![]() ![]() On June 5, 1776, the Congress appointed John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Edward Rutledge, James Wilson, and Robert Livingston "to consider what is proper to be done with persons giving intelligence to the enemy or supplying them with provisions." They were charged with revising the Articles of War regarding espionage directed against the American forces. On January 10, 1781, the Department of Foreign Affairs-the forerunner of the Department of State-was created and tasked with "obtaining the most extensive and useful information relative to foreign affairs", the head of which was empowered to correspond "with all other persons from whom he may expect to receive useful information." Matters of diplomacy were conducted by other committees or by Congress as a whole. ![]() On April 17, 1777, the Committee of Secret Correspondence renamed the Committee of Foreign Affairs but kept with its intelligence function. It met secretly in December 1775 with a French intelligence agent who visited Philadelphia undercover as a Flemish merchant. ![]() The committee employed secret agents abroad, conducted covert operations, devised codes and ciphers, funded propaganda activities, authorized the opening of private mail, acquired foreign publications for use in analysis, established a courier system, and developed a maritime capability apart from that of the Continental Navy, and engaged in regular communications with Britons and Scots who sympathized with the American cause. The original Committee members-America's first foreign intelligence agency-were Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Johnson and subsequently included James Lovell, who became the Congress' expert on codes and ciphers and has been called the father of American cryptanalysis. The Second Continental Congress recognized the need for foreign intelligence and foreign alliances and created the Committee of Correspondence (soon renamed the Committee of Secret Correspondence) by a resolution of November 29, 1775. Main article: Committee of Secret Correspondence The members of the Continental Congress appointed to the Committee included some of the most influential and responsible members of Congress: Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Robert Livingston, John Dickinson, Thomas Willing, Thomas McKean, John Langdon, and Samuel Ward.Ĭommittee of (Secret) Correspondence They then used foreign flags to attempt to protect the vessels from the British fleet. It arranged the purchase of military stores through intermediaries to conceal the fact that Congress was the true purchaser. The committee also sent missions to seize British supplies in the southern colonies. It gathered intelligence about secret Loyalist ammunition stores and arranged to seize them. The Secret Committee employed agents overseas, often in cooperation with the Committee of Secret Correspondence. The Committee kept its transactions secret and destroyed many of its records to ensure the confidentiality of its work. The committee also took over and administered on a uniform basis the secret contracts for arms and gunpowder previously negotiated by certain members of Congress without the formal sanction of that body. The committee was not, however, a true intelligence agency, since the Committee of Secret Correspondence with which it often worked was mainly concerned with obtaining military supplies in secret and distributing them, and selling gunpowder to privateers chartered by the Congress. The Second Continental Congress created a Secret Committee on September 18, 1775. ![]() Congress created a Secret Committee for domestic intelligence, a Committee of Secret Correspondence for foreign intelligence, and a committee on spies, for tracking spies within the Patriot movement.īritish espionage efforts were overseen by the British Army and focused primarily on gathering military intelligence to support military operations.Īmerican organizations involved in espionage Secret Committee In addition, both sides conducted political action, covert action, counterintelligence, deception, and propaganda operations as part of their overall strategies.Īmerican intelligence was monitored and sanctioned by the Continental Congress to provide military intelligence to the Continental Army to aid them in fighting the British during the American Revolutionary War. ( May 2020)ĭuring the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army and British Army conducted espionage operations against one another to collect military intelligence to inform military operations. This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |