by Jeff Steinberg –
Major George Beckwith was the deputy chief of British Intelligence in North America during the final years of the American Revolution. He summarized the American victory in these words: “Washington did not really outfight the British, he merely outspied us.”
Beckwith was correct. It would take volumes to fully catalog the spy wars that took place in the dark corners of the battle for American independence. Below we merely highlight the espionage successes that enabled key Continental Army victories in the most significant and well-known battles of the American Revolution.
As reported in Part 1, George Washington placed priority on espionage from the moment he took charge of the Continental Army. While assigning Col. Benjamin Tallmadge to recruit a spy ring in the heart of British-controlled North America—the greater New York City area extending into Long Island—Washington was simultaneously creating his own network of spies and double agents who reported personally to him.
One of Washington’s earliest recruits was a butcher named John Honeyman, a resident of Trenton, New Jersey. Under Washington’s instructions, Honeyman posed as a devout Tory loyalist and became a trusted supplier of meats to the Hessian and British troops occupying the central part of New Jersey.
In December 1776, as Washington’s army was facing a bleak winter after losing a string of battles, Washington put out an order for the arrest of Honeyman. He was to be brought directly to Washington who would personally conduct the interrogation. Honeyman was captured, “interrogated” by Washington and later managed to escape back to Trenton. The British and Hessians celebrated his return and debriefed him on what he saw in Washington’s camp.
Honeyman told the Hessians that Washington’s forces were exhausted, demoralized, and poorly armed. There was no chance of any American attack on the Hessian camp. The Germans could celebrate Christmas without risk.
Honeyman’s ruse was key to Washington’s now famous attack across the Delaware River. The Hessians were literally caught sleeping off their Christmas celebration. Washington scored his first significant victory of the Revolution, the Hessians and British were forced to flee from Trenton, and American patriots retook control.
Shortly after the Washington surprise victory, a group of patriots stormed Honeyman’s house seeking revenge against the man they had seen as a Tory traitor and British collaborator. John Honeyman was not at home, but his wife came to the door and produced a handwritten letter signed by George Washington, ordering no harm to come to Honeyman and his family.
Washington had recruited Honeyman as his secret agent in 1775.
Saratoga
The victory of the Continental Army under General Horatio Gates in the battle of Saratoga, fought between September 19 and October 7, 1777, was a turning point in the American Revolution. The decisive victory over British General John Burgoyne by the Continental Army forces under Gates and General Benedict Arnold was the first clear demonstration that the British could be defeated. In early 1778, France formally joined the war against Britain, convinced of ultimate American victory against France’s greatest European rival.
When Gates took charge of the Northern Army, he went to the local Committee of Safety in Saratoga County, seeking a scout who could penetrate the British lines and obtain intelligence on Burgoyne’s plans. Without hesitation, the Committee named Alexander Bryan, a local innkeeper who was known to the Committee as a fierce patriot but a sophisticated agent who had convinced local British commanders and Tories that he was a Loyalist. Bryan was born in Connecticut but migrated to New York and married into the prominent Tallmadge family. His inn at the juncture of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers was frequented by both Patriot and Loyalist troops.
In early September 1777, Bryan penetrated the British command center at Fort Ticonderoga, obtaining critical intelligence and observing British forces as they were preparing to launch an assault on the Continental Army from across the Hudson River. Bryan delivered the critical intelligence to Gates, which enabled the Continental Army forces to prepare for the British attack. Burgoyne had expected his Army to be joined by other British forces coming from the north and south, but that never materialized. Burgoyne’s forces suffered heavy casualties in a series of battles and were ultimately surrounded and Burgoyne surrendered to Gates. It was the most significant defeat of the British up to that point and was made possible by the timely and precise intelligence from Alexander Bryan.
In his account of the Saratoga victory, Gates neglected to mention the role of Bryan. But the local Committee of Safety was fully aware of Bryan’s extraordinary contribution, and decades later, Bryan’s family was petitioning Bryan’s recognition and compensation from the government for his service against Burgoyne.
Washington’s Other Spies
Several other spies, personally recruited and “run” by George Washington were sources of vital intelligence on British plans, order of battle, and morale. In addition to Col. Tallmadge’s Culper Ring in Manhattan and on Long Island, Washington had other agents infiltrated into British and Tory society in New York.
One of the most prominent and successful of Washington’s agents was Hercules Mulligan, an Irish-born American patriot who was an early mentor of Alexander Hamilton when Hamilton first arrived in New York. Mulligan housed Hamilton for a period of time and was a strong influence in shaping Hamilton’s revolutionary zeal. Mulligan had joined the Sons of Liberty in 1765 and later served on the secret New York Committee of Correspondence. A graduate of Kings College (now Columbia University), Mulligan established a successful clothing shop in Manhattan, catering to wealthy Tory families and British officers.
Hamilton personally recommended Mulligan to Washington as a trusted secret agent when he was brought on as the General’s aide-de-camp. On two occasions, Mulligan obtained critical intelligence about British assassination plots against Washington, saving his life. Mulligan’s slave Cato was the courier for Mulligan’s intelligence to Washington, taking advantage of the ability of slaves to move freely across the lines.
