Her perceived main contribution in the ring was to relay signals to a courier who ran smuggling and military missions for General George Washington.
[8] In 2022, historian Mark Sternberg corrected several misconceptions by reviewing the original primary sources, showing that Selah was held in the Provost (not a sugarhouse or the H.M.S.
Jersey), was held for less than six months, never fled to Connecticut and - as noted by Caleb Brewster's crewmate Robert Brush - actively helped Brewster and his crew avoid capture by the British when they were hidden on the Strong property on Mount Misery (modern-day Belle Terre and Port Jefferson's Harbor Hills).
[11]: 503 Continental Army Major Benjamin Tallmadge began working with Abraham Woodhull in the summer of 1778 at the height of the American Revolutionary War to create what became known as the Culper spy ring.
According to tradition, Anna Strong's role in the ring was to relay signals to a courier who ran a whaleboat across Long Island Sound on smuggling and military missions.
She did this by hanging a black petticoat on her clothesline at Strong Point in Setauket, which was easily visible from a boat in the Sound, and also by Woodhull from his nearby farm.
[7]: 172 [8]: 42 [15]: 21 [16] Historian Richard Welch writes that the tradition of the clothesline signal is unverifiable, but it is known that the British suspected a woman at Setauket who fit Anna's profile.
It is speculated by Kilmeade and Yaeger that a young woman connected to a prominent Loyalist family, who was staying in the city with her Tory relations, may also be referred to as "355".