Not Your Father's Founders by Arthur G. Sharp

What she heard through the wall confirmed her suspicions. Howe was planning to attack Washington near White Marsh, thirteen miles down the road.
    She improvised a plan to thwart the British.
A Flour Sack and a Brisk Hike
    Darragh decided on a way to warn Washington. All she needed was a pass and a flour sack. Local citizens often asked British authorities for passes to places outside the city where they could buy supplies. The British routinely authorized the requests. Accordingly, Darragh procured a pass to the flour mill in nearby Frankford.
    With flour sack in hand, she headed through the snow in that direction. She also had with her a notebook in which she kept notes about the information she garnered in Philadelphia. She reached the mill—and kept right on going.
    According to the diary of Colonel Elias Boudinot, Washington’s commissary general of prisoners, she handed her notebook to him as he was dining at the Rising Sun Tavern, north of the city, along the route to White Marsh. Boudinot passed the information to Washington.
“Did You Do It?”
    The British marched out of Philadelphia on December 4 to surprise Washington. But Washington was ready for them. Based on the information Darragh had fed Boudinot, Washington knew Howe’s strength. According to Boudinot, Darragh had given him “a piece of paper rolled up into the form of a pipe shank. On unrolling it I found information that General Howe was coming out the next morning with 5,000 men, 13 pieces of cannon, baggage wagons, and 11 boat on wheels. On comparing this with other information, I found it true and immediately rode post to headquarters.”
    The two armies sparred around the area for the next few days. Neither gained an advantage, and damages were held to a minimum.
    FEDERAL FACTS
    There were 150 Americans killed or wounded and fifty-four captured at White Marsh. The British suffered 112 casualties, seventy-nine of whom were killed or wounded. The more significant statistic for the British was the number of missing (thirty-three) and desertions—a staggering 238 soldiers.
    Howe returned to Philadelphia, convinced that he could not destroy Washington’s army. That ended the fighting in 1777. Six months later the British left Philadelphia and the reunited Darragh family moved back into their house on Second Street—but not before Lydia misled the British for the last time.
    The day after the British troops returned to Philadelphia, British Major John André visited Darragh’s house and asked her if she had tipped off the Americans about Howe’s plans. She said no. André was not convinced, but he let the matter drop. Unfortunately, the Quakers did not.
    Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
    â€œO NE THING IS CERTAIN . T HE ENEMY HAD NOTICE OF OUR COMING, WERE PREPARED FOR US, AND WE MARCHED BACK LIKE A PARCEL OF FOOLS . T HE WALLS MUST HAVE EARS .”
    â€”J OHN A NDRé TO L YDIA D ARRAGH ON D ECEMBER 9, 1777
    Technically, Darragh could have been treated as a traitor and executed had the British determined that she was a spy, but they didn’t. However, the Quakers excommunicated her in 1783—the same year her husband died—because of her involvement in the war. They reinstated her in 1789—the same year she died.
    After the war, Darragh operated a store in Philadelphia, the city that owed her so much for her heroic stand that saved it from possible permanent occupation—and Washington from a devastating military defeat.

SILAS DEANE
    Groton, Connecticut
December 24, 1737−September 23, 1789
Framed Framer
    Silas Deane was just the man the Americans needed to convince the French to support their cause. He was a wealthy lawyer, merchant, and politician whose diplomatic skills were supposed to complement those of his fellow ambassadors, Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, although it did not turn out that way. But he was also willing to use the war as an opportunity to make a profit for