Welcome to the Culper Spy Ring

My name is Abraham Woodhull, also known as Samuel Culper. I grew up in the small town of Setauket on Long Island in New York. My sources tell me you’ve been learning about our great revolution against Britain. I don’t think you’ve quite heard the whole story. You can’t possibly understand what it was like to be a patriot living in a den of loyalists. New York, and especially Long Island, was not friendly to our cause. Most of the British army was housed here in the early years of the war and most colonists had no interest in revolution. What could I do as just one farmer?

I decided to do what I could. I would live among the people and soldiers and pass on whatever information I could to the patriot army. I became a spy.

Little did I expect that getting the information would be the easy part. Soldiers like to talk (especially after spending a night at the tavern) and it was easy to convince people I supported the British. The difficulty then came in getting the information to the patriot army.

New York was under martial law – meaning the Redcoats had complete control. You couldn’t even travel without their permission.

So, we devised a series of codes and techniques so we could remain undetected. We want you to learn about our tactics today. However, getting the information to you has proven difficult. I’ve managed to smuggle in a few documents without detection. As a precaution, we’ve had to encode the information. You will need to learn how spy codes known as cyphers work so you can decode the documents and solve the puzzles I have laid out for you and prove your worth as a spy.

For safety reasons we’ve divided the clues into multiple locations.

If you get stuck, you may ask your instructor for a hint. She may, or may not, help you. Remember though, you can always look to General Washington himself. He will always point you in the right direction as he did for me.

Good luck.

Samuel Culper