Washington's Spies

by Alexander Rose

  14. On André’s codes, see J. Bakeless, Turncoats, traitors and heroes: Espionage in the American Revolution (New York, 1959), pp. 269–70. On the use of “Gustavus,” see letter, Stansbury to André, July 11, 1779, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 16, p. 449; on “Monk,” see letter, André to Stansbury, May 10, 1779, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 1, p. 439.

  15. See letters, Arnold to André, August 30, 1780, no. 52, p. 470; and André to Joseph Stansbury, May 10, 1779, no. 1, p. 440, both in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix.

  16. See, for instance, memorandum by General Knyphausen, May 1780, no. 29, p. 459; and letter, Arnold to André, July 11, 1780, no. 37, pp. 462–63, both in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix.

  17. Letter, André to Arnold, undated, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 13, pp. 446–47. In the event, this particular letter was never sent, but its contents were intimated to Arnold on several other occasions.

  18. Letter, André to Arnold, July 24, 1780, Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 43, p. 466.

  19. See, among others, letters, Arnold to André, July 15, 1780, no. 40, pp. 464–65; Odell to Stansbury, July 24, 1780, no. 42, pp. 465–66; André to Arnold, July 24, 1780, no. 43, p. 466, all in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix. Also, Hatch, p. 231.

  20. Letter, Arnold to André, September 15, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 58, p. 473.

  21. Letter, Robinson to Clinton, September 24, 1780, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 61, pp. 474–75. See also, “Clinton’s narrative,” October 11, 1780, which was included in a package to Lord George Germain, printed in full in Van Doren, Appendix, p. 485.

  22. Quoted in Amory, “John André, case officer,” Studies in Intelligence, p. A8. See H. B. Dawson (ed.), Record of the trial of Joshua Hett Smith, Esq., for alleged complicity in the treason of Benedict Arnold, 1780 (Morrisania, N.Y., 1866).

  23. Letter, Robinson to Clinton, September 24, 1780, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 61, pp. 474–75.

  24. Van Doren, Secret history, pp. 338–39. J. Judd, “Westchester County,” in J. S. Tiedemann and E. R. Fingerhut (eds.), The other New York: The American Revolution beyond New York City, 1763–1787 (Albany, 2005), p. 119; C. S. Crary, “Guerrilla activities of James DeLancey’s Cowboys in Westchester County: Conventional warfare or self-interested freebooting?” pp. 14–24, in R. A. East and J. Judd (eds.), The Loyalist Americans: A focus on greater New York (Tarrytown, N. Y., 1975).

  25. Rosenberg, The neutral ground, pp. 35–39; Amory, “John André, case officer,” Studies in Intelligence, pp. A8–9.

  26. Rosenberg, The neutral ground, pp. 41–44.

  27. Van Doren, Secret history, p. 341.

  28. Letter, Arnold to Tallmadge, September 13, 1780. Van Doren, Secret history, p. 311, cites a “Mr. John Anderson” in this letter, but in the original in the Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, it is rendered James Anderson.

  29. Letter, Tallmadge to Arnold, September 21, 1780.

  30. Accounts differ as to whether Tallmadge was present: Jameson says he was; Tallmadge says he arrived later and missed the conference. Thus, according to a letter, Jameson to Washington, September 27, 1780, he “mentioned my intention to Major Tallmadge and some others of the field officers, all of whom were clearly of opinion that it would be right, until I could hear from your Excellency” to write to Arnold about the capture of André. But Tallmadge’s Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge (New York, 1858; rep. 1968), pp. 35–36, states that he arrived late in the evening to find that the letter had already been sent.

  31. Letter, Jameson to Arnold, September 23, 1780, in “Clinton’s narrative,” no. 76, Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, p. 486. On the name of the junior officer, see J. E. Walsh, The execution of Major André (New York, 2001), p. 116.

  32. Tallmadge, Memoir, pp. 35–36.

  33. Walsh, Execution of Major André, p. 123.

  34. Tallmadge, Memoir, p. 36.

  35. Letter, André to Washington, September 24, 1780.

  36. Tallmadge, Memoir, p. 36.

  37. Letter, Tallmadge to S. B. Webb, September 30, 1780, in W. C. Ford (ed.), Correspondence and journals of Samuel Blachley Webb (New York, 3 vols., 1839–94), II, pp. 293–97.

  38. Letter, Tallmadge to Sparks, February 17, 1834, printed as a footnote in Hastings and Holden (eds.), Public papers of George Clinton, VI, pp. 263–64.

