The Culper Ring's Greatest Achievements

The Culper Ring’s Greatest Achievements

Multiple letters written by Washington express his appreciation for the information provided by the spy ring; however, three specific pieces of information Washington received from the Culper Ring were significant enough to have direct effects on actions taken by Washington and, occasionally, the Continental Congress. In addition to their active role in obtaining the three pieces of information, the Culper Ring, “was also responsible for the apprehension of the British spy Major John André.” Each of the vital pieces of intelligence discovered by the Culper Ring was a different form of information. One was a piece of counter intelligence, one was regarding troop movements, and one was information about the British’s planning for

counterfeiting Continental currency. The counterintelligence information identified a British agent, Christopher Duychenik, who attempted to become a double agent. The Ring was even able to discover information regarding Duychenik personally and who he reported to, showing the Culper agents had access into William Franklin’s Tory intelligence network.

Such an achievement is even more impressive because of its close involvement with Clinton’s military intelligence operations. The information regarding British troop movements referred to an attempt to attack the French fleet in Newport, Rhode Island. Washington decided to fake an attack on New York City in a successful attempt to protect the French by forcing Clinton to recall his troops to protect the City. This piece of intelligence is often considered to be one of, if not the, most important piece of information provided by the Culper Ring, especially due to the French fleet’s essential role in the victory of the siege at Yorktown by alienating Cornwallis from the British Navy. Despite the inarguably direct importance of the Ring’s information pertaining to the French fleet, the piece of intelligence the Culper Ring provided that was the most effective and vital for the war effort and the emerging States regarded the British’s attempt to destroy the value of the paper money issued by Congress. In Townsend’s letter to Washington dating November 27, 1779, he explains to Washington that the British believe the war to be concluding because of the

depreciated value of the Congress’s currency. The British believed that if they were able to make undistinguishable counterfeits, they would be able to completely depreciate Continental currency, leading to Congress’s inability to form and supply an army and its campaigning. While the British created forgeries of Continental currencies throughout the war on orders from Lord Germain, “usually the print quality, design, and paper stock used by the British did not exactly match that of the Continental notes, and careful examination could reveal the British notes as forgeries.” However, according to Townsend, the British had acquired the exact paper Congress had most recently used to issue money, which could make the counterfeit bills indistinguishable. Due in part to Townsend’s information, the Congress recalled its currency, removing the danger of the British’s counterfeit money.
The Currency Crisis
Townsend’s discovery of the undetectable forgeries is the most important piece of intelligence the Culper Ring discovered in part due to the preexisting currency crisis within the United States. Confidence in Continental currency was already extremely low even among Patriots. The British used propaganda to convince Americans that forgeries existed within Continental currency as early as 1777, fueled by Lord Germain’s orders to use the Royal Navy’s resources to convincingly counterfeit Continental paper money. Despite the bills being slightly thicker than genuine Continental currency, the counterfeit bills were very well-made and challenging to identify, shown by the large amount of counterfeit bills in circulation. The British sold the forgeries for extremely low prices, and then flooded the Continental market and provided the bills to Loyalists, who in turn used them to pay their taxes. The situation became so disastrous that George Washington used capital punishment on distributors of the forgeries. Illegal trading was also common within the States in order to get reliable currency not issued by Congress, which patriots feared would destroy the Cause and drained cash from the States, who were already experiencing a financial crisis. The crisis in recognizable in actions taken by both the Spy Ring and its individual members, particularly Abraham Woodhull. When conducting activities for the Culper Ring, Woodhull required either bullion or British currency because not only was he unable to circulate the currency in British-occupied New York City and Long Island, but also, it was considered worthless as a form of currency. In another effort to gain money, Woodhull, being a farmer, would take his goods, and he, “would sail across the Sound and sell them for hard currency; that is, British pounds, not worthless, Congress-issued Continental dollars.” The currency crisis crippling Congress made any and all forms of economic intelligence essential to maintaining the support of the army.
While there is debate regarding the most important piece of intelligence collected by the Culper Ring, the discovery of Britain’s ability to completely destroy Continental currency was essential to maintaining the war effort. If Congress had lost all of its economic credibility, it would have been completely unable to fund and provide for its military, forcing an end to the war due to America’s inability to fight. The excessiveness of the Culper Ring and the dedication of its agents to both accuracy and secrecy allowed for Townsend to discover Britain’s possession of the identical paper and send the information directly to Washington. Washington’s previous experience with and trust in Townsend led him to write a letter to Congress warning them of the imminent danger. Due to the preexisting currency crisis and Washington providing Townsend’s intelligence, Congress recalled it bills, removing the threat of the counterfeited bills and allowing for the war to continue. The importance of the Culper Ring to the Patriots winning the war is inarguable, due especially to their three critical discoveries, chiefly, the uncontrolled British threat to America’s currency and support for the Continental Army