Monthly Archives: September 2023

Colonial Spymaster (#9) — Disinformation

If you employ spies, it is very likely that your enemy also has spies.  One very effective means of concealing the true conditions or plans in a sea of false options and making those false options more likely and more true.  Today, we call this “fake news” but “fake news” isn’t something recently developed.  It …

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Colonial Spymaster (#8) — Steganography

Steganography is the practice of concealing a message within another message. The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that the intended secret message does not attract attention to itself as an object of scrutiny. Plainly visible encrypted messages, no matter how unbreakable they are, arouse interest whereas, steganography both conceals the message and hides …

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Historical Tidbits — Congress creates the United States Army

When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. September 29, 1789 – Congress created the United States Army.  Following the Revolution, the Continental Army was disbanded.  This act of Congress under the US Constitution created a permanent …

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Colonial Spymaster (#7) — How the Culper Ring Relayed Information from New York to Washington

The Culper Ring developed a complex method of gathering and relaying information to General George Washington. Below is the sequence of steps the Ring would take to gather and relay the valuable information. (The process of replaying information has many different variations due to its complexity and secrecy.) Abraham Woodhull (Samuel Culper) would visit his …

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Colonial Spymaster (#6) — The Culper Ring and its Codes

Benjamin Tallmadge established a small group of trustworthy men and women from his hometown of Setauket, Long Island. Known as the Culper Spy Ring, Tallmadge’s homegrown network would become the most effective of any intelligence-gathering operation on either side during the Revolutionary War. Tallmadge recruited his childhood friend, the farmer Abraham Woodhull, and Caleb Brewster, …

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Historical Tidbits — British take possession of Philadelphia

When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. September 27, 1777        British take possession of Philadelphia During the summer of 1777, the British army began an initiative to capture the colonial capitol of Philadelphia. British General Howe …

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Colonial Spymaster (#5) — Pigpen Cypher

The Pigpen Cipher is another example of a substitution cipher, but rather than replacing each letter with another letter, the letters are replaced by symbols. The cipher has an interesting history: although its true origins are unknown, it has been used by many groups. Most notoriously, it was the cipher of choice for use by …

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