Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1168

About this issue

This 1878 serial by Oll Coomes follows Delaware Dick, a twenty-year-old patriot spy operating during the American Revolution. The narrative opens with Dick as "Wing-of-the-Wind," a silent horseman who discovers Tories meeting secretly in Woodvale church to plan against American forces. Spotted at the window, he escapes across the frozen Delaware River. He delivers a warning message to the Tory leader Rugby and reaches General Washington's encampment in Pennsylvania, where he reports enemy positions and Tory sympathies. Washington, facing dwindling morale and inadequate supplies, requests intelligence on Lord Cornwallis's winter campaign plans. Dick accepts the spy mission, reunites with his ranger band—known for scarlet wing badges worn on their hats—and prepares to infiltrate British lines in disguise, despite warnings from his companions that discovery would mean death.