Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes: Espionage in the American Revolution

Even those well-read in the American Revolution are probably unaware of the extensive and often crucial espionage developed by both the British and Continental armies during the conflict. Besides reexamining in fresh perspective such well-known figures as Paul Revere, Nathan Hale, Benedict Arnold, and John Andre, the author, a former general staff intelligence officer in World War II, reveals the exploits and tribulations of scores of other spies: Ann Bates, the Tory agent who spied at Washington's headquarters and who, when fleeing for her life, paused to count American artillery; the high-ranking traitor Dr. Benjamin Church, the Continental Army's Director General of Hospitals, caught as a result of a careless mistress; Lydia Darragh, the Quaker housewife who spied for Washington himself; Sergeant Major John Champe, who posed as a deserter from the rebel army in order to capture Benedict Arnold; and many others. From the plot to kidnap George Washington to the fall of Yorktown, here are the clandestine activities of the spies, counterspies, and double agents who risked life and honor fighting a silent, anonymous shadow war.