October 18, 2025 • 16 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We had a lot of very positive feedback on last
week's podcast about that.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Pete Hegseth did.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
They have a different guest each week, and he was
the guest doing the podcast last week. And it's from
Hillsdale College, and we think they do fantastic work, and
we sometimes amplify the work that they're doing. They have
a series they're doing called The Story of America. And
since so many people enjoyed last week, we're sharing another
(00:30):
episode with you. You know, when you think about the Revolutionary War,
you think about the battles, and you think about the effort.
You know, these were citizen soldiers. These were citizens in
their own homes, as you know the story of Paul
Revere in his midnight ride, or you know Washington crossing
the Delaware. These were not professional warriors. These were farmers
(00:54):
who just wanted to protect their land. They're people their
freedom and one of the interesting aspects that Hillsdale has
profiled is espionage. And I think this is going to
be for some of you your favorite of anything we do.
For a little while. Brian kill me to Fox News
(01:16):
who loves Loves Loves History. In fact, when I first
met buck Sexton. His wife was working for Brian Kilmead
on his production department where they go out to different
places and they film things, a lot of historical things,
and she said, he's just an absolute nerd for history,
and I love that, and you can see that in
(01:37):
the work he's generating. Anyway, support Hillsdale College, share their
content if you can financially support them. We think they
do great work. This is the story of the culper spiring.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
In order to film a motive here.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Texas coach divine work, played each other alive, our fortune,
and I think with honor.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
When we think of the American Revolution, we often think
of the famous battlefields of Valley Forge and Saratoga, of
muskets and minute men, of the Boston Tea Party, and
Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. But there was another war, albeit
one kept under wraps and waged in the shadows, But
(02:54):
a war there was no less dangerous than the.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Kind fought on horseback as cannonballs whistled overhead.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
By November seventeen seventy six, mere months after the signing
of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Army had endured
heavy losses and a punishing string of setbacks in New
York and New Jersey. In Long Island, roughly thirteen hundred
Americans were killed, wounded, or captured At Fort Washington. General
(03:22):
Washington was forced to surrender roughly three thousand men. In
the five major battles between August and November of seventeen
seventy six, the Continental Army was reduced to fewer than
five thousand men inside a candle with ten along the
New York Harbor.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Following the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Long Island, General Washington confronted a grim reality. Surrounded, outnumbered
and out maneuvered, he asked his officers for the unthinkable.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Do we have any other options? Silence follows.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
They all knew the truth. Only a miracle could save them.
In the months that followed, the mightiest military power in
the world drove the beleaguered American forces from the New
York region, pushing them through New Jersey and nearly to
the brink of collapse. Supplies were scarce, spirits were low,
(04:15):
and time was running out. In the winter of seventeen
seventy six, Washington's crossing at Trenton and Princeton were astonishing victories,
but these achievements alone.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Could not reverse the tide of the war.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
The British Army had captured New York, a critical stronghold
for trade and transportation, and turned Manhattan into a fortress.
New York, without exaggeration, is the pivot on which the
entire revolution War turned, said John Adams himself. And without
the city, and without intelligence from inside its gates, Washington
(04:48):
knew the American cause.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Would not survive.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
He needed eyes, he needed ears, he needed spies. From
this necessity was born one of the most audacious and
consequence acts of espionage in our nation's history, The cul Perspiring,
headquartered in British occupied New York City. This six person
intelligence network changed the course of the Revolutionary War and
(05:12):
the fate of our new nation. Washington turned to a
young officer named Benjamin Talmadge code named John Bolton. Talmide
replaced General Charles Scott, whose approached espionage had been blunt.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And rather unimaginative.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Scott would dispatch loan scouts on one way missions across
enemy lines, hoping they returned with scraps of intelligence. Was
a gamble, and one that too often failed. The execution
of Lieutenant Nathan Hale who was caught, tried, and sentenced
to death within the span of twelve hours was a
grim case in point, Talmadge suggested a new approach to Washington.
