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Revolutionary War-dated LS signed “Go: Washington,” one page, measuring 13.75 x 9.5, with integral mailing panel bearing Washington’s franking signature, “Go: Washington,” January 2, 1779. Addressed from Philadelphia, a letter from Washington to Major Benjamin Tallmadge, penned in the hand of aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman and signed prominently at the conclusion by Gen. Washington. In full: “I have recd your favr of the 23d ulto inclosing a letter No. 5 from C–. I have no new instructions to give him and therefore if you see or write to him only desire him to comply as near as possible with those already sent to him. There are regular Expresses established between Danbury and the Head Quarters of the Army and you therefore need not in future send a special Messenger the whole way. Send your letters to General Putnam letting him know that they are to be forwarded with dispatch I shall get them sooner than by a single Express.” The integral page with address panel bears the original red wax seal and is addressed to “Major Tallmadge, 2’d Reg’t Dragoons, Fairfield, Connecticut,” with Washington adding his bold franking signature to the lower left. The abbreviated reference “C—” is Samuel Culper, the alias used by Abraham Woodhull of Setauket, Long Island, the founding spy of what would become the Culper Ring. A later pencil notation beside the reference identifies the correspondent as 'Mr. Culver in the Bowery Lane,’ a misidentification by a later hand, but a curious survival in its own right. Professionally restored to near fine condition, with repairs to fold splits and areas of minor paper loss.
The recipient, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, was Washington's chief of intelligence and the organizer of the spy network remembered as the Culper Ring, operating in British-occupied New York from late 1778 through the end of the war. By the time of this letter, Tallmadge had activated Abraham Woodhull of Setauket, Long Island, under the alias Samuel Culper, and Washington was already receiving his numbered intelligence reports. 'No. 5 from C—' is the fifth such report. The network would grow to include Robert Townsend (Culper, Jr.) in New York City and Caleb Brewster running whaleboats across Long Island Sound, and would later produce the intelligence that exposed Benedict Arnold's treason.
The letter dates to a difficult period for the Continental Army following the 1778 campaign season, with British forces firmly entrenched in New York City and Washington placing growing emphasis on intelligence gathering, courier systems, and rapid military communications. The courier system Washington is establishing in this letter, regular dragoon expresses between Danbury and headquarters, with General Israel Putnam as the relay, is the very route by which Culper intelligence would travel out of New York for the next four years: from Woodhull in Setauket, by whaleboat across Long Island Sound under Caleb Brewster, through Fairfield and Danbury to Washington's headquarters. He is not issuing routine logistical instructions here; he is hardening the infrastructure of his most important spy network. The surviving integral address panel, original red wax seal, and bold Washington franking signature, all preserved on the same leaf as the letter itself, further enhance its wartime postal character.
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