When New York City was under British rule…

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Believe it or not, some of my stories are actually true.

Certainly this one is.   At least as far as I know.

During the American Revolution, both sides had a tradition called parole. More than two centuries later, we still parole people, albeit not always with good results, but for much the same reason: the jail is crowded. In the eighteenth century, during the Revolution, wartime parole involved getting a prisoner of war to promise not to fight and kill the guys he was very recently fighting and killing — that is, until he got caught and put in jail. But once he swore the parole oath, he got to go free.

Just don’t get caught breaking the oath. That would be uncivilized.

Another civilized tradition was the occasional prisoner exchange. From time to time, both sides agreed to exchange their respective prisoners of war. This tradition had two advantages: the prisons got more comfortable (or at least less crowded) and each side got a new supply of soldiers. (Well, maybe not new. More like used.) Thus, the war could continue — unless, that is, the exchanged soldiers were bound by parole oaths.

Drat.

What to do? After all, being civilized is nice but war is war. How can you wage a war when nobody is allowed to?

So they devised a solution which was sort of civilized: whenever a prisoner exchange was due to occur, both sides “honorably” canceled the parole oaths that their respective prisoners had taken. With honor preserved all around, the prisoners were then freed and sent forth with the moral clarity of being enemies again.

One American Patriot soldier whom the British captured was a guy named Lewis Costigin, a Lieutenant in the Continental Army. At first the hapless Costigin got sent to a miserable prison in British-occupied New York. He agreed to a parole, however, and that agreement allowed him to wander throughout the city. Unescorted. Wearing his Rebel uniform. Eventually his name came up as a candidate for a prisoner exchange, and so the British summoned him in to process the paperwork. He did so, and the British released him from his parole oath.

At that point the British sort of forgot that American Patriots were not really fellow Brits keen on Old World honor. Nope, the American Patriots were keen on New World honor — which included the principle that it is honorable to screw the bad guys.

Costigin never left New York.

Instead, he continued to roam the city and, in his casual wanderings, openly gathered information about British commanders, troop deployments, shipping and so forth — information which he then mailed out from New York City to the Patriot forces.

And Costigin did all of this while openly wearing his Rebel uniform.

This went on for months.

The British just ignored him because they assumed he was still on parole.

Sometimes spying is hard.

But sometimes it’s not.

Respectfully (because all my readers deserve respect),

Reginald Dipwipple

Secret Agent Extraordinaire

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Pay no attention to that American rebel behind us, taking notes. He’s on parole.
Or is it patrol?