(05:51):
Instead of risking the lives of uniformed officers by sending
them behind enemy lines, why not gather intelligence through unsuspecting
allies who will already lived in British occupied territory, creating
a network of spies living among the British. Washington agreed
with the Talman strategy and appointed him Chief of Intelligence.
Talmadge was only twenty four, but he knew both the
(06:14):
people and the landscape on Long Island well, which would
prove to be invaluable Major Talmadge immediately began creating a
tight knit ring of embedded operatives working silently beneath the
surface in the British occupied Long Island, but became known
as the Culper Spy Ring. Was the most successful spy
network on either side of the war. Talmadge's recruits were
(06:36):
not particularly well trained. Indeed, these informants consisted primarily of
old friends he had made while growing up into talkot
Long Island.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
They were farmers, merchants, and laborers.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Their intelligence network operated successfully in and around New York
City for five years, no spy's true identity was revealed,
not to General Washington, not even.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Amongst one another. There was Abraham Woodhull, a young.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
New York farmer who ferried messages under the name Samuel
Culper Senior. His counterpart, Samuel Culper Junior, was Robert Townsend,
who wrote for a loyalist newspaper while secretly reporting to Washington.
Austin Rowe, a tavern keeper, carried messages hidden in saddlebags.
Caleb Brewster, a defiant seaman, rode across the Long Island
(07:24):
Sound to deliver intelligence to the Commander in chief himself.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Among the company of double.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Agents, there was also a woman, her identity still unknown,
code named Agent three fifty five. A lady shrouded in mystery,
she seduced secrets from the lips of British soldiers. According
to speculations, it was Agent three fifty five who relayed
the critical information that ultimately exposed the treasonous actions of
(07:50):
Benedict Arnold.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Lastly, there was James Rivington.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
When the early sparks of the Revolution ignited into open
war in seventeen seventy five, Vington found himself squarely in
the crosshairs. His New York print shop, once a hub
of loyalist literature, was ransacked, torched by the Sons of Liberty.
Fearing for his safety, Rivington fled to England, but exile
didn't last. By seventeen seventy seven, he was back in
(08:15):
New York, quietly reopening his business, this time just steps
from the dry goods store of a discreet patriot named
Robert Townsend.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Something had changed after Rivington's return.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Whether it was a genuine conversion, a practical play for profit,
or frustration with the Crown censorship, especially its muzzling of
Rivington's attempt to criticize General.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Howe, remains uncertain.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
What is clear, however, is that sometime in late seventeen
seventy eight, the once loyal English born printer began to
operate under the noses of British officers, feeding sensitive communications
to the Culper's spir ring Now to the world. Rivington
was a first rate Loyalists, owner of one of New
York's most prominent coffeehouses, editor of the Royal Gazette, and
(09:06):
personal printer to the King's most excellent Majesty, the Gazette
famously published biting satire against the American cause.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
His coffeehouse, nestled in the heart of British occupied New York,
became a veritable nest of loose slip British officers.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Rivington's outward loyalty to the British made him the perfect spy.
No one suspected the outspoken Tory to slip coded messages
inside book bindings and passed them along to Robert Townsend.
To protect the ring of spies, he commanded Major Talmadge
crafted a system, the System of Extraordinary Precision, and, given
(09:44):
that names were too traceable, assigned each of the spies
a code number in their encrypted communications. In total, seven
hundred and sixty three numerical identities were created each site
for protecting a patriot. Rivington was seven to twenty six
in the COPRA Codebook. Only once secrecy was no longer
needed did it become public knowledge that this apparent trader
(10:07):
to America had.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
In fact been one of its fiercest defenders.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Information flowed from New York City Northwood to General Washington's
camp in New Windsor, threading its way through miles of
British controlled territory. The operation began with Austin Rowe, who
would make the long ride from Long Island into Manhattan
under the guise of routine business.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
There in the quiet of.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Townshend shop Roe, who plays an innocuous order one encoded
with Washington's pre arranged phrases, which Townshend received.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Via courier from headquarters.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
The request, signed by Talmadge under his alias John Bolton,
triggered the next phase. Roe concealed the dispatches by folding
them among the merchandise annas strong. A local would hang
a black petticoat on a clothesline visible for the Long
Island Sound to alert TYLEB. Brewster the contents of Army's boatmen.