  39. Tallmadge also makes no mention of this anecdote in his earlier Memoir, p. 37, where he restricts himself to saying that he “escorted the prisoner to Head-Quarters.” At the time of Tallmadge’s letter to Sparks, the potency of the Nathan Hale legend had reached its zenith, which certainly affected Tallmadge’s recollection of his conversation with André.

  40. Letter, Hamilton to Clinton, September 30, 1780, in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, no. 63, p. 476.

  41. Letters, Clinton to his sisters, October 4 and 9, 1780, no. 67, Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, pp. 477–80; Arnold to Washington, October 1, 1780, no. 86, “Clinton’s narrative,” in Van Doren, Appendix, p. 491.

  42. Letter, Clinton to Washington, October 9, 1780, no. 90, “Clinton’s narrative,” in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix, pp. 494–95.

  43. This section on Smith is based on W. B. McGroarty, “Sergeant John Champe and certain of his contemporaries,” William and Mary Quarterly, XVII (1937), 2, pp. 172–74.

  44. “Proceedings against John L. André as a spy, by Continental Army Board of General Officers,” September 29, 1780, Washington Papers; Letter, Tallmadge to Sparks, November 16, 1833, printed as a footnote in Hastings and Holden (eds.), Public papers of George Clinton, VI, p. 259.

  45. On the historicity of hanging for spies, see Rosenberg, The neutral ground, pp. 12–13. A 1643 text used by the British was the Laws and Ordinances of Warre, established for the better conduct of the army, which stated that “whosoever shall come from the enemy with a trumpet or drum [or a flag of truce], after the custom of war, within the quarters of the army or a garrison town, shall be hanged as a spy.” Rosenberg points out that the “document says nothing about defining the status of a spy,” and in André’s case, there were several counterarguments the Board of General Officers took into consideration but ultimately rejected. These were, among others, that André had been caught out of uniform owing to extraordinary circumstances and wearing civilian clothing against his desire, that he had proceeded upriver under a flag aboard the Vulture, and that he had been captured between enemy lines—in “the neutral ground”—and not within American-held territory. Against these defenses was raised the objection that André was traveling in a “disguised habit” under a “feigned name” and carrying incriminating papers given to him by an infamous traitor. Had Washington been in a giving vein, or the circumstances less politically charged, there was probably sufficient gray area to commute the death sentence. For the official British view of the trial and hanging of André, see letters, Clinton to an unknown friend in England, October 1780, in no. 66, p. 477; and Clinton to his sisters, October 4 and 9, 1780, no. 67, pp. 477–80 (where he says that Washington “has committed premeditated murder [and] must answer for the dreadfull consequences,” all in Van Doren, Secret history, Appendix). For Washington’s considered view, see letter, Washington to Clinton, September 30, 1780, in “Clinton’s narrative,” no. 81, Van Doren, Appendix, pp. 487–8.

  46. Tallmadge, Memoir, p. 38.

  47. Quoted in Hall, Tallmadge, p. 63.

  48. Quoted in Walsh, Execution of Major André, p. 144.

  49. Letter, Washington to Rochambeau, October 10, 1780.

  50. Letter, Tallmadge to Webb, September 30, 1780, in Ford (ed.), Correspondence and journals of Samuel Blachley Webb, II, pp. 293–97.

  Chapter Eight: Spyhunters and Whaleboatmen

  1. See M.J.P.R.Y.G.M. Lafayette, Memoirs, correspondence and manuscripts of General Lafayette (London, 3 vols., 1837), I, p. 254; C. Van Doren, Secret history of the American Revolution (New Y
ork, 1941), pp. 287–88.

  2. Letter, Arnold to Howe, August 5, 1780.

  3. Letters, Howe to Arnold, August 14 and 16, 1780.

  4. For background on Hunter, see J. Bakeless, Turncoats, traitors, and heroes: Espionage in the American Revolution (New York, 1959), pp. 241–43.

  5. T. Jones, (ed. E. F. De Lancey), History of New York during the Revolutionary War, and of the leading events in the other colonies at that period (New York, 2 vols., 1879), I, p. 382.

  6. Letter, Tallmadge to Heath, October 10, 1780, in “Letters and papers of General William Heath,” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 7th ser., V, Part III, pp. 111–13.

  7. Letter, Tallmadge to Sparks, February 17, 1834, printed as a footnote in H. Hastings and J. A. Holden (eds.), Public papers of George Clinton, first governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804 (Albany, 10 vols., 1899–1914), VI, p. 262.

  8. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, October 2 and 3, 1780.

  9. Letters, Tallmadge to Washington, October 11, 1780.

  10. Letter, Townsend to Tallmadge, October 14, 1780.

  11. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, October 14, 1780.

