Quotes from Brian Kilmeade

This was the first time in my life that I had witnessed the awful scene of a battle, when man was engaged to destroy his fellow-man,

Hale took a deep breath, then voiced a sentiment he had clearly been mulling for some time: "I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary.

America's newfound prestige was not blinded by its own power; might and mercy could work in harmony. On

The sons of America," he went on, "have given a new proof how impossible it is to conquer freemen fighting in defense of all that is dear to them. Henceforward we shall be respected by nations who, mistaking our character, had treated us with the utmost contumely and outrage. Years will continue to develop our inherent qualities, until, from being the youngest and the weakest, we shall become the most powerful nation in the universe."21

Tallmadge wrote more than fifty years later. "I well remember my sensations on the occasion, for they were solemn beyond description, and very hardly could I bring my mind to be willing to attempt the life of a fellow-creature.

As an ambassador and an American, Jefferson recognized it was a fear no citizen of a free nation embarking on an oceanic voyage should have to endure.

Arnolds' names should come up in conversation that summer. Benedict's family was established just across the border in Connecticut, and the former Miss Shippen—whose own family was extremely well connected—had been acquainted with many of the officers now in New York. Benedict Arnold's name might have even been something of a joke, at first, among the British. Here was an overly eager merchant–turned–major general who seemed

MERCHANTS' SHIRTSLEEVES While his name was being bandied around New York's most exclusive circles during his first weeks of command, Arnold was quite busy sending letters. Besides writing to Washington about his desire to increase the provisions and make improvements at the fort and composing letters about his need to learn the identity of spies, Arnold also found the time to send a letter to an American outpost, informing its members that a certain

Good God," he wrote on June 9. "Are the Americans all asleep & tamely giving up their glorious liberties or, are they all turned philosophers, that they don't take immediate vengeance on such miscreants; I am afraid of the latter.

as an assistant." It was worth noting, but hardly earthshaking news. Spies were everywhere, and both sides knew it. That this operative tried to convert Woodhull to his side while clearly unaware as to Woodhull's true loyalties is both comical and a testimony to the convincing role Woodhull was playing as a man of profound apathy. His secret letters, however, reveal just how deep his passions truly ran.

it would become increasingly clear that only one solution remained: those frigates would have to cross the ocean and try a different kind of diplomacy, one that came from the mouths of their cannons.

weighed perhaps 120 pounds.

wrote to Washington to propose just such a raid: "The enclosed Dispatches from Culper have this moment come to hand. . . . C. writes with great sollicitude for troops to be sent from this side to attack those lying at Setauket. I need not repeat to your Excellency how exceedingly happy I should be to assist in such an Expedition, should it be thot. advisable." To Tallmadge's disappointment, Washington did not approve

Captain Bainbridge remarked, his resolve firm, "I hope I shall never again be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon.

submit reports written in invisible ink, which now fell almost exclusively on Tallmadge to reveal and decipher. The job had previously belonged to Washington's aide-de-camp Alexander Hamilton, while Tallmadge was in charge of making sense of the general intelligence and summary reports Woodhull, Roe, and Brewster compiled. But recently Tallmadge had been tasked with the white-ink letters—perhaps after Washington recognized the urgency of the

Arnold, forced to declare the meeting a failure, returned to West Point. André, it turns out, had been in the vicinity, but the vigilant gunboats had made crossing the river quite perilous in risking both his life and recognition by some of his own soldiers. He returned to New York to arrange a second attempt at meeting

the Americans wanted to emerge victorious from this conflict, they would not try to overpower their enemy; they would simply refuse to back down or go away. They didn't need to be conquering heroes—they just needed to survive.

pride that incident had delivered may have prompted him to plan an aggressive response simply to prove he would not be made the fool. The increase of activity in mid-September was definitely new, though, after a relatively quiet August. Woodhull had written to Tallmadge on September 1: "In regard of the state of affairs in general he [Culper Junior] assured the express they remained as heretofore or as

had letters on his desk from his merchant-spy in New York regarding an officer from New York venturing toward West Point seemed wholly unconnected. Despite all the hints he received from 355, Woodhull, and Townsend, Tallmadge didn't connect the dots until it was almost too late.

All Americans owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to George Washington's secret six.

The year 1783 dawned full of promise. On February 3, the government of Great Britain formally acknowledged the independence of what were once its American colonies as the United States of America.

until it was almost too late.

his closest officers, special attention was paid to Major André, and it seems to actually have been something of an unofficial send-off for the young man, as he was about to embark upon a mission that, they hoped, would result in one of the greatest victories for the British since the war began. The

The British were highly skilled counterfeiters, and one of their favorite ways to attack the Americans was by depreciating colonial currency.