(10:59):
The series of handkerchiefs indicated the precise cove where Brewster
could land under cover of night. Brewster would then ferry
the intelligence across the sound and into the hands of Talmage.
The process spanned two weeks from beginning d end. Through
painstaking observation, the culper spies uncovered a devastating British scheme
(11:19):
of economic sabotage.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Thousands of Ford's continental dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Were being printed in New York and smuggled across enemy lines.
The British were deliberately devaluing American currency, aiming to wreck
the fragile economy of the nasent Republic. Washington responded swiftly,
shutting down the counterfeit circulation routes and launching efforts to
stabilize the currency.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It was an invisible victory.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
But without it, the revolution may well have buckled under
the weight of economic ruin. But that was only the
start of the Culper Spy's successful espionage. In seventeen seventy eight,
the culp Perspiring obtained the British naval codebook and delivered
it to French Admiral Diastan. With the vital intelligence, the
French were able to anticipate British naval movements in American waters,
(12:10):
enabling Diaistan's fleet to evade traps, strike more effectively, and
secure critical victories at sea, culminating in naval dominance that
helped corner British forces at Yorktown. General Clinton and Admiral
Graves were assembling a force of nine warships and nearly
ten thousand troops with plans to strike row Champou's.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Soldiers in a surprise assault.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Acting swiftly, Major Talmage relaid the intelligence through trusted channels
to deliver the intelligence directly.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
To the French officers in Newport.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Simultaneously, Hamilton rushed word to Lafayette and Washington, and they
devised a successful scheme to divert the British forces back
towards New York. What could have been a crushing British
flow was thwarted through daring espionage. Most famous, the spies
uncovered the treachery of Benedict Donald, exposing his plan to
(13:04):
surrender West Point to the British. Had Arnold's mission succeeded,
West Point would have fallen into British hands, the Hudson
River would have been severed, the colonies divided, and the
revolution itself smothered in its cradle.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It's no exaggeration to say.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
That the course of the American Revolution, indeed the very
existence of the United States, turned on messages no one
could see, sent by men whose name's history almost forgot.
The British intelligence officer Major George Beckworth.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Put it this way.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Washington did not really outfight to British, He simply outspied us.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It may be more accurate to.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Say Washington outfought the British because he outspied them. The
heroes of the Culper Spirring operated under cover, without recognition,
without reward, and at immense personal risk. When the war ended,
they saw no fanfare for their covert acts of courage. Indeed,
several of their identities were not confirmed for nearly two centuries.
(14:06):
It is tempting to read history as the dramatic tale
of generals and statesmens presiding over events of grand significance.
As the forces of destiny itself seemed to bend according
to their will. Victory in the American Revolution was achieved
not only on the battlefield, but in back rooms and
back alleys, from code letters and clever disguises.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
The heroes of the Culper Ring did not seek glory.
They sought freedom.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Their courage reminds us that the fate of a nation
can hinge on the quiet work of brave men and
brave women who may forever remain unseen, unheralded, and unnamed.
Today we remember and honor their quiet courage and their
willingness to risk their lives for this new nation. Their
stories and names will not be forgotten.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
If you like the Michael Berry Show, and Podcast. Please
tell one friend and if you're so inclined, write a
nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and interest
in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be communicated
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(15:21):
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Podcast is produced by Ramon Roeblis, the King of Ding.
Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director.
(15:46):
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Director of Research is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull is our
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incorporated into our production. Where possible, we give credit, where not,
(16:08):
we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the
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man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God bless America. Finally,
if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD, call Camp
Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven PTSD and
(16:34):
a combat veteran will answer the phone to provide free counseling,
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We had a lot of very positive feedback on last
week's podcast about that.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Pete Hegseth did.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
They have a different guest each week, and he was
the guest doing the podcast last week. And it's from
Hillsdale College, and we think they do fantastic work, and
we sometimes amplify the work that they're doing. They have
a series they're doing called The Story of America. And
since so many people enjoyed last week, we're sharing another
(00:30):
episode with you. You know, when you think about the Revolutionary War,
you think about the battles, and you think about the effort.
