Culper Spy Ring: A History from Beginning to End

Messages written in secret codes or invisible ink, agents operating behind enemy lines and known only by code names, the provision of vital secret intelligence used to direct military operations—these are staple elements of modern spy fiction. Still, all were used more than two hundred years ago by one of the first professional spy networks ever created: the Culper Spy Ring.

George Washington was one of the few eighteenth-century military leaders to recognize the importance of using covert operatives living in enemy territory to provide information of military value. He was virtually unique in being willing to use this information to shape his strategy on the battlefield. American victory in the War of Independence showed that he was completely right. One British commander after the war noted angrily that Britain had not been outfought but “outspied.”

This is the story of a network of courageous patriot spies operating for several years in British-occupied New York during the American Revolutionary War. The critical information they provided contributed directly to the creation of the modern United States of America. This is the story of the Culper Spy Ring.