Nathan Hale: Icon of Innocence

MARY BETH BAKER NewLondon, Connecticut

Most stateshave official birds, flowers, insects- evencookies. Connecticutalso has a state hero, Captain Nathan Hale, who in 1985 temporarily beat out Prudence Crandall for the title. Hale was already considereda national figure and included in numerousschool texts by 1833 when Crandall openedher conffoversialschool for African-American girls in Canterbury, not far from Hale's birthplace in Coventry.

"NathanHale" by N.C. Wyeth,by kind permissionof the Hill School,Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Mary Beth Baker is the Director of the Stonington Historical Society. She worked as historic site manager of the Antiquarian & Landmarl

Btirn in 17,55.Flale entered Yale Ciollegcaf the age of firurteenancl, after gradu- ating.taught school before 3oinrng the arrnl rn 1775. Having serveclat the Siegeof Ilostorrund perhapsas a secretagent in New Yolk firr the firr-rrmonths preceding the llattleol'lrrng lsland,Hale passcd behind eucn]y lines in Septembcrof lll6 anclwas quickly apprehendeclas a spy. On 22 St:ptcrnberhc was hangedin what is today midtown N{anhattan.He'uvas thc l'irsi;\nrericanexecutecl bv the Britishin tlreWar lirr Inrlcpendence. Many haveconsidercd Nathan Hale a rood guy br-rta bad spy.1'his has been lrue almostsince Hale's unfirrtunate rlenrise at theuge of twcnty-one.Thc usualline gLong Island pretendingto be a schoolmasterin an effort to gain information about British forces. Hudson agreed with intelligence experts who describe Hale as a "sacrificial lamb, dispatchedon a mission doomed from the start."4 Even with the new manuscript at the Library of Congress,however, we still do not know what Hale's mission actually was or whether it was his first. How are we to judge his successor failure'? Does our ignorance permit us to assume he had no experienceor training? Basinghistorical judgments on an absenceof evidenceis alwaysproblematic, but assumptionsgrounded upon ideals rather than facts have been the custom when con- sideringstories like Hale's, and his role as a national icon has always been more importantthan the actuality of his life. If only the true motivations of heroes like Halewere understood,reality would stand revealed,according to many writers on the subject.The author of the icon's first full-length biography, IsaacW. Stuart, admitted in 1856that "romance. . . has beenbusy with Hale," but as long as the "tales" keep his memory alive, "we can pardon almost any idealization. . . ." 5 Certain elements of Hale's character,plot, and last words were codified as early as Hannah Adams' 1799A Sumnturt:Historv- of New-England. By the early twentieth century his words were literally cast in bronze by the antiquarian, George Dudley Seymour, who be- sidescommissioning a statue, spearheadeda campaign fbr a postage stamp, bought and restoredthe Hale family homestead in Coventry, Connecticut, and wrote the definitive Documentary Li.fe ol Nathan Hale.6 Becauseof the extensiveintelpretation related to Hale's history, his image has much to reveal about American values and character.As the icon of American inno- cenceand self-sacrifice, Hale's characterhas remainednearly inviolate,despite con- flicting details about his undercover lif-e and public death. These details are particularly important becausethey cast doubt on his inexperience and ingenuous- ness,and, thus, complicatethe story. The point of this essay,then, is to examine some of these details against the background of common assumptionsand lay bare the generaltruth behind Hale's story. We begin with one of the earliest sources,the one relied on by Adams, Seymour,and everyoneelse since:William Hull.i

William Hull

William Hull (1753-1825)of Derby, Connecticut,is one of the most important sourcesof interpretationon Hale's role as a hero. A year ahead of Nathan at Yale College, Hull was with Hale at the siege of Boston, and the two traveled with the it C,rNNEcl-rcrrrHrsrorry army to New York at the same time. Accordin-eto Hull, he and Nathan were close fiiends and confldants.and when Nathan askedfor advice on becoming an under- cover agent.Hull tried valiantly to dissLradehirn frorl a coursethat would likely end in death and disgrace.Successlul spies are never honored,Hull warned Hale, whom he counseledas fbllows: 11'Halewere truly l'atedto die, it should be on the field of battle, not on some ignorniniousgallows. But Nathan persisted,explaining that il' espionagewere the nrostr"rsefirl thing he could do, then personalconsecluences were unimportant. In the Lila of Capruitt Notltun Hulc. I.W. Stuart drarnatizesHull's advice by putting in a fictional scenebetween Hale's comrnandingofficer, Colonel Thornas Knowlton,and his men. Here Halebecclrnes a lonelyvolunteer. the one willing rran to step tbrward on a mission inrpossible:

