Washington's Spies
Page 32
Tallmadge had another reason to come to André’s posthumous rescue. For all his faults, André had been involved in the same business as Tallmadge, and among spies a certain solidarity, a peculiar sense of honor, existed. His execution had been a necessary murder to repay the British for killing Hale. That was just business. But that did not erase the fact that the circumstances of his capture had been dishonorable.
Like Tallmadge, André had worked out of nothing but a sense of duty to his country—wrongheaded as that may have been in Tallmadge’s eyes. So, too, had the Culper Ring, whose brave participants had had the decency, modesty, and honor not to keep demanding pensions, medals, and recognition for their services. By defending André’s memory and attacking Paulding and Company, in short, Tallmadge was fighting to protect his old friends Woodhull, Townsend, Brewster, Hawkins, Roe, and their assistants. He could not abide to see villains profiting while good and faithful men languished unheeded, untrumpeted, and unknown.
Benjamin Tallmadge as a young officer of dragoons. Pale, delicately featured, with a prominent nose and a somewhat bulbous forehead, Tallmadge had a disconcerting habit of cocking his head like a quizzical beagle.
New York in 1776. A ship approaches the southern tip of Manhattan. In late September, a fire would ravage the city and leave much of it a macabre pyre. A bustling mercantile metropolis descended into a degenerate mare’s nest, the leading red-light district in North America, the black-market capital of the Revolution. Much of the area visible to the right was never rebuilt, and turned into “Canvas-Town,” a hell where paupers, felons, and prostitutes huddled in the burnt-out houses.
(Photo Credit: New York Public Library)
A fond, humorous poem written by the doomed Nathan Hale to his college friend Benjamin Tallmadge, ca. 1774. The two maintained a lively correspondence. Both of them were teachers at the time, and both would enter secret service. Captain Hale, said his army servant, “was too good-looking to go so. He could not deceive. Some scrubby fellows ought to have gone” instead on his mission.
(Photo Credit: Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Yale University)
The poem in part reads:
“Friend Tallmadge,
Although a first attempt prov’d vain,
I’m still resolv’d my end t’obtain.
My temper’s such that I rare give out,
In what I ‘tempt for one bad bout.
Were this the case, you’d never see
Lines, form’d to feet and rhyme from me.
But being sadly mortifiy’d
At thoughts of laying it aside;
Revived a little by your letter,
With hopes of speeding better,
At length I venture forth once more,
But fearing soon to run ashore.”
Major Robert Rogers was described as “subtil & deep as Hell itself … a low cunning cheating back biting villain.” Perhaps so, but he was an expert tracker, soldier … and spy-catcher.
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
Benjamin Tallmadge’s first foray into the secret world. He acted as intermediary between Nathaniel Sackett—appointed spymaster by Washington in early 1777—and Major John Clark, who was to operate covertly on British-occupied Long Island. Tallmadge arranged for Clarke to cross the Sound at night using a whaleboat. This letter, dated February 25, 1777, is a summary of a message Tallmadge received from Clarke.
“Mr. Talmage writes that he received Intelligence from Long Island by one John Clarke that there were no Troops at Setauket, but part of two Companies at Huntington and one Company at Oyster Bay. That the said Clarke saw the said Companies at Huntington, that the Militia of Suffolk County was ordered to meet on the 16th Febr[uar]y in order to be drafted for the Ministerial Service but that they were Determined not to serve, however if their services were Insisted upon, they were determined to make their Escape in time.
That they are but few who are sufficiently to the Cause. That they had beat up for Volunteers in the Western part of the County but that only three had Inlisted.
I do hereby certify that the Intelligence I have Communicated to Mr. Sackett that came from Long Island I took from [a] Gent[lema]n whose Truth and Veracity I think be Depended on.
John Davis, Capt. 4th New York Regt.”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
The letter written from General Israel Putnam to British general Sir Henry Clinton on August 4, 1777—the Year of the Hangman. Putnam was merciless toward any British spies he caught; in this instance, he was succinctly replying to Clinton’s plea for clemency for one of his agents.
