"Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied us!" Major George Beckwith. This book goes into detail of the six spies who never earned credit for what they deserved. The lone spy that gets credit in most class rooms is Nathaniel Hale and he was a complete failure compared to the secret six. The secret six are claimed as ordinary people doing extraordinary things. A group of five men and one woman put together by General George Washington to get important information from the British. Hale was the example of “you spy, you die”. Yet the secret six took on the challenge to help the cause of the Revolution.
George Washington was always one of my favorite presidents partly being, because he was a spy in the French and Indian War. Many do not know that Washington was a spy. Washington being a spy gave him the credibility of knowing how to put together a group of spies and understanding the importance of what their work would consist of. The spies who were not reviled until the 1920s include Caleb Brewster, James Rivington, Austin Roe, Benjamin Tallmade, Robert Townsend, Abraham Woodhull, and Agent 355.
The interesting thing about agent 355 is that she was a female spy. Her name was never discovered as she was a seductive woman mingling among the upper class of the British before being captured. The book never goes on to say what happens to Agent 355 after she was captured which was disappointing. Depending on your mind set you can imagine she escaped somehow and fled away from the Revolution. She could have also been locked away on a ship and died through deadly diseases and illnesses.
The most fascinating thing I learned through this story is that George Washington only ever met one of these spies. All interactions were written through letters. As most spies their identities was kept a secret, but Washington kept all of the letters that were sent to him from the spies. At that point in time Washington was already thought of a...