The First Patriot Spy?

Nathan Hale

Earlier this week marked the 236th anniversary of Nathan Hale's death. Hale is a minor yet significant figure in the first two books of the Yankee Doodle Spies Series.

On September 22, 1776, Nathan Hale, the first American (not rebel) spy, was hanged by the British. Born in 1755 on a farm near Coventry, Connecticut, Hale attended Yale and, after graduating in 1773, became a schoolteacher. Caught up in the patriotism sweeping the colonies after the battles of Lexington and Concord, he joined the Continental Army forming around Boston in 1775. Initially ambivalent, Hale decided to join the Cause after receiving a letter from his close friend, Benjamin Tallmadge, urging him to serve. Ironically, or perhaps causally, Tallmadge later became the head of Washington's intelligence unit (and a recurring character in Yankee Doodle Spies).

Hale rose to the rank of Captain in a Connecticut Regiment but later joined Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton's (also a peripheral figure in the series) elite Ranger battalion. Hale was, by all accounts, an extremely handsome man—tall for his era—and very well-spoken. Liked by everyone, his commander, Knowlton, held him in special regard. After the Continental Army retreated from its disastrous defense of Long Island, Lieutenant General George Washington needed to assess the strength, activities, and morale of the British occupiers. Washington was especially concerned about the timing and location of the inevitable British assault on the Island of New York (now called Manhattan). He asked Knowlton to provide an agent for this very high-risk mission. In a society obsessed with "honor," espionage was considered even dirtier than it is today. Because of that, none of the officers in Knowlton's unit volunteered. But Hale, who had yet to see combat and was bored with the administrative duties he had so far, offered his services.

Spying under spurious cover?

In a mission both daring and futile, he was clandestinely transported onto Long Island from Connecticut by longboat, disguised as an itinerant schoolmaster. In a lesson in tradecraft, the idea of a young schoolmaster traveling through a war zone seems desperate, if not downright absurd. However, Hale was indeed a schoolmaster, and it’s always easier to depict something similar to your own experience or background. The exact details of his capture are a matter of much debate. In his book, *Washington's Spies*, author Alexander Rose states that the renowned Loyalist Ranger Robert Roberts captured him. Roberts was a hero during the French and Indian War but switched allegiances and sold his services to the British during the American Revolution. According to Rose, Roberts and his men identified Hale on Long Island and lured him into a trap. Other accounts tell a different story. Regardless, the cover was blown.

A Spy Uncovered

What we do know for sure is that Hale was captured on September 21 and immediately brought in for questioning by the British commander, General William Howe. By then, the British Army had already invaded New York. Howe had just moved into the Beekman Mansion, near the current corner of 51st Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan. Intelligence found on Hale, which was not in code or invisible ink, meant he was completely compromised.

The next morning, a Sunday, the former spy was marched north about a mile along the post road to the Park of Artillery, located next to a pub called the Dove Tavern, roughly 5 1/2 miles from the city limits. There, he was hanged. Hale's supposed quote before execution is somewhat debated, and several different accounts exist from various sources, all of which seem plausible. Traditionally, hanging was reserved for thieves and murderers, not soldiers, especially not officers. It’s likely Hale intended his last words to both dispel the dishonor of being labeled a spy and to serve as a model of patriotic sacrifice.

I have but one duty...

To me, the most credible statement reportedly made by Nathan Hale before his execution comes from the diary of a British officer named Lt. Robert MacKensie, who was serving in New York at the time. The entry is especially believable because it was written on the very day of Hale's execution.

"...He behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer, to obey any orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear."

The Legacy Today - Military Intelligence Corps

"There is nothing more necessary than good intelligence to frustrate a designing enemy, & nothing requires greater pains to obtain."
--George Washington

The Yankee Doodle Spies series serves in part as a tribute to the United States’ first army—the Continental Army—and its initial intelligence agency. In a sense, it also honors today’s Army and contemporary Army intelligence.

Unlike today’s Army, the Continental Army lacked a holistic intelligence structure. Instead, various militia units and Continental forces scattered across the states recruited their own local spy networks and attempted to detect British and Loyalist spy networks with varying degrees of success. In 1775, Congress created a Committee of Secret Correspondence to oversee all intelligence activities – essentially America’s first intelligence entity (I hesitate to say agency). Benjamin Franklin was a member. A year later, Congress established a Committee on Spies. John Adams was a member of that one. Additionally, New York’s “Committee to Detect Conspiracies” oversaw counterespionage operations in and around New York City, famously uncovering a plot to assassinate George Washington. John Jay was the committee’s original Chairman.