. . . to play thc spy thc hatcclspy and ln ol'l'iccrto do it! It was t(x) irrcdocnrirblyhunrilrating - and onc alicr unothcrol thc ol'liccfs. . . dcclincd.No onc was willing to hclp Washirrgton gain the ncctlcdinlirrrnation. whcn suddcnly.thcr-e crmc a i,oiccwith thc painlirlly thrillinr:yet chccringwor'tls'l will undcrtakcitl' . ... Scarcclvycl rccovcrcdlhrrn a scvcrcillncss. hrs lircc still ptle, wrthouthis accustorr)cdstrcngth ol botly,yct lirrn and trdcnt as cverol soul,lllalel voluntcercdat onco, recklcssol'its rlangcr,irnd though tlouhtlessappallctl, not vanquishcdhy its disgracc.to clischurgcthc rcl)u(liirtc(llrLrst.o

Later writers. even as recentlyas Davicl McC-'ullouglrin his book 1776 (2005), have treatedthis episodeas if tactual.reading into it Nathan'syouthful ternerity. ThoughHull recountedrro such incidcnt, his l'anrousadvicc to Haleis usuallyrelated in conjunctiorrwith sonreversion ol'Stuart's dranratization.Befbre we weigh the validity of Hull's testintony.however. a cLlrsoryklok at his lil'eis in tlrder.') After a successfulcareer in the Revolution.Willianr Hull settlcclin Massachu- setts,practiced law, and becanrea prorninentlegislator and judge. He was a well- known and popular war hero, and his associationwith Nathan Hale heightenedthe respecthe enjoyed.In lli05 Hull wrs appointedgovernor of the Michiganterritory by PresidentJeff'erson. When war with Gleat Britain broke out, he lbLrndhirrself both governt)rand headol'the alrned lirrceslirr the Territory - a double duty he had been promisedwould not be dernandcdof him. His men were lefi outnunbered by Britishregulars aud thousandsol'lnclians. To fight and losewould nreanthe decirtta- tion of civilians,Hull f'eared.Rather than risk the livesof the scttler-s,his first prior- ity, he surrenderedDetroit anclthercby becaure"the best-hatedrnan in Arnerica."l0 Accusedof beingin leaguewith the British,HLrll helped vellt sorreof the coun- try's accumulatedrnisgivings about pro-British elernents in New Englandat thetinre. He was court-martialedand senlencedto be shot lbr cowardicein ltl 14, a sentence remittedby PlesiderrtMadison in view of HLrll'sRevolutionary War service.In 1825 Hull died at the ageof l2 in Ncwton,Massachusetts. "We mustput treacheryout of the question,"statcd a contenrporarybior:raphicul dictionuly. ll A f'ew years later a local politician,Judge Andrew Judson,blasted Hull at the ground-breakingcerenro- nies for the Nathan Hale nronumentin the hero's hometown of Coventry. Judson observedthat Hull's questioningof his friend's motives fbr going undercoverfbre- CoNNe,crrcur Hrsronv S shadowedHull's own "treasonous" act, "an act so disgraceful to our arms, and so withering to his name and prospects.This act, by many, has been attributed to brib- ery" but perhapsyou will rather consider it as the result of weakness and coward- ice ." Reflecting popular opinion, Judson concluded that the memory of Hale "shall adorn our history," while the story of Hull will "forever remain a disgraceful blot." Yet this "blot" would soon be cleansedand promptly forgotten.12 Hull's grandson, James Freeman Clarke, a Unitarian clergyman and writer of considerablereputