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The Culper Spy Ring During The Revolutionary War

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The Culper Spy Ring
SSG Harris, Jeremy
NCO Academy

The Culper Spy Ring
The Culper Spy Ring was one the most useful employments of espionage during the revolutionary war. After the capture and subsequent hanging of Nathan Hale as a spy, George Washington realized the importance of a reliable, yet secretive intelligence gathering source. Washington’s unwavering support to the Culper Ring led to much needed advancements in the tactics and techniques that were employed. As a result of the changes in the way the Culper Ring operated while collecting and disseminating intelligence, the ring was able to successfully operate for a five or six year period without any operatives being caught, while providing vital intelligence to Washington …show more content…
One of the first orders of business that MAJ Tallmadge was given was to construct a group of operatives that could covertly collect intelligence on the British forces in and near the New York area. “Tallmadge apparently utilized his Long Island connections to establish a viable secret service. All the initial members of the Culper Ring were Tallmadge’s friends or neighbors prior to the war” ("The Culper Ring." American Eras. 1997. Retrieved August 15, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2536600501.html). Tallmadge was very aware of the need to protect these sources as that would be key to their ability to collect intelligence without detection. Tallmadge had his operatives employ several different measures to avoid detection. Agents were given false names and were referenced by number to keep their true identities hidden, they were even said to have used invisible ink to render messages undetectable to the untrained eye. Delivering information from the operatives of the Culper Ring would prove to be a difficult task though as the journey from Long Island to New York City where George Washington was based led through areas that were under British control. In order …show more content…
Thanks to George Washington’s understanding on the importance for the need of such a group, and MAJ Tallmadge’s successful development and implementation of the ring America was able to stay one step ahead of the British on several key fronts that contributed to our success in the revolutionary war, Although it may not be possible to put a quantitative sense as to how important the Culper Ring was in winning the war, it would be correct to say that the intelligence that was gathered greatly increased Americas chances at

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