In 1776, Benjamin Tallmadge followed his friend and Yale classmate, Nathan

Hale, into military service and quickly became a close advisor to General

George Washington. General Washington asked Tallmadge to assist in the

gathering of intelligence on Long Island in August of 1778. Major Tallmadge

established a small group of trustworthy men and women (all civilians) from

his hometown and the group became known as the Culper Ring.

For their secret correspondence, Tallmadge created a simple code with 710

commonly used words. The words were written alphabetically and then numbered

consecutively. He then added 53 numbers at the end to represent proper

names. Thus General Washington became 711, and Tallmadge, whose alias was

John Bolton, became 721. For words or numbers not in the dictionary, he

created a mixed-alphabet scheme. The Culper Ring also used sympathetic

inks, writing the real message in invisible ink between the lines of an

innocuous letter.

Tallmadge and the Culper Ring were one of Washington's best kept secrets of

the war. They had some critical successes during the war, including

uncovering a money counterfeiting operation, preventing a British surprise

attack on arriving French troops, and exposing Benedict Arnold's treason.

Their adventures were not discovered and made public until 1939.

Because of these innovations and accomplishments, Benjamin Tallmadge and the

Culper Ring can be credited with establishing the foundations of American

Military Intelligence.

To learn more about the 2012 MI Branch and Corps Commemoration, see the

public website at https://www.ikn.army.mil/apps/mi_comm/