                                                                                                                                                                                

John Jay

Regarding military intelligence, Washington directed much of the intelligence activity centered on the main Continental Army. He was both the consumer and the producer of intelligence. His action arm was initially under the direction of Thomas Knowlton and later Benjamin Tallmadge. Both play cameo roles in the Yankee Doodle Spies series. As commander in chief, he personally spent a considerable amount of time fretting over and developing sources of information, including spies, informants, prisoners, intercepted correspondence, and even what we today call “open source.”

Benjamin Tallmadge

But after the war, there was no comprehensive intelligence organization for most of the Army’s history. Instead, the function fluctuated. The Army eventually adopted the modern staff system with intelligence centralized around an appointed G2 and intelligence officers assigned from other Army branches. In wartime, tasks were completed effectively, but intelligence must be involved in both peace and war.

Fortunately, 50 years ago this year, the Army finally resolved the issue by establishing Military Intelligence as a branch, professionalizing its intelligence officer corps for the first time. Twenty-five years ago, the Army took it a step further by forming the Military Intelligence Corps, integrating its enlisted cadre into a professional body to enhance the quality of intelligence provided to the United States Army.

The benefits of creating the MI Branch and Corps were numerous, but foremost among them was a trained and dedicated cadre of men and women advocating for the service branch that George Washington valued so highly.  

On Hallowed Ground

In an earlier post, I talked about the origins of setting The Patriot Spy during the Battle of Long Island. Several times while writing the book, I revisited the neighborhoods involved in the battle. Some of these were neighborhoods I had lived in long ago, like Park Slope and Flatbush - both in the heart of Brooklyn.

On one of my return trips, I went to the place I believed was the site of the pivotal point of the battle – the forlorn hope attack by the brave Marylanders and their brothers in arms from Delaware (who are actually depicted on the cover of The Patriot Spy). It was a gray autumn day. We drove to the intersection of 3rd Avenue and 8th Street in Park Slope – the spot where I thought the fallen 300 from the engagement had been laid to rest.  

There, in front of an auto repair shop, I stood looking at an old building across the street. Surrounded by scaffolding, it was clearly in the process of being demolished. A large, burly guy with a thick gold necklace saw me standing there and came out of the repair shop.

“Can I help you?” He asked, more as a challenge than a question, with a thick Brooklyn accent.

“I’m looking for a marker,” I replied.  One of the sourcebooks I used indicated the existence of a small marker on the side of a building.

“A marker?  Marker for whad?”  He asked with a really puzzled look.

“Almost three hundred  Americans died here and are buried in a mass grave,” I answered.

“Died? When?  How? Who done it?” He looked stunned and puzzled, and this being Brooklyn, likely thought this had something to do with the mob. 

“There was a great battle here in 1776.  Almost three hundred patriots were killed fighting the British and are supposed to be buried near here.”

He nodded his head knowingly. “Oh yeah, well, I ain’t never seen no marker, but it wuz probably on dat building.”

I looked across the street at the building, now wrapped in scaffolding and plywood, surrounded by a chain-link fence. I decided my search was over.  

I share this story to draw readers' attention to a recent article in the New York Times about a Brooklyn historian named Bob Furman. Furman is working to identify, preserve, and properly commemorate important sites on the battlefield. The article is worth reading because it highlights the difficulties of maintaining a sense of history amid urban growth.

Gowanus Canal

More than a hundred years ago, a growing city’s demand for residential and industrial land overwhelmed the area. It’s hard to believe that this densely developed part of New York was once filled with beautiful farms, fields, orchards, and woods. It’s also hard to believe that brave and gallant men once fought desperately for their lives and their new nation on these busy streets. Let's hope Furman and his team at the Brooklyn Preservation Council succeed in reclaiming some of this sacred ground. Sadly, most remnants of the Revolutionary War battle and the terrain where it was fought are now gone.

Who's the Greatest?

    

Marshal Maurice de Saxe

The greatest military enemy of Great Britain, that is.  Some might think renowned tyrants like Hitler, Napoleon, or Louis XIV.  As a naval power one might say the Phillip II of Spain’s launching of the mighty Spanish Armada makes him the island nation’s greatest adversary. But of course, all these men failed against Britannia. Throughout its past, Britain also faced many great generals on the battlefield such as France’s Marshal Maurice de Saxe, Nazi Germany’s Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the great Boer Commando leader Jan Smuts. But a recent poll of British historians named America's own George Washington as Britain's greatest military enemy!

Field Marshal Rommel

The British Army Museum recently ran an internet poll in which over 8,000 folks responded.  The  museum’s judges then reduced the contenders to five top leaders:  America’s Continental Army commander George Washington; IRA Chief of Staff Michael Collins; France’s Napoleon Bonaparte; Field Marshal Rommel; and Turkey’s great Kemal Ataturk (who stymied the Empire at Gallipoli). Because the selectees had to have led troops in the field against a 

Michael Collins

British Army, purely national leaders like Hitler or the Sun King were eliminated from inclusion. The results are significant for two reasons:  Washington successfully led the Continental Army through eight years of conventional and asymmetric warfare against the best Britain could throw at him.  He struggled with all kinds of issues in supply; quality officers and men; command and control; political infighting and several disastrous losses early on.  Yet his strategy, determination, and leadership caused Britain to come to terms and he wrested the heart of an entire continent away from them.  And he went on to be the “significant man” in the founding era of the world’s most successful and enduring Republic.