You know, these were citizen soldiers. These were citizens in
their own homes, as you know the story of Paul
Revere in his midnight ride, or you know Washington crossing
the Delaware. These were not professional warriors. These were farmers
(00:54):
who just wanted to protect their land. They're people their
freedom and one of the interesting aspects that Hillsdale has
profiled is espionage. And I think this is going to
be for some of you your favorite of anything we do.
For a little while. Brian kill me to Fox News
(01:16):
who loves Loves Loves History. In fact, when I first
met buck Sexton. His wife was working for Brian Kilmead
on his production department where they go out to different
places and they film things, a lot of historical things,
and she said, he's just an absolute nerd for history,
and I love that, and you can see that in
(01:37):
the work he's generating. Anyway, support Hillsdale College, share their
content if you can financially support them. We think they
do great work. This is the story of the culper spiring.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
In order to film a motive here.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Texas coach divine work, played each other alive, our fortune,
and I think with honor.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
When we think of the American Revolution, we often think
of the famous battlefields of Valley Forge and Saratoga, of
muskets and minute men, of the Boston Tea Party, and
Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. But there was another war, albeit
one kept under wraps and waged in the shadows, But
(02:54):
a war there was no less dangerous than the.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Kind fought on horseback as cannonballs whistled overhead.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
By November seventeen seventy six, mere months after the signing
of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Army had endured
heavy losses and a punishing string of setbacks in New
York and New Jersey. In Long Island, roughly thirteen hundred
Americans were killed, wounded, or captured At Fort Washington. General
(03:22):
Washington was forced to surrender roughly three thousand men. In
the five major battles between August and November of seventeen
seventy six, the Continental Army was reduced to fewer than
five thousand men inside a candle with ten along the
New York Harbor.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Following the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Long Island, General Washington confronted a grim reality. Surrounded, outnumbered
and out maneuvered, he asked his officers for the unthinkable.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Do we have any other options? Silence follows.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
They all knew the truth. Only a miracle could save them.
In the months that followed, the mightiest military power in
the world drove the beleaguered American forces from the New
York region, pushing them through New Jersey and nearly to
the brink of collapse. Supplies were scarce, spirits were low,
(04:15):
and time was running out. In the winter of seventeen
seventy six, Washington's crossing at Trenton and Princeton were astonishing victories,
but these achievements alone.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Could not reverse the tide of the war.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
The British Army had captured New York, a critical stronghold
for trade and transportation, and turned Manhattan into a fortress.
New York, without exaggeration, is the pivot on which the
entire revolution War turned, said John Adams himself. And without
the city, and without intelligence from inside its gates, Washington
(04:48):
knew the American cause.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Would not survive.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
He needed eyes, he needed ears, he needed spies. From
this necessity was born one of the most audacious and
consequence acts of espionage in our nation's history, The cul Perspiring,
headquartered in British occupied New York City. This six person
intelligence network changed the course of the Revolutionary War and
(05:12):
the fate of our new nation. Washington turned to a
young officer named Benjamin Talmadge code named John Bolton. Talmide
replaced General Charles Scott, whose approached espionage had been blunt.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And rather unimaginative.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Scott would dispatch loan scouts on one way missions across
enemy lines, hoping they returned with scraps of intelligence. Was
a gamble, and one that too often failed. The execution
of Lieutenant Nathan Hale who was caught, tried, and sentenced
to death within the span of twelve hours was a
grim case in point, Talmadge suggested a new approach to Washington.
(05:51):
Instead of risking the lives of uniformed officers by sending
them behind enemy lines, why not gather intelligence through unsuspecting
allies who will already lived in British occupied territory, creating
a network of spies living among the British. Washington agreed
with the Talman strategy and appointed him Chief of Intelligence.
