Person:Benjamin Tallmadge (1)

About Benjamin Tallmadge

The Culper Ring was a spy ring organized by American Major (later Colonel) Benjamin Tallmadge under orders from General George Washington in the summer of 1778 during British occupation of New York City at the height of the American Revolutionary War. The "Culper" name was suggested by Washington who devised it from Culpeper County, Virginia.[1] The two main members of the Ring, Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend, used "Samuel Culper, Sr." and "Samuel Culper, Jr." respectively, as aliases.[2] Tallmadge was in direct contact with and control of the Ring but Washington often directed its operations.[3] Tallmadge was referred to by the alias of "John Bolton."[1]

The Ring's task was to send messages to General Washington about the activities of the British Army in New York City, the British headquarters and base of operations. The members of the Ring operated mostly in New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut. The Ring's covert operations started in about late October 1778 and continued through the British evacuation of New York in 1783, but its heyday was between 1778 and 1781.[4]

The Culper Ring provided valuable information to General Washington including that the British planned a surprise attack on the newly allied French forces under Lieutenant General Rochambeau at Newport, Rhode Island before the French could fully recover and set up defenses after their arduous sea journey to America; that the British planned to counterfeit American currency on the actual paper used for the Continental dollars, prompting the Continental Congress to retire the bills; that British Major General William Tryon's raid in Connecticut in July 1779 was a diversion to induce Washington to divide his forces so British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton could attack them piecemeal; and that a high ranking American officer, soon shown to be American Major General Benedict Arnold, had been plotting with British Major John Andre to surrender the garrison and to turn over the vitally important American fort at West Point, New York on the Hudson River to the British Army.

Ancestry.com

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, in Year Book By Sons of the Revolution. New York Society.

   p 471 -
   TALLMADGE, BENJAMIN (1754-1835)
   Adjutant, Colonel John Chester's REgiment Connecticut State Troops, June 20, 1776 ; Brigade-Major to Brigadier-General James Wadsworth, Connecticut State Troops, October 11, 1776 ; Captain 2d Regiment Continental Light Dragoons, Colonel Elisha Sheldon, December 14, 1776 ; Major same, April 7, 1777 ; at Long Island and White Plains ; conducted "secret service" for the Commander-in-Chief ; captured Fort George, Long Island, November 21, 1780, and received special notice of Congress, December 6, 1780 ; served at General Washington's headquarters, March, 1781 - November, 1783 ; Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet, September 30, 1783. ...
   
   [Descendants: Clarence Delafield, Tallmadge Delafield, Frederick Samuel Tallmadge.]

   Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Benjamin Tallmadge, in Colonial Collegians: Biographies of Those Who Attended American Colleges before the War for Independence. (Boston, Mass.: Massachusetts Historical Society & New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005)
   Yale:1616-18.
3. ↑ Col Benjamin Tallmadge II, in Find A Grave.