Summary

George Washington's Secret Six, by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger, recounts a little-known aspect of the American Revolution -- the fact that George Washington was aided by the efforts of a small, secret group of spies known as the Culper Spy Ring. Its members, by all appearances, led ordinary lives in Manhattan and on Long Island, but in fact they were gathering information on the British army and navy, and their work was instrumental in turning the war toward the Patriots' cause. In the book’s Preface, the authors note that historians long knew about the Culper Spy Ring that helped the Americans win the Revolutionary War, but not the name of its most valuable member. In 1929, Long Island historian Morton Pennypacker received some papers from the Townsends, an old and important Long Island family, and by matching the handwriting to letters...