Throughout the conflict, Washington was minimized and demeaned by his opponents. The British steadfastly refused to refer to him as general, instead referring to him as “Mr. Washington”.   During the surrender at Yorktown, General Cornwallis sent his deputy to turn over his sword.  That general, in turn, tried to surrender to the French commander, Comte de Rochambeau.  Rochambeau chivalrously directed him to General George Washington.  So as we follow the adventures of the Yankee Doodle Spies, we have the consolation of knowing they were led by the best of the best.  And now, the British finally admit it!  

British Surrender at Yorktown

Why New York?

The Maryland Monument,
Prospect  Park

Why New York?  This is one of the first questions I get when I discuss the Yankee Doodle Spies series and more importantly, the first book in the series, The Patriot Spy.  It is a good question and the answer is simple:  I am from New York.  Indeed, most folks (including New Yorkers) consider the events near Boston as the natural beginning of the revolution - and they are right.  Lexington and Concord, the siege of Boston, the battle at Bunker/Breeds Hill demonstrated that the colonies could field an army.  But they had done so before - colonial forces were not inconsiderable in the wars against the French and the Indians during several wars in the early 18th century. However, the revolutionary forces assembled in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1775 stood for freedom from what they viewed as royal tyranny and the infringement of their rights as Britons.  Essentially, this was the view of the Whig Party on both sides of the Atlantic.

One day when I was about seven or eight, my dad took me to Brooklyn's Prospect Park where we saw the park's moving monument to the Maryland Continental Line in the Battle of Long Island.  My dad gave me a long (so it seemed to a young boy) rendition of the battle and the gallantry of those infantrymen. At the time my dad was commander of A Company, 2-69th, New York.  The "Fighting 69th" is a famed infantry unit that is still a component of the New York Guard and part of the 42d Infantry Division, the Rainbow Division.

I digress.  My dad focused my attention on the ragged lines of men who had never seen battle, serving a new nation, who now had to charge against a "thin red line" of highly trained British professionals. The Marylanders, essentially destroyed, saved the new American Army. My dad ended his story with words to the effect of  "and so now each year the Maryland Guard places a wreath at the monument marking the gallantry of one its first units."

For whatever reason, his words echoed in my memory for many decades, even as so many of my other memories have faded.  I am not sure if the Maryland Guard still places a wreath at the monument each year. So when I wrote the first book of this series, I decided to make it a lasting "wreath" to the men from Maryland and to infantrymen everywhere.

The Patriot Spy commemorates America's First Battle

This week marks the 236th anniversary of our nation's founding.

It is no coincidence that I begin the Yankee Doodle Spies series with the first battle fought by the new nation, the battle of Long Island.  Until July 1776, the American colonies of Great Britain were fighting for their rights as Britons.   After July 1776 they were fighting to be Americans.

This fact was not lost on George Washington, who ordered the Continental Army defending New York to assemble information while the declaration was read aloud to them.  A stirring moment that was meant to inspire the troops and galvanize the nation for the maelstrom of the impending British onslaught. The visual on the blog home page portray's that event. Washington had the army assemble at six in the evening on July 9th, 1776. The declaration had been read to the public in Philadelphia a day earlier. A fast rider had carried a copy to New York.  After the declaration was read, the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army addressed the men, who responded with roaring cheers.

I will end with Washington's own words.  "...this important event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and courage, knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depend, under God, solely on the success of our arms, and that he is now in the service of a State possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit, and advance him to the highest honors of a free country."

Yankee Doodle Spies

Welcome to the world of Yankee Doodle Spies!

I hope you will enjoy this blog and find it a valuable venue to learn about what's upcoming in these tales of espionage, action, and intrigue, set during the American Revolution.  The biggest news is that the first book, The Patriot Spy, will soon be available.

If you read the precis in the Book One:  The Patriot Spy page or even sampled the chapter I posted you know (or at least suspect) that this story combines action and intrigue in a historical setting, focusing on the adventures of one new American, Jeremiah Creed, who gets caught up in the struggle for independence. In doing so, he interacts with an eclectic array of other characters, both historical and fictional.

The publisher, Twilight Times Books, will release The Patriot Spy as an eBook on June 15th, followed by the paperback version on July 15th. I'll provide more details in my next post. So whether you enjoy the Kindle, Nook, or other e-versions, or prefer the feel of paper in your hands, your journey into the American Revolution's secret war is about to begin!