1. Biography

2. In popular culture

3. See also

4. Footnotes
     Citations    Sources  

Agent 355 (died after 1780) was the code name of a female spy during the American Revolution, part of the Culper Ring. Agent 355 was one of the first spies for the United States, but her real identity is unknown.^[1] The number, 355, could be de-crypted from the system the Culper Ring used to mean "lady."{{Sfn|Casey|2015|p=76}}

Biography

The only direct reference to Agent 355 in any of the Culper Ring's missives was from Abraham Woodhull ("Samuel Culper Sr."), to General George Washington.^[2] Woodhull described her as "one who hath been ever serviceable to this correspondence."^[3]

The true identity of Agent 355 is still unknown, but some facts about her seem clear. She worked with the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War as a spy. She would have been recruited by Woodhull into the spy ring.^[1] The way the code is constructed indicates that she may have had "some degree of social prominence."{{Sfn|Casey|2015|p=76}} She was likely living in New York City,{{Sfn|Casey|2015|p=77}} and at some point had contact with Major John Andre and Benedict Arnold.^[5]{{Sfn|Rose|2006|p=}} One person who may have been Agent 355 was Anna Strong.{{Sfn|Casey|2015|p=77}} She was Woodhull's neighbor.{{Sfn|Casey|2015|p=77}} Another theory is that Agent 355 may have been Robert Townsend's common-law wife.^[1] Stories about Townsend state that he was in love with Agent 355.^[1] John Burke and Andrea Meyer have made a different case for 355's involvement in the spy ring using circumstantial evidence that she may have been close to Major John André and also to Benjamin Tallmadge, thereby protecting Woodhull from accusations of being a spy.^[2] Other possible candidates for 355 include Sarah Horton Townsend and Elizabeth Burgin.^[3]

It is also occasionally believed that there was no Agent 355, but rather that the code indicated a woman who had useful information, but wasn't "formally connected to the ring."{{Sfn|Kilmeade | Yaeger|2013|loc=Afterword, p.1}} The code itself may have referred to "a woman," not an agent who was a woman.^[4]

Agent 355 is thought to have played a major role in exposing Arnold and the arrest of Major John André, who was hanged in Tappan, New York.^[5] She may have been member of a prominent Loyalist family which would put her within easy reach of British commanders.^[5][6]

Agent 355 was arrested in 1780 when Benedict Arnold went to the Loyalists.^[6] She was imprisoned on {{HMS|Jersey|1736|6}}, a prison ship, where she may have given birth to a boy named Robert Townsend, Jr.^[5] She later died on the prison ship.^[5][7] However, Alexander Rose disagrees with this narrative, stating that "females were not kept aboard prison ships," and that "there's no record whatsoever of a birth."{{Sfn|Rose|2013|loc=np}} Strengthening the idea that Agent 355 may have been Anna Strong is the fact that her husband Selah Strong was imprisoned on Jersey and she was supposedly allowed to bring him food.^[4] Her presence on the ship may have led to the legend that Agent 355 was imprisoned there.^[4]

In popular culture

Agent 355 has become a part of popular fiction. She is the namesake of one of the main characters in The Last Man from Vertigo Comics.^[8] She was also an inspiration for a modern spy also called 355, and being included in Assassins Creed 3's in-game database of historical facts, in which her information was critical in helping the protagonist in discovering the British plot to capture.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}}

In the television series Washington's Spies, Agent 355 is a former slave named Abigail who had been owned by Anna Strong until the British army seized Selah's property upon his imprisonment. Though technically free, she is coerced into working for John André. Abigail sends Anna information she overhears in André's home hidden in gifts to her son, whom she was forced to leave behind in Anna's care. She is played by Idara Victor.

See also

• Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War
• Intelligence operations in the American Revolutionary War

Footnotes

Citations

Sources

• {{Cite book|title=Women Heroes of the American Revolution|last=Casey|first=Susan|publisher=Chicago Review Press|year=2015|isbn=9781613745830|location=|pages= |ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |first1=Brian |last1=Kilmeade |first2=Don |last2=Yaeger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S-8QE2uCbScC&lpg=PT130&dq=%22agent%20355%22&pg=PT130#v=onepage&q=%22agent%20355%22&f=false |title=George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |year=2013|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |last=Rose |first= Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4lUeuo-UI8C&lpg=PP1&dq=%22agent%20355%22&pg=PT4#v=onepage&q=%22agent%20355%22&f=false |title=Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring |location=New York |publisher= Bantam |year= 2006 |ref=harv}}

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