CULPER SPY RING/Revolutionary War

George Washington—Commanding General of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, first President of the United States of America—the guy on the one dollar bill. The man who, as a child, history has credited with saying, "I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree." Thus establishing him as someone of integrity and honesty.

But did you know this same man of integrity and honesty was responsible for the establishment of the Continental Army's first intelligence spy network—spies as in deception and subterfuge—while we were still fighting for our freedom from Great Britain? Before we were even our own independent country?

In August 1776, British forces occupied New York and the city would remain a British stronghold for the duration of the Revolutionary War. Getting information about British troop movements and other plans from New York was critical to George Washington. But there was simply no reliable intelligence network that existed on the Patriot side at that time. However, in 1778 that changed when General Washington appointed a young cavalry officer, Benjamin Tallmadge, head of the Continental Army's secret service. He was charged with establishing a permanent spy network that would operate behind enemy lines on Long Island.

Tallmadge assembled a small group of trustworthy men and women from his hometown of Setauket, Long Island. Known as the Culper Spy Ring, Tallmadge's homegrown network would become the most effective of any intelligence-gathering operation on either side during the Revolutionary War.

Instead of following the procedure of the day and dispatching scouts into British territory on single-trip missions, Tallmadge organized his network of agents to operate behind and just beyond enemy lines. They operated from their homes in New York City, on Long Island, and in Connecticut, from which they reported on British activity. Prior to the creation of the Culper Spy Ring, a single-trip mission had resulted in the capture and execution of Tallmadge's Yale classmate, Nathan Hale. By avoiding the single-trip missions, none of the Culper Ring intelligence agents were ever discovered by the British.

Tallmadge recruited only those he knew he could absolutely trust, beginning with his childhood friend Abraham Woodhull, a farmer, and Caleb Brewster whose main task during the Revolution was commanding a fleet of whaleboats against British and Tory shipping on Long Island Sound. Woodhull, who began running the group's day-to-day operations on Long Island, also personally traveled back and forth to New York collecting information and observing naval maneuvers there. He would evaluate reports and determine what information would be taken to George Washington. Dispatches would then be given to Brewster who would carry them across the Sound to Fairfield, Connecticut. Tallmadge would pass them on to General Washington. Woodhull recruited another man, the well-connected New York merchant Robert Townsend, to serve as the ring's primary information source in New York City.

Austin Roe, a tavernkeeper in Setauket who acted as a courier for the Culper ring, traveled to Manhattan with the excuse of buying supplies for his business. A local Setauket woman and Woodhull's neighbor, Anna Smith Strong, reportedly used the laundry on her clothesline to leave signals regarding Brewster's location for meetings with Woodhull.

The Culper Spy Ring accomplished more than any other American or British intelligence network during the war. Perhaps the group's greatest achievement came in 1780 when they uncovered British plans to ambush the newly arrived French troops in Rhode Island—8,000 battle-hardened British soldiers against 5,800 French troops just off the boat after a long ocean voyage, tired and sick. Without the spy ring's warnings to Washington, the French troops wouldn't have the time they needed to recover from the long voyage. The Franco-American alliance may well have been damaged or even destroyed by this surprise British attack.

The Culper Spy Ring has also been credited with uncovering information involving the treasonous correspondence between Benedict Arnold and John Andre, chief intelligence officer under General Henry Clinton, commander of the British forces in New York, who were conspiring to give the British control over the army fort at West Point. Major Andre was captured and hanged as a spy in October 1780.

This is only a brief summary of the Culper Spy Ring and their invaluable contribution to George Washington and the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

And, in case you were wondering where the name Culper came from—pre-Revolutionary War George Washington worked as a surveyor in Culpeper County, Virginia.