Note (101) — GENERAL WASHINGTON’S SPIES

For ten years an endeavor to discover a handwriting that corresponded with the existing documents written by Samuel Culper Junior, was continued without success, until, upon examining a chest of old documents, once the property of Robert Townsend of Oyster Bay, Long Island, a startling resemblance was discovered. This led to a critical examination of the letters written under the alias of Samuel Culper Junior, still preserved among the papers of General Washington, and it was found that the paper upon which they were written was identical. The same watermark, the same shade, the same weight, the same laid marks minutely varying one from the other on the same sheet, but corresponding exactly with all the little variations and flaws with other sheets among the Townsend Papers. The handwriting, looking so similar, was not declared identical until the world’s greatest expert, Albert S. Osborn, had examined it. The books showed accounts with Abraham Woodhull, who had already been identified as Culper Senior, and with several others known to be engaged in the secret service work. The movements of Culper Junior corresponded with those of Robert Townsend as revealed in his documents, and the stain invented by James Jay had been twice tested on documents still carefully preserved among Townsend’s effects. Long before all the evidence was discovered, it was certain that the identity of Culper Junior, that most active spy of the Revolution, had been revealed. Everything since gathered adds to the confirmation of that identity.