11. An Enterprising Spy Helped Win the American Revolution With Petticoats
Anna Smith Strong (1740 – 1812) of Setauket, New York, played an important role in the American Revolution’s most important espionage network, the Culper Spy Ring. Abraham Woodhull, the ring’s leader, traveled to New York City under the cover of his occupation as a farmer delivering produce. There, he gathered information about British units in the city, their dispositions, and any news overheard from talkative Loyalists and British officers. Close questioning by inquisitive Redcoats during one visit drove home to Woodhull the risks he was running. To reduce his exposure, he began recruiting spies in the city, and using their reports instead of his personal observations. Woodhull then delivered the intelligence to Caleb Brewster, a courier and smuggler who ran a whaleboat. Brewster delivered it to Major Benjamin Tallmadge, who finally delivered it to George Washington.
It was a time-consuming process that was eventually shortened by using couriers to collect the information in NYC, and speed it to Setauket, 55 miles away. Anna Strong, a neighbor and friend of Woodhull and Brewster, used her laundry as a code to coordinate when intelligence was ready to gather, and where it should be collected. When Brewster was ready to pick up Woodhull’s reports, Anna would hang a black petticoat in her laundry as a signal to Woodhull. Woodhull would then finish compiling a report, and stash it in a prearranged hiding spot in one of six nearby coves. Anna would then hang up white handkerchiefs to dry, their number corresponding to the code number of the cove where Woodhull had stashed the report. Brewster would then go to the cove, pick up the report, and deliver it to the Patriots.