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THE BATTLE FOR NEW YORK
WASHINGTON'S INTELLIGENCE NETWORK

"As everything in a manner depends upon obtaining intelligence of the enemy's motions, I do most earnestly entreat you...to exert yoursleves to accomplish this most desirable end...Leave no stone unturned, nor do not stick at expense to bring this to pass."
—George Washington, 1776

from The Battle For New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution
by Barnet Schecter
"George Washington was a skilled manager of intelligence. He utilized agents behind enemy lines, recruited both Tory and Patriot sources, interrogated travelers for intelligence information, and launched scores of agents on both intelligence and counterintelligence missions."—Intelligence in the War of Independence, CIA Publications

 

Thomas Knowlton

Commanded "Knowlton's Rangers," an elite detachment that reported directly to Washington.
(New York Public Library)

 
Major Benjamin Tallmadge

Attained distinction for his conduct of the Culper Ring operating out of New York.
(New York Public Library)
Nathan Hale

One of Knowlton's elite "rangers", Hale is the best known but least successful American agent in the War. of Independence.
(New York Public Library)
James Rivington

Rivington's coffee house, a favorite gathering place for the British, was a principal source of information for the Culper gang.
(New-York Historical Society)
General Benedict Arnold

By May of 1779, Arnold had begun bargaining with the British. The bounty Arnold offered the British was West Point.

(New York Public Library)
Major John Andre

Andre was imprisoned at Tappan, New York, and on September 29, 1780, he was found guilty of being behind American lines "under a feigned name and in a disguised habit." Andre was hanged as a spy at noon on October 2, 1780.


(New York Public Library)