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1-Page Summary of George Washington’s Secret Six

Overall Summary

Set during the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s Secret Six reveals how General Washington and his team of spies infiltrated British forces. They were able to gather information about the enemy that would give them an advantage in their fight for independence. However, they had a lot of difficulties because they didn’t have a strong army like the British did. The war was won by gathering intelligence and avoiding direct conflict with the enemy.

In order to gather intelligence, George Washington recruited Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge and tasked him with finding spies. The first person he recruited was Lt. Nathan Hale who soon found himself at the mercy of the British gallows due to poor tradecraft. Despite this, Hale would gain recognition as a national hero for his bravery centuries later when a statue of him was erected on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

A book written by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger focuses on the exploits of Benjamin Tallmadge, a general in George Washington’s army. It also discusses his role as a spy during the Revolutionary War. Although much of this information has been covered before, it is unique because it appeals to younger audiences who may not be aware of these events.

The tragedy of Nathan Hale led to more successful intelligence gathering. Tallmadge learned from his mistakes and created the Culper Spy Ring, which was comprised of six operatives who were deployed to New York City. Abraham Woodhull took on the name “Culper Senior” and recruited Robert Townsend, a Manhattan Quaker, who eventually became “Culper Junior.” They proved to be two of Washington’s most effective spies in New York City because they were able to gather British secrets that would end up at a drop site in Connecticut where Tallmadge could retrieve them.

Washington’s spy network was successful in many ways. It provided revolutionary forces with information about British attempts to counterfeit currency, and it warned of an impending attack on Rhode Island where the French were supposed to land. Washington also learned that Benedict Arnold had betrayed him by defecting from the Revolutionary Army.

Kilmeade and Yaeger’s book also highlights the first known use of undercover operatives posing as journalists. Townsend, a New Yorker who was sympathetic to the American cause, had trouble getting around town asking questions about British troop movements and supplies without arousing suspicion. To solve this problem, he tapped James Rivington, an expatriate Englishman operating a newspaper in New York City that was loyal to Britain. Townsend offered to write columns for Rivington’s paper which gave him cover for his work spying on the British army. The fact that Rivington himself was pro-British helped keep them off of the radar since they weren’t considered suspicious by their own standards. This idea would later be used by other intelligence agencies—and still is today—to send spies under journalistic cover into areas where it might otherwise be too dangerous or difficult to gather information from within those communities.

The authors provide additional context for the project’s title. The Secret Six, who were named after a group of people that helped George Washington during the Revolutionary War, got their name from the fact that they had to keep secrets about what they did and who they worked with. One of these members is still only known as Agent 355 because historians don’t know much about her life or her role in this group. Women played an important role in this war because they could use social settings to get information from British soldiers without raising suspicion.