Books: Once Upon A Time In Connecticut

C >> Caroline Clifford Newton >> Once Upon A Time In Connecticut

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This time a man of intelligence was needed and Colonel Knowlton
explained the matter to some of his officers. One of them is said
to have replied: "I am willing to be shot, but not to be hung."
But there was another who looked at it differently, and this was
Captain Nathan Hale. It seemed to him that if his country called
it was his duty to go, at the sacrifice, if necessary, of both
his honor and his life. And the more he thought of it the more
sure he was that it is the motive with which a deed is done that
makes it good or evil, and that a service which his country
demanded could not be dishonorable.

He asked advice from his friends, especially from Captain William
Hull, of his old regiment, who had also been one of his fellow
students at college. Captain Hull urged him strongly not to do
it. He reminded him how men feel about a spy and told him, too,
that it was doubtful if, with his frank, open character, he could
ever succeed in deceiving people and pretending to be what he was
not. He begged him for the sake of his family and his friends to
give it up because it might end for him in a disgraceful death.

Captain Hale replied, "I am fully sensible of the consequences of
discovery and capture in such a situation. But for a year I have
been in the army and have not rendered any material service while
receiving a compensation for which I make no return. Yet I am not
influenced by the hope of promotion or reward. I wish to be
useful, and every kind of service necessary to the public good
becomes honorable by being necessary. But," he added, taking his
friend's hand affectionately, "I will reflect, and do nothing but
what duty demands."

He decided to go, and left the American camp the second week in
September. He was to cross to Long Island and approach the
British position from the rear, and he was to go as a schoolmaster
looking for employment, which was the best disguise he could
assume as he had once been a schoolmaster and might easily pass
for one again. Just what his orders and instructions were we do
not know, as the service was a secret one.

His faithful sergeant, Stephen Hempstead, of New London, went
with him part of the way. On account of British ships cruising in
the East Elver and in the Sound, they were obliged to go as far
as Norwalk, Connecticut, before it was safe to cross. Hempstead
tells us that at Norwalk Captain Hale changed his uniform for a
plain suit of citizen's brown clothes, with a round, broad-
brimmed hat, took off his silver shoe-buckles, and left all his
papers behind except his college diploma, which he thought might
be useful. Then he said good-bye to Hempstead, telling him to
wait for him there, and an armed sloop commanded by Captain
Pond--probably Charles Pond, of Milford, a fellow officer in
Hale's regiment--carried him over to Huntington on Long Island.

Hempstead waited, but Captain Hale never returned. The next news
his friends received was the news of his capture and execution as
a spy in the British camp.

We shall probably never know just what happened after he left
Huntington, what adventures he met with or what narrow escapes he
had. About the time that he crossed the Sound, Sir William Howe,
the British general, moved over to New York and took possession
of the city, and Washington's suspense ended. Perhaps Captain
Hale did not learn of this until it was too late to return, or,
perhaps, knowing it, he chose to go on and finish the work he had
begun and take back information of the new position of the enemy.

We know that he passed safely all through the British camps, both
on Long Island and in New York, that he did his work thoroughly
and well, made plans and drawings of the new fortifications in
the city, and was only arrested on the last night, when the work
was done and he was ready to return. Just where he was when he
was captured we do not know. From the new line of intrenchments
made by the British across the city he could have looked
northward over to the American camp on Harlem Heights, scarcely a
mile away, and could almost have seen the tents of his own
company of rangers. Perhaps he made a quick dash for freedom
across this short mile and was seized then. Or, perhaps, in the
excitement of a great fire which raged all through the lower part
of New York City on that day, he may have got safely back to Long
Island and have been arrested as he tried to pass the sentries on
the outposts. An old tradition says that he had gone as far as
Huntington and was taken there. We cannot tell. But just as the
difficult task was over, the sudden disappointment came.

The papers and drawings found on him told the story only too
plainly, and he was carried before Sir William Howe. When he was
questioned he at once gave his name, his rank in the American
army, and his reasons for coming inside the British lines. No
trial was necessary, and General Howe immediately signed the
warrant for his execution on the next morning, Sunday, September
22, at eleven o'clock.

He was handed over to the provost marshal, William Cunningham, a
coarse and brutal man who has left a shocking record of cruelty
to his prisoners. Hale asked if he might have a minister with
him, but Cunningham refused. Then he asked for a Bible, but that,
too, was forbidden. How he spent the night we cannot tell; part
of it, no doubt, in prayer, for that was the habit of his life.

He could not want to die. He was young and strong, just twenty-
one, hardly more than a boy, and life was all before him. He had
friends who loved him; he was engaged to be married; he had every
prospect of success and happiness. But he had deliberately
counted the cost before he undertook the dangerous service, and
the training of all his life, at home, at college, and in the
army, had taught him not only to do and to dare, but, what is
better still, to accept defeat bravely.

The next morning, while the last fatal preparations were being
made, an aide-de-camp of General Howe's, a brave officer of
Engineers who was stationed near the place, asked that the
prisoner be allowed to wait in his tent. "Captain Hale entered,"
he says; "he was calm and bore himself with gentle dignity in the
consciousness of rectitude and high intentions. He asked for
writing materials, which I furnished him; he wrote two letters,
one to his mother, and one to a brother officer."

