He was soon offered a better position in New London as the master of a new school in which he was expected to teach Latin as well as English. He wrote in one of his letters from New London:—
“I am happily situated here. I love my employment and find many friends among strangers. I have a school of thirty-two boys, half Latin, the rest English. In addition to this I have kept, during the summer, a morning school, between the hours of five and seven, of about twenty young ladies.”
The schoolhouses in East Haddam and New London where Nathan Hale taught have been restored and are kept now as memorials of him.
While he was teaching in New London the war with England broke out. There was great excitement when the news came of the battle of Lexington (April 19, 1775), and a public meeting was held at which he is reported to have said, “Let us march immediately and never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence.” He could not march immediately himself, for he was teaching school, but when summer came he entered the army as a lieutenant, and was soon made a captain. In September he went with some of the Connecticut troops to join Washington’s army which was besieging Boston. The American flag was not adopted until the next year, and as the colors appointed for his regiment, the Seventh Connecticut, were blue, they marched away from New London under a blue banner. His camp-basket, a powder-horn made by him, and his army diary are still in existence, and can be seen in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford.
Here are some of the entries in his diary that fall and winter:—
“Friday 29th (Sept.)—Marched for Cambridge. Arrived 3 o’clock, and encamped on the foot of Winter Hill.
“Sat. 30th—Considerable firing upon Roxbury side in the forenoon.
“October 9th, Monday—Morning clear and pleasant but cold. Exercised men 5 o’clock, one hour.
“Sabbath, 22d—Mounted picket guard. Had charge of the advance picket.
“Monday 6th (November)—It is of the utmost importance that an officer should be anxious to know his duty, but of greater that he should carefully perform what he does know.