![]() ![]() The Culper Ring was thus formed out of sheer necessity. Over the next few months, he organized several different groups to collect information, operating under the theory that civilians would attract less attention than military personnel, but by 1778, he still lacked a network of agents in New York. ![]() Washington was in a tough spot, and had no way to learn about his enemies’ movements. To make matters worse, the spy Washington sent to gather intelligence, Nathan Hale, had been captured by the British and hanged for treason. He and his troops had been forced to abandon their position in New York City and flee across New Jersey. However, by the end of the year, things weren’t looking so good for General George Washington and the Continental Army. In the end, Washington's Continental Army prevailed, thanks in no small part to an intrepid (brave) few who were America's first spies.In July 1776, colonial delegates wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, effectively announcing that they intended to separate from the British Empire, and soon, war was underway. The Culper gang, for example, helped Washington avoid several costly battles. But there were many significant triumphs. The story of the Revolution's spies is largely unknown. Cold, wet, and shivering, she had to find the militia's camp in the pitch black. Dicey was swept downstream by the swift current. Getting across the treacherous, rain-swollen waters of the Tyger River proved difficult. Under cover of darkness, Dicey ran to warn her brothers. But when she learned one day that a Loyalist band called the Bloody Scouts was planning to wipe out the militia, she had to take action. These activities became so risky that Dicey's father begged her to stop. The Langstons' Loyalist neighbors were rightfully suspicious of the family.ĭicey overheard much information about the British, and regularly sneaked through the woods to tell her brothers what she had learned. Dicey's brothers fought in an anti-British militia (an army of citizens), which hid in the woods surrounding their town of Spartanburg, South Carolina. In the South, where pro-English sympathies were strong, 15-year-old Dicey' Langston lived in constant danger. Her 14-year-old son, John, would then carry the information-hidden in the buttons of his coat-through British check-points to the American lines. Darragh eavesdropped (listened secretly) by pressing her ear to a crack in the floor above. Often women and teens were able to infiltrate (enter secretly) enemy lines because soldiers didn't think they could understand military strategy.īritish officers in Philadelphia used a room in the house of Lydia Darragh (DARE-ah), a Quaker woman, to discuss their war plans. Spying during the Revolution was not restricted to men. Still another would carry the letter by whaleboat to Tallmadge, who waited in Connecticut.Īny slipup could have been fatal to the spies and their cause. Another would signal across Long Island Sound from a clothesline on the Connecticut shore. One agent, acting as a customer at the store, would take the information to a drop box on the North Shore of Long Island. Transmitting Townsend's intelligence to Tallmadge and Washington was a complicated, dangerous business. He listened slyly as English officers chatted at society gatherings and soldiers exchanged information at his store. Townsend's position within Loyalist New York provided him access to a wealth of intelligence (information, often secret, about an enemy). Townsend was also a society reporter for the New York Royal Gazette, a newspaper that was pro-Loyalist, or faithful to King George III of England. The central figure of the band was Robert Townsend-code name Culper Junior-the owner of a dry-goods store. The operation, known by the code name Samuel Culper, would be crucial in the winning of the war. On Washington's orders, his second-in-command, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, set up a spy network in British-controlled New York City. Looking for every advantage over the enemy, he relied extensively on the covert (secret) work of spies. General George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army, faced a larger, much better equipped British military machine. The early days of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) were dark ones for the rebelling colonists. APA style: Patriot spies: winning the Revolutionary War required that a brave few-including women and children-work in secret.Patriot spies: winning the Revolutionary War required that a brave few-including women and children-work in secret." Retrieved from MLA style: "Patriot spies: winning the Revolutionary War required that a brave few-including women and children-work in secret." The Free Library. ![]()
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