The Culper Ring Analysis

The Culper Ring, the American spy network that provided George Washington with intelligence about the British in the New York area, was so shrouded in secrecy that there are still unanswered questions about how they operated. Initially, George Washington had appointed General Charles Scott in charge of intelligence. After several of the General’s men were captured and executed, (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, 2014) George Washington appointed Major Benjamin Tallmadge as Director of Military Intelligence in November of 1778. Tallmadge went on to form a spy ring in the New York for the next 5 years. While one member, Caleb Brewster, was identified by the British of being a spy, (History.com staff, 2010) no others were and in fact, even Washington
He provided code books to Washington, Woodhull, Robert Townsend, a new recruit, and himself. Each member of the ring was assigned numbers such as Washington was 711, and Tallmadge was 721. Places also received numbers. London was 746 and New York was 727. Then, to make things even more confusing, each letter in the alphabet was replaced by another letter. A “c” would have been written as a “q”, and a “w” as a “y”. While this is considered fairly easy to break by cryptography standards of today, the code system wasn’t discovered until 1939, by historian Morton Pennypacker, so it was sufficient for the time period. They also began to use invisible ink. Washington called the ink a “sympathetic stain” or a “white ink”. (Dewan, 1998). Invented by James Jay, it was used on a blank piece of paper. Then Washington would use a second solution on the paper once he received it to have the message appear. Later they started writing the invisible messages between the lines of regularly written letters because they were worried that carrying blank papers would be
Once he left the property, Abraham Woodhull would come and retrieve the letter from the box. After adding anything additional to the letter that he felt necessary he would use a spyglass to look across the bay to Anna Smith Strong’s home, otherwise known as Nancy Strong, whose husband had been imprisoned by the British. Nancy would place her black petticoat on the line when Brewster was ready to retrieve the message from Woodhull. The number of white handkerchiefs on her clothesline with the black petticoat would tell Woodhull the correct spot or cove in which to meet Brewster. Even today we do not know how Nancy knew when Brewster was ready for a pickup. (Dewan,