Talmadge was only twenty four, but he knew both the
(06:14):
people and the landscape on Long Island well, which would
prove to be invaluable Major Talmadge immediately began creating a
tight knit ring of embedded operatives working silently beneath the
surface in the British occupied Long Island, but became known
as the Culper Spy Ring. Was the most successful spy
network on either side of the war. Talmadge's recruits were
(06:36):
not particularly well trained. Indeed, these informants consisted primarily of
old friends he had made while growing up into talkot
Long Island.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
They were farmers, merchants, and laborers.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Their intelligence network operated successfully in and around New York
City for five years, no spy's true identity was revealed,
not to General Washington, not even.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Amongst one another. There was Abraham Woodhull, a young.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
New York farmer who ferried messages under the name Samuel
Culper Senior. His counterpart, Samuel Culper Junior, was Robert Townsend,
who wrote for a loyalist newspaper while secretly reporting to Washington.
Austin Rowe, a tavern keeper, carried messages hidden in saddlebags.
Caleb Brewster, a defiant seaman, rode across the Long Island
(07:24):
Sound to deliver intelligence to the Commander in chief himself.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Among the company of double.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Agents, there was also a woman, her identity still unknown,
code named Agent three fifty five. A lady shrouded in mystery,
she seduced secrets from the lips of British soldiers. According
to speculations, it was Agent three fifty five who relayed
the critical information that ultimately exposed the treasonous actions of
(07:50):
Benedict Arnold.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Lastly, there was James Rivington.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
When the early sparks of the Revolution ignited into open
war in seventeen seventy five, Vington found himself squarely in
the crosshairs. His New York print shop, once a hub
of loyalist literature, was ransacked, torched by the Sons of Liberty.
Fearing for his safety, Rivington fled to England, but exile
didn't last. By seventeen seventy seven, he was back in
(08:15):
New York, quietly reopening his business, this time just steps
from the dry goods store of a discreet patriot named
Robert Townsend.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Something had changed after Rivington's return.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Whether it was a genuine conversion, a practical play for profit,
or frustration with the Crown censorship, especially its muzzling of
Rivington's attempt to criticize General.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Howe, remains uncertain.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
What is clear, however, is that sometime in late seventeen
seventy eight, the once loyal English born printer began to
operate under the noses of British officers, feeding sensitive communications
to the Culper's spir ring Now to the world. Rivington
was a first rate Loyalists, owner of one of New
York's most prominent coffeehouses, editor of the Royal Gazette, and
(09:06):
personal printer to the King's most excellent Majesty, the Gazette
famously published biting satire against the American cause.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
His coffeehouse, nestled in the heart of British occupied New York,
became a veritable nest of loose slip British officers.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Rivington's outward loyalty to the British made him the perfect spy.
No one suspected the outspoken Tory to slip coded messages
inside book bindings and passed them along to Robert Townsend.
To protect the ring of spies, he commanded Major Talmadge
crafted a system, the System of Extraordinary Precision, and, given
(09:44):
that names were too traceable, assigned each of the spies
a code number in their encrypted communications. In total, seven
hundred and sixty three numerical identities were created each site
for protecting a patriot. Rivington was seven to twenty six
in the COPRA Codebook. Only once secrecy was no longer
needed did it become public knowledge that this apparent trader
(10:07):
to America had.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
In fact been one of its fiercest defenders.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Information flowed from New York City Northwood to General Washington's
camp in New Windsor, threading its way through miles of
British controlled territory. The operation began with Austin Rowe, who
would make the long ride from Long Island into Manhattan
under the guise of routine business.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
There in the quiet of.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Townshend shop Roe, who plays an innocuous order one encoded
with Washington's pre arranged phrases, which Townshend received.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Via courier from headquarters.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
The request, signed by Talmadge under his alias John Bolton,
triggered the next phase. Roe concealed the dispatches by folding
them among the merchandise annas strong. A local would hang
a black petticoat on a clothesline visible for the Long
Island Sound to alert TYLEB. Brewster the contents of Army's boatmen.
