26. George Washington’s Efforts to Establish a Spy Ring in New York
When the British occupied New York in 1776, George Washington realized the importance of intelligence about his enemies’ troop movements and intentions. After he was defeated and forced to evacuate the city in the summer of 1776, Washington directed that a “channel of information” be established on Long Island. It was an ad hoc and poorly run affair, without permanent agents on the ground. It came to grief with the capture of Nathan Hale, a young Continental Army officer who volunteered to gather intelligence behind British lines, only to get caught and hanged as a spy.
The Hale fiasco convinced Washington that civilians would make less conspicuous spies than military officers. So in February of 1777, he requested the aid of a Nathaniel Sackett to spy on the British, and appointed a Major Benjamin Tallmadge (1754 – 1835), a New York native and Yale graduate, as military liaison and point of contact. Sackett’s information was hit and miss, accurate at times, and inaccurate at others. But even the accurate intelligence lacked both the quantity and timeliness to satisfy Washington, so he sacked Sackett.
