The Fox and the Hound The Birth of American Spying

Most books about espionage in the American Revolutionary War tend to focus solely on General George Washington, but as noted historian Donald E. Markle explores in this fascinating account, there was an entire system of intelligence communication autonomous from his direction. General Washington and General Charles Cornwallis were engaged in a constant battle to outmanoeuvre each other, and Cornwallis seemed to always be one step behind Washington and his intelligence departments. As the war progressed, the Americans and British slowly learned one another's tactics, allowing the hunt between the fox (Washington) and the hound (Cornwallis). This book walks readers through the early stages of the war, when gathering and distributing intelligence was a challenge without a centralised government to organise a network.