These letters Cunningham destroyed, saying that "the rebels
should never know they had a man who could die with so much
firmness."

There were few people present at his death. When he reached the
foot of the tree where the sentence was to be executed, he was
asked if he had anything to say, any confession to make. He told
again who he was and why he came, and added quietly, "I only
regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Then the
noose was adjusted, and the cruel end came quickly.

These last words of Nathan Hale have been repeated again and
again since that time. They have been cut in bronze and in
marble, they have been taught in our schools. They are noble
words, because they are simple and brave and unselfish. He could
have had no idea that they would ever be heard beyond the little
group of people about him when he died, but it so happened that
General Howe had occasion to send a letter to Washington late
that evening about an exchange of prisoners, and the bearer of
the letter was Captain Montresor, the officer in whose tent
Nathan Hale had spent the last hour of his life. Inside the
American tines Montresor met Captain Hull, Hale's intimate
friend, the man who had warned Hale so earnestly of the fate that
might be his. To him Montresor told the tragic story of that
morning and repeated the words that have since become famous.

[Illustration: Courtesy of Mr. George D. Seymour

NATHAN HALE

This statue stands in front of old Connecticut Hall, Yale
University. Nathan Hale's room was in this building]

Years afterward a monument was put up in Coventry to the memory
of Captain Nathan Hale. There are several statues of him in
different places; there is a fountain with his name upon it in
Norwalk where he crossed the Sound, and another at Huntington,
Long Island; there is an old fort named for him on the shore of
New Haven Harbor; but the memorial which comes closest to our
hearts is the little stone in the old Coventry graveyard, set
there in memory of him by his own family. This is the inscription
cut into it:--

"Durable stone preserve the monumental record.
Nathan Hale, Esq., a Capt. in the army of the
United States, who was born June 6th, 1755,
and received the first honors of Yale College,
Sept., 1773, resigned his life a sacrifice to his
Country's liberty at New York, Sept. 22d,
1778. Etatis 22d."

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF NATHAN HALE

By an unknown poet of 1776

The breezes went steadily thro' the tall pines,
A-saying "oh, hu-sh!" a-saying "oh, hu-sh!"
As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse,
For Hale in the bush; for Hale in the bush.

"Keep still!" said the thrush as she nestled her young,
In a nest by the road; in a nest by the road;
"For the tyrants are near, and with them appear,
What bodes us no good; what bodes us no good."

The brave captain heard it, and thought of his home,
In a cot by the brook; in a cot by the brook.
With mother and sister and memories dear,
He so gayly forsook; he so gayly forsook.

Cooling shades of the night were coming apace,
The tattoo had beat; the tattoo had beat.
The noble one sprang from his dark hiding-place,
To make his retreat; to make his retreat.

He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves,
As he pass'd thro' the wood; as he pass'd thro' the wood;
And silently gain'd his rude launch on the shore,
As she play'd with the flood; as she play'd with the flood.

The guard of the camp, on that dark, dreary night,
Had a murderous will; had a murderous will.
They took him and bore him afar from the shore,
To a hut on the hill; to a hut on the hill.

No mother was there, nor a friend who could cheer,
In that little stone cell; in that little stone cell.
But he trusted in love, from his father above,
In his heart all was well; in his heart all was well.

An ominous owl with his solemn bass voice,
Sat moaning hard by; sat moaning hard by.
"The tyrant's proud minions most gladly rejoice,
For he must soon die; for he must soon die."

The brave fellow told them, no thing he restrain'd,
The cruel gen'ral; the cruel gen'ral;
His errand from camp, of the ends to be gain'd,
And said that was all; and said that was all.

They took him and bound him and bore him away,
Down the hill's grassy side; down the hill's grassy side.
'Twas there the base hirelings in royal array,
His cause did deride; his cause did deride.

Five minutes were given, short moments, no more,
For him to repent; for him to repent;
He pray'd for his mother, he ask'd not another;
To Heaven he went; to Heaven he went.

The faith of a martyr, the tragedy shew'd,
As he trod the last stage; as he trod the last stage.
And Britons will shudder at gallant Hale's blood,
As his words do presage; as his words do presage.

"Thou pale king of terrors, thon life's gloomy foe,
Go frighten the slave; go frighten the slave;
Tell tyrants, to you, their allegiance they owe.
No fears for the brave; no fears for the brave."

REFERENCES

1. Johnston, Henry Phelps. Nathan Hale, 1776--Biography and
Memorials. Yale University Press. New Haven, 1914.

2. Stuart, I. W. Life of Captain Nathan Hale, the Martyr Spy
of the American Revolution, F. A. Brown. Hartford, 1856.

3. Hull, General William. Military and Civil Life. D.
Appleton & Co. New York, 1848.

4. Hale, Enoch. Diary. (In Appendix to an address
delivered at Groton, Connecticut, September 7, 1881, by E. E.
Hale.)

5. Hempstead, Stephen. "Recollections." Missouri Republican,
January 18, 1827.

6. Bostwick, Elisha. Pension Papers, in Hartford Courant,
December 15, 1914.

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