Person:Abraham Woodhull (1)

About Abraham Woodhull

Abraham Woodhull (October 7, 1750 – January 23, 1826) was a leading member of the American Culper Spy Ring in New York City and Setauket, New York during the American Revolution. He used the alias "Samuel Culper", later "Samuel Culper, Sr.," a play on Culpeper County, Virginia suggested by George Washington. The Culper Ring was a successful operation which provided Washington with valuable information on the British Army headquartered in and operating out of New York, from October 1778 until the end of the American Revolutionary War. After the United States gained independence, Woodhull served as a magistrate and a judge in Suffolk County, New York.

Background

Woodhull was a descendant of Richard Lawrence Woodhull, Esq., a wealthy settler of Setauket[1] and a relative of New York militia Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull.[2] His parents were Judge Richard Woodhull (1712–1788) and Mary Woodhull (née Smith).[3]

Woodhull served as a lieutenant in the Suffolk County, New York militia in the fall of 1775 but resigned after a few months.[4] Woodhull was motivated by the murder of his older cousin, Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull of the New York militia, who was wounded by sword and bayonet cuts after being captured on August 29, 1776.[5] According to some reports, General Woodhull was deprived of medical care and food and suffered an agonizing death on September 20, 1776.[2] Though he was inflamed against the British by this event, Abraham Woodhull did not immediately take up arms or begin spying. Not only was he more placid than some of his friends who joined the Continental Army at the outset of the war, but as the only surviving son of aging parents and brother of a sister still at home, the unmarried Woodhull stayed on the family farm to attend to his family and their property.[4]

Spy Ring

In August 1778, Continental Army Major Benjamin Tallmadge approached his neighbor from Setauket, Abraham Woodhull, about spying for the Patriot cause in the American Revolutionary War. Tallmadge had just talked with Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, who then released Woodhull after he had been caught smuggling across Long Island Sound.[6] Woodhull soon agreed. In September 1778, a traditional spy operation in New York City authorized by Continental chief of intelligence General Charles Scott lost three officers. Washington then permitted Tallmadge to go ahead with his operation to set up a spy network in New York with Woodhull as the lead agent. Tallmadge became chief of intelligence in October 1778.

Woodhull began spying in October 1778, sending his first "Samuel Culper" letter on October 29, 1778 after swearing an oath of loyalty to the Crown as cover.[7] His plan was to travel to Manhattan, ostensibly to visit his married sister, Mary Underhill and her husband, Amos Underhill (a descendant of Captain John Underhill), at their boarding house. While in Manhattan, he would collect information from various sources, including British officers staying at the Underhill boarding house, and then return to Setauket, where he could pass the information to Continental Army Lieutenant and whaleboat operator, Caleb Brewster to take across Long Island Sound to Tallmadge. Tallmadge would then send the information to General George Washington.

Tallmadge developed a code to communicate with members of the ring that the casual member of the British forces would be unable to decode. This code was a series of letters and numbers that could make an ordinary message look like gibberish. In some of his letters, Woodhull used a type of invisible ink (gallic acid), invented by Sir James Jay, brother of John Jay. The letter containing the ink needed to be brushed with iron sulfate, rather than just passed over heat or light, to be read. These measures helped maintain secrecy and ease Woodhull's anxiety about possibly being detected.

The initial plan had problems. Woodhull's visits to his sister were too frequent to be understandable, especially given the danger. Additionally, he spent all of the time he was supposed to be visiting with his sister wandering the city without an obvious purpose, suggesting there was another reason he traveled to New York. The British became suspicious by the spring of 1779, and on June 5 of that year, the Long Island-based Queen's Rangers, under the command of Colonel John Graves Simcoe, were sent to the Woodhull family home to find Abraham. Abraham was not at home at the time and avoided capture, but the Rangers attacked his father.[8] Later, a distant relative, Colonel Benjamin Floyd, a Loyalist militia officer vouched for Woodhull and immediate suspicion of him was lifted.

Woodhull's situation was too precarious to continue using the same plan. To escape the immediate danger of capture, he sought help from a friend who was sufficiently powerful to personally know the "Gen'l Aid", a phrase that seems to refer to one of Major John André's many military titles, to take over the operation in New York City.[citation needed] Woodhull recruited Robert Townsend, who lived at his sister's boardinghouse, was distantly related, and shared Woodhull's social status. Woodhull sounded out Townsend and discovered that he was a secret Patriot, having been radicalized by depredations in his home town of Oyster Bay and on his family property by Colonel Simcoe and his men. Townsend sent his first report as "Samuel Culper, Junior" on June 20, 1779. Townsend was better suited to spy in Manhattan, since he had an obvious reason to be in New York. Moreover, his mercantile background gave him a good reason to inquire about British troop movements and shipping.

Austin Roe, main courier for the Ring after Woodhull stopped going to New York City to gather intelligence personally, and Jonas Hawkins dropped out, would deliver messages via dead drop, burying the messages in a box in a pasture he rented on Woodhull's property to avoid suspicion by his presence there, where Woodhull would know to look for it.[9]

Aftermath

Woodhull married his cousin Mary Smith in 1781 and had three children with her.[12] He held a few minor political appointments, including Suffolk County magistrate, in which position he served from 1799-1810.[12][13] His wife died in 1806.[12] In 1824, Woodhull married Lydia Terry.[12] He died in Setauket on January 23, 1826 and is buried alongside his wife and several generations of Woodhulls in the Burial Ground of the Presbyterian Church in Setauket.[12]

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Abraham Woodhull (October 7, 1750January 23, 1826) was a leading member of the Culper Spy Ring in New York City and Setauket, New York, during the American Revolutionary War. He used the alias "Samuel Culper" (later "Samuel Culper Sr."), which was a play on Culpeper County, Virginia, and was suggested by George Washington.

The Culper Ring was a successful operation that provided Washington with valuable information on the British Army headquartered in New York from October 1778 to the end of the war. After the United States gained independence, Woodhull served as a magistrate, as had his father before him, and served as a judge in Suffolk County, New York.

1.   A120
   Brookhaven, p 74.