Washington's Spies by Alexander Rose

Author:Alexander Rose [Rose, Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-8041-7982-9
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2014-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

At the same time as the Culper Ring was resurrecting itself in the late summer of 1780, Sir Henry Clinton was poised to spring a trap. Clinton’s goal in this round against Washington was the capture of West Point, a key American stronghold on the Hudson River that allowed Washington to move men, supplies, and arms between Massachusetts and Connecticut to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.1 His agent was General Benedict Arnold, who had persuaded Washington to appoint him West Point’s commander.

Arnold’s military laurels were undoubted by all. He had fought valiantly at Ticonderoga and had played a decisive role in the Saratoga campaign, at one point daringly, and almost single-handedly, preventing Burgoyne from escaping at the Battle of Bemis Heights. But he was resentful that he was continually passed over for promotion and not given the honors he felt were due him for his brave service. After Arnold was wounded badly in the leg, Washington put him in charge of Philadelphia during his recuperation, and it was while there he grew increasingly discomfited with the French alliance and more comfortable with Tory views, not least because of his engagement to Peggy Shippen, the vivacious daughter of a local Loyalist. Sensing blood in the water, his enemies arranged for a court-martial for two minor misdemeanors, which earned him a mild rebuke from Washington, who was aware of the ludicrousness of the proceedings and tried to salve Arnold’s amour propre with the promise of high command. By then, however, Arnold had mulled too long on the injustices he had suffered and his thoughts had turned to treachery. And it was then that he asked for, and received, West Point.

Arnold’s enemies had their reasons. Tallmadge, for one, greatly disliked him. He had become “acquainted” with Arnold, he told a friend, “while I was a member of Yale College & he residing at New Haven, & I well remember that I was impressed with the belief that he was not a man of integrity. The revolutionary war was coming on soon after I left college, & Arnold engaging in it with so much zeal, and behaving so gallantly in the capture of [General] Burgoyne, we all seemed, as if by common consent, to forget his knavish tricks.”2

Arnold, a heroic and valiant soldier, was a low, sly Iago among traitors, but this defector was also the most senior mole in espionage history and a first-class intelligence asset. His betrayal poleaxed Washington. Even his peers, who thought him arrogant and snotty, had respected his undoubted martial talents, and none suspected him capable of treachery of the blackest dye. The British secret service, approached by Arnold in May 1779, ran him until September 1780, when the plot, by merest chance, was uncovered at the very last moment.

Until Arnold’s recruitment, British intelligence operations had lagged behind Washington’s, whose Culper Ring surpassed anything Clinton, let alone General Howe, had constructed. Washington, too, appreciated the craft of intelligence far more than did Clinton (or other senior commanders), and

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