Hero Tales from History — Nathan Hale, Who Spoke the Bravest Words in History

When the time for which the Connecticut men had enlisted was nearly up, the young captain was shocked and hurt to find that some of the men in his own company were not willing to serve a little longer.

Here is a short, signed entry he made in his camp-book in November: “28. Tuesday.

Promised the men if they would tarry another month they should have my wages for that time.

NATHAN HALE.

” The youthful Connecticut officer and some of his men were among the few who stayed till the British were driven out of Boston by sea.

After this the commander-in-chief, foreseeing that New York must be the next point of attack for the British, sent all his soldiers on ahead to that city.

In the first brigade to go was Captain Nathan Hale, with as many of his little company as he could command.

While officers like Hale were recruiting new soldiers and drilling the raw recruits, Washington went to consult with the Congress then in session at Philadelphia.

During this visit he designed the first American flag and ordered it made.

It was the summer of the Declaration of Independence.

Washington and his untrained troops, less than fourteen thousand in number, had to defend and hold New York City, Brooklyn, and the surrounding country against an army nearly three times as large.

The British troops under General Howe were well fitted out and trained, and were aided by a fleet of warships commanded by the general’s brother, Admiral Lord Howe.

The Howes and their regular soldiers thought it would be an easy matter for their army, numbering three to one of their enemies, to capture the American army and carry Washington and the other ring-leaders of the rebellion back to England to be hanged for treason.

When, late in August, Washington learned that Howe was landing his army on Long Island from Staten Island, he sent General Putnam to meet and hold the British back.

As the British outnumbered Putnam’s company five to one, this was impossible, and the Americans retreated to their defenses.

This engagement was called the battle of Long Island.

At nightfall the British encamped around the cornered Americans, and the commander told his staff that they would take that “nest of rebels” in the morning.

A dense fog came in from the sea, and Washington, under cover of it, got as many boats together as his sailor soldiers could manage, and they rowed away from Long Island in the silent watches of the night.

Next morning, when Howe came to capture the nest, the birds had flown.

Washington was now forced to fly with his army from place to place, and the danger of being captured was greater than before.

So he needed to learn, if possible, what General Howe’s plans were.

Captain Nathan Hale was selected for this dangerous service.

There were some people in the colonies who believed that Washington was a traitor and that his men were rebels.

These people called themselves Loyalists, but others called them Tories.

Because of Nathan Hale’s frank face and sincere manner it was thought that he could make friends with these Tories and find out what was desired through them and their friends, the British officers.

Also, he was an educated gentleman.

He could take a position as tutor in the family of a rich Tory.

British officers visited these Loyalists and often discussed plans with them.

Captain Hull, a college friend of Captain Hale’s, was now an army comrade also.

When he heard that Hale was chosen, he called to beg him not to go as a spy.

He argued: “Your nature is too frank and open for deceit and disguise.

General Washington--nor any commander--has a right to ask you to assume the garb of friendship for the betrayal of others.

” Hale hesitated a moment at this, but when he spoke his voice was clear and firm: “I think I owe it to my country to do the thing which seems so important to General Washington, and I know of no other way of getting the desired information than by assuming a disguise and passing into the enemy’s camp.

” “But,” urged his friend almost in despair, “think of the disgrace of it!

If you were caught, you would be hanged as a criminal!

Dear Nathan, I beg of you, don’t go.

” Nathan Hale could not help being deeply moved.

He said gently: “He took upon himself the disguise of the men He came to live among, for the good of many and the cause of the right.

He was arrested and hanged--on a cross!

Who am I that I should set up my judgment against His example and General Washington’s will?

” Still, Captain Hull could not give up.

He has left on record his last attempt to persuade the young man whose love of country had become a religion: “I urged him for the love of country, for the love of kindred, to abandon an enterprise which would only end in the sacrifice of the dearest interests of both.

He paused--then, affectionately taking my hand, he said, ‘I _will_ reflect, and _do nothing but what duty demands_.

’ He was absent from the army and I feared he had gone to the British lines to execute his fatal purpose.

” Naturally very little is known of the spy in the few weeks that followed.

Sergeant Hempstead has told of going with him to the point chosen for crossing on a waiting sloop to Long Island, many miles from the British camp.

Hempstead says Hale was then “dressed in a brown suit of citizen’s clothes, with a round, broad-brimmed hat.

” When the captain and the sergeant wrung each other’s hands in farewell, Nathan Hale gave into Hempstead’s care his private papers and letters and his shoe-buckles.

The letters were to Hale’s aged father and to the girl whom he expected to marry.

At the end of several weeks Nathan Hale had succeeded in carrying out General Washington’s instructions, even to making a number of sketches.

So far as he knew, he had not been suspected.

This, he thought, was rather surprising, for there were Tories everywhere.

It was late in September, “in the dark of the moon,” when Hale slipped away from the British on Long Island and strolled down to the water’s edge where he was to meet the sloop and sail back to his own army.

He waited some time for the ship, but it did not come.

After some delay a sailboat came in sight and made up to the shore.

He was greatly relieved, for it did not occur to him that there was anything wrong.

As the boat drew near he hailed it with a happy shout.

When it was too late, Hale saw that some of the men in the boat were in British uniform.

In a moment more, he was their prisoner.

He had been betrayed--it was never known by whom.

He had a Tory cousin who was blamed at first, but his innocence was proven in time.

[Illustration: THE LAST WORDS OF CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE, THE HERO-MARTYR OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

_From the painting by F. O.

C.

Darley_] He was taken to General Howe’s headquarters.

The telltale sketches and data were found in his shoes.

He did not attempt to deny that he was a spy.

It was not necessary to try him after he confessed.

He was turned over to the provost marshal to be hanged next day.

Of course, no one knows what Nathan Hale thought that last night, but it may well be believed that he did not waste his last hours in despairing regrets.

If he was permitted to write farewell letters that night, they were never delivered.

In the morning Hale asked if he might speak with a minister, but that was curtly denied him.

“Will you lend me a Bible a moment, then?

” was his dying request.

“No!

” snapped the marshal.

A kind-hearted British officer, who noticed the pure, honest face of the young American spy, offered him shelter from the sun in his tent during a brief delay.

The heart of this enemy captain was touched, and it was he who preserved Nathan Hale’s noble words for future ages.

If the young spy could have known that his death would strengthen the hearts of patriots to fight for liberty, and that what he was about to say would go resounding down the ages, it would have added to his joy that hot September day.

A poet has described the moment when they came and led him out: “To drum-beat and heart-beat A soldier marches by;

There is color in his cheek, There is courage in his eye;

Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat, In a moment he must die.

” They led him to an apple tree near at hand.

While they were fastening his arms behind him and tying a rope around his ankles, he gazed up into the tree.

On his handsome face rested the resigned expression which is shown in the bronze and marble statues of Nathan Hale in the Yale yard where he used to play, and in the park before City Hall, in New York.

“Well, have you any confession to make?

” asked the marshal.

This called Nathan Hale’s mind back.

He smiled at the needless question, for he had confessed the night before and had thus made a trial unnecessary.

Hesitating only a moment, he answered the officer with simple courtesy, in the bravest words ever uttered by mortal man: