Trip to Setauket and Port Jeff
by Becky Reigle
This week’s trip was to the Three Village Historical Society in Setauket where we learned a lot about the Culper Spy Ring during the Revolutionary War. The spy ring was led by George Washington and involved a lot of men and women living on Long Island. The spy ring is something that I never learned much about before this trip, so I was really interested in all of the great information that the historical society had for us, and it made me want to find out more!
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“Becky Bull Shark”
We got to make our own secret message using lemon juice
and pH markers to make it reappear. It’s a lot
harder than you would think to try to write an invisible message!
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Everything that we learned was really interesting, but what stuck out to me the most was the way that all of the spies communicated their information. Some of the men and women in the spy ring had British soldiers living in their home, so they had to find inconspicuous ways to communicate with one another. One of the ways that letters were passed onto the next spy was by putting them into a box that was placed in a hole. The British soldiers wouldn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary if the man went out to his fields, so he was able to go to the hole and check the box for any new information whenever he wanted.
Another way (and probably the coolest way) that the spies would communicate with each other without getting caught was by using invisible ink on their letters. The invisible ink started by dipping their quill into lemon juice and writing onto the best quality paper. George Washington was very sure that they had to use the best quality paper in order to get the messages clearly. The lemon juice would dry and the writing could not be seen until it was heated by a candle. The only problem with this was that the British soldiers figured out that all they had to do was place the paper over a candle and the messages would show up. The next kind of invisible ink that was used was called Sympathetic Stain. James Jay, an English doctor, made the ink and also made the reagent that made the ink show up. The recipe was so secretive that no one outside of the spy ring could make the ink reappear.
The last, but certainly not least, interesting part of the spy ring communication is the fact that they used a secret code to make sure that if someone got a hold of their letters and was able to read the invisible ink they still wouldn’t know what they were trying to say to each other. This picture to the right shows their code and the meanings that they used in their letters. Some of the words would look like a mess of letters, but if you use the conversions of what each letter actually is then you would see the word that they actually meant to write. They didn’t use the names of all of the other spies in the ring; they just used the numbers that were assigned to each one. Washington and his spy ring were not the first to have a secret code, but it is still very interesting to learn this large part of history that was never taught in elementary or high school.
After this interesting and exciting trip to Three Village Historical Society we went to Port Jeff where we ate lunch, had a small lecture by the water, and then went to the candy store! Overall it was another great day in Coastal Cultural Experience!
The Battle of Long Island
by Valentine Gladstein
Today we visited the Three Village Historical Society’s Spies! exhibit. This exhibit tells the history of Long Island during the Revolutionary War and the Culper Spy ring which played a crucial role in informing George Washington and his commanders of British troop movements and plans in New York City and the surrounding area.
Due to its extensive shoreline and numerous harbors, as well as its proximity to crucial east coast cities like New York, and Providence, both the Continental Army and the British redcoats recognized the strategic importance of Long Island. The British were eager to control and blockade Brooklyn, Manhattan and the hudson river valley as this would practically cut the colonies in half, making trade and communication between the northern to the southern colonies difficult. Soon after the signing of the declaration of independence, General Washington stationed 8,000 troops at the southern end of Manhattan. The British across the Harbor on Staten Island and soon amassed a force of over 30,000 Redcoats and German mercenaries called Hessians in the area, setting the stage for what would be the first and bloodiest battle of the American Revolution.
On August 22, the British forces moved into Brooklyn where they attacked and quickly overwhelmed the American troops with their numbers, training, and superior naval support. To avoid losing his entire army, Washington was forced to retreat. Surrounded by the British, he would have had difficulty even with this if not for a fortuitous fog bank which moved in to New York City that night and masked the movements of his troops. The British claimed New York City and Long Island, and held these territories for much of the duration of the war. On Long Island, the British instituted martial law and under the quartering act required locals to house and feed the redcoat soldiers.
Though he had lost the battle of Long Island, Washington continued to recognize its importance and went on to set up several spy networks (the most successful of these being the Culper spy ring) to observe and eavesdrop on British troops in New York City and western Long Island. These spies risked their lives to get information through roadblocks and blockades and delivered critical information to the Continental Army’s commanders. Had it not been of them, the British would have been successful in their planned ambush of a fleet of French warships which had been sent to help the colonists.
Anna Smith Strong, What A Lady!
by Jodi Chan
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“There is nothing more necessary than good intelligence
to frustrate a designing enemy, and nothing that requires
greater pains to obtain.” – George Washington
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What do spies, George Washington, and Long Island have in common? Think 1770s, specifically, the Revolutionary War. When you learn about the history of America’s independence, you hear about things like the Boston Tea Party, Saratoga, and Lexington and Concord, but you don’t tend to hear much about Long Island- at least not when I learned American history! In fact, the Battle of Long Island was the first battle fought after the United States declared their independence. Long Island was also an important location for an intelligence network that helped Washington win the war, the Culper Spy Ring.
Anna Smith Strong was one of the major characters in the Culper Spy Ring in Setauket. Although born into a Loyalist family, she ended up marrying into a family related to Abraham Woodhull, the leader in the spy ring. Her husband was arrested and imprisoned in an abandoned cargo ship, but she was eventually able to bribe the British officials into releasing him, leaving Strong to care for her family and home. As a woman, she was not suspected as being a spy and was able to gather intelligence inconspicuously. There are no primary documents to prove her role in the Culper Spy Ring, but the Strong family history claims her to be an integral member, signaling to Abraham Woodhull the arrival and location of Caleb Brewster.
Stories say that she hung different colors on the clothes line outside her home to relay the message; a black petticoat meant that Brewster arrived and the number of white handkerchiefs hung represented the hiding place he stayed in. With this information, they met and exchanged messages to be brought to Washington’s headquarters. Simple, but effective! It’s amazing to think that a woman left with the sole responsibility to care for her home and children took on this risky and dangerous task, especially since she had to house and feed British soldiers in her home at the same time!
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Three Village Historical Society in Setauket, Long Island
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Setauket, Port Jefferson Harbor
by Valerie Sabatasso
This week, the Semester by the Sea students visited Setauket to learn about Long Island’s role in the Revolutionary War. It starts with George Washington, who was fascinated by the concept of spies. He’s quoted with saying “There is nothing more important than good intelligence to frustrate a designing enemy and nothing that requires greater pains to obtain.” Even in his young twenties, he seeks ways to get information from the enemies. Washington’s first spy would be Nathan Hale. Not the best spy, Hale unfortunately was caught and executed. About two years later, Washington recruited Benjamin Tallmadge –Hale’s college roommate at Yale. Knowing what happened to Hale, Tallmadge became head of the spies and took action to train the other men that would be recruited.
Washington now had a ring of spies and each one had a code name. Tallmadge, called John Bolton, recruited farmer Andrew Woodhull to spy in the city. After a short time, Woodhull asked Robert Townsend to take over spying in the city. Woodhull became ‘Samuel Culper Sr.’ and Townsend became ‘Samuel Culper Jr.’ As a Quaker who owned a shop in the city, Townsend was the perfect person to take over for Woodhull. His friends also thought of him as a loyalist, which was especially helpful. The men formed a ring in which Townsend would overhear information in the city and get it to Woodhull in Setauket, where Woodhull would enlist the help of a man named Caleb Brewster. This man would take the information across the Long Island Sound to Connecticut to get the information to George Washington. This ring is the reason the French were able to dock safely in Rhode Island and help the patriots defeat the British.
Quite a lot of information in one trip, but it was an incredible time learning about the history of our island.
