American Revolutionary War Spies You Should Know
- Warner Smith
- Jul 7
- 8 min read
As we prepare for the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we can look back at the daily events of the early American Revolution. Some of the least known and most interesting stories are about spies on both sides of the conflict.
Here are a few of the most famous stories of spy craft in the Revolutionary War, including turncoats, smuggling, misinformation, secret coded messages, and spy rings to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
7 Fascinating American Revolutionary War Spies
John Jay is most well known for his service as the first chief justice of the Supreme Court and for his work in writing the Federalist Papers. However, years before, the Continental Congress created the “Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies.” Jay served as the informal leader of this committee. They worked to investigate and arrest colonists who were sympathetic to the British cause, successfully apprehending several British spies. John Jay is regarded as the father of American counterintelligence, the practice of preventing a foreign enemy from committing acts of espionage.
Jay is also known for his work as a code maker. He used various dictionaries to create an elaborate system of word substitutions. In this way, messages about British troop positions could be hidden within an otherwise normal letter. Jay’s ciphers were constantly changing to prevent the British from being able to break the American’s codes. Additionally, John Jay’s brother, James Jay, invented a type of invisible ink that was used in codes.
James Fayette: Lafayette’s Spy
The list of American Revolutionary War spies would not be complete without James Fayette.
Formerly James Armistead, Fayette was a black man who was enslaved to William Armistead, a military supply distributor in Virginia. In 1781, the French officer Marquis de Lafayette was in command of the Continental forces in the state of Virginia. James received permission from Armistead to work as a spy for the Revolutionary forces, and worked directly with Lafayette.
James posed as a double agent and pretended to spy on the Continental Army for the British. In reality, James was smuggling information from the British to the Americans, sneaking behind enemy lines to gather intel. James snuck into British Lord Cornwallis’ camp before the Battle of Yorktown to send information about the British troops to Lafayette.
Following the war, Lafayette wrote a testimony about James’ courageous service in the war, and James applied for his freedom. Unfortunately, his request was not initially granted. The Virginia General Assembly granted freedom to slaves who had fought in the Army, but because James had worked as a spy instead of a soldier, the Assembly did not believe he qualified. James requested his freedom again in 1786, and this time, his freedom was granted. Once James had achieved his freedom, he took the surname “Fayette,” likely to honor Lafayette.
Ann Bates: Clinton’s Artillery Informant
Curious to know about some female revolutionary war spies? Ann Bates was a Philadelphia school teacher and was married to a British soldier named Joseph Bates. Joseph Bates served under the command of General Henry Clinton and in 1778 he was a part of the British march from Philadelphia to New York. Once in New York, General Clinton appointed Major John Andre to coordinate a British spy ring in the New York area. Andre recruited Ann Bates to spy on Washington’s headquarters in New Plains, New York.
Bates was able to successfully spy on Washington’s forces, because the officers of the Continental Army completely underestimated her because she was a woman. They mistakenly believed that women were incapable of spy craft, allowing Bates to cross behind enemy lines unsuspected.
She sometimes disguised herself as a man, and took detailed records of the artillery and weapons of the Continental Army. In 1781, Bates reported that the Revolutionaries were planning to sail for Rhode Island, causing Clinton to defend the area more heavily. This movement caused Washington to withdraw from New York and march to Yorktown instead. After the war, Bates sailed back to England with her husband, who left her soon after.
Benedict Arnold: Infamous Turncoat
We cannot tell the story of Revolutionary War spies without mentioning Benedict Arnold. Known as the infamous turncoat, Arnold starts as an American war general. He joined the Continental army in 1775 and fought the British army in Canada. He defeated the British at Valcour Island but was denied promotion to a higher rank. Arnold threatened to quit but Washington convinced him to stay. Unfortunately, he became wounded in Saratoga, which began his path towards treason.
Because of his injury, Arnold was assigned a non-combative position in Philadelphia where he married Margaret Shippen, a daughter of a loyalist. Growing close to Loyalist elites, Arnold was eventually accused of misusing military equipment and participating in illegal business transactions for his personal benefit. Arnold was cleared from the majority of the charges, but Washington officially reprimanded him.
Arnold was then given control of the Continental fort at West Point which had control over the Hudson River. Humiliated by the Continental Congress and Washington, he began to sabotage the base so that it could be easily captured by the British. He sent information to the British through Major John Andre. No one knows what Arnold was promised to cause him to change allegiance, however, it is clear that his problems with Washington, the Continental Congress, and his own finances played a role in this choice.
