George Washington's Secret Six

If you want to know more about the Revolutionary War Culper Spy Ring, Brian Kilmeade and his writing partner Don Yaeger provide an easy-to-read and not too taxing overview of how George Washington realized that espionage was the only way to defeat the mighty British army entrenched on American soil in George Washington's Secret Six; The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution (#418).

Five of the six members of the Culper Spy Ring, which operated in New York City, Long Island and Connecticut during the war, have been positively identified.  Intriguingly, the sixth and final member is known to be a woman, code named 355, but little else about her, except for the fact that she was discovered by the British, is known.  She was apparently a young woman who moved freely in the Loyalist society of New York City during its occupation during most of the war.  She was captured, and imprisoned to the consternation of other members of the Ring, probably aboard a British prison ship in New York Harbor, but she has never been identified.  I think there's a great novel waiting to be written about this courageous and unsung heroine.  She certainly deserves more attention than Peggy Shippen Arnold!

Fans of the AMC network's series Turn will be pleased to recognize the characters portrayed as real people despite the great liberties taken with their personal stories to include more blood and sex for the viewing audience.  But anything that moves people to find out more about the period and characters is positive, I think.  (I was appalled to see a question in the syndicated Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz yesterday about Wars put the dates 1775 - 1783 in the PhD category for readers to identify the American Revolution?!  This isn't considered general knowledge any more?)  More power to any authors who can make reading history fun and interesting; just be sure to read several sources to weed out the biases all writers and historians have.