where does benedict arnold fit into your story? to the events in your book occur before arnold's betrayal or after smart >> let's talk about that. benedict arnold came later in the war, this is at the start of the first conspiracy in the plot that killed george washington, it takes place from 1775 through 1776. i actually wrote another book that was about benedict arnold and i will give you my quick stories. when benedict arnold betrays george washington , they say it's one of the only times he is ever seen crying what benedict arnold does is equipped the rights and no that is hand-delivered by alexander hamilton to george washington not in song or rap comes to george washington and the letter says three things. won a says don't kill my wife and is is don't tell my staff and in one of the craziest moments of letterwriting history, benedict arnold says, can i please have my belongings back. she wants her record collection back. then, george washington amazingly actually gives it back to him and sends back belongings. to this day nob

this is benedict arnold. if you look at this painting, is quebec city in the background. and arnold's march 2 quebec proved to be a nightmare. winter sets in earlier than they planned. he has about 1100 men. the final 400 have most of the supplies and turn back, so the other 700 are trapped in the wilderness with no food. part of the problem for arnold is the americans have a map from the coast of maine to quebec. the map says this route is about 160 miles. the map is off by a factor of two to three. it is 300, 400 miles. these guys get caught in the rivers of northern maine and southern quebec in winter and these men starve. they are like walking scarecrows. this account is heavily recorded. lots of arnold's men leave diaries. new england is have high literacy rates. you read about these guys accounts. they are eating squirrel tails, eating their cartridge box, the dogs disappear quickly because there is no food. they are like walking scarecrows, but arnold and 600 men make it to pointe la vie and they call upon the city of quebec to surrender and the british laugh at the

, and americans like benedict arnold because he is an interesting figure. he is a hero and a traitor at the same time. the guy i want to focus on is actuallyho leads the main army in canada. nobody remembers him today, but his name is richard montgomery. montgomery's job was to take the city of montreal. he was supposed to proceed of lake champlain and face the main british army. the theory was, if montgomery attacked montreal, the british would put all their force against him and quebec would fall without resistance. they felt the british would not have anything left in quebec. they were going to hit the two major cities in canada simultaneously. what is interesting about montgomery -- first, i did my doctoral dissertation on him, which makes him fascinating. i told my wife that if i had a son, i would name him richard montgomery, mercifully that never happened. he is an interesting guy. she shows us something about the coming revolution in conspiracy and rage militaire. he is 37 years old, and a former british officer. he spent 15 years in the british arm

benedict arnold is seriously wounded. the american army in canada is shattered. what is interesting here, and this is where we are going to take a quick aside, yes, go ahead. student: did they really only go they were all going to expire? prof. gabriel: that's why they attacked. if we wait until generate first, half the army is going home. student: did they think they had any actual chance? prof. gabriel: that's a debatable question. montgomery believes he actually has a fighting shot because he thinks the blizzard is going to hide them. it didn't work. there is a wild account. montgomery is leading the attack. montgomery literally grabs and xets and that -- grabs an a and he's the first guy through the gates and the first guy killed. he really wants to go home, he really does. montgomery becomes the first martyr of the revolution. real, but bunker richard montgomery is the first and highest ranking american officer killed in the revolution. highest ranked. irony, on the odd day richard montgomery is killed, his overall commander writes in a letter and says there

force called fort ticonderoga, a group of american militia led by ethan allen, from vermont, benedict arnoldwe'll talk about him later today, seized fort ticonderoga because it's loaded with cannon and military equipment. this attack on the for the's not authorized by congress. congress meeting for the first time this day. we'll pick that up later. it's authorized by the massachusetts committee of safety and a bunch of angry guys in vermont. they are taking the war to the english. there is no reason this should happen, but it does. and over the next couple of days, we'll see a a map in a minute that extends on this, on the american seize a second for the called crown point, which we don't need to worry about, and benedict arnold raids canada. the americans are taking the war to the champlain valley. they are taking the war to the british. >> you can learn more about the american revolution tonight on lectures in history at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. you're watching american history tv only on c-span3. x on q&a, on sunday. is much too expensive for some of the people out there. the troub

benedict arnold rate canada. they are taking the war to the british. morencer 1: you can learn about the american revolution tonight on lectures in history at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. you are watching american history tv, only on c-span3. the senate confirmation hearings for the next attorney general >> the senate confirmation hearings for william barr to be neck attorney general of the united states beginning on tuesday 9:30 eastern. nominated to replace jeff sessions who held this position for over a year and a half since beginning of the trump administration. william barr is now at kirkland, and served as u.s. attorney general for george h.w. bush. process confirmation for william barr live tuesday at on c-span 3.tern the xt on the civil war, war before the war. fugitives and the slaves. thoughts and his writings on slavery and the slave act gal galvanized people.

