15. Unmasking a Traitor
One of Robert Townsend’s greatest coups resulted from the unwelcome, but as it turned out fortuitous, quartering of British officers in the Townsend family home in Oyster Bay. During the British stay, one of Townsend’s sisters overheard a visiting officer, John Andre – Benjamin Tallmadge’s British intelligence counterpart – discussing the defection of a high-ranking American hero. She passed that on to her brother, and from there it worked its way through Townsend’s ring to Tallmadge. It eventually contributed to the unmasking of Benedict Arnold as a traitor.
It began with enterprising spy work in the fall of 1780. Townsend’s ring’s skullduggery led first to the capture of British intelligence officer John Andre, and Andre’s capture, in turn, led to unraveling Benedict Arnold’s treason. It spared the American side from what would have been a dramatic espionage coup that might have altered the war’s outcome and the course of history.