One of the most intriguing, and often untold, parts of the Revolutionary War is the role spying played in giving the Continental Army an advantage over the more powerful British Army. The Culper Ring in New York played a monumental role in passing important information back and forth without being detected.
For this week's blog, visit these four websites and then write about what you learned. How exactly did this Culper Ring work? Why do you think the Americans heavily relied on spies in some cases and the British really did not?
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Site Four
The network of spying in the revolutionary war played an amazing and possibly even game changing role in the outcome of the revolutionary war to give the rebels or Americans the upper hand. In this there were multiple people that dedicated their life to get the rebels information about the British. One of the many systems set up to get information was the Culper Ring; this was a circle of people that had set up their entire life style to get the information to the rebels. On occasions people were caught in the act of spying and were killed for treason. Btu when they did not get caught the information given was very valuable for the rebels to have. The primary Culper Book was a series of well over six hundred numbers that were code to give George Washington information. In conclusion the spy network used in the Revolutionary War was so precise even the smallest smudge on the paper could have sent an army to fight nothing.
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From observing these four websites I have learned several things. The main thing being the importance of the Culper Ring to the Continental Army. The first spy agent to travel to New York as Sam Culper was a man by the name of Abraham Woodhull. After he had done this spying for a while he was overcome with anxiety of survival. So to solve this problem he hired someone to help him. He hired Robert Townsend to work under the name of Sam Culper Jr. The Culper ring was even more advanced once they came up with the book for the spy network. This new way of spying helped us know when surprise attacks were coming. I think the reason why the British didn't use this method is because they thought they may lose to many soldiers. (138)
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the four web sights I had a compleat different look on the war, George Washington had many good ideas for the war but one of his best by far in my opinion would be spy's. Because the spy's not only gave them the upper hand but it also gave the soldiers a feeling that they would have a better chance of winning the war. Well in my opinion this was a great idea and it worked, they said that wen you are a spy it is more than a job it is a lifestyle and a way of life. And wen you were a spy their was smithing called the culprit rings this was like a circle of how the message got taken to people so that the British wouldn't catch on to how we were mowing every move that they had.(140)
ReplyDeleteThe American spy ring helped win the war. It worked by having one message passed person to person it could be spoken or writen. If you think about it writing it down might not be a good idea they knew that but they had a solution. This is where invisible ink was created. They wrote it to where only the rebels knew how to decode it and if captured they British couldn't see the message inside. The importance of spying for the rebels was basically life or death. They knew that they couldn't match the British army or navy so they couldn't go loud straight through them but they could go around them and catch them off gaurd. This won the war for the rebels the reason the British didn't spy is because they knew they didn't need to so they didn't. If both sides would have spied the war would probably have been a lot different.
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General George Washington, who was the commander of the Continental Army, knew there was simply no reliable intelligence network that existed on the Patriot side. Well, that changed in 1778. Benjamin Tallmadge gathered a small group of trustworthy men and women from his hometown of Setauket, Long Island. He was known as the Culper Spy Ring and his homegrown network would become the most effective of any intelligence-gathering operation on either side during the Revolutionary War! Also, did you know there can definitely be a danger to spying? You know what else I think is cool? They had a book which used fake names and a numerical code book consisting of seven hundred and sixty-three numbers representing words, names, and places to communicate their information! Why I think that the Americans relied more on the spy network more than the British, is because the British probably thought they could do without it. The Americans saw it as a chance to have something the British did not have, and took advantage of that. The British probably thought that they could make a spy network if they wanted to. So they probably did not think much about it. So, as you can see the Culper Spy was very important. The Americans never had it before so it was the best thing ever! (220)
ReplyDeleteBy seeing these four websites I found out some cool things about Culper Spy Ring. It was used to get important British information that the rebels could use. General George Washington knew there was simply no reliable intelligence network that existed on the Patriot side at that time. That changed in 1778, when a young cavalry officer named Benjamin Tallmadge established a small group of trustworthy men and women from his hometown of Setauket, Long Island. Known as the Culper Spy Ring, Tallmadge’s homegrown network would become the most effective of any intelligence-gathering operation on either side during the Revolutionary War. In order to safeguard the identity of his spies, Tallmadge utilized a number of protective measures. Tallmadge gave his informants pseudonyms and invented a numerical substitution system to identify his informants rather than use names. Seven hundred and sixty-three numbers were used in a code book to communicate with the other spies. Tallmadge and his associates also wrote in invisible ink. For example, the spy Austin Roe rode from Setauket, Long Island to New York City, where he entered Townsend's establishment. There Roe placed an order from Tallmadge who signed under his code name John Bolton. Contained in this message were prearranged code words from Washington to Tallmadge to which Tallmadge responded in code. The messages were then hidden in goods that Roe took back to Setauket and hid on a farm belonging to Abraham Woodhull, another spy, who would later retrieve the messages. Then a female Anna Strong, who owned a farm near to Woodhull's barn, would then hang a black petticoat on her clothesline that Caleb Brewster could see in order to signal him to retrieve the documents. Strong indicated which cove Brewster should land at by hanging up handkerchiefs to designate the specific cove. Brewster would then deliver the messages to Tallmadge. This system was relied on so much because it gave them an advantage over the British. The British didn’t care much about it they thought that they still couldn’t stop them.(337)
ReplyDeleteGeneral George Washington was a great general of the American army and he helped lead us to victory over the British. He was able to get ahead of the British army by using spy's. New York was under British control. The Culper Ring was a group of spy's that would send coded messages using numbers and invisible ink to General Washington. This caused the Americans to have ways to beat the British. The British
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During the War for Independence, General Washington needed more intel about what the British were up to. Benjamin Tallmadge set up a group of people known as the Culper Spy Ring. They gathered information in New York, but they were so good that even Washington didn't know who was a spy. Tallmadge's group developed a system for exchanging information. One strategy was using code, or better known as the Culper Code Book. Each number had a branch of words that it meant. How could anyone crack that!? Don't think that men were the only people involved. Anna Smith Strong also took part in a code, except she used her clothesline to spread messages. When one spy discovered the plans of the British, they'd send it to another spy, who would pass on it accordingly, and then Tallmadge would alert Washington. The General's troops then were able to take the advantage in war. This system is what helped the patriot troops save their French allies in Rhode Island. So any surprise attack instantly became the opposite. But the British had spies, too. Benedict Arnold was supposed to be a war leader for the patriots, but he ended up committing treason when he openly showed his loyalty for Britian in battle. But the course of war was completly turned because if the Culper Ring, and its one of the many reasons why they had victory.
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