“Private No. 15”: Fake News in the Early American Press and the Influence of a Forged Letter on the Historiography of the American Revolution

On April 8, 1780, a copy of a letter titled “Private No. 15” appeared in the Pennsylvania Packet of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Purportedly sent from British General Sir Henry Clinton to Lord George Germain, the letter painted a dismally dim picture of the British war effort and admitted to the use of underhanded tactics such as the counterfeiting of the Continental Dollar, subsequently buoying American spirits. The letter, however, was a fake. This paper explores the ways in which the structures of the early American press proved remarkably susceptible to the spread of fake news, such as this forged letter. The paper also explores the ways in which the fake news that appeared in early American newspapers continues to influence the American historiography. The letter has been taken as genuine by every secondary source that has addressed it, significantly influencing the study of the counterfeiting of the Continental Dollar. I argue that the early American press was particularly vulnerable to the spread of fake news, and that this vulnerability has continued to influence the study of American history as unrecognized fake news continues to be explored as genuine within the historiography.