he was intending to turn on us with benedict arnold.ritish documents they distributed to undermine on washington. it is the loadings of a sick mind. we devoutly pray for your imminent death. this is washington, right? there's all kinds of crazy things going on as well is there is now fake news, a better party warfare in the 1790s. the internet has made, given greater range than existed then. they would not be that surprised at fake news, or what is called that. in that sense, what makes them helpful to us is while they are really different they are not totally different. and in washington, you can't stop being a world power, the current president will never have that power. we are the number one economic and military power in the world, no one is even close. are geographic position is -- it is what kind of world power. >> philadelphians have never taken it easy on people. benjamin franklin's grandson. my last question before we get to yours comes up time and again in the book and i was briefly mentioning it, the mythologizing of these m

benedict arnold came later in the war.he secret plot to kill george washington really replaced itself, obviously before 1776, but it comes in later. wrote another book, and i will give you a quick favorite story about. been at it which praised george washington, it is one of the times they said george washington was ever seen crying, and i cannot shake that image. the note come up with hand-delivered by alexander, hamilton, not in song or rap, but the letter says "one, don't kill my wife. she did not know. staff.they kill my did not know what i was up to ." and three, and one of the craziest things i have seen, he wants his belongings back. amazingly, he actually gives it back to him. he sends back his belongings, and to this day, nobody knows what is in those belongings that george washington sends back. it is a mystery of history. but i love the fact that in "the first conspiracy," you get to see that benedict arnold was not the first one. it actually started way before. host: let's go to owen, joining us from new york c

. >> what the founders were thinking about, because it was fresh on their minds -- benedict arnold.eason, bribery. >> mr. kerrey of nebraska. >> not guilty. >> mr. kerrey of nebraska, not guilty. >> i didn't think lying about sex and trying to prevent everybody from finding out about it rose to that level. i just didn't. >> we were voting to remove the chief executive officer of the country. other than a vote to go to war, it doesn't get much more serious than that. >> you had an understanding of how historic this was. >> at 12:39 p.m., in a robe decorated with gold stripes to signify the historical significance of the proceedings, justice rehnquist read the final results. two thirds of the senators present not having found him guilty of the charges... >> 10 republicans and all senate democrats voted "not guilty" on the charge of perjury. on the charge of obstruction of justice, the senate was bitterly divided and voted down the middle -- 50 senators guilty, 50 not guilty. it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said william jefferson clinton be, and he hereby is, acquitted of

this is -- in fact, i personally think that this challenge is benedict arnold's treason in -- in the american revolution. if this is true, if donald trump was working for either money, influence, his own personal ego or being coopted by vladimir putin, the ex-former director of russian intelligence and he went in there and he was doing this and that his favor is toward russia and not the united states, well, it should take years. getting scooter libby, who outed valerie plain, the cia officer, that took four years to come to the criminal charges they brought against him. this is a serious -- as serious as it gets. the problem is one-third of this nation will not believe a word we say because donald trump said so and because russian information operations have corrupted them so that the fbi is considered the enemy. >> and one of the concerns for this white house if, as what malcolm is so well put this into context here, geoff, how the white house is reacting right now and with the pressure with the shutdown that we were talking about in the last hour, how this white house is -- well t

it's like a i want to be the benedict arnold and help them with the people that disobeyed robots. >> the list is alphabetical. i got a little information about this one. robots are better versions of humans. there are studies that show depending on their appetite they will deny parole if they are hungry and if they are full they will grant parole. robots are never hungry so that's really good for criminals. >> i have a theory the reason they can't make real artificiall intelligence is because people aren't smart and you can't actually say we will go to the program and this is going to fool everybody. >> they can just be pretending. then all of a sudden you wake up one day and your appliances are surrounding you. no toast for you. [laughter] terrible joke. i had another pointed robots. it's something you can get totally lost on like you can think about it like it's going to happen but then i think it can't happen. i don't know how it can. the worst threat is a non- conscious thinking machine that you programmed to do one thing like the whole paperclip thing but it's not conscious of a

benjamin franklin said, you know, that benedict arnold betrayed 3 million. trump is betraying 320 million. >> before we go. brexit is a part of this that we know there was a russian connection to that as well, what is going to be the outcome now that theresa may has not been able to fix that debacle? do we have chris? i don't think we have him. >> i'm sorry. >> i love talking with chris. we will bring him back another day. thank you to sara kendzoir and malcolm nance. donald trump's major announcement on the shutdown will now be at 4:00 p.m. eastern. that's a change. more time to prepare for it. for the first time in his life somebody is telling donald trump no and her name is nancy. that's next. e is nancy that's next. ♪ [ dog snoring ] baxter. it's bedtime. peace of mind should never be out of reach. [ voice command beep ] xfinity home. xfinity home connects you to total home security you can control from anywhere on any device. and it protects you with 24/7 professional monitoring. i guess we're sleeping here tonight. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome.