Evening Star Newspaper, February 22, 1931, Page 81

ION D, "C., "FEBRUARY "22, 1931, 5 OF W ASHINGTON'S BES History as the First American Secret ded Him Lived in Nezo York T ithin Reports on the Red Coat Movements. [ Culper, Jr.,” IV hose Ideniity and Beenn Fully Revealed—1Information ¢, Breaking Up His Plot I ith the either of these aids to espionage is modern— lor Townsend and Maj. Tallmadge used them egularly in practically all of their corre- pondence. The British kept a careful watch on all per- bons who entered and left New York. All bapers on such people were closely examined. Bo were all letters and parcels sent by post. 0 send ordinary letters to the American forces vould, consequently, have been quite as fool- ardy for Townsend as a similar stunt would have been in the World War for any German py in the heart of London. ‘Townsend’s chief aid was a species of invisible k. The availability of this ink was due largely o the forethought of James Jay, brother of lhe American statesman, John Jay. When it ecame evident that the Colonies were going b fight the British, Jay—then living in Lon- on—began experimenting until he had in- ented the kind of ink that would be needed. e sent large quantities of this ink to Washing- bn, who in turn forwarded a great deal to wnsend. To use this ink two bottles of fluid were peded. The spy wrote his letters with the id in one bottle. As soon as the writing jed it disappeared, not to appear again until e recipient had taken the other bottle and d brushed its contents over the paper. The ual procedure was to write an ordinary letter, -nsibly concerned with business or friendly sip, in ordinary ink and to write the impor- t news between the lines, or on the other fe of the paper, in invisible ink. Thus the ter could -be examined by British authorities hout damage—so long as they remained orant that invisible ink was being used. In e of his letters to Maj. Tallmadge, Washing- warns him to let no one know that the onists were using invisible ink; for, he adds, am informed that Gov. Tryon (the British trict commander) has & preparation of the e acid, or something similar to it, which y lead to a detection if it is ever known that matter of this sort has passed from me.” OWEVER, as time went on, Washington and Maj. Tallmadge decided that this ine ble ink was not quite protection enocugh. he Spring of 1779, accordingly, a code system k devised, known only to Washington, Tall- dge, Townsend and Woodhull. Compared h the codes of World War days, Washing= 's code seems relatively simple; yet it was icate enough and was doubtless considered baffiing at the time. Townsend's copy : book has been found. Vith t! code and the invisible ink Town- d managed to escape detection, did dhull, although each occasiona ) r- escapes. Once Townsend wrote W m logizing for the scantiness of the infc he had collected and that he been able to retire from 1 devote all of time to espionage. Vashington, however, wrote in reply that 1d be better for him to maintain bt isual, as this would give him a bli operaticns and would also give him oppor- rdict Arnold, betrayer of his coun- try in its hour of need Benjamin Tallmadge of the American Army. He received and decoded the messages which Townsend smuggled out of New York City, relaying them to Gen. Washington. tunities of collecting intellignce that he would pot otherwise have. On another occasion Washington wrote in detail to Tallmadge, giving some more sugges- tions for Townsend's conduct—indicating that yashington had a pretty fair idea of the way in which an espionage system should be con- ducted. “He should occasionally,” wrote Washington, “write his information on the blank leaves of a pamphlet, on the first, second and other pages of a common pocketbook, or on the blank leaves at each end of registers, almanacks or any new publi icn or book of small value. . . Having settled a plan of this kind with i i i, he may for d them without risk 1 or scrutiny by the enemy, as this is directed against paper made up in the of letters.” another occasion Washington wrote Tall- s follows: r, jr., should avoid making use of the tthe invisible upon a blank sheet of paper, which is sual way of its coming to me. This circumst > is sufficient to raise cions. A much bett way is to write a Jetter in the Tory stile with some mixture of family matters and between the lines and on the remaining part of the sheet communi- cate with the stain the intended intelligence, Such a letter would pass through the hands of the enemy unsuspected, and even if the agents should be unfaithful or negligent, no dis- cevery would be made to his prejudice, as these people are not to know that there is concealed writing in the letter, and the intelligent part would be evidence in its favor.” This correspondence lasted practically to the end of the war. In the early part of 1780, however, the British kept such a close watch on the environs of New York that messages from Townsend were often delayed in transit; delayed so much that Wash- ington got out of patience, and for a time dis- pensed with the services of both Townsend and Woodhull. A few weeks of this, however, convinced him that their work was too valuable to do without, and the two men were promptly re-engaged. T the same time Tallmadge succeeded in shortening his line of communications, and devised a scheme whereby his messengers Cross- ed Long Island Sound by boat to a point near Oyster Bay, where they met Woodhull, giving him messages for Townsend and receiving from him messages he had been given by Townsend. By this means Tallmadge was-able to get dis- patches from Townsend to Washington's head- quarters at White Plains in 12 hours, not bad speed, even if it had been peace time. By far the most inter:sting part of Mr. Pen- nypacker's discoveries deal with the way in which Townsend's path crossed the path of Maj. Andre, the famous British spy who was executed when he fell into th: hands of American sol- diers while carrying on the negotiations between the British authorities and Benedict Arnold. The two most famous spies of thz Revolution were Nathan Hale, the American, and Maj. Andre, the Englishman. Townsend, strangely enough, has a place in the story of each. He was Hale's successor in New York; and Mr. Pennypacker's evidence makes it seem probable that Townsend helped to uncover the work of Andre. To tell thz story of his connection with Andre, it is necessary to detail some of his fam- ily’s history. Townsend's father was Samuel Townsend, a well-to-do merchant living in a house known as Raynham Hall, at Oyster Bay. Townsend, sr., was patriotic in his sympathies, but scems not to have been bothered by the British-——probably, as Mr. Pennypacker points out, because there was another Samuel Townsend in Oyster Bay who was a pronouncesd tory, and whose identity got mixed with his. Oddly, this tory Samuel Townsend renounced his toryism and joined the American Army, was captured by the British and was severely punished; and the confusion of identity secms to have persisted, as the father of the spy ap- parently inherited the formerly good reputation of the tory Townsend, and to the close of the war was treated with consideration by the RBritish. British officers were quartered in Raynham Hall, and they all professed respect for the old merchant. Young Robert Townsend, the spy, had three sisters, Sarah, Phebe and Audrey, and one gathers that they were attractive young women. At any rate, they seem to have been highly popular with the British officers who frequented Raynham Hall, and enjoyed the friendship of Maj. Andre, who often visited in their home. And it was Sarah who was to play a part in Andre’s undoing. Sarah knew that her brother Robert was act- a spy for Washington: and she freguently him valuable information that she had ed up by overhearing conversations of the 1 officers in Raynham Hall. It was in the St g of 1789, just when the British negotia- tions with Benedict Arnold were under way, that she was to help her brother foil this trea- sonable plot. A certain stranger in the neighborhood one day entered Raynham Hall and in a furtive manner had carefully concealed a letter in a cupboard. Sarah Townsend saw him do it, and after he left she went and looked at the letter. It seemed to be only a business letter, addressed to one James Anderson, but the way in which it had been put in the cupboard aroused her curiosity and she determined to keep an eye on it. JOT long after, Maj. Andre came in. He began idly to search the cupboards, and when he came upon the letter hurriedly hid it in his pocket, after which he picked up a dish of doughnuts that had just been taken off the stove—this cupboard, by the way, was in the kitchen—as an excuse for entering the room, and strolled out. A little after that Maj. Andre was closeted with Col. Simcoe, a British officer, in another room in the Townsends’ home. Sarah, thor- oughly suspicious by now, listened at the door. She heard them mention the words “West Point” several times and, although she had no notion what it was all about, she felt that i Sarah Townsend had seen the letter placed in the cupboard, and she con- trived a way to get the news to her spy- brother. her brother Robert ought to know about it all at once. Getting the news to Robert, who was in New York, was a problem, but Sarah was not ° long in solving it. She called on Capt. Daniel Youngs, another British officer, and told him that she was out of a certain kind of tea that she would need for a party she was giving the following evening. Would he, to aid beauty in distress, hurry to her brother’s store in New York and see that this tea was sent out? Capt. Youngs would. Sarah scrib- bled a note, sealed it and handed it to him for delivery to Robert Townsend; and in a few moments this British officer was riding to New York with an epistle that was to help put a rope about the neck of his very good friend and brother officer, Maj. Andre. Late that afternoon Robert Townsend go# his sister’'s note. He knew no more than she just what it might mean, but he wrote it all out in cipher and invisible ink and dispatched a messenger with it at once to Maj. Tall- madge, and by daylight the message was in Tallmadge's hands. Maj. Tallmadge had just deciphered and read the letter when another messenger rode up— this time a courier from Gen. Benedict Arnold, commanding at West Point. The courier handed Tallmadge the following significant Jet- ter from Arnold: “If Mr. James Anderson,-a person I expect from New York, should come to your quarters, I have to request that you will give him an escort of two horses to bring him on his way to this place, and send an express to me that I may meet him. If your business will permit I wish you to come with him.” . Then Maj. Tallmadge did a little fast thinke ing. On the one hand he had a letter from Gen. Arnold asking that the journey of one James Anderson be expedited. On the othey hand, he had news that the British Maj. Andre was receiving mysterious letters addressed to James Anderson and was talking with his sue- perior officers about West Point. The two items dovetailed remarkably. It remained only to see what they meant. Meanwhile, Maj. Andre had started on his mission—to make final arrangements for the delivery of the American stronghold at West Point into British hands. Andre fell into the hands of an American patrol, who suspected him of being a spy and, quite naturally, sent him along under :guard to Benedict Armold ag West Point. And while Tallmadge was still trye ing to figure out the secret behind this odd dovetailing of his two letters, he received the news that a man describing himself as James Anderson—{for that was the name Andre gave his captors—had been captured and was being sent to Arnold. Tallmadge, fortunately for the cause of American independence, found his suspicions crystallizing. He immediately sent couriers or- dering that “James Anderson” be brought to him instead of to Arnold. Arnold himself would have been captured had not one of Tallmadge's subordinates failed to recall a courier who had been sent to West Poini to announce “Anderson’s” capture. This gave Arnold just the warning he needed to make his escape. But it was too late for Andre. Taken before Tallmadge and questioned, “Anderson” admittted that he was Maj. Andre. His trial and execution quickly followed, arous- ing a high fever of indignation among the British, just as the execution of Nathan Hale had made the Americans extremely angry—al- though both executions were quite justified by the rules of war. ROBERT TOWNSEND himself seems to have been surprised at the news of the execu- tion, and for some weeks lived in great fear that his part in the game would be betrayed %0 Costinued on Eighteenth Page