Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Michael Ganske discussed intelligence gathering and espionage during the American Revolution at a recent Warren County Historical Society event.

But let’s just say that this kind of work isn’t anything new.

A retired CIA officer, Michael Ganske, discussed intelligence gathering and espionage activities during the Revolutionary War as part of the Warren County Historical Society’s annual meeting last week.

“Throughout history, there is one commodity that has never lost its value,” he said. “Information. Those who had the information succeeded and their culture or society improved.”

He called the revolutionary period a “tumultuous time” where it was often “very difficult to tell” who was with who.

Library of Congress image No single person is remembered for his role in Revolutionary War espionage than this man - Benedict Arnold.

So what were the methods?

Boy, were there quite a few – codes, ciphers, dictionary codes where messages would be encrypted corresponding to the letters on a specific page and line, invisible ink (“everybody had a different formula”) and disguise.

“It’s good to know who you’re fighting against,” Ganske said. “Sometimes you don’t know.”

The approaches to intelligence gathering varied just as much as the people themselves.

John Jay and his brother “had a little spy ring going,” Ganske said, and developed invisible ink codes and ciphers to respond when “there might be British soldiers on the road” and messages could get intercepted.

He also explained dead drops – one source leaves information for another at a designated point. That is employed “when you have a source and you want to get information from them but don’t ever want to be seen together.”

How that information moved also required unique approaches.

“Lydia Darragh was an interesting case as well,” he explained. She and her family would house British soldiers during the war… but she would listen from a nearby closet. She would get the information that she learned about British activities back to her brothers who was in the Continental Army. She would do little folded up pieces of paper and sow them to the backs of the buttons of his uniforms.”

Daniel Bissell took the approach of appearing to desert colonial forces, posing as a loyalist “and they would trust him. He would learn things. He would pass that back to Washington and so forth about British fortifications as well as operations.”

Nathan Hale may be remembered for the saying “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country” but the context of when he said that fits into this intelligence gathering story – he was caught and executed by the British for spying.

“He had no training,” Ganske said. “So when he was stopped on the road by the British soldiers, it took all of five to seven minutes” before he admitted being a spy.

Hale is immortalized in a statue at CIA headquarters.

“We revere him,” Ganske said. “Was he the best spy ever? No. Was he willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country? Yes. So we honor him for that.”

Hercules Mulligan used his tailoring business to gather information that his slave Cato would take to Washington. Ganske said that information prevented at least one assassination attempt on Washington.

Some of these efforts appear to be on an individual basis but Ganske highlighted the Culper Spy Ring formed by none other than Washington himself.

Ganske said that Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge “organized this group of patriots that were willing to provide information and get information to General Washington.” He highlighted how information through that group was able to move on land and see from New York into Connecticut.

One historical curiosity is agent 355, who operated as a spy for the colonists.

Ganske said we still don’t know her name but that she’s believed to be from New York City.

“She was of prominence,” he said, “and would engage in many of the British galas… so she collected a lot of information. Quite frankly, gentlemen, females are much better at getting the information than we are.”

This was a two sided game – Dr. Benjamin Church, Ganske said, was part of Paul Revere’s group but provided information to the British as well as “false information to the Continental Congress. Dr. Edward Bancroft passed information on the French-American alliance that were “detrimental and prolonged the war by a great deal.”

The most notable piece of loyalist espionage though has to be Benedict Arnold.

“When the war broke out, he did volunteer,” Ganske said.

He was recruited by another spy, John Andre, to provide “information to Andre regarding Washington’s movement and a detailed map… of West Point…. It was a place that was highly desired. The British offered him the equivalent of 20,000 pounds at the time… to provide detailed maps.”

Ganske noted that Arnold felt he “should have been Washington’s aide-de-camp. He had an ego” and felt the Continental Congress wasn’t rewarding his efforts. “At the time he maneuvered himself into being commander of West Point.

Arnold changed sides and entered our popular lexicon as a result.

But, Ganske said, Arnold’s situation follows a pattern “that we see in a large majority of spies – underappreciated, ego, money.”