Spies, Lies and Lovers

What if your country was at war and the enemy occupied your town? You would need to have a secure way of sending and receiving secret communications, especially if you were in the militia or army. This is precisely what happened when America’s War for Independence started in April 1775. Both the British and the Americans used spy craft and covert actions to great effect during the war.

My novel, The Rebel Isidore Samuels is an action-adventure, romance story set during the American war for Independence. It’s June, 1775 in Newport, RI and the American Revolution has broken out in the British colonies. This story is about Isidore Samuels, a dashing surgeon, fearless Patriot and member of the Sons of Liberty. At his sister’s wedding, he meets the like-minded, spirited and indomitable midwife, Emma Potts. Sparks ignite. That is until Isidore discovers that a mystery from his past threatens to overshadow his future with Emma. See this story is about Isidore’s redemption and the challenges that he must confront before he can win the heart of his beloved Emma.

There are several scenes in the book where spy craft takes center stage. In the opening scene, Isidore, a member of the Sons of Liberty, is at his sister’s wedding while at the same time the Sons of Liberty have a rendezvous at Gooseneck Cove, a secret smuggling location where they plan to receive French muskets and powder crucial for the war effort. Isidore receives a mysterious letter from a courier in which a secret message was written between the lines in invisible ink. Isidore ducks out of sight from the wedding party and in his room decodes the message by using a candle to heat up the letter so that the secret message appears. Isidore is shocked to read that the British regulars had found out about the secret rendezvous point where contraband would be delivering that night. What’s at stake is that the colonial militia badly needs these supplies. But for Isidore the stakes are even more personal, his friend, and mentor, Dr. Meriwether is at the rendezvous point and if Isidore can’t get there in time, his mentor would likely be captured or killed. And to make matters worse Isidore suspects that there must be an informant or traitor within the Sons of Liberty that must be fettered out.

The Culper Spy Ring

During the Revolutionary War General Washington recognized the need for an organized approach to espionage. Compared to the formidable British forces, Washington’s army was under-trained, under-staffed, under-equipped and under-funded. In order to win, he needed to outmaneuver and out-smart the enemy. Perhaps you’re familiar with the most famous American spies of this period? They were the Culper Spy Ring. General Washington as a young man worked as a surveyor in Culpeper county and he used a shortened version of that name for his spy ring. Washington used his spies to gather information on British troop movements, troop strength and military strategy. The Culper Ring included Major Benjamin Tallmadge, who was tasked with operating the spy ring, and to gather information on the British ship arrivals, strength, positions, and troop morale, and to report this vital information to Washington. The rest of the group included, Austin Roe, Caleb Brewster, Abraham Woodhull, Anna Strong and various other trusted associates, including Hercules Mulligan and Robert Townsend. Their efforts throughout the war saved soldiers lives and helped turn the tide of the war. Spying was a dangerous business. Spies who were caught like Nathan Hale were summarily hung. Tallmadge practiced every precaution so that the identity and safety of the spies were the priority. In fact their names were so well guarded, that even Washington was not informed of them. Talmadge used code numbers rather than names to reference the spies.

General Washington was kept informed of the British by this chain of agents. Roe would visit Townsend’s dry-goods store in Manhattan to purchase supplies for his farm in Setauket and collect the latest British troop news. Roe hid these letters and reports on his horse and rode to Woodhull’s farm in Setauket on Long Island where they were left at a dead-drop location. Local tradition claims that Anna Strong resident of Setauket and a friend and neighbor of Abraham Woodhull, helped pass along messages from the spy ring by posting prearranged signals to indicate when one of the spies was ready to submit intelligence. If she hung a black petticoat on her clothesline, it meant that Brewster had arrived in town in his whaleboat. Also, she would hang a number of white handkerchiefs to indicate which of the six hiding places he was in. Woodhull used her signals to meet Brewster or to drop messages at one of the meeting places. Brewster would take the valuable information and row back to the Connecticut shore. Tallmadge’s dragoons would collect the messages from Brewster and ride to General Washington’s headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey.

Spy Techniques

Continental Army Spy craft during the Revolution comprised a complicated system of interpersonal relationships, personal cunning, guile and risk taking. There were ciphers, which were often numbers used in a way to convey a coded message in a letter. And there was invisible ink, usually comprising a mixture of ferrous sulfate and water. British spies placed rolled up letters and hid them in hollowed out quills of large feathers and hollowed out silver balls. There were also mask letters. These had the message disguised within the body of the letter. The recipient would put a mask over the letter and the genuine message of the letter would then appear within the boundaries of the “mask.”

Spies, Lies and Lovers

And just as the Continental Army spied on the British, they in turn infiltrated the Patriots. The most famous double agent was Benedict Arnold. Arnold a talented Major General believed he was passed up for higher promotion by Congress, he also had large financial debts and was perhaps influenced by his wife’s family who had Loyalist sympathies. Arnold conspired with top British intelligence officer Major John Andre to seal the treasonous deal to hand over the military fortification at West Point New York and Continental control of the Hudson River to British control.

In my novel, wealthy Newport socialite, Maggie Dickinson, plays a major role. She’s a femme fatale and forms part of the love triangle between herself, Isidore and Emma. Maggie was a former Patriot and girlfriend of Isidore’s and has been turned by the British to gather information from the Sons of Liberty on the Continental Army’s strategy. Maggie is both beautiful and dangerous. She works as a spy for British Commodore Charles Bartlett. Her first assignment is to seduce Isidore into telling her information that can be useful to the British. And as former lovers, she tries to win his heart back and lures him into coming with her to her aunt’s plantation in the West Indies by promising him great wealth for his efforts to turn the enterprise around. When she realizes that Isidore can not be swayed and loves Emma Potts, she sets Isidore up to be taken prisoner by Bartlett. Can Isidore escape the deadly clutches of Bartlett to rescue Emma? What mysterious part of Isidore’s past is he trying to redeem? And can Isidore break the chains that have fettered him to the past, so that he can once again love Emma? You’ll have to pick up a copy of the book to find out!