“Samuel Culper.”
In a letter enclosing the preceding to Headquarters Major Tallmadge adds:
“It may not be amiss to observe, in addition to Culper’s letter, that the gentleman mentioned by him to have lately arrived from England, is one Doctr. Nicoll, a gentleman of my acquaintance, on the varacity of whose report I have been persuaded I might safely depend—Your Excellency will perceive by the enclosed that C—— has drawn for 26 or 27 Guineas. In addition to this he has forwarded an order for the payment of sd. money to his friend. If your Excellency should see fit to transmit any money, it may be safely entrusted to the Bearer, on whose integrity I could depend in matters of much greater importance.”
As will later be observed, General Washington was now in receipt of a secret formula for their correspondence, which he wished to put to use. Therefore he answered Major Tallmadge saying: “I should be glad to have an interview with Culper myself, in which I would put the mode of corresponding upon such a footing that even if his letters were to fall into the enemy’s hands, he would have nothing to fear, on that account.” However in his letter following the above he says: “When I desired an interview with him I did not know his peculiar situation. I now see the danger that so long an absence would incur and I must leave it entirely to you to manage the correspondence in such a manner as will most probably insure safety to him and answer the desired end.”
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Major Tallmadge answered this on December 23d, saying: “Since your Excellency judges it improper to have an interview with C——, any private instructions which you may wish to transmit him, not so proper for me to transcribe, may be very safely conveyed to him, as from the regularity of his dispatches and the characters of the persons who I know are entrusted with their conveyance from N. Y. to Brook Haven, I dare venture to say there is not the least probability, and I had almost said hardly a possibility of a discovery.”
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From Philadelphia on January 2d, 1779, came instructions for Major Tallmadge to forward his letters through General Putnam. “There are regular Expresses established between Danbury and the Head Quarters of the Army,” it reads. “And you therefore need not in future send a special messenger the whole way. Send your letters to General Putnam at or near Danbury, letting him know that they are to be forwarded with dispatch. I shall get them sooner than by a single express.”
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Culper’s next letter, dated Feb. 26, is one of great length,[(105)] detailing the strength and position of all the troops of the enemy. In the closing paragraph he says: “Coll. Floyd returned on his Parole the 16. I earnestly wrote you for his discharge. I repeat it again, I anxiously desire you would not forget. I am very likely to stand in need of his services. I desire you will send me one hundred pounds, by the next appointment without fail, as I have spent already forty pounds more than I have received from you. Board is £3 per week in New York besides other necessary expenses postage and etcetra.”