Nathan Hale

By all accounts, Hale was a picture of dignity before hanging and supposed to have he uttered the famous words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”.

An empty grave cenotaph was erected by his family in Nathan Hale Cemetery in South Coventry, Connecticut. Statues were erected at City Hall Park and Yale Club claiming to be the hanging site.

A statue designed by Frederick William MacMonnies was dedicated on the anniversary of Evacuation Day, 1893, at City Hall Park, New York. For the first time Hale was given an idealized square-jawed image.

Nathan Hale was born on June 6, 1755 in Coventry, Connecticut, and was the second of twelve children born to Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong. He belonged to one of the most prominent families in the region.

Both his Parents were devout Puritans who believed in the value of hard work, the virtue of religion and the importance of education. His father had built a thriving livestock business.

When he was fourteen years old, he was sent with his brother Enoch, who was sixteen, to Yale College. Nathan was a classmate of fellow patriot spy Benjamin Tallmadge.

The Hale brothers belonged to the Yale literary and debating society, Linonia, which debated topics in astronomy, mathematics, literature, and the ethics of slavery. He graduated with first-class honors in 1773 at age 18.

Upon graduation, Hale became a teacher, first in East Haddam and later in New London. After the Revolutionary War began in 1775, he joined a Connecticut militia and was elected first lieutenant.

When his militia unit participated in the Siege of Boston, he remained behind, perhaps it was because his teaching contract in New London did not expire until several months later, in July 1775.

A letter from his friend Tallmadge who participated in the Boston Siege inspired Hale to accept a commission as first lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford in July 1775.

In January 1776, he was promoted as captain and selected to lead Thomas Knowlton's “Rangers". In August, the British troops crossed Lower New York Bay and invaded Long Island.

The colonial army moved to Manhattan Island to prevent the British from capturing New York City. In September, Gen. Washington was desperate to determine the upcoming location of the British invasion of Manhattan Island.

Hale volunteered on September 8, 1776, to go behind enemy lines and report on British troop movements, knowing fully well that an act of spying was immediately punishable by death.

On the morning of September 22, 1776, he was marched along Post Road to the Park of Artillery, which was next to a public house called the Dove Tavern and hanged.