The Culper Spy Ring During The Revolutionary War

America’s First Spies Not everyone knows that George Washington was a spymaster. During the Revolutionary War George Washington used brave men and women to get secret messages to other people. They used many different techniques to communicate. If George Washington had not formed a ring of spies, America might not have won the Revolutionary war. That loss would have changed the world. There were many spy networks during the formation of America. George Washington wanted information from many sources in order to make wartime decisions. The Culper Spy Ring was one of the most successful spy rings. It was developed by Benjamin Tallmadge in 1778. The Culper Spy Ring was a mission to spy on the British army and report their plans back to Washington. Within the Cupler Spy Ring, many people lost their lives. For example, Nathan Hale was hung because he got caught by the British army while trying to send messages to Washington. After so many lives were lost, Washington decided to use covert methods of communication. Techniques used were codes, aliases, dead drops, and invisible ink.

The reader had to decipher the codes in order to receive the message. The code was a mix of numbers or letters that substituted for the actual letters in the message. Certain words, usually common places, names and dates would be given different words to be used instead. Tallmadge made four copies of the codes and gave them to Abraham Woodall, Robert Townsend and of course, George Washington. Woodall and Townsend also had code names. Townsend was referred to as Samuel Culper, Jr. and Woodhall was Samuel Cupler, Sr. The codes allowed secret communication between these four