  12. Letter, Townsend to Tallmadge, October 14, 1780.

  13. Letter, Washington to Lee, October 13, 1780, printed in H. Lee, Memoirs of the war in the southern department of the United States (New York, 1869 ed.), p. 407.

  14. See a contemporary description of Champe in W. C. Hall, “Sergeant Champe’s adventure,” William and Mary Quarterly, XVIII (1938), 3, p. 327; W. B. McGroarty, “Sergeant John Champe and certain of his contemporaries,” William and Mary Quarterly, XVII (1937), 2, p. 155.

  15. Hall, “Sergeant Champe’s adventure,” William and Mary Quarterly, p. 334.

  16. McGroarty, “Sergeant John Champe,” William and Mary Quarterly, pp. 152–53.

  17. Lee, Memoirs, p. 396.

  18. Letter, Washington to Lee, October 20, 1780.

  19. This section is based on the accounts in McGroarty, “Sergeant John Champe,” William and Mary Quarterly, pp. 145–75; Hall, “Sergeant Champe’s adventure,” William and Mary Quarterly, pp. 322–42; Lee, Memoirs of the war, pp. 394–411.

  20. Cameron’s diary would first emerge in the United Service Journal of December 1834, where it was promptly forgotten. It turned up again in the William and Mary Quarterly, which published it in its entirety in July 1938 (Hall, “Sergeant Champe’s adventure”). While Cameron’s account of his meeting with Champe is sound, some caution is required when reading his suspiciously detailed version of Champe’s story. As shown by McGroarty, “Captain Cameron and Sergeant Champe,” William and Mary Quarterly, XIX (1939), 1, pp. 49–54, Cameron cribbed large portions from Lee’s Memoirs. As a result, both Lee and Cameron make the identical error of saying that Champe departed for New York in late September—that is, before André’s execution—whereas the idea of kidnapping Arnold first occurred to Washington in mid-October, roughly two weeks after André’s death. Lee’s motive for confusing the dates may be ascribed to either faulty memory or an attempt to present the Arnold kidnapping plot—which some might have seen as a dishonorable or illegal tactic on Washington’s part—as an attempt to save André’s life. Once Washington had Arnold, so the story goes, he would have virtuously returned André to Clinton. McGroarty, in “Sergeant John Champe and certain of his contemporaries,” restores the correct chronology.

  21. McGroarty, “Sergeant John Champe,” William and Mary Quarterly, esp. p. 164.

  22. Letter, Washington to Congress, October 15, 1780.

  23. Letter, Washington to Tallmadge, October 17, 1780.

  24. Letters, Woodhull to Tallmadge, October 26, 1780, and November 12, 1780.

  25. J. Baldwin and G. Rossano, Clan and commerce: The Townsend family of Oyster Bay (available only at the Raynham Hall Museum), p. 79.

  26. M. J. O’Brien, Hercules Mulligan: Confidential correspondent of General Washington (New York, 1937), pp. 41–42.

  27. R. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York, 2004), pp. 29–41, has a good account of Hamilton’s time in the West Indies and his business experience there.

  28. “In the evenings,” recalled Mulligan fondly in his seventies, “Mr H” sat “with my family and my brother’s family and write dogerel [sic] rhymes for their amusement he was all ways amiable and cheerful and extremely attentive to his books.” Some years later, “he evinced his gratitude for the attentions of my brother & myself by his attentions to us through life & by taking one of my sons to study Law without charging the least compensation.” “Narrative of Hercules Mulligan,” reprinted in O’Brien, Hercules Mulligan, Appendix III, pp. 181–84.

  29. O’Brien, Hercules Mulligan, pp. 33–34.

  30. O’Brien, Hercules Mulligan, p. 38.

  31. Indeed, Washington, who could be starchy about observing the social hierarchy, hardly regarded Mulligan as unutterably gauche. Even so, one grinding snob of the late nineteenth century scribbled, on the back of one of Mulligan’s bills to Andrew Eliot, the complaint that “he is made out to be a member of an important [West Indian] merchant but on this bill we see him the vulgar tradesman.” Andrew Eliot Papers, Miscellaneous MSS E. folder, at the New-York Historical Society.

  32. O’Brien, Hercules Mulligan, pp. 49, 87.

  33. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, August 12, 1779.

  34. Townsend certainly knew Mulligan. Among the family’s papers at the New-York Historical Society there is a receipt from Mulligan, dated February 24, 1783, acknowledging payment for “Making a coat” (£1.14.0), plus “pockets & sleve linings” and “1 dozen of buttons” for about 11 shillings. Receipt, in 1783 Folder, Townsend Family Papers, New-York Historical Society.

