How a secret Long Island spy team saved George Washington from murder and helped win the Revolution

Welcome to Long Spyland.America won its independence with the help of the Culper Spy Ring, a small band of Long Island patriots whose exploits included foiling several assassination attempts on George Washington.The North Shore crew of childhood friends also engaged in espionage that uncovered Benedict Arnold’s infamous treason — and also covertly infiltrated Redcoat brass while on the deeply British-occupied Long Island.“A British officer said Washington didn’t really outfight us, he outspied us,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, author of “George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution,” told The Post.“If you go to the CIA right now, they will tell you that.”Washington deeply understood the value of an intelligence service since his days commanding British troops during the French and Indian War and “demanded” it to defeat the Redcoats, Kilmeade said.However, the near-immediate capture of colonial spy Nathan Hale in 1776 proved what a challenge it would be to place a mole among the enemy, at least one who could survive long enough to report back.America’s first leader turned to an officer he could personally trust to recruit a reliable clandestine network: Setauket native Benjamin Tallmadge of an elite fighting force called the 2nd Regiment of Light Dragoons.His hometown and its surrounding areas were a British stronghold ready to kill or jail any locals who stepped out of line in favor of independence.Tallmadge still had to turn away willing Yankees for their own safety and only onboarded a small handful of friends from his youth he could rely on with his life, according to experts.“They were not trained soldiers; they were civilians, they were farmers, they were housewives,” said Kimberly Phyfe, community engagement manager at the Three Village Historical Society and Museum in Setauket. “They felt it was their patriotic duty to fight for their country,” added Phyfe, whose museum dedicated to the r...