OPINION:
St. Patrick’s Day is a day for celebrating all that the Irish have contributed to America. I’d like to take this occasion to celebrate a little-known Irish-American patriot who played a significant if largely unappreciated role in America’s struggle for independence.
He was a New York Irish tailor named Hercules Mulligan, who was a spy for George Washington.
Mr. Mulligan was as flamboyant as his name. Handsome, gregarious, and silver-tongued, he was as free with his liquor as he was with his blarney. All that made him popular with his clientele, which included many high-ranking British army officers. And that was what made him such a useful source of information to George Washington.
When the British officers came to his shop for new clothes or repairs to their uniforms, Mr. Mulligan would turn on his Irish charm. By flattering them and plying them with free drinks, he was frequently able to pump them for valuable information.
Mr. Mulligan’s success as a spy was all the more remarkable since the British knew that he was sympathetic to the American cause. He had been an early member of the Sons of Liberty and had taken part in various subversive activities for years before the Revolution broke out. Yet in 1773, he had married the niece of a prominent British admiral named Charles Saunders, and that gave him a certain cachet among upper-class Brits.
So whether it was his blarney, his tailoring skills, his free alcoholic refreshments, his wife’s family connections, or merely the contempt that snooty British felt for Irish tradesmen, he was allowed to continue in business. Apparently, the redcoats simply could not imagine how this tippling, convivial Irishman could pose a threat to them.
And yet he did. The extent to which British officers felt that they could be indiscreet in front of Mr. Mulligan was dramatically illustrated late one night in 1779 when a British officer called on him to ask for a coat. Noticing that the officer was flushed with excitement, Mr. Mulligan asked him why he needed a coat at such a late hour. Incredibly, the officer blurted out that the British had discovered the whereabouts of General Washington and that he was on a mission to capture the rebel commander that very day. Mr. Mulligan swiftly furnished the officer with a coat and hustled him out the door. Then he sent word to Washington by secret messenger to save him from the ambush.
That was not the only time that Mr. Mulligan came to Washington’s rescue. Two years later, Mr. Mulligan’s brother Hugh, who ran a successful import-export firm, received an unusually large order for provisions from the British army, with whom he did significant business. When he asked a commissary officer about the size of the order, the officer said that a large British force was being sent to Connecticut to capture General Washington. Hugh relayed the information to Hercules, who in turn passed it on to the Continental Army. Washington got the intelligence in time to alter his plans and to set a trap of his own for the British.
On yet a third occasion that same year, Mr. Mulligan got word that the British had discovered that Washington was going to meet with the French General Rochambeau in Newport, Rhode Island. (France had by that time entered the war on the side of the Americans.) They knew the route that Washington was going to take and sent a strong cavalry force to intercept him, but Mr. Mulligan was once again able to alert Washington in time. The general took a detour and kept his appointment with Rochambeau.
Ironically for a man who had saved George Washington’s life on three occasions, when the Revolution ended, Mr. Mulligan was in danger of being tarred and feathered as a Tory. He had been recruited as a spy by his friend Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington decided that for security reasons, only he and Hamilton should know that Mr. Mulligan was working for them. That was to Mr. Mulligan’s advantage when the British couldn’t prove that he was a spy for lack of evidence, but it was a definite liability for him once the war for independence was over.
Fortunately, George Washington made a point of visiting Mr. Mulligan’s shop when he was in New York and saluting him as him “a true friend of liberty.” He also ordered a complete civilian wardrobe from Mr. Mulligan, which gave the tailor the opportunity to advertise himself as “Clothier to Gen. Washington.”
After that, his business boomed.
- Thomas C. Stewart is a retired New York investment banker and former naval officer.
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