READ MORE: The Culper Spy Ring The Culper Ring Army intelligence service bears a “1776” stamp, in honor of his unit. In the blazing musket fire of the skirmish that followed, Knowlton was killed, his place in history cemented. The roughly 130-man group, known as “Knowlton’s Rangers,” played a key role in the 1776 battle of Harlem Heights in New York, scouting out the British advance guard. So in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress chose Washington as commander in chief of the Continental armies, Washington appointed a soldier named Thomas Knowlton to organize the war’s first spy unit. Intelligence, he learned, could make the difference between victory or death. He first learned to use on-the-ground information from Native Americans and deserting French soldiers during the French and Indian War. Painted by John Trumbull.įrom the beginning of Washington’s meteoric rise, intelligence gathering helped shape his military career. Thomas Knowlton, illustrated standing left in white, during the Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. READ MORE: 5 Patriot Spies of the American Revolution The Power of Intelligence Indeed, according to the Central Intelligence Agency, “General Washington was more deeply involved in intelligence operations than any American general-in-chief until Dwight Eisenhower during World War II.” The story of Washington’s underground spy network, and how it helped Americans win their revolution, is replete with intrigue: letters written in invisible ink a rare female agent who went by the mysterious moniker Agent 355 the gruesome execution of the spy Nathan Hale. Throughout the war, Washington’s spies helped him make bold, canny decisions that would turn the tide of the conflict-and in some instances, even save his life. But as General Washington struggled to win a war with an army that was perpetually undermanned, undertrained and undersupplied, he relied increasingly on his unseen weapon: a secret intelligence network. It’s hard to imagine that the fate of the American cause would rest so heavily in the hands of a tailor, an enslaved double agent-or a judge’s wife who sent surreptitious signals on her laundry line. How important was George Washington’s network of spies to winning the American Revolution?
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