NATHAN HALE
Late in the evening of September 22, 1776, Captain John Montressor, of the British Engineers, who was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Howe, appeared under flag of truce at the American outposts on Harlem Plains, New York. He bore a letter to General Washington respecting the exchange of prisoners. General Putnam, Captain Alexander Hamilton, and Captain William Hull were among those who met him. To them Montressor verbally gave the information that an American officer, one Captain Hale, had been executed that morning as a spy. It was startling news, and to Hull it came like a shock, for Nathan Hale had been his chum at college[8] and confided to him details of the dangerous mission he had undertaken. A week later, the sad news reached the home of Hale, and one of his brothers, Enoch, started for the encampment of Washington’s army. There Lieutenant-Colonel Webb was induced to visit the British headquarters under a flag, and he returned with information that enabled Enoch to record that “Nathan, being suspected by his movements that he wanted to get out of New York, was taken up and examined by the general, and, some minutes being found with him, orders were immediately given that he should be hanged. When at the gallows, he spoke and told that he was a captain in the Continental army, by name Nathan Hale.”
Enoch carried this news home, and later his brother John made entry in the town records of Coventry which reads as follows: “Capt. Nathan Hale, the son of Deacon Richard Hale, was taken in the City of New York by the Britons and Executed as a spie some time in the month of September, A.D. 1776.”
Tench Tilghman, in a letter to William Duer, written ten days after the announcement of Hale’s execution, betrays the feeling in the American army. “The General is determined, if he can bring some in his hands under the denomination of spies, to execute them,” he writes: “General Howe hanged a Captain of ours belonging to Knowlton’s Rangers who went into New York to make discoveries. I don’t see why we should not make retaliation.”
Another letter, written by an American officer in camp at Harlem, is dated September 26, 1776, and reads: “One Hale, in N.Y. on suspicion of being a spy, was taken up and dragged without ceremony to the Execution Post and hung up.” “Yesterday we hanged an officer of the Provincials who came as a spy,” writes a British officer to friends at home; and James Drewett, on board the British frigate Mercury at New York, writes: “On the 22d we hung a man who was sent as spy by Gen. Washington.”
It was almost five months later when the newspapers began publishing garbled accounts. The “Conquest of Canaan,” an epic poem, by Timothy Dwight, probably the first book to mention Hale, was not published until nearly nine years after his execution, although, strangely enough, its author had early in 1776 solicited Hale to get subscribers to it for him.
Hannah Adams was in fact the first historian to record a concise account of Hale, and her “History of New England,” in which it appears, was not published until 1799, nearly twenty-three years after the event. The story in her book reads as follows:
“The retreat from Long Island left the British in full possession. What would be their future operations remained uncertain. To obtain information of their situation, their strength and future movements, was of high importance. For this purpose, general Washington applied to Colonel Knowlton, who commanded a regiment of light infantry, which formed the van of the American army, and desired him to adopt some mode of gaining the necessary information. Colonel Knowlton communicated this request to Captain Nathan Hale, of Connecticut, who was then a captain in his regiment.
“This young officer, animated by a sense of duty, and considering that an opportunity presented itself, by which he might be useful to his country, at once offered himself a volunteer for this hazardous service. He passed in disguise to Long Island, examined every part of the British army, and obtained the best possible information respecting their situation and future operations.
“In his attempt to return he was apprehended, carried before Sir William Howe, and the proof of his object was so clear, that he frankly acknowledged who he was, and what were his views.
“Sir William Howe at once gave an order to the provost marshal to execute him the next morning. This order was accordingly executed, in a most unfeeling manner, and by as great a savage as ever disgraced humanity. A clergyman, whose attendance was desired, was refused him; a bible for a few moments devotion was not procured, although he requested it. Letters, which, on the morning of his execution, he wrote to his mother[9] and other friends, were destroyed; and this very extraordinary reason given by the provost marshal, ‘that the rebels should not know they had a man in their army who could die with so much firmness.’
