Abraham Woodhull Letterbox Hybrid

Abraham Woodhull (October 7, 1750 – January 23, 1826) was a leading member of the American "Culper Ring" in New York City and Setauket, New York during the American_Revolutionary_War.

Woodhull used the alias "Samuel Culper" (later "Samuel Culper Sr.") which was a play on Culpeper_County,_Virginia suggested by George_Washington. The Culper Ring was a successful operation which provided Washington with valuable information on the British Army headquartered in New York from October 1778 until the end of the war. After the United States gained independence, Woodhull served as a magistrate, as his father did before him, and he served as a judge in Suffolk County, New York.

Woodhull was a descendant of Richard Lawrence Woodhull, a wealthy settler of Setauket, Abraham_Woodhull and he was also related to New York militia Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull. His parents were Judge Richard Woodhull and Mary Woodhull (née Smith)

Woodhull served as a lieutenant in the Suffolk County, New York militia in the fall of 1775 but resigned after a few months. He was motivated by the murder of his cousin Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull of the New York militia, who was wounded by sword and bayonet cuts after being captured on August 29, 1776. According to some reports, General Woodhull was deprived of medical care and food and suffered an agonizing death on September 20, 1776, and Abraham Woodhull was inflamed against the British by this event. He did not immediately take up arms or begin spying, however; he was more placid than some of his friends who joined the Continental Army at the outset of the war. He was the only surviving son of aging parents, and he stayed on the family farm to attend to his family and their property.

Continental Army Major Benjamin Tallmadge was Woodhull's neighbor in Setauket. He approached Woodhull in August 1778 about gathering Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War for the Patriot (American Revolution) cause in the American_Revolutionary_War. Abraham_Woodhull had been caught smuggling contraband across Long Island Sound but Tallmadge spoke with Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull and got him released.

Woodhull began spying in October 1778, sending his first "Samuel Culper" letter on October 29, 1778, after swearing an oath of loyalty to the Crown as cover. Abraham_Woodhull plan was to travel to Manhattan, ostensibly to visit his married sister, Mary Underhill, and her husband, Amos, at their boarding house. While in Manhattan, he would collect information from various sources, including British officers staying at the Underhill boarding house, and then return to Setauket where he could pass the information to Continental Army lieutenant and whaleboat operator Caleb Brewster to take across Long Island Sound to Tallmadge.

Tallmadge would then send the information to General George Washington via Austin Roe who became the main courier for the ring later, after Woodhull stopped going to New York City to gather intelligence personally. He would deliver messages via "Dead drop", burying them in a box in a pasture that he rented on Woodhull's property.

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