(10:59):
The series of handkerchiefs indicated the precise cove where Brewster
could land under cover of night. Brewster would then ferry
the intelligence across the sound and into the hands of Talmage.
The process spanned two weeks from beginning d end. Through
painstaking observation, the culper spies uncovered a devastating British scheme
(11:19):
of economic sabotage.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Thousands of Ford's continental dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Were being printed in New York and smuggled across enemy lines.
The British were deliberately devaluing American currency, aiming to wreck
the fragile economy of the nasent Republic. Washington responded swiftly,
shutting down the counterfeit circulation routes and launching efforts to
stabilize the currency.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It was an invisible victory.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
But without it, the revolution may well have buckled under
the weight of economic ruin. But that was only the
start of the Culper Spy's successful espionage. In seventeen seventy eight,
the culp Perspiring obtained the British naval codebook and delivered
it to French Admiral Diastan. With the vital intelligence, the
French were able to anticipate British naval movements in American waters,
(12:10):
enabling Diaistan's fleet to evade traps, strike more effectively, and
secure critical victories at sea, culminating in naval dominance that
helped corner British forces at Yorktown. General Clinton and Admiral
Graves were assembling a force of nine warships and nearly
ten thousand troops with plans to strike row Champou's.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Soldiers in a surprise assault.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Acting swiftly, Major Talmage relaid the intelligence through trusted channels
to deliver the intelligence directly.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
To the French officers in Newport.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Simultaneously, Hamilton rushed word to Lafayette and Washington, and they
devised a successful scheme to divert the British forces back
towards New York. What could have been a crushing British
flow was thwarted through daring espionage. Most famous, the spies
uncovered the treachery of Benedict Donald, exposing his plan to
(13:04):
surrender West Point to the British. Had Arnold's mission succeeded,
West Point would have fallen into British hands, the Hudson
River would have been severed, the colonies divided, and the
revolution itself smothered in its cradle.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It's no exaggeration to say.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
That the course of the American Revolution, indeed the very
existence of the United States, turned on messages no one
could see, sent by men whose name's history almost forgot.
The British intelligence officer Major George Beckworth.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Put it this way.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Washington did not really outfight to British, He simply outspied us.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It may be more accurate to.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Say Washington outfought the British because he outspied them. The
heroes of the Culper Spirring operated under cover, without recognition,
without reward, and at immense personal risk. When the war ended,
they saw no fanfare for their covert acts of courage. Indeed,
several of their identities were not confirmed for nearly two centuries.
(14:06):
It is tempting to read history as the dramatic tale
of generals and statesmens presiding over events of grand significance.
As the forces of destiny itself seemed to bend according
to their will. Victory in the American Revolution was achieved
not only on the battlefield, but in back rooms and
back alleys, from code letters and clever disguises.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
The heroes of the Culper Ring did not seek glory.
They sought freedom.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Their courage reminds us that the fate of a nation
can hinge on the quiet work of brave men and
brave women who may forever remain unseen, unheralded, and unnamed.
Today we remember and honor their quiet courage and their
willingness to risk their lives for this new nation. Their
stories and names will not be forgotten.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
If you like the Michael Berry Show, and Podcast. Please
tell one friend and if you're so inclined, write a
nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and interest
in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be communicated
directly to the show at our email address, Michael at
(15:21):
Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking on our
website Michael Berryshow dot com. The Michael Berry Show and
Podcast is produced by Ramon Roeblis, the King of Ding.
Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director.
(15:46):
Voices Jingles, Tomfoolery and Shenanigans are provided by Chance McLain.
Director of Research is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull is our
assistant listener and super fan. Contributions are appreciated and often
incorporated into our production. Where possible, we give credit, where not,
(16:08):
we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the
memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, be a simple
man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God bless America. Finally,
if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD, call Camp
Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven PTSD and
(16:34):
a combat veteran will answer the phone to provide free counseling,
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