Essay on George Washington 's Secret Six
Before the technological advances of the modern era, wartime espionage was a lot different. George Washington’s Secret Six, by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger, sheds some light on the incredibly important yet little-known story of six ordinary people who successfully spied on the British forces, helping General George Washington reclaim New York City.
Soon after the George Washington was forced to retreat from New York City in the Revolutionary War, he decided that they were outmatched in almost every way, so he had to outsmart the enemy instead. A young man named Nathan Hale volunteered to be the first to go on an espionage mission, infiltrating British-occupied Long Island. He failed miserably, and was hanged. After this, Washington realized that one outsider could never get away with such a delicate mission- he needed a whole network of locals.
The Culper Spy Ring started in 1778, with Benjamin Tallmadge, a major in Washington’s…