Arnold provided Andre with detailed schematics of the fort at West Point. Andre concealed these documents within his boot and began to travel back to the British camp before being captured by the Continental Army. Andre tried convincing his captors to imprison him at West Point under Arnold’s authority where he planned to escape with Arnold. However, Continental officer Benjamin Tallmadge objected to the transfer, leaving Andre with no chance of escape.
The papers Andre carried proved that Arnold had committed treason against the Continental Army, prompting Arnold to flee to British-held New York City. Washington attempted to negotiate a prisoner exchange with General Clinton, hoping to receive Arnold in exchange for Andre. Clinton refused and Andre was hanged.
After his escape, Arnold served as a Brigadier General for the British, capturing the city of Richmond and ransacking Virginia. Arnold served with Cornwallis in Virginia, and tried to convince Cornwallis to relocate his base away from the coastline. Cornwallis refused, but if he had taken Arnold’s advice, he may have avoided defeat at Yorktown.
After the British surrendered, Arnold remained in Europe, where he lived in exile. British citizens hated Arnold because they viewed Major Andre as a true British patriot and blamed Arnold for his death. He was never accepted in British society despite his actions.
Hercules Mulligan: The Tailor Spy
Fans of the musical Hamilton are certainly familiar with the tailor Hercules Mulligan. In 1774, Mulligan opened a store in New York where he interacted directly with British and American soldiers and officers. One of the first colonists to join the Sons of Liberty, early in the war he helped deface statues of King George III and steal British cannons. However, when Washington retreated from New York, Mulligan stayed behind to run his business. Alexander Hamilton, a friend of Mulligan, encouraged him to become a spy for the Continental Army.
Mulligan was able to figure out British troop movements by tactfully prying the officers while tailoring their clothes. Mulligan’s intel was vital to making sure that Washington was not captured during the war. After the war, Washington was fearful that Mulligan’s neighbors would label him as a Loyalist for working so closely with British officers.
Throughout the war, Mulligan did not refuse the patronage of British soldiers like many other tailors did, so he was at risk of being called a traitor. Because Mulligan had hidden his service to the Continental Army so well, he was at risk of being tarred and feathered by his community. To protect Mulligan from social disgrace, Washington personally ate breakfast with him, frequently ordered new clothes from him, and hung a sign at Mulligan’s shop that read “Clothier to Genl. Washington.”
Nathan Hale: School Teacher and Washington Spy
Nathan Hale is one of the most famous American spies of all time. Hale was a school teacher in Connecticut who joined a continental militia early in the war. Hale was a part of Washington’s failed defense of New York in 1776. Washington needed spies to stay behind to keep him informed on British troop movements, but Hale was the only volunteer. Hale pretended to be an unemployed Dutch school teacher, and mapped information about the positions of British military forces.
About a week after Hale began spying, he was captured by the British. We don’t know exactly how Hales was captured; some stories claim that his cousin turned him in, while others assert that he accidentally revealed his identity to a British spy at a pub. Regardless, accounts from Hale’s time in custody claim that he kept his composure while in prison, acting like a gentleman even in the face of death. The day after Hale was caught, he was hanged without a trial.
Hale is most famous for his last words, although they are likely apocryphal. Even still, the myth of Hale’s final words has become one of the most iconic American quotes of all time: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
Benjamin Tallmadge: Culper Ring Spymaster
Tallmadge was the mastermind behind the Culper Ring, a network of revolutionary spies in New York from 1778-1783. At Yale University, Tallmadge was a classmate of Nathan Hale’s. Like Hale, he worked as a school teacher in Connecticut until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord.
In 1778, Benjamin Tallmadge became Washington’s “spymaster.” Tallmadge assembled a network of contacts within the New York and Long Island area. This network, later known as the Culper Ring, was instrumental in gaining intel about British operations in New York City. Tallmadge crafted a number-substitution method with 763 numbers representing locations and agents in the ring. Washington was designated as number 711.
Messages would be sent to Washington entirely written in code that only he and Tallmadge could read. Throughout the existence of the Culper Ring, none of its members were ever caught. To this day, the identities of some members are still a mystery, such as female Agent 355. The Culper Ring remained active until the Revolutionary War ended in 1783. After the war, Tallmadge worked as a postmaster and later as a Congressman.
Join an American History Tour
Want to learn more about the American fight for independence? You can see some of America’s founding documents on America Unscripted - National Archives and American History tour, see portraits of some of these revolutionary spies with the National Portrait Gallery tour, or see artifacts from the war on the Highlights of the Smithsonian tour.
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