“After sending several times across the Sound to open a new communication with Culper Junior, without success, I have finally referred the whole matter to him, who I expect will appoint such place and pick on such persons for his confidential friends, as will best answer our purpose, and inform me thereof.”
FOOTNOTES to “SECRET SERVICE SECRETS”:
[16] See Memoir of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, p. 130.
[17] It was this Austin Roe who fell from his horse and broke his leg while hurrying to keep an engagement with George Washington in 1790. The President was then touring Long Island and, probably without disclosing his reason to any one, requested the presence of those who had faithfully served him during the Revolution. Austin Roe had long occupied the Setauket homestead, later known as the Dering property, and still later owned by the Irwins who in 1936 moved the house to a new location. Roe’s brother, Captain Daniel Roe, was at the time occupying the Roe homestead at Port Jefferson, then called the Townsend house. Captain Nathaniel Roe was a cousin, not in the neighborhood at the time. Austin “bore the title of Captain,” his biographer says, but few knew what he commanded.
[18] Colonel Simcoe had been captured and was at the time a prisoner in New Jersey.
[19] Washington Papers, March 23d, 1780, No. 17458.
[20] Austin Roe might justly be called the Paul Revere of New York, with this difference, that instead of taking one wonderful ride Roe took a hundred. Paul Revere at his fastest speed did not equal this ride of Austin Roe that saved Newport from the British. Fifty-five miles he rode to reach Abraham Woodhull while Brewster waited to carry the message from Robert Townsend across the Sound. It gave General Washington the information that 8000 British troops were embarking at Whitestone destined for Newport, and that Admiral Graves with eleven ships was already on the way to Rhode Island to meet the French Fleet which they were assured consisted of only seven sail. The message reached Washington in time to get the information to British headquarters that an immediate attack upon New York was contemplated and therefore the forces were withdrawn from Newport before they had an opportunity to accomplish the work of destruction.
[21] On the tenth of July, 1780, a powerful fleet under Admiral Tarnay arrived in Newport Harbor, having on board some six thousand troops under the command of Count de Rochambeau. The expedition had been secretly fitted out at the instance of Lafayette, and nothing was known of it by the Americans until his return in May. On the 17th Lafayette left headquarters with full authority to arrange plans with the French commanders for future operations. Hall’s “Life of Parsons,” p. 296.
[22] As early as 1778 the British on Long Island had a method of transmitting important news that was as rapid almost as the telegraph is today. For this purpose beacons were established and a system of signals arranged. Among the papers of Major John Kissam have been preserved some of the instructions which so clearly state the eminences upon which these beacons were erected that there would be little trouble in locating them at the present day. Following are unabridged copies of these instructions:
Signals: Col. Hamilton will be so good as to place a man at the most convenient heights, to see Laurel Hill and Morris’s house. He will observe what signals are made from there—if there are 3 guns from Laurel hill and 3 fires from there or Morris’s house,