Informative Speech: Spies During The American Revolution

Spies in the American Revolution

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience about the spies and espionage tactics employed during the American Revolution.
Thesis: While the methods used by the patriots were crude, by the end of the war they could report accurately.

Introduction
Attention-getter and established credibility: The year was 1776, mid-September. Congress had just declared independence from Britain, and the war looked far from over. The noble spy, Nathan Hale, on a secret mission to infiltrate New York on behalf of George Washington, accidentally sets fire to the Fighting Cocks Tavern, inadvertently causing one of the worst disasters in the colonies. He was caught by British officers and hung from the gallows at first light, where he famously encouraged his fellow patriots by

Main Point Sentence: At the start of the war, Washington didn't have much time or resources to spend on spies.
A. He barely had an accurate count of his own men due to the nature of local militias.
B. A majority of the money spent at the beginning of the war was spent on clothing and arming his men.
C. The Battle of Long Island, which resulted in a horrible loss and the miraculous retreat across the river to New Jersey, was caused by a lack of knowledge of enemy strength and intentions.
(Transition: By the end of the war, however...)
II. Main Point Sentence: Washington had a sophisticated circuit of spies who supplied him with accurate information to help him fight the British to a stalemate.
A. The Culper Ring, one of the better-known spy networks, operated in New York and the surrounding area.
B. Invisible ink, created by James Jay, was a staple of Washington's encoding process that allowed more secure transport of information.
C. Washington's decision to march to Yorktown and cut off Lord Cornwallis by land, while the French cut them off by sea, was made based off of the intelligence gathered by his many spies, and thus ended the