Agent 355
In timely fashion, with the release of Bond’s ‘No Time to Die’, and a new American female ensemble action spy movie, aptly entitled ‘The 355’, we dedicate this post to the USA’s first female spy.
Say it enough times and it’s just as catchy as 007. Except this formidable master of espionage was a woman during the American Revolution.
Agent 355 was the only woman in the six-member Culper Ring, a spy network created by US Major Benjamin Tallmadge on the orders of Washington in 1778. This was during the British occupation of New York City and the Culper Ring would play a massive part in helping the Americans win their independence.
We’re talking invisible ink and secret codes. In non-spy speak, the number 355 simply meant ‘female spy’. They weren’t called patriots in petticoats for nothing. If a female spy wore a black petticoat, it meant she had valuable information. White handkerchiefs referred to a safe rendezvous to exchange that info. And red petticoats meant a letter from Washington himself had arrived. FYI, ‘711’ referred to George Washington.
Agent 355, or ‘The Lady’, who worked in New York City could have referred to any number of women who were helping with information. Was she a specific person? Was she, as some suggest, Anna Smith Strong (also known as Nancy), whose husband Selah was captured and imprisoned on the notorious prison ship HMS Jersey? Left to manage her family and New York farm alone, it’s highly possible she worked for the Revolutionary cause and used her laundry line to send out covert information. (In honour of the famous general one of her sons was even named George Washington.)
Was she Elizabeth Burgin, known by many revolutionaries as a true heroine for delivering letters and helping an alleged 200 prisoners of war escape the clutches of the British? Although the majority of her actions are still shrouded in mystery, they were enough to ensure that Congress awarded her an annual pension.
Was she Sarah Horton Townsend, a cousin of Quaker Robert Townsend (code name Culper Jr, and known as 723) who was in charge of the Culper network? Or Sally Townsend, one of Robert’s sisters? Their home, Raynham Hall in New York’s Oyster Bay, was taken over by British officers when they captured Long Island. Sally fell in love with Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe – but on discovering vital information, did she betray him for the Revolutionary cause? Then there’s Lydia Barrington Darragh, who managed to alert Washington to an impending attack on his troops.
Underestimating women being the norm, men on both sides of the American Revolution, whether Loyalist or Revolutionary, would have found it hard to countenance that their gentle, home-making, matronly women were involved in espionage. A perfect cover, then. If they had been caught, they would have been executed, no questions asked.
Whoever she was, she was damned good at her job and clearly had access to the upper echelons of British political and military society. In a massive coup for espionage, 355 helped expose Benedict Arnold and Major John Andre, the men in charge of England’s intelligence operations in the Big Apple, who were fully prepared to betray their American side for the British.
Often referred to as the hidden daughter of the American Revolution, it is fair to say that General George Washington owed 355 a great deal.
“Agent 355’ is an excerpt from ‘Historical Heroines’, by Michelle Rosenberg, for Pen & Sword. The film ‘The 355’ opens at cinemas later in 2021.