  35. Cited in O’Brien, Hercules Mulligan, p. 95.

  36. Letter, Tallmadge to Washington, August 1, 1780.

  37. Letter, Tallmadge to Washington, October 11, 1780.

  38. Letter, Brewster to Tallmadge, February 14, 1781.

  39. C. B. Todd, “Whale-boat privateersmen of the Revolution,” Magazine of American History, VIII (1882), p. 169.

  40. J. F. Collins, “Whaleboat warfare on Long Island Sound,” New York History, XXV (1944), no. 2, p. 197; E. N. Danenberg, Naval history of the Fairfield County men in the Revolution (Fairfield, Conn., 1977), p. 44. I am indebted to Dennis Barrow, librarian of the Fairfield Historical Society, for providing a copy of this invaluable book.

  41. B. F. Thompson (ed. C. J. Werner), History of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time (New York, 3 vols., 3rd ed., 1918; orig. 1839), I, p. 316.

  42. Todd, “Whale-boat privateersmen,” p. 180.

  43. F. G. Mather (ed.), The refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (Albany, 1913), p. 220.

  44. On Meigs and the raid, see Thomas Jones, the Loyalist judge, in his (edited by E. F. De Lancey) History of New York, I, pp. 180–82. Collins, “Whaleboat warfare,” pp. 197–98; and Thompson, History of Long Island, I, pp. 304–5, differ in a few minor details from Jones’s account of the raid. Meigs was later made Postmaster General under President Madison.

  45. Collins, “Whaleboat warfare,” p. 199.

  46. C. E. Nelson, “Privateering by Long Islanders in the American Revolution,” Journal of Long Island History, XI (1974), no. 1, pp. 27–28.

  47. Quoted in Thompson, History of Long Island, I, p. 314.

  48. As recounted in Jones (ed. De Lancey), History of New York, II, note XLII, pp. 565–67.

  49. J. G. Simcoe, Simcoe’s military journal: A history of the operations of a partisan corps, called the Queen’s Rangers, commanded by Lieut. Col. J.G. Simcoe, during the war of the American Revolution; now first published, with a memoir of the author and other additions (New York, 1844 ed.), p. 100.

  50. On this affair, see H. Onderdonk (ed.), Revolutionary incidents of Suffolk and Kings counties, with an account of the battle of Long Island, and the British prisons and prison-ships (New York, 1849), pp. 94–95.

  51. Mather, Refugees of 1776, p. 206
.

  52. Jones (ed. De Lancey), History of New York, II, Note XLII, pp. 568–69; Todd, “Whale-boat privateersmen,” pp. 173–74.

  53. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, June 4, 1781.

  54. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, June 20, 1779.

  55. Letter, Brewster to George Clinton, August 20, 1781, in H. Hastings and J. A. Holden (eds.), Public papers of George Clinton, first governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804 (Albany, 10 vols., 1899–1914), VII, pp. 233–34.

  56. For the petition, see Mather, Refugees of 1776, p. 205.

  57. Letter, Tallmadge to Washington, November 1, 1779.

  58. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, September 19, 1779.

  59. On Dayton, see Nelson, “Privateering by Long Islanders,” pp. 30–33; “Patriot peddler,” an address by Hervey Garrett Smith to the Long Island Forum, April 1975, reproduced at http://www.​longwood.​k12.​ny.​us/​history/​bio/​edayton.​htm; and Pennypacker, George Washington’s spies, p. 254n.

  60. Letter, Washington to Tallmadge, November 2, 1779.

  61. See, for instance, letter, Clinton to Trumbull, August 20, 1781, Hastings and Holden (eds.), Public papers of George Clinton, VII, no. 3918, pp. 234–35.

  62. Mather, Refugees of 1776, p. 208. See also Hastings and Holden (eds.), Public papers of George Clinton, VI, pp. 778–79, 803–04.

  63. Letter, Brewster to Tallmadge, August 18, 1780.

  64. Letters, Brewster to Tallmadge, August 21 and 27, 1780.

  65. Letter, Brewster to Tallmadge, August 27, 1780.

  66. Letter, Brewster to Tallmadge, February 14, 1781.

  67. Letter, Washington to Brewster, February 23, 1781.

  68. B. G. Loescher, Washington’s eyes: The Continental Light Dragoons (Fort Collins, Colo., 1977), pp. 43–44; Collins, “Whaleboat warfare,” p. 196.

  69. Letter, Woodhull to Tallmadge, July 9, 1779.

  70. Mather, Refugees of 1776, p. 219.

  71. B. Tallmadge, Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge (New York, 1858; rep. 1968), pp. 32–33; Loescher, Washington’s eyes, pp. 43–44.