Washington's Spies. The Story of America's First Spy Ring

🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

This is a book that takes the human stories of living life during the revolutionary war. It shows how America´s first real spy ring was formed and how they used deception, cunning, and wit to deliver intelligence. It also gives insights into the motivations of the people who choose to rebel against the British or to preserve the British empire in the colonies.

🎨 Impressions

Quite an interesting book, much to be learned by reading it. I especially liked how the nature of the situation affected each character. From the money issues of Woodhull to the fear of being caught by Townsend. It all gives good insight into how people during that time thought and how their worldview was formed. It is also very cool to get a bit more insight into each of the characters the book is about and how they wrote and their political views and how they were shaped by their upbringing.
Also, I thought that one of the spies could not help himself but brining his personal opinions in his reports, like how the British soon would leave (in like 1780, 5 years before the war was over). It really adds a human flair into the stories.

How I Discovered It

I watched the TV series turn which was quite good and that in addition to the book 1776 made me want to read the book.

Who Should Read It?

Those who are interested in the stories behind historic events and the human aspect.

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

It really astonished me how little the stamp tax actually was in comparison to the losses of the British in terms of money spent on the war. They were really minuscule. Another thing is how much thought money was and how the spies were really concerned about it in addition to how much they spent.

✍️ My Top Quotes

• On September 8, Washington requested Governor Jonathan Trumbull to send his new Connecticut regiments, and within two weeks, Hale was on the march. From his diary—albeit abbreviated, and hurriedly jotted down—we know that the Seventh marched to Providence, then through Massachusetts to Cambridge, headquarters of the American forces surrounding Boston, where they had Gage and his forces bottled up. Once there, the regiment was assigned to General John Sullivan’s brigade at Winter Hill; Hale was promoted to captain-lieutenant, and signed up for another contract of service for 1776 at a time when many refused to reenlist when their terms were up. His regiment was then renamed the “Nineteenth Foot in the service of the United Colonies,” as part of Washington’s effort to mold his gaggle of

• He resembled, in a way, a modern Jew who eats pork but strongly identifies with humanistic Judaism, or a secular Catholic who, much to his dismay, can’t help but perceive the world in terms of sin, confession, and good works.

• Aside from the tardiness of his correspondence, two tics, both of them irritating to Washington, characterized Woodhull’s letters. First, he liked to add his personal views. So, for instance, in November he attends a meeting of Loyalists, and noting that “with much satisfaction I beheld their dejected countenances,” he pompously declares that “I am firmly of opinion that a sudden attack of ten thousand men would take the City and put an end to the War.” There was “not much to be feared from the inhabitants” of Manhattan, he casually appends, as “the whole City is seized with a panic and a general dissatisfaction.” By December, Woodhull had convinced himself that if Washington waited but four months, “I am confident they will go themselves, Yes I am firmly of opinion and it is become general belief that in half the time we shall have the news of Great Britain acknowledging American independence.” Washington soon learned to filter out Woodhull’s grand strategic visions.

• The second annoying thing was more serious. Money. Woodhull was fanatical about getting his expenses reimbursed. Amazingly, for someone so strident about every other aspect of his security, Woodhull kept a cash book notated with the costs incurred by his espionage: travel, lodging, and food, mostly. Though no doubt he kept it safely hidden, maintaining an itemized ledger was, of course, a major breach of the regulations. In one respect, however, it was a necessity: Woodhull, as he often pointed out, was not wealthy, his expenses were considerable, and hard cash was difficult to come by.

• These were agents who worked for wages, and whose loyalty was always in doubt.

• It was to these characters that Napoleon, always a shrewd judge of character, alluded in his dictum: that the only true reward for a spy was gold.

• A Culper letter of mid-January was days late owing to a dragoon’s lame horse and his need to “get some repairs to his accoutrements.”

• For Americans, over the course of the war their fleet of congressionally approved privateers—which varied between 73 (in 1777) and 449 (1781)—brought in 3,100 merchant vessels, of which 900 were eventually recaptured or ransomed to their owners. Though British global trade was mostly undisrupted by these losses (the premiums at Lloyd’s of London, the maritime insurers, rose but not so much as to stifle commerce), the money generated by Continental privateering helped nourish the sinews of the war on land.

• By the early seventeenth century, the French master cryptographer Antoine Rossignol had worked out how to confound his peers by using a two-part nomenclator.

• “He returned and since it has been as still as a mouse in a cheese.”

• Killing “cracks,” the slang for nymphs du pave, was rarely punished by either army, partly because it was so difficult to catch the murderer. So it was that a naval officer thought he could get away with stabbing a madame after one of her employees cheated him, and how in the local taverns, “fireships”—prostitutes known to have a venereal disease—were set alight as punishment.

• Newspapers of the era carried almost no local news (readers were expected to already know it) and no editorials (readers were aware of each newspaper’s political slant and discounted its coverage accordingly), but they did print official proclamations, shipping reports, price listings, stock quotes, theatrical notices, foreign news, Parliamentary minutes and proceedings, extracts from other papers, and lengthy letters from readers (which essentially served as op-eds).

• As Rivington had an eye for atrocity stories and punchy tavern talk, his readers were stunned to discover that Benjamin Franklin had been wounded by an assassin and would likely die; that Congress was about to rescind the Declaration of Independence; that the Tsar was sending thirty-six thousand Cossacks to stamp out the rebels; that Washington had been made Lord Protector; and that Washington fathered illegitimate children (a favorite theme of Rivington’s, this one), or had died.

• Though bribes and baubles could still work their magic on the more mercenary of colonists (Benedict Arnold sold West Point for today’s equivalent of half a million dollars and the promise of a knighthood), the leading ideologues remained barbarically immune to such blandishment.

• “The best way to discover the enemy’s intent before the opening of a campaign,” counselled Frederick the Great, who knew his onions, “is to discover where he has established his provision depot.

• Described as a “Puritan humanitarian” by his biographer, Tallmadge believed the continued acceptance of slavery will “ere long … call down the vengeance of Heaven on our heads,” cofounded the Litchfield Auxiliary Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews, and donated large amounts to local churches.