The Culper Ring

Americas First Spies Americas had a superior Spy organization during the Revolutionary War thanks to the leadership of George Washington. Everyone has heard the stories concerning George Washington. How he chopped down a cherry tree, had wooden teeth, and never told a lie. Well what you don’t know is George Washington was one of the biggest liars and providers of misinformation during the Revolutionary War. Washington and the groups of spies that he employed were instrumental in the collection of Intelligence used to counteract the British forces. These groups such as the Culper Ring would go on to dub George Washington the Spy Master (George Washington, Spymaster, 2017). History shows us that Washington had several close-knit
spy rings secretly providing information to our future first president of the United States of America. Like today these operatives would keep a distance from each other and used false identities to avoid incrimination if information became compromised. Washington himself didn’t personally know the names of some of his operatives to ensure the success of the operations conducted by these individuals (George Washington, Spymaster, 2017). Unlike the British armies superior fighting force. Washington’s army comprised of “merchants, tailors, farmers, and other extraordinary patriots with ordinary day jobs” (George Washington, Spymaster, 2017). Washington’s forces, untrained, undermanned and lacked the supplies needed to wage an effective war against the British army. Washington needing to find a way to out think and outmaneuver his far superior enemy. This led to the implementation of Washington’s spy networks which become a significant reason in why the Continental Army was able to best a far superior force. This proven by the statement made by, Maj. George Beckwith, London’s spymaster in the colonies, remarked bitterly that’’ Washington did not really outfight the British; he simply out spied us!’’ (ROBERTS, 2002).
Washington’s most successful spy organization was the Culper Ring that operated in the New York City, Long Island area. Major Benjamin Tallmadge created and headed the Culper Ring. In mid-1778 George Washington appointed Tallmadge as “head of the Continental Army’s secret service. Washington charged Tallmadge with establishing a permanent spy network that would operate behind enemy lines on Long Island” (The Culper Spy Ring, 2010). The group consisted of a small group of men and women that Tallmadge trusted from his hometown of Setauke New York (The Culper Spy Ring, 2010).
The Culper Ring were instrumental in creating one of the first Cryptologic message systems to secretly move intelligence to Washington.
The ring created the Culper cipher book which took normal words from the dictionary and matched it with a number. These numbers were the Continental Armies first encryption system. To get intelligence to the parties needing the information the members of the Culper Ring would write each other what seemed to be normal letters. Though between the lines of the fake message they would use invisible ink and codes to write their encrypted intelligence. (Stories of Spies and Letters The Culper Gang , n.d.) The Culper Ring was the most successful spy ring collecting on more British troop movements, Fortifications and plans than any other spy origination under George Washington. (The Culper Spy Ring, 2010) The greatest accomplishment of the Culper Ring came in 1780, when it discovered that British soldiers planned to ambush French forces landing in Rhode Island. “Without the Spy ring’s warnings to Washington, the Franco-American alliance may well have been damaged or destroyed by this surprise attack” (The Culper Spy Ring, 2010). Washington took his role as spymaster in chief quite seriously. Laying the groundwork for today’s complex intelligence community and recognizing that civilian observation, mobilization and insight was just as important as military might. Without this foresight, the outcome of the Revolutionary War might have been quite different. The war for independence from Great Britain was not just one of battles and firearms, it was one of intelligence. (George Washington, Spymaster,
2017).
The second order of effect is by Washington’s creation of these spy rings and their successful gathering of intelligence, lead to the outmaneuvering of a superior British force. Resulting in the victory of the Revolutionary War by the Continental Army.
The Third order of effect is that due to the success of this tactic by Washington, this method is implemented by future Intelligence Leaders. Such as the Pinkerton group in the American Civil War and the later the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency.