![]() After the war ended, when Tallmadge reflected on this appointment in his memoir, he was demure in his description, saying only that “ opened a private correspondence with some persons in New York (for Gen. In 1778, Tallmadge was appointed director of military intelligence by George Washington, with the objective of securing information on the British in New York City. Tallmadge was present at major engagements, including the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown. His older brother William Tallmadge was taken prisoner at this battle and according to Tallmadge’s memoir, “literally starved to death in one of prisons.” 2 By December 1776, Benjamin Tallmadge had been appointed a captain in Colonel Elisha Sheldon’s prestigious 2d Regiment of Light Dragoons, and subsequently rose to the rank of major in April 1777. He first saw action in the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, which ended in a British victory. When the position of lieutenant in one of Connecticut’s six-month regiments of the Continental Army was offered to him by a Captain Chester of Wethersfield in 1776, Tallmadge readily accepted. After completing his studies in 1773, Tallmadge took up a teaching post at a school in Wethersfield, Connecticut.Īfter the Battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, Tallmadge began to think seriously about joining the army in support of American independence. While a student there, Tallmadge developed a close personal friendship with Nathan Hale, who would also eventually become involved in American espionage, though with a far more tragic end. Benjamin Tallmadge was well-educated in the classics by his father, and recounts in his memoir that, “President Dagget, on a visit to father, examined and admitted as qualified to enter college, when was twelve or thirteen years old.” 1 Though qualified, Tallmadge’s father did not choose to send him to Yale until 1769. He was the second of five sons born to the Rev. At the center of this ring, appointed by General George Washington to provide military intelligence from the British headquarters in New York City, was Major Benjamin Tallmadge.īenjamin Tallmadge was born on February 25, 1754, in Setauket, New York, on Long Island. American espionage has its roots in the Revolutionary War, specifically in the network known as the Culper Spy Ring.
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