Clinton gave the silver ball to Daniel Taylor, a young officer, promising that Taylor would be promoted if he got the message to Burgoyne. If he were captured, he was to swallow the ball. Because it was made of silver, it could not harm him.

Question

Taylor had not gone far before several soldiers in red uniforms stopped him. Believing he was in friendly hands, he said he had a message from "General Clinton." But what he didn't know was that the smiling soldiers were Americans, wearing uniforms swiped from a British ship. They took Taylor to a "General Clinton" who happened to be an American general named George Clinton.

—George Washington, Spymaster,
Thomas B. Allen

Which evidence in the passage supports the idea that revolutionaries tricked a British soldier?

They took the soldier to an American General Clinton instead of the British General Clinton.
They stopped Taylor along his route to Burgoyne.
Red uniforms were easy to come by for the American soldiers.
Taylor decided to deliver the message even though doing so would be dangerous.

Answer 1

The evidence in the passage that supports the idea that revolutionaries tricked a British soldier is:

They took the soldier to an American General Clinton instead of the British General Clinton.

This action demonstrates how the American soldiers deceived Taylor by using the name of a general he would trust, further illustrating the trickery involved.