“Edmond Palmer, an Officer in the Enemy’s Service, Was taken as a Spy lurking within our lines, has been Tried as a Spy, Condemned as a Spy, and Shall be Executed as a Spy, and the Flag is ordered to depart immediately.
I. PUTNAM.
N.B. he has been accordingly Executed.”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
Two pages from Benjamin Tallmadge’s Code Dictionary. On the first page, Tallmadge has written the most important code numbers.
Bolton John 721
Culper Saml. 722
Culper Junr. 723
Austin Roe 724
C. Brewster 725
New York 727
Long Island 728
Setauket 729
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
One of the first coded letters, this one written by the newest member of the Culper Ring, Robert Townsend. Unfamiliar with the system, he makes many elementary mistakes. A portion reads:
“Sorry 626.280 cannot give 707 an exact account 431.625 situation 431.625.635—707.373. think 626.280.249 not taken sufficient pains 634.442.284. I assure 707.626.280.249.190.284 more 146 than 280 expected. It is 282 some measure owing 683[?].379.414 having got 287.1.573 line 431.216 intelligence. To depend 668.80 reports 683.[?].183—I 537.5. conversed 680 two qjjcgilw 431 different 76 from 730 from 419.431 which 280 could 442.2 account 431.625 situation 431.625. army 630. I was afraid 430 being too 526.”
The translation, made by one of Washington’s aides, is:
“Sorry that I cannot give you an exact account of the situation of the troops. You may think that I have not taken sufficient pains to obtain it. I assure you that I have, and find it more difficult than I expected. It is in some measure owing to my not having got into a regular line of getting intelligence. To depend upon common reports would not do. I saw and conversed with two officers of different corps from Kings-bridge from neither of whom I could obtain an account of the situation of the army there. I was afraid of being too particular.”
Townsend’s most obvious error was to transpose such frequently used words as “of,” “that,” and “with” but leave key words (“intelligence” and “army”) in plaintext. But that was more the fault of Tallmadge, who had compiled the Code Dictionary. Note also Tallmadge’s omission of an obviously pertinent word in this context, “officers,” from his Dictionary, which obliged Townsend to transpose “qjjcgilw.”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
An example of an early coded Culper letter, this one dated August 15, 1779, and written by Abraham Woodhull (“722”) to Tallmadge. Woodhull is discussing the courier Jonas Hawkins’s (“Dqpeu Beyocpu”) destruction of a letter when he faced capture by a British patrol, and mentions that the enemy is stopping and searching civilians more often. However, he thinks that “by the assistance of a 355 of my acquaintance”—a female neighbor—he may “be able to out wit them all.” The text reads:
“Sir. Dqpeu Beyocpu agreeable to 28 met 723 not far from 727 & received a 356, but on his return was under the necessity to destroy the same, or be detected, but have the satisfaction to inform you that there’s nothing of 317 to 15 you of. There’s been no augmentation by 592 of 680 or 347 forces, and everything is very quiet. Every 356 is opened at the entrance of 727 and every 371 is searched, that for the future every 356 must be 691 with the 286 received. They have some 345 of t
he route our 356 takes. I judge it was mentioned in the 356 taken or they would not be so 660. I do not think it will continue long so. I intend to visit 727 before long and think by the assistance of a 355 of my acquaintance, shall be able to outwit them all. The next 28 for 725 to be here is the 1 of 616 very long but it cannot be altered now. It is on account of their 660 that it is so prolonged. It may be better times before then. I hope there will be means found out for our deliverance. Nothing could induce me to be here but the earnest desire of 723. Friends are all well, and am your very humble servant, 722”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
Robert Townsend expresses his willingness to come back to work for the Culper Ring. At the time, he was annoyed that Austin Roe, the Culpers’ messenger, had been late for appointments several times. Townsend—“Samuel Culper, Jr.”—sometimes wrote in the guise of a merchant replying to Colonel Floyd’s wholly invented order for food and supplies. In reality, Roe picked up the letter from Townsend in New York and delivered it directly to Abraham Woodhull on Long Island for smuggling across the Sound to Washington’s headquarters. The hapless Col. Floyd knew nothing of his name being used as cover. In this instance, Townsend could not resist a dig at Roe’s tardiness.
