Reed and others amassed a series of irregularities in Arnold's official actions, and open war of words erupted between Arnold and Reed and his supporters. By February 1779 a variety of charges had been publicly made that he was abusing his power. He demanded a full court martial, writing to Washington in May, "Having become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet [such] ungrateful returns". The court martial was postponed (it would not be held until December 1779), once more leaving Arnold frustrated and angry at the Congress for its inaction. During the summer of 1778 Arnold met Peggy Shippen, the 18-year-old daughter of Judge Edward Shippen, a Loyalist sympathizer who had done business with the British while they occupied the city. Peggy had been courted by British Major John André during the British occupation of Philadelphia. Peggy and Arnold married on April 8, 1779. Peggy and her circle of friends had found methods of staying in contact with paramours across the battle lines, in spite of military bans on communication with the enemy. Some of this communication was effected through the services of Joseph Stansbury, a Philadelphia merchant. Sometime early in May 1779, Arnold met with Stansbury. Stansbury, whose testimony before a British commission apparently erroneously placed the date in June, said that, after meeting with Arnold, "I went secretly to New York with a tender of [Arnold's] services to Sir Henry Clinton." This was the start of a series of negotiations between Arnold and Sir Henry's chief spy, the very same Major André that had courted Peggy. Between July and October 1779, the two negotiated over terms of Arnold's change to the British side, while Arnold provided the British with information on troop locations and strengths, as well as the locations of supply depots. The court martial to consider the charges against Arnold began meeting in December 1779. In spite of the fact that a number of members of the panel of judges were men ill-disposed to Arnold over actions and disputes earlier in the war, Arnold was cleared of all but two minor charges on January 26, 1780. Arnold worked over the next few months to publicize this fact; however, in early April, just one week after Washington congratulated Arnold on the May 19 birth of his son, Edward Shippen Arnold, Washington published a formal rebuke of Arnold's behavior. Shortly after Washington's rebuke, a Congressional inquiry into his expenditures concluded that Arnold had failed to fully account for his expenditures incurred during the Quebec invasion.