To Mr. Nathan Hale
New London.
Wethersfield, July 4, 1775.
[9] Hale knew his mother was not living. It was an incorrect guess that one of the letters was for her.
[10] In a letter from New York we hear that no person is suffered to go out of the town without giving proper notices of their departure to Gen. Howe; nor no person suffered to enter without their being first strictly examined by the general officers commanding the several gates for admittance.—Middlesex Journal, Sept 24, 1776.
[11] Although most of our large cities have had fires equalling that of New York, yet because New York’s happened just at the time Nathan Hale was there there are those who contend that he must have had a hand in it. So insistent were some that an exhaustive study of the subject seemed desirable. For this purpose contemporary charts of the tide and records of the wind on the date of the fire were studied and the route of the men from near Whitestone to 111th Street. The conclusion arrived at is that Hale could have had no part in the fire aside from the possibility of his being an interested eye witness. It must not be forgotten that he was sent over to Long Island—the British had not yet entered New York, and from the spot from which he started on his way to Long Island it was at that time possible to send any man to any part of the city of New York within an hour. It is not possible to believe that any sane man would start on a week’s journey to reach a destination he could arrive at in safety within an hour. Had Hale, discovering the opportunity favorable, turned aside from the work he was given to do, he being sent as a spy to discover and report the intentions of the enemy, he would have deserved the treatment of a deserter at the hands of General Washington and if he had given the British any proof that he had acted the part of an incendiary he would have met death accordingly, and not as alleged “because upon him they discovered notes and documents that proved him to be a spy.” True many favored destroying the city at that time, and it is also a fact that a large quantity of inflammable material was left in the city when the troops under General Washington moved north, and to these were added additional stores that the British brought with them. The area of the fire may have been increased thereby but the contemporary conclusion that its origin was accidental cannot be changed.
GENERAL WASHINGTON’S SPIES
The capture and execution of Nathan Hale made a failure of the attempt to get instant information from within the British lines; but it formed a determination in the General’s mind to establish a Secret Service Bureau that would be more carefully planned and consequently less liable to disappointing results. The man selected to manage the spy system within the city of New York was Robert Townsend, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. Without discovery he furnished General Washington with correct information throughout the war, and at its close, lest harm should come to him, the General determined that his identity should never be revealed. His books, which remained sealed for over a century, now permit positive identification.[(101)]
Before the war began, Robert Townsend acted as purchasing agent for his father, in importing flax and sugar and molasses, tea and coffee and iron and rum and similar commodities,[(102)] and there is a suggestion that he may have collected a secret fund for the “Sons of Liberty” in 1772, ’73, and ’74. His first war work commenced when the Provincial Convention resolved unanimously on August 24, 1776, “That Robert Townsend be a commissary to supply Brigadier-General Woodhull’s Brigade with provisions”; but it may have been abruptly ended with the capture of Woodhull and the scattering of his men.[(103)] Released from other employment he had opportunity and with the gift of a keen observation was able to assist General Scott and later Abraham Woodhull in collecting intelligence. Lack of confidence might have deterred him from making more than verbal reports had they been required but at the moment they were satisfactory, and either Woodhull or Scott embodied his information in the reports to headquarters. Every general was prepared to furnish spies, but the arrangement now being made was of a more permanent nature, General Washington proposing that they should establish headquarters right in the heart of the British camp. General Chas. Scott took particular interest in arranging for this but was called to other service before it was fully organized. Major Benjamin Tallmadge, of the Second Regiment, Light Dragoons, was then selected to carry on the work. Tallmadge was a native of Long Island, born at Brookhaven in Suffolk County on February 25, 1754; and it was, therefore, natural for him to expect to find there those in whom he could place the greatest confidence. In this he was not disappointed. Men there were already anxious to be serviceable to their country’s cause in any capacity. Abraham Woodhull, Caleb Brewster, and Austin Roe, were among the leaders. So important was their work that without them little from New York City could have reached the General.
The exact date when the service of systematically transmitting intelligence commenced cannot be ascertained. In his “Memoir,” Colonel Tallmadge merely records:
“This year [1778] I opened a private correspondence with some persons in New York [for Gen. Washington] which lasted through the war. How beneficial it was to the Commander-in-Chief is evidenced by his continuing the same to the close of the war. I kept one or more boats constantly employed in crossing the Sound on this business.... My station was in the county of Westchester, and occasionally along the shores of the Sound.”