Book Review of
George Washington’s Secret Six
When George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring. He realized that he couldn’t defeat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York.
Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have offered fascinating portraits of these spies: a reserved Quaker merchant, a tavern keeper, a brash young longshoreman, a curmudgeonly Long Island bachelor, a coffeehouse owner, and a mysterious woman. Long unrecognized, the secret six are finally receiving their due among the pantheon of American heroes.
Grace's Review
I really, really, really enjoy books about spies and this one definitely has a fascinating element to spies in this book. We often hear of Benedict Arnold, who was the British spy, and Nathan Hale, who was hung for being an American spy, but we rarely hear of any other spies in the Revolutionary War. This book discusses the spy ring that George Washington helped set up and it spends some time talking about the British spy ring. This book may take a chapter or two to get into, but it is definitely worth the wait because it has many mysterious elements to what may have been occurring in the Revolutionary War spy ring.