Nathan Hale was an American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
23 Facts About Nathan Hale
2.
Nathan Hale volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed.
3.
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1755, to Deacon Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong, a descendant of Elder John Strong.
4.
Nathan Hale was a great-grandson of Reverend John Hale, an important figure in the Salem witch trials of 1692.
5.
Nathan Hale was the grand-uncle of Edward Everett Hale, a Unitarian minister, writer, and activist noted for social causes including abolitionism.
6.
Nathan Hale was the uncle of journalist Nathan Hale, who founded the Boston Daily Advertiser and helped establish the North American Review.
7.
In 1769, when Nathan Hale was fourteen years old, he was sent with his brother Enoch, who was sixteen, to Yale College.
8.
Nathan Hale was a classmate of fellow Patriot spy Benjamin Tallmadge.
9.
The Nathan Hale brothers belonged to the Linonian Society of Yale, which debated topics in astronomy, mathematics, literature, and the ethics of slavery.
10.
Nathan Hale graduated with first-class honors in 1773 at age 18 and became a teacher, first in East Haddam and later in New London.
11.
Nathan Hale's company participated in the Siege of Boston, but Hale remained behind.
12.
Nathan Hale was a part of Knowlton's Rangers, the first organized intelligence service organization of the United States of America, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton.
13.
General George Washington was desperate to determine the location of the imminent British invasion of Manhattan; to that end, Washington called for a spy behind enemy lines, and Nathan Hale was the only volunteer.
14.
Nathan Hale as depicted in bronze by Frederick William MacMonnies at the Brooklyn Museum.
15.
Nathan Hale planned to disguise himself as a Dutch schoolteacher looking for work, though he did not travel under an assumed name and reportedly carried with him his Yale diploma bearing his real name.
16.
Nathan Hale reportedly was questioned by Howe, and physical evidence was found on him.
17.
Nathan Hale behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer, to obey any orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear.
18.
Captain Nathan Hale entered: he was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity, in the consciousness of rectitude and high intentions.
19.
Nathan Hale asked for writing materials, which I furnished him: he wrote two letters, one to his mother and one to a brother officer.
20.
Nathan Hale said, 'I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country.
21.
Nathan Hale's family erected an empty grave cenotaph in Nathan Hale Cemetery in South Coventry Historic District, Connecticut.
22.
Statues of Nathan Hale are based on idealized archetypes; no contemporaneous portraits of him have been found.
23.
Documents and letters reveal Nathan Hale was an informed, practical, detail-oriented man who planned ahead.