“Unknown to all around him, without a single friend to offer him the least consolation, thus fell as amiable and as worthy a young man as America could boast, with this as his dying observation, ‘that he only lamented, that he had but one life to lose for his country.’... To see such a character, in the flower of youth, cheerfully treading in the most hazardous paths, influenced by the purest intentions, and only emulous to do good to his country, without the imputation of a crime, fall a victim to policy, must have been wounding to the feelings, even of his enemies. So far [1799] Hale has remained unnoticed, and, it is scarcely known such a character ever existed....”
Fifty years after Hale’s execution the “Long Island Star” published (April 2, 1827) extracts from a letter of Stephen Hempstead, Sen., aged sixty-nine, which Hempstead had published in the “Missouri Republican.” Another ten years went by before the first printed address appeared, and thereafter memoirs and biographies followed at frequent intervals to the present time. Attempts have been made to trace every step in his career, but there is much that still puzzles the historians. Nobody has been able to prove how he got to New York, and no one can say positively where he was captured. From all that has been gathered on the subject, we have arrived at the following conclusions:
The retreat of the American army from Long Island had been satisfactorily accomplished, but the officers found themselves in a most perilous condition when on September 7, 1776, Washington called a council of war to consider the important question: Should they defend or abandon New York? At another council on the 12th, it was decided to move to a position on Harlem Heights, leaving a guard of four thousand men under General Putnam in the city, with orders to follow if necessary. On the 14th, Washington made his headquarters at the house of Robert Murray, father of Lindley Murray the grammarian. From there he wrote to General Heath, then stationed at Kingsbridge:
“As everything, in a manner, depends upon obtaining intelligence of the enemy’s motions, I do most earnestly entreat you and General Clinton to exert yourselves to accomplish this most desirable end. Leave no stone unturned, nor do not stick at expense, to bring this to pass, as I was never more uneasy than on account of my want of knowledge on this score....”
To quote a paragraph from Lossing: “The vital questions pressing for an answer were, Will they make a direct attack upon the city? Will they land upon the island, above the city, or at Morrisania beyond the Harlem River? Will they attempt to cut off our communications with the main, by seizing the region along the Harlem River or at Kingsbridge, by landing forces on the shores of the East and Hudson Rivers, at Turtle Bay, or at Bloomingdale, and, stretching a cordon of armed men from river to river, cut off the four thousand troops left in the city?”
Washington, in his perplexity, called another council of war at Murray’s. He told his officers that he could not procure the least information concerning the intentions of the enemy, and again asked, What shall be done? It was resolved to send a competent person, in disguise, into the British camps on Long Island to unveil the momentous secret. It needed one skilled in military and scientific knowledge; a man possessed of a quick eye, a cool head, unflinching courage; tact, caution, and sagacity—a man on whose judgment and fidelity implicit reliance might be placed.
Washington sent for Lieutenant-Colonel Knowlton and asked him to find a man for the service. Knowlton summoned a number of officers to a conference at his quarters and after explaining the service required called for volunteers. Late in the conference, when it seemed he would not find a man competent and willing to undertake the perilous mission, “a young officer appeared, pale from the effects of recent severe sickness. Knowlton repeated the invitation, when, almost immediately, the voice of the young soldier was heard uttering the momentous words, ‘I will undertake it!’ It was the voice of Captain Nathan Hale.”
Everybody was astonished. The whole company knew Hale. They loved and admired him. After the meeting his friends tried to dissuade him from his decision, setting forth the risk of sacrificing all his good prospects in life and the fond hopes of his family and friends. Hull employed all the force of friendship and the arts of persuasion to bend him from his purpose, but in vain. With warmth and decision Hale said:
“I think I owe to my country the accomplishment of an object so important and so much desired by the commander of her armies, and I know no mode of obtaining the information but by assuming a disguise and passing into the enemy’s camp. I am fully sensible of the consequences of discovery and capture in such a situation. But for a year I have been attached to 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 any expectation of promotion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful; and every kind of service necessary for the public good becomes honorable by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar service, its claims to the performance of that service are imperious.”
Knowlton presently conducted Hale to Washington, who delivered instructions concerning his mission. The commander also furnished him with a general order to the owners of all American vessels in Long Island Sound to convey him to any point on Long Island which he might designate.
