A Secret Meeting
James Armistead stood before
Lafayette in tattered work clothes and a ragged jacket. Months earlier, he had
offered his services to the Continental Army and became a spy in the traitorous
Benedict Arnold’s camp. His secret reports enabled Lafayette to wage a
brilliant campaign to check, if not repulse, the renegade Arnold, now a Brevet
Brigadier General in British employ.
“Is spying on Lord Cornwallis the
same as spying on Arnold?”
Armistead’s coal-black eyes
flashed. “It’s always more satisfying to deceive a deceiver, sir.”
Lafayette smiled mischievously.
“Well put, Monsieur Armistead.”
“Sir, it’s better if you just
call me Junius.” His eyes shifted left and right. “You know, just in case.”
The comment impressed Lafayette,
and he nodded in agreement. He eyed the papers Armistead had drawn up. The
spy’s reports were always concise and precise. “Are you sure of this, Junius?”
“Indeed, sir. If you move forces
to that position at that time, you will deny General Cornwallis his last chance
of reinforcement and, more importantly, replenishment. His men also suffer
miserably from lack of food and other vitals. Even their officers mumble about
it.”
Lafayette nodded. “How fitting,
as the Americans have gone all these years of struggle on empty bellies and
wearing….” He paused as he eyed the rags on Armistead’s back. “Insufficient
clothing.”
“It will be dark soon. I must
return as soon as I have the cover of the night.”
Lafayette eyed the man with
wonder. “You have risked your neck for many months. That is commendable enough
for any man, but for a slave, it is a thing of wonder.”
“I believe in the cause and that
I will justly earn my liberty.”
Lafayette’s head moved slowly
from side to side. “I truly hope so.”
Enslaved Spy
The above excerpt from my novel, The
Lafayette Circle, is a fictionalized event. Still, it portrays the actual
derring-do of a man whose commitment and courage transcended his race, his
welfare, and his bondage. Just who was this man? James Armistead was a slave
owned by one Wallace Armistead of New Kent County, Virginia. Born on his
master’s plantation, little is known of Armistead’s early years. Even his birth
year is debated—estimates range anywhere between 1746 and 1760.
In 1781, the Marquis de Lafayette was leading American forces near Yorktown, where the British commander, Major General Charles Cornwallis, and his Army had dug in. The Franco-American forces were enroute. It was Lafayette’s task to prevent Cornwallis from escaping the cauldron he was soon to be in. When young James Armistead received permission from Wallace to join the American Army, it was with the proviso he would remain a slave after his service.
Lafayette’s Agent
Lafayette, a champion of emancipation, might have had other ideas, but he needed the services of the young man who knew the area—he needed a spy. Since the British emancipated escaped slaves, that became Armistead’s cover story when he entered the British camp as Juniper, the runaway. His task initially was to courier intelligence from spies behind British lines. When they learned he belonged to a local planter, the British took no heed of the young black man.
Armistead’s race and status as an
enslaved person were perfect—his lowly position enabled him to slip in and out
of both sides' camps without drawing attention. His knowledge of the land helped
him to avoid detection when needed and find the best routes to travel. The
unsuspecting British paid him no heed as he ambled through the camp, listening to
conversations.
Slipping out of camp, he would
bring Lafayette details on British plans, capabilities, and, most of all, the
state of their morale. The British trusted him. At one point, the traitor Benedict Arnold tasked Armistead to
gather information directly from Lafayette’s headquarters. By the height of the
Yorktown campaign, Arnold had gone back to New York. Cornwallis was holed up in
the port on the York River, hoping for reinforcements from General Henry
Clinton, the British commander-in-chief.
Double Agent
As the stakes grew higher, Cornwallis grew desperate and decided to use him to spy on the Americans, tasking him to bring back information on American troop strength and movements. Armistead was now a double agent, playing the dangerous game in the espionage business. Of course, he reported right to Lafayette, who decided to use the opportunity to deceive his opponent—a classic use of a double agent.
Deception
Lafayette scribbled a letter to
American general Daniel Morgan, citing completely bogus units. After crumpling
it up and rubbing some dirt on it, Armistead tucked it in his jacket and took
off. Once in the British camp, he told the officers questioning him that he had
observed American regiments marching and was returning with the “intelligence”
when he found the paper on the road. Explaining he could not read it but took
it just in case it might prove of value. Upon reading the note, the British
were impressed with the intel coup.
Armistead’s daring had helped
Lafayette pull off a high-stakes deception—the appearance of new units kept
them on the defensive. The British would soon face the combined Franco-American
forces and capitulate at Yorktown on 19 October 1781.
An unlikely postscript written years later (in the 19th century, in fact) puts Armitage at a post-surrender dinner where General Washington hosted Cornwallis. The vanquished British general is said to have remarked. “Ah, you rogue, you have been playing me a trick all this time!”
Struggle for Freedom
James Armistead’s post-war fate
was a sad reminder of the cruelty of slavery and the law. The Virginia
Emancipation Act of 1783 granted manumission to slaves who rendered
considerable military service to the cause. In a cruel twist of fate,
Armistead’s service as a spy was not deemed military service, and thus, he
remained the property of Wallace. As egregious as this seems, one needs to remember that a spy was considered contemptible and spying dishonorable to the
eighteenth-century mind.
However, the good angels finally
intervened when General Lafayette endorsed James Armistead’s petition for
freedom to the Virginia Assembly, which they granted in 1787. To honor the man
who came to his aid, James, on manumission, officially changed his name to
James Armistead Lafayette.
Freedom and Friendship
The freeman James Armistead
Lafayette purchased land in New Kent County. Eventually, he married and had
children. Like so many other veterans of war, he fought a long-standing battle
to gain a pension, which he finally received in 1819. When General Lafayette
made his celebrated tour of America in 1824, he acknowledged Armistead at the
Yorktown commemoration. Before the assembled crowd, the spymaster embraced the
spy—a unique event and a fitting recognition for the former slave’s bravery and
resourceful service to the Glorious Cause.