“Sir,
New York August 6, 1780
I have recd. yours by Mr. Roe and note the contents. The articles you wanted could not be sent by him as the office was shut before he got down. They shall be sent by next conveyance.
I am, sir,
Your Humble servant,
Samuel Culper, Jun.”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
The one member of the Culper Ring who was never afraid to sign his real name was the whaleboatman Caleb Brewster. In this letter to Tallmadge, written at the height of the Whaleboat War in 1780, Brewster describes his encounter with the notorious Tory freebooters Captains Glover and Hoyt, who prowled the seas around Long Island. While Brewster was picking up a Culper letter at 2 a.m. on August 17, 1780, “I was attacked by Glover and Hoyght. I left one man taken and one wounded. We killed one on the spot.” A few days later, Brewster went over with three boats “in search of Glover and Hoyght, but could hear nothing of them. They never stayed to bury their dead man. They carried another away with them mortally wounded.” Still, the fact that the “cussed [Tory] refugees are so thick I can’t go amiss of them” persuaded Brewster to try his luck once more with the wily Glover and Hoyt, but when he crossed again a week later, they had vanished. Soon after, Glover was in the pay of the British secret service. Brewster would have to bide his time to exact his revenge.
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
The spoiled poem “The Lady’s Dress.” During the Deausenberry fiasco, Townsend’s cousin was frisked by the Americans and was found to be carrying nothing more than two folded sheets of paper, on which were written this poem. Townsend had followed Washington’s directions and written his message invisibly between the lines, but had done so sloppily. When Washington later tried brushing the special chemical developer over the text he rendered it illegible. Judging by where the mess ends, he gave up about two-thirds of the way through. Luckily, or perhaps not, given their dire quality, one or two stanzas remain. The last three lines are, “You may take the dear charmer for life,/But never undress her—for, out of her stays/You’ll find you have lost half your wife.” Townsend was unmarried.
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
The most urgent note Abraham Woodhull ever penned. With the letter from Townsend he sent with it, the Culper Ring helped save Comte de Rochambeau and his newly arrived French troops from a surprise attack by the British at Rhode Island. It had been General Benedict Arnold, then working as a British agent, who had alerted his masters weeks before that “six French ships of the line, several frigates and a number of transports with six thousand troops are expected at Rhode Island.”
“Sir,
The enclosed requires your immediate departure this day by all means let not an hour pass for this day must not be lost you have news of the greatest consequence perhaps that ever happened to your country. John Bolton must order your return when he thinks proper.
S.C.”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
John André, the charming British intelligence officer who managed the Benedict Arnold defection. Women—including Arnold’s wife—thought him the handsomest man in America, but his own fiancée broke off the engagement because he lacked “the reasoning mind she required.”
A lock of André’s hair, snipped off by a rather gruesome collector forty years after his death.
(Photo Credit: Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Yale University)
Sergeant John Champe escapes his pursuers and embarks on his mission to kidnap Benedict Arnold.
(Photo Credit: New York Public Library)
The insolent letter Benedict Arnold sent Tallmadge proposing that he too defect to the British. “As I know you to be a man of sense, I am conscious you are by this time fully of opinion that the real interest and happiness of America consists in a reunion with Great Britain … I have taken a commission in the British Army, and invite you to join me with as many men as you can bring over with you. If you think proper to embrace my offer you shall have the same rank you now hold, in the cavalry I am about to raise.” The letter so disgusted Tallmadge he wasted no time sending it directly to Washington, while noting that “I am equally a stranger to the channel through which it was conveyed … or the motives which induced the Traitor to address himself thus particularly to me.”
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
A detailed map drawn for Comte de Rochambeau in 1781 of Lloyd’s Neck and Fort Franklin—then commanded by Colonel Joshua Upham—based on information brought back by a Culper spy. Between 400 and 500 soldiers guarded the fort, and large numbers of Tory raiders used Lloyd’s Neck as a base. Tallmadge’s daring scheme envisaged simultaneously sweeping Long Island Sound with his flotillas of whaleboats to draw off the Royal Navy while up to 20 skilled pilots would land several hundred of his dragoons. Washington had advised Tallmadge to seek naval support from Rochambeau.
