The Greatest Spy Stories Ever Told by Lamar Underwood

Author:Lamar Underwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2019-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Spy for the Continental Army

A. A. Hoehling

In 1777, the Army of our fledgling nation needed all the help it could get. And some of that help came from spies who wore petticoats and lavish dresses—women in support of the cause of George Washington. This excerpt from A. A. Hoehling’s book Women Who Spied shows how Lydia Darragh, a Philadelphia homemaker with two sons in Washington’s service, managed to get critical information to Washington’s forces at critical times, resulting in success on the battlefield.

George Washington learned the value of women spies early in America’s history. In fact, although there is no evidence that he was a student of Walsingham or of others who followed him, Washington gave serious heed to the daily gleanings from a considerable number of spies, largely amateur, who worked for the Continental Army.

Not all were successful. The most tragic example was Nathan Hale, the heroic Connecticut schoolteacher. His failure as a courier that September, 1776, led to his hanging. But he taught future generations how to die.

In December of the same year, John Honeyman, a butcher who lived on the road from Trenton to Princeton, was eminently more successful. While encouraging his neighbors to think he was in the pay of the British, or even a double agent, Honeyman carried the word to Washington at Valley Forge that the Hessian garrisons in his two neighboring towns were drunk and lethargic from too much Christmas season revelry. The result was dramatic victories, first at Trenton, next at Princeton.1

Although General Washington did not possess the reserves to hold either prize, the success was like an injection of adrenaline to morale after the recent loss of Long Island and forts along the Hudson Palisades, the last toehold on Manhattan Island, together with the defeat at White Plains.

Then in August and October, 1777, came the brilliant victories of Bennington and Saratoga respectively, climaxing the starting months of the third year of the Revolution. At the latter, General John Burgoyne surrendered an army of nearly 6,000 men with 42 cannon and full equipment to General Horatio Gates.

However, there was no time or even full occasion for rejoicing. In between these twin triumphs, Sir William Howe marched into Philadelphia and hung out his “at home” sign. The English commander actually liked the colonists. However, Philadelphia was where all that “trouble” started, and to George III, a ruler noted for neither foresight nor common sense, the image of the Union Jack flying before Independence Hall was a warming one.

Commencing his second winter amidst the winds and snowdrifts of the Valley Forge area, General Washington maintained surprising optimism about maintaining the offensive in the face of continuing privation and dissent in the ranks.

Even as the snowflakes slanted across the dead stubble of the Pennsylvania fields, the Commander-in-Chief was asking his generals if they would recommend a winter campaign, with Philadelphia its prize.

The Marquis de Lafayette counseled what seemed obvious: give the men “a good rest in winter quarters.” General Nathaniel Greene suggested any operations at this time would be “very precarious.

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