Nathan Hale
BIRTH
Jun 6, 1755
Coventry, Connecticut
DEATH
September 22, 1776
New York City, New York
FAMILY
FATHER:
Richard Hale
(1717-1802)
##
Hale, Nathan
(1755-1776)
Nathan Hale was an American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed.
5
Places | Image | Address | GPS | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nathan Hale School House | 190 State St, New London, CT 06320 | MARKER | ||
Nathan Hale Hanging Marker | 171 E 65th St, New York, NY 10065 | MARKER | ||
British Artillery Park - Nathan Hale Marker | 50 Vanderbilt Ave, New York, NY 10017 | MARKER | ||
Mother Chick's Inn Marker | 124 Bay Road, Town of Huntington, New York, 11743, USA | MARKER | ||
Mount Pleasant Marker | 931 1st Ave., New York, NY 10022 | MARKER |
DIED:
New York City, New York
Sep 22, 1776
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1755, to Deacon Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong, a descendant of Elder John Strong. In 1769, when Nathan Hale was fourteen years old, he was sent with his brother Enoch, who was sixteen, to Yale College. He was a classmate of fellow Patriot spy Benjamin Tallmadge. The Hale brothers belonged to the Linonian Society of Yale, which debated topics in astronomy, mathematics, literature, and the ethics of slavery. Nathan graduated with first-class honors in 1773 at age 18 and became a teacher, first in East Haddam and later in New London.
Hale accepted a commission as first lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford. Hale was also a part of Knowlton's Rangers, the first organized intelligence service organization of the United States of America, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton. In the spring of 1776, the Continental Army moved to Manhattan to defend New York City against the anticipated British attack. In August, the British soundly defeated the Continentals in the Battle of Long Island via a flanking move from Staten Island across Brooklyn.
An account of Hale's capture, later obtained by the Library of Congress, was written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist. In Tiffany's account, Major Robert Rogers of the Queen's Rangers saw Hale in a tavern and recognized him. After luring Hale into betraying his allegiance by pretending to be a Patriot himself, Rogers and his Rangers apprehended Hale near Flushing Bay in Queens, New York.
On the morning of September 22, 1776, Hale was marched along Post Road to the Park of Artillery, which was next to a public house called the Dove Tavern (at modern-day 66th Street and Third Avenue), and hanged. He was 21 years old.