The Culper Ring During The Revolutionary War

During the Revolutionary War, the still fragmented and unformed United States faced a highly superior foe, with many European countries, for a time including France, doubting even the smallest change of the States’ success. Washington recognized the military superiority of the British due to their higher amounts of manpower, training, and resources, and dedicated a substantial amount of both time and money into intelligence in an attempt to lessen Britain’s advantage. For the 1770s and 1780s, Washington employed significantly advanced forms of spycraft , including the use of codes and dead drops, within the spy rings he created throughout the States. One of Washington’s most effective, complex, and useful spy rings was the Culper Spy Ring,

The Culper Ring depicts the extreme importance of spycraft during the Revolutionary War through its collection of information directly leading to actions taken by both Washington and the Continental Congress, most importantly, the warning the Culper Ring provided Congress about the economic danger presented by Britain's creation of undistinguishable, counterfeit Continental currency.
The Formation of the Culper Ring While the British had access to an extremely powerful navy, the Americans were often limited to ground transportation and communication because of the lack of a Continental navy and the British blockade. Because of the longer time periods required for moving troops by lands, Washington depended on having accurate and prompt information regarding British troop movements and intentions. Washington’s reliance on information led him to create a spy ring on Long Island and in New York City, the British army’s headquarters throughout the war. Washington began considering and strategizing how to send spies into New York as early as the winter of 1777. In 1778, Washington began planning and

From the very beginning, Washington stressed the importance of administrative secrecy and protection regarding the spy ring and within the spy ring itself. After Tallmadge recruited Robert Townsend, Washington was so concerned about security, he, “made it clear that he did not wish to know the person’s true identity or that of others involved in the ring’s activities.” The principle agents each wrote in invisible ink that require another chemical agent to reveal the writing. Due to the security risks presented by the rarity and costliness of the invisible ink or stain, Tallmadge created both fake names for most of the agents and a number code. The code Tallmadge used as a base for his code was a code which was itself based upon a priest’s cipher created in 1518 called the Ave Maria cipher. The number code consisted of 763 numbers, each with a commonly needed name, location, or word, including 711 for George Washington, 722 for Culper, 723 for Culper Junior, 727 for New York, and 728 for Long Island. Tallmadge continued to created increase the security of the messages by using a book code based off of Entick’s Dictionary. Washington instructed his agents to not only use the forms of code and protection, but to also write the message in a way that the paper can be concealed. He suggested writing within book and pamphlet margins and the