is General Washington,” Varick urged her gently.
In return Peggy insisted, “No that is not General Washington! That is the man who is a-going to assist Colonel Varick in killing my child.” She added, “General Arnold with never return. he is gone forever, there, there, there.” She motioned toward the ceiling saying, “The spirits have carried him up there. They had put hot irons in his head.” She fooled everyone and played it to perfection. Hamilton wrote to his wife, Elizabeth Hamilton:
“It was the most affecting scene I ever was witness to. [For a considerable time, Peggy had] entirely lost her senses … One moment she raved, another she melted into tears. Sometimes she pressed her infant to her bosom and lamented its fate, occasioned by the imprudence of its father, in a manner that would have pierced insensibility itself.:
After the event, believed to be innocent, Peggy was sent back to Philadelphia where her family resided. Theodosia Prevost had been a good friend of hers and Peggy had stayed with Prevost in what is now Paramus, New Jersey, enroute to Philadelphia from West Point. Peggy, unable to take the lying anymore, confessed everything to Theodosia, telling her that “through unceasing perseverance, [Peggy] had ultimately brought the general into an arrangement to surrender West Point.” Nobody saw that the reaction was a farce.
Daintyfire 