Following the British abandonment of Manhattan toward the end of the Revolution, patriots initially sought to prosecute Mulligan as a Tory sympathizer, but Washington intervened. Following the victory, Mulligan joined with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in founding the New York Manumission Society, promoting the abolition of slavery.
Another of Washington’s spies in New York was a Polish-born Sephardic Jew named Haym Salomon. A gifted European-trained financial manager, Salomon migrated to New York City from Europe and soon after joined the New York Sons of Liberty. Salomon was arrested by the British in 1776 on espionage charges. He spent 18 months on a British prison ship in New York harbor, where his German language skills were put to use by the British as a translator for the Hessian troops. While in prison, he arranged escapes of American prisoners of war, recruited defectors from the British Army, and obtained critical intelligence about the British naval presence and plans. He was eventually pardoned and resumed his espionage work in collaboration with Washington’s other trusted spies, Hercules Mulligan and Cato.
Salomon was arrested again by the British in 1778 as a spy and sentenced to death. He escaped to Philadelphia and went on to play a prominent role as assistant to Robert Morris, who was named as Superintendent of Finance of the United States in 1782.
As Robert Morris’ trusted broker, he converted French and Dutch loans and advanced personal funds- including $20,000 for George Washington to cover the costs of Washington’s advance from New York to Yorktown to secure the surrender of General Cornwallis.
Yorktown: The Biggest Intelligence Coup by the Americans
The most successful intelligence coup of the American Revolution produced the victory at Yorktown. British General Charles Cornwallis was encircled at Yorktown by September 28, 1781, but was convinced by an American deception and infiltration operation that the American forces were too weak to attack, and as the result, he fatally decided not to retreat to a safer position when the option existed.
The deception agent was a slave named James Armistead, a secret agent of General Lafayette, who infiltrated the British camp under the guise of being a runaway slave who had critical intelligence on the American force disposition. It was Armistead who gained the confidence of both Cornwallis and the traitor Benedict Arnold, who portrayed the American forces as weak and disorganized. He confirmed through his infiltration of the British ranks at Yorktown that Cornwallis was convinced that George Washington’s forces were planning a siege of New York, when in fact they were racing south to join Lafayette and the Comte de Rochambeau. Cornwallis was also convinced that the French naval forces remained in the Caribbean, when they were moving toward Yorktown to seal off a British escape by sea.
In the New York area, Washington ran a separate deception operation, building fortifications outside the city to convince British Commander General Henry Clinton that he was planning to attack New York. Washington would later observe that “if we do not deceive our own men, we can never deceive the enemy.” Some of Washington’s own troops were convinced they were preparing an assault on New York, even as Washington was moving 9,000 troops under his command to meet up with Lafayette at Yorktown.
The Culper Ring in Manhattan arranged to plant disinformation documents that were “discovered” by Tory spies, reaffirming Washington’s imminent planned attack on the city.
In addition to that critical disinformation role by the Culper Ring, Washington’s top espionage lieutenant Benjamin Tallmadge had led the effort by the Culper Ring to obtain the British naval codes and crack them. Tallmadge worked along with James Lovell, a member of the Continental Congress and America’s top code breaker. They were able to provide the British naval codes to French Admiral de Grasse, who defeated the British navy off the coast of Yorktown in the Battle of the Capes. The British ships that survived the battle were forced to flee to New York, completing the encirclement of Cornwallis and his October 19,1781 surrender to Washington, effectively sealing the British defeat in the American Revolution.
When Washington Publicly Wept
One of the early heroes of the Revolutionary War was General Benedict Arnold, who led the forces that took over Fort Ticonderoga and secured the vital victory at Saratoga. But Arnold was injured in combat, stifling his advancement. Assigned to command Philadelphia after the British abandoned the city, Arnold married into a prominent Tory family. The social demands of upper crust Philadelphia led to bankruptcy, further fueling his resentments. In May 1780, Arnold began secret correspondence with British General Henry Clinton, offering his services. Months later, Arnold was transferred to take command of the vital fort at West Point on the Hudson River. In exchange for a promise of 20,000 pounds and a commission in the British Army, Arnold plotted to turn over West Point to the British, a move that would have cut New England off from the rest of the Union and dealt a potentially fatal blow to the American cause.
On September 21, 1780, Arnold met secretly with Major John Andre, then the head of British secret intelligence operations in North America, who Arnold had come to know through his wife. They met on board the HMS Vulture on the Hudson River. Andre had opposed the face-to-face meeting, but Arnold insisted. Arnold also had insisted that Andre, disguised as a businessman carrying a signed travel pass from Arnold, carry back to New York a map of the West Point fort to prove his commitment to the treachery. Andre was captured near Tarrytown, New York as he was working his way back to Manhattan. Although he insisted on being turned over to Arnold, Benjamin Tallmadge got word of the arrest and ordered Andre to be turned over to him. Andre was convicted of espionage and executed at Tarrytown on October 2, 1780.
It was reported that when George Washington got word of Arnold’s treason, he wept in front of some of his officers. It never happened before and would never happen again.
Part 3 will cover the international espionage/diplomacy of the Americans that was instrumental in the victory of the Revolution.