On the top left, one can see 1 “high cliffs,” 2 “salt meadows,” 3 “sand beach,” and 4 “ ’north creek” depicted. Also marked, on the beach, is 5 “an inlet where whale boats & barges may be secreted.” To the lower left, there the 6 “Fort and Block House by ye enemy.” Various houses—mostly belonging to the Lloyd family—are also pictured, as well as roads and ponds.
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division)
For Rebecca and Edmund
It remains a necessary pleasure in life to repay the debts one incurs when writing a book. To that end, I must thank the late William Pencak of Pennsylvania State University for some much-needed advice before I started, as well as Richard Brookhiser, Edwin Burrows, Harry Macy (of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society), John Hammond (the town historian of Oyster Bay), John Catanzariti (the archivist of the Underhill Society of America), Thomas M. Savini (director of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of Grand Lodge in New York), Dennis Barrow of the Fairfield Historical Society, David Smith of the New York Public Library, Mark Lilla, and Kirk Davis Swinehart, Mark Lee, Mark Lamster, and Joseph Kanon—may the Light of Bestsellerdom shine upon thee—for helping out along the way. A special thanks must go to Sarah Abruzzi and Lisa Cuomo at the Raynham Hall Museum for providing not only access to the Townsend Papers but also an invaluable thesis detailing the family’s financial affairs in the eighteenth century.
I would also like to thank the staffs of the New-York Historical Society, the Manuscripts Division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University Library, and the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Yale University, for providing permission to use and cite material held in their collections. The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress—with the support of Reuters America, Inc., and the R
euters Foundation—has digitized the papers of George Washington, an extraordinary resource available freely to all at its website.
The Allen Room at the New York Public Library is a haven for every writer, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have long enjoyed its sanctuary owing to Jay Barksdale, who keeps the place ticking along smoothly. I’m also, of course, immensely thankful for the unparalleled resources of the grand old NYPL, which time and time again reminds me that we all should be grateful to the antiquaries, archivists, librarians, and scholars without whose dedication and diligence our knowledge of the past would be paltry indeed. It is owing solely to them that books like this can be written.
No book would be complete without thanking those who midwifed, nurtured, and raised it. Emma Parry and Christy Fletcher took my initial emailed query to the proposal stage and thence a sale to John Flicker at Bantam Dell. Ryan Doherty, Maggie Oberrender, Lindsey Kennedy, Anne Speyer, and Jonathan Jao at Random House; Eric Lupfer at William Morris Endeavor, and Theresa Beyer, Sarah Carragher, and Kate Mann at AMC have all helped immeasurably in bringing this edition to press at short notice.
I think it would be difficult to overstate my gratitude to, and admiration for, those overseeing the transition of this story to the screen. Barry Josephson and Craig Silverstein have performed genuine miracles in re-creating the lost world of Revolutionary America and bringing the adventures of the Culper Ring to fruition. Without them, their unstinting energy, and their unfailing good humor (and patience for this neophyte), there would be no Turn—quite literally. I must extend enormous thanks, too, to Lauren Whitney at WME for seeing potential in the book, as well as to Charlie Collier, Joel Stillerman, Susie Fitzgerald, Benjamin Davis, Brian Bockrath, Jason Gold, and everyone else at AMC who took a gamble on the show and saw it through. Rupert Wyatt and the cast—Jamie Bell, Seth Numrich, Heather Lind, Burn Gorman, Daniel Henshall, Samuel Roukin, JJ Feild, Angus Macfadyen, and Kevin McNally—have all done marvelous jobs of breathing life and suffusing soul into characters once found only on the page. Everyone in the Turn writers’ room—Andrew Colville, Aïda Mashaka Croal, Elizabeth Friz, LaToya Morgan, and Michael Taylor, in particular—has been wonderfully imaginative in placing those characters in some unenviable predicaments throughout a succession of fantastic scripts. It’s been a pleasure working with them.