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In late June 1780 a messenger arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, with intelligence for Lt. Gen. Charles, Earl Cornwallis. The messenger, Capt. John La Boularderie…
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James Fenimore Cooper published his wildly popular second novel, The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground, in 1821. The book tells the story…
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Charles Dewey, contributor and military intelligence officer in the US Army National Guard, about espionage and double agents…
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“But while a confidence trickster, a play actor or a gambler can return from his performance to the ranks of his admirers, the secret…
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Wars have a way of creating strange alliances, and the American Revolution was no exception. I encountered one such unusual relationship while researching my…
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Television series and popular books such as TURN: Washington’s Spies and Alexander Rose’s Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring recreate and immortalize the exploits…
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John Andre’s body hung in silence for thirty minutes before being taken down. It was placed carefully in a simple open coffin crudely painted…
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In his last moments, with calculated efficiency, he bolted the bedroom door so no one could interrupt the execution of his final act. Charles…
Upon our arrival, I did behold a most curious Sight, which gave me further Cause to wonder about the true Safety we might here…
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On July 15, 1775, less than two weeks after he arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to take command of the Continental Army, Gen. George Washington…
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One of the things that make human intelligence operations so interesting is that you never know how, and for that matter whether, an operation…
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On June 8th, 1783, Gen. George Washington issued the following orders to the Continental army from his headquarters in Newburgh, New York: Serjeant Bissel…
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In the late summer of 1776, Nathan Hale was a handsome, tall, charismatic twenty-one-year-old school teacher from Coventry, Connecticut with no battle experience but…
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Good Revolutionary War commanders understood the value of intelligence on their adversaries. The great eighteenth century military theorist Marshal de Saxe, who was on…
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Battles are complicated events where conflicting or unclear information can confuse even good generals. Here are some examples of when American intelligence systems failed,…
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On July 10, 1780, a French fleet of seven ships of the line and four frigates under Admiral Chevalier de Ternay, along with thirty-six…
With the recent popularity of spies in the Revolutionary War, led by AMC’s TURN cable television series and the bestselling book George Washington’s Secret…
Danger, secrets, intrigue and revenge were all part of the Culper spy ring, and the new AMC series “Turn,” premiering April 6 (Sundays 9/8…
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I write the following book reviews to promote a small, but well-respected, outfit specializing in publishing Revolutionary War books (as well as other nonfiction…
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This article was originally published in Journal of the American Revolution, Vol. 1 (Ertel Publishing, 2013). Solving “the Most Astounding” Mystery of the American…
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Peter Livius, chief justice of the province of Quebec and former justice of New Hampshire, wrote a letter on June 2, 1777 to American…
As the struggle between Great Britain and her colonists in the thirteen North American colonies entered a state of armed resistance against British military…
Dear Mr. History: What’s the story on Nathan Hale? Like countless American schoolchildren, I was taught that he was executed for spying and said…
