Culper Ring

This article is about the historical spy ring. For the fictional spy ring from Y: The Last Man, see Culper Ring (comics).

The Culper Ring was a spy ring organized by Major Benjamin Tallmadge under the orders of General George Washington in the summer of 1778. Their name was derived from the alias' taken by two of its main members, Samuel Culper, Sr. and Samuel Culper, Jr. The Ring's task was to send messages to General George Washington about the activities of the British in New York. They operated mostly in New York, Long Island and Connecticut. The Ring conducted covert operations until after the end of the American Revolutionary War. Though its heyday was between 1778 and 1781, some believe it may still be in existence today. They were the pre-cursor of the CIA and OSS.

After the battle of Monmouth in late June of 1778, British forces under General Sir Henry Clinton retreated to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. From there, they took a ship for New York, New York, which they had already occupied for almost two years (since General Washington's defeat at the Battle of Fort Washington in September 1776). General Washington was well aware of the need for good intelligence and he asked one of his officers, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, to recruit people who could be trusted to collect it in New York City.

Secrecy was so strict that Washington himself did not know the identity of all the operatives. The general public was not aware of their existence until the 1930s. "Culper Junior’s" identity was discovered in 1939, with the discovery of a trunk of old letters in the Townsend family home. Historian Morton Pennypacker noticed the resemblance in the handwriting of in these letters and letters written by Robert Townsend in George Washington's collection. Among the techniques they used to relay messages included coded messages published in newspapers and developing a method of using invisible ink to write between the lines of what appeared to be a typical letter. The invisible ink methods are still in use by the CIA today. Women were also an integral part of the Culper Ring. At this time in history, women were supposed to believe as their husbands and not to be involved in politics. For this reason, they would not be suspected of being spies.

Tallmadge enlisted the services of many private citizens, including:

1. Abraham Woodhull, a farmer from Setauket (a village on Long Island's north coast)

2. Robert Townsend, a merchant in Manhattan who agreed to supply much of the information

3. A Setauket tavern keeper named Austin Roe who served as the courier.

4. Jonas Hawkins also served in this role for a short time.

5. James Rivington, in the capacity of "The King's Printer" published a newspaper known as the Royal Gazette which was considered to be a pro-British newspaper. He published articles with the intent of getting information about the British to George Washington. He also obtained a copy of the Royal Navy's signal book, which was instrumental in the French fleet's defense against the British in its attempts to send additional troops to assist General Cornwallis at Yorktown.

6. BrothersPhillips Roe, Nathaniel Roe along with their cousin Austin Roe helped to deliver messages from New York City to Long Island, which at the time had only 5 houses at the time. These messages were then picked up by Captain Caleb Brewster, a whaleboatman and some of his men.

7. Lieutenant Lewis Costigen

8. James Townsend, cousin of Robert Townsend

9. Joseph Lawrence

10. Sarah Townsend, sister of Robert Townsend

11. Hercules Mulligan, a prominent tailor.

Once Townsend’s reports reached Setauket, Caleb Brewster and his men ferried it across Long Island Sound where Tallmadge’s dragoons were waiting to carry it to Washington’s headquarters. Brewster was in New York, New York years earlier when the British had caught Nathan Hale with drawings of their fortifications and hanged him. Perhaps with Hale in mind, Washington made sure that the Culper Ring spies had more support. Through Tallmadge, he provided them with codes, dead drops, and aliases. Members were given code names. For example, George Washington's code was 711.

Anna Strong was a resident of Long Island, New York. She helped pass along messages from the spy ring, by posting pre-arranged signals to indicate when one of the spies was ready to submit intelligence data. If Strong hung a black petticoat on her clothesline, it meant that Brewster had arrived in town in his whaleboat. Next to that she would hang a quantity of white handkerchiefs. The specific number of handkerchiefs indicated one of six hiding places where Brewster might be located. Abraham Woodhull, another local resident, used Strong's signals to go meet Brewster at one of the meeting-places.

Woodhull was known in dispatches as Samuel Culper Sr., and Townsend was referred to as Samuel Culper Jr. Townsend's role was finally determined in 1939 by handwriting analysis and has since been confirmed by other evidence.

The British felt that if they could capture West Point they could cut of the American supplies. The American's actually had a large chain across the river from Constitution Island to the shore near West Point to prevent ships from sailing up the river. The only way to get passed, was for someone to unlock the chain. The key was kept by the commanding officer at West Point, General Benedict Arnold. Arnold became disgruntled with the American cause and had enough at the point when he had not been paid for 7 years. He devised a plot to sell West Point to the British for 20,000 pounds. This plot was discovered by the Culper Ring. The information was relayed to Washington, but Arnold also caught word that his plot had been discovered and he fled down the Hudson River to the British. He attempted to round up the members of the Culper Ring, but only succeeded in capturing some of them.

One of those who allegedly aided the Culper Ring was an operative known only as “355,” the group’s code for “lady.” Some historians believe that she was the only member of the ring arrested by the British and hanged as a spy. Others claim that she was a prisoner aboard the British hulk, The Jersey, and gave birth to Robert Townsend's illegitimate child, though that part of the story has been discredited. Robert Townsend did allegedly father a child by another woman after 355's death.

Nathan Hale and Tallmadge were close friends at Yale, and Tallmadge's entry into the secret world was not accidental, nor did it begin with the Culper Ring in 1778. As early as 1777, Tallmadge acted as the operative John Clark's contact in Connecticut when Clark was based on Long Island. Before that, he worked for the spymaster Nathaniel Sackett, who was later fired.

In fiction

One of the main characters in the comic book Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, is an agent of the modern day Culper Ring. In a direct reference to the historical Culper Ring, the agent is only known by her code name, 355. In the world of Y, the Culper ring has existed ever since the American Revolution as a secret spy ring under the direct command of the President. A group of rogue Culper agents, who split off from the group in 1977, are known as the Setauket Ring, after the town in New York where the historical Culper ring was originally formed. One of 355's closest associates in the Culper Ring is "Agent 711"; in response to a joke from Yorick Brown, 355 states that 711 was originally George Washington's codename in the historical Culper Ring (this information has been verified in Brad Meltzer's Decoded January 20, 2011), and that the modern Ring conferred the number on her as a badge of heroism.

In the BBC drama Spooks, Series 2 Episode 900231, Tom Quinn takes on the identity of a student named John Culper at the University of West Midlands.

Culper Ring is the name of an experimental music project on Neurot Recordings which includes Steve Von Till, a guitarist and vocalist for the long-running Bay Area experimental metal band Neurosis.

The novel Shadow Patriots, by Lucia St. Clair Robson, tells the story of the Culpers and Spy 355.

The Culper Ring was mentioned in the Chuck episode "Chuck Versus The Fat Lady", in reference to espionage methods.

Brad Meltzer's novel The Inner Circle also features the Culper Ring.

References

• Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring, by Alexander Rose (Bantam Dell, May 2006).

External links

• Long Island's Spy Chain
• Setauket - Spy Ring Foils the British
• Spy Networks: The Culper Gang
• Three Village Historical Society Setauket Spy Ring Web Article