250 years ago this week, General Thomas Gage, the royal governor of Massachusetts and commander in chief of all British forces in North America, sent two British spies into the rural communities around Boston. He carefully selected two redcoats to go undercover, roaming highways and country lanes and taking painstaking notes about their terrain and relative military advantages. First they surveyed the western roads to Worcester, then the northern roads to Concord, anticipating a spring offensive against one town or the other. Unfortunately for them, however, their disguises weren’t as good as they hoped, and they were soon under nearly constant surveillance from patriot counterintelligence that left them in fear for their lives.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/321/

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Drinker, Draftsman, Soldier, Spy

• General Gage’s instructions and De Berniere’s notes


• Ed Redmond rediscovers De Berniere’s map


• De Berniere’s map (excerpted above)


• The category for De Berniere on JL Bell’s Boston 1775 blog. Extra thanks to JL Bell for helping me figure out which bridge the spies used to get to Concord.


• Don’t get fooled by versions of this story that include the spy “John Howe”


• Charles Holleman’s overview of the spy story


• Derek W Beck on Joseph Warren’s intelligence network


• Gary Denton on Brewer’s Tavern


• Massachusetts reimburses innholders in 1775


• A 1905 photo of the old Weston Bridge


• This 1789 map shows milestones, including along the Post Road


• Weston 1830 map


• Newton 1831 map


• Brookline 1844 map

<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_10103" style="width: 3749px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-10103">The spies’ route to Concord</figcaption></figure>