American revolutionary officer, hero, and martyr, born in Coventry, Connecticut, USA. Educated at Yale, he became a schoolteacher, served in the siege of Boston (1775), and was commissioned captain (1776). He penetrated the British lines on Long Island to obtain information, but was captured by the British and hanged without trial the next day. His statue stands at the headquarters of the CIA at Langley, VA.
For the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment colonel, see Nathan Hale (colonel). For the U.S. Congressman, see Nathan W. Hale is best remembered for his "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" speech before being hanged following the Battle of Long Island.Background
Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut.
When his militia unit participated in the Siege of Boston, Hale remained behind, but, on July 6, 1775, he joined the regular Continental Army's 7th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford.
Spy
During the Battle of Long Island in August and September 1776, which led to the British capture of New York City, via a flanking move from Staten Island across Long Island, Hale volunteered to go behind enemy lines to report on British troop movements.
Sometime in September, he landed on the north shore of Long Island at what is now called Halesite, New York on Huntington Bay.
During his mission, New York City (then the area at the southern tip of Manhattan around Wall Street) fell to British forces and Washington was forced to retreat to the north tip of Manhattan in Harlem Heights (what is now Morningside Heights).
An account of Nathan Hale's capture was written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist, and obtained by the Library of Congress. After luring Hale into betraying himself by pretending to be a patriot himself, Rogers and his Rangers apprehended Hale near Flushing Bay, in Queens, New York.
British General William Howe had his headquarters in a manor house (called the Beekman Mansion) in a rural part of Manhattan, at what is now 51st Street and First Avenue (Manhattan).
The speech
By all accounts, Hale deported himself eloquently before the hanging.
The story of Hale's famous speech began with John Montresor, a British soldier who witnessed the hanging. ()
If Hale did give the famous speech, it is most likely he was actually repeating a passage from Joseph Addison's play, Cato, an ideological inspiration to many Whigs:
How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country.
No official records were kept of Hale's speech.
Estimations of Hale
"Hale is in the American pantheon not because of what he did but because of why he did it," -- former CIA chief Richard Helms
"And because that boy said those words, and because he died, thousands of other young men have given their lives to his country," -- Dr. Edward Everett Hale, great-nephew of Nathan Hale, at the dedication of the Hale statue in New York, 1893
Hanging site(s)
Besides 66th and Third, there are two other sites in Manhattan that claim to be the hanging site.
Nathan Hale's body has never been found. An empty grave cenotaph was erected by his family in Nathan Hale Cemetery in South Coventry, CT
Other statues
A statue of Hale, sculpted around 1898 by Bela Lyon Pratt, was cast in 1912 and stands in front of Connecticut Hall at Hale's alma mater, Yale. In 1991, a piece for a band called The Nathan Hale Trilogy was written in honor of Hale by James Curnow. Hale was the uncle of orator and statesman Edward Everett and the grand-uncle of Edward Everett Hale (quoted above), a Unitarian minister, writer, and activist noted for social causes including abolitionism. Captain Nathan Hale Middle School in Coventry is named after him as well as Nathan Hale Middle School in Norwalk, CT (departure point for Hale's ill-fated spy mission). The Nathan Hale Ancient Fife and Drum Corps from Coventry, Connecticut is named after him, and includes a division known as Knowlton's Connecticut Rangers. William Hull, the only source for Hale's famous speech, is better known as the brigadier general who later surrendered the entire U.S. northwestern army to the British during the War of 1812
Reference
Rose, Alexander.| New York in the American Revolutionary War | |
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| Pre-war - Sons of Liberty - 1775 Invasion of Canada (1775) - Capture of Fort Ticonderoga - 1776 New York and New Jersey campaign - Battle of Long Island - New York Prison Ships Begin - Landing at Kip's Bay - Battle of Harlem Heights - Great Fire of New York (1776) - Execution of Nathan Hale - Battle of Valcour Island -Battle of Pell's Point - Battle of White Plains - Battle of Fort Washington - 1777 - Saratoga campaign - Battle of Ticonderoga (1777) - Battle of Hubbardton - Battle of Fort Ann - Battle of Oriskany - Battle of Saratoga - Battle of Freeman's Farm - Battle of Bemis Heights - 1778 - Setauket Spy Ring Launched - Battle of Cobleskill - West Point established - Cherry Valley massacre - 1779 - Battle of Stony Point - Sullivan Expedition - Battle of Newtown - 1780 - First Purple Heart - André Capture Reveals Traitor Benedict Arnold - 1781 - HMS Culloden Runs Aground at Montauk - Washington Calls Off Invasion of New York to Support Yorktown - 1782 - Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh - Newburgh letter - 1783 - Newburgh conspiracy - British Evacuate New York - Washington's Farewell to His Officers |
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