Asher Wright, his trusty servant, was told to have the horses ready at the earliest moment, and, in company with Stephen Hempstead, they set off that Saturday evening. No hint has been given as to how they reached Norwalk, except that because of the British cruisers in the vicinity they could find no available boat until they got there, which may indicate that they spent a part of Sunday, hunting perhaps at Stamford and other points between there and Rye. Captain Pond, whom Hale knew, happened to be at Norwalk, then in command of the armed sloop Schuyler and arrangements were made to take him across to Huntington on the Long Island shore that night. Hempstead, who accompanied him this far, writing fifty years later, says that he changed his uniform for a plain suit of citizens’ brown clothes, with a round broad-brimmed hat: He does not tell us whether he brought the extra suit with him, but we must presume that Captain Pond furnished it, although Hale charged Hempstead with the care of his army clothes, his commission and public and private papers, and also his silver shoe buckles, saying they would not comport with his character as a schoolmaster. He requested Hempstead to wait at Norwalk until he returned or was heard from.
It was near daylight Monday morning when Hale was landed on the beach at Huntington. No sound save the plash of the waves disturbed the quiet of the approaching day. No sign of human habitation was in sight: no guidepost to indicate the direction to the town; but there were hills not far away and from these a better view might be had. A path was discovered and he rightly surmised it led to the town. Who there entertained this martyr unawares we may never know. Nobody there wanted a teacher just at that time, but everybody was ready to tell him how the Whigs were crossing from Huntington every day in order to escape the British. Foraging parties had already been to Oyster Bay and other towns. Two hundred wagons had been demanded from the farmers of Suffolk County to remove the baggage of the British from New Utrecht to Hellgate, and already three hundred had been sent there. Only the troops were allowed to cross the ferries from Long Island to New York without passes;[10] but the market boats were still in service and doing a good business supplying the British troops with fresh country produce. Their difficulty was to get men to assist in loading and unloading.
We cannot think that Hale would fail to take advantage of this opportunity. Whilst the boats at Huntington were transporting passengers to Connecticut with their household effects, those from Oyster Bay were supplying the New York markets and now were making deliveries directly to the camp kitchens. Without loss of time, Hale must have followed the road from Huntington to Oyster Bay. There it was not necessary for him to diverge from the truth. He found Huntington was already well supplied with teachers, and being willing to work at anything was glad to assist on the market boats. They stopped at Whitestone Landing, at Flushing, and at Hellgate, and it was now his business to inquire how many troops were at each place, how many more were expected, and how long they would remain, and perhaps even where they expected to be the following week. Then, with what was left of the cargo, they crossed to New York and there found ready market.
We know that Nathan Hale upon arrival in the city found that many of the British had already crossed the river, had engaged the men of his own company among others, and were now fortifying their positions in various sections of the city. And undoubtedly he mingled among them until, early on the morning of the 21st of September, the lower portion of the city was discovered to be in flames. We may never know how his time was occupied that day,[11] but it is possible that in spite of his disguise he discovered he had been recognized as one of the officers attached to Washington’s army. It may have startled him when he realized that he was back at the place he started from almost a week before. Back, but now not among friends. Washington had withdrawn and the British were now in possession of the ground between him and the American army. A walk of less than three miles along the shore of Harlem Creek would bring him within the American lines. It may have seemed the easiest way to return, and in fact might have been safely accomplished but for the unusual events of that day. The great curtain of smoke that hung over the city attracted attention for many miles around. Among those who went out of their way to obtain details of its cause was Captain Quarme and the crew of the Halifax. They were off Whitestone Point at the time, but when they had neared Manhattan in the vicinity of Ward’s Island, Quarme, with a few men, went ashore near what is now One Hundred and Eleventh Street. Hale was just reaching the water-front at that point, and noticing the small boat, and the Halifax not being in sight as the trees on Ward’s Island hid the view, concluded it might be a friendly party from Long Island. He had betrayed his anxiety and attracted suspicion before he realized his mistake. By Captain Quarme’s order he was left with the sentinels at the British outposts, who later conducted him to headquarters, and when the men returned they rowed for the Halifax and sailed back to anchorage that night in the vicinity of City Island. Later in the war the Halifax was stationed at Huntington, which may account for the idea that Hale was captured there.
The documents previously quoted show his treatment after reaching the British lines.