There are in the annals of General George Washington a most interesting tale of intelligence, in the reality that the General managed and operated a secret spy ring with great effect in the War of Independence.
Something which captured my attention was the payment to a spy of $333.33 for employment by the Continental Army.
That amount is too odd to not be something more in numerology as a correct amount, in association perhaps with the Masonic Order. It is fascinating in all of this that one of the few spies ever captured who were about Washington's business as the head of the first literal OSS or CIA, was the gallant ministerial trained, Captain Nathan Hale, who prowled the British lines dressed as a Dutch school teacher, followed the British and pressed too far in a tavern in then being captured.
Captain Hale would hide nothing, and the British Naval officer who captured him, lamented his being so wasted for death, it would be Hale who upon being hung in New York, commit the lines of infamy in regretting he had but one life to lose for his country.
The Washington spy network was most outstanding in he employed peddlers and farmers to take wares to the city. Most were illiterate and had to memorize messages. At times, papers were sent, but in that Washington employed invisible ink, with details to not send blank sheets which would rouse suspicions, but instead to "write as Tories do" about personal lives and then in between the seen lines and the bottom of the page to write in invisible ink, the information the Continental Army required about the state and movements of the red coats.
Gold was the standard of the spies as General Washington found that no spy was going to risk their life for paper currency. He always had on hand real money to pay his network and applied to Congress for such funds.
In that, it has never come to light in any documents or anectdote who George Washington's spies were. He kept the network completely secret from all his officers which proved correct when Benedict Arnold betrayed America and fled to New York, the spy network there was terrified that Arnold knew of their names and addresses, but General Washington assured his network that they were completely safe.
All that is known of this network are some fragments of knowledge in it's workings and two code names of a duo of operatives. Major Benjamin Tallmadge of Long Island handled the intelligence when it arrived, and perhaps he knew thee identities of the spies, but then again perhaps he did not as this network was so completely secret.
The names of the duo were Culper Senior and Culper Junior. The students of the age immediately thought this had to be a father and son duo, but as is the case as the British manifested in Somalian operations for the Crown later, a good prostitute is worth more than any man.
In that, Benjamin Franklin in France, utilized French wives of the nobles to gain influence with the masters of France. It is highly possible that the real sources in the Culpers were actually American women who disarmingly gleaned in "caring inquiries" at gatherings the state of the British forces, and lamenting their being sent away as they would be missed or who was suffering as the army would be weakened.
All of this is a most fascinating artform, and the best spymaster prototype America ever produced was General George Washington. That is one of the hidden bits of history, that the first intelligence officer of the first CIA was the Commander of the Continental Army and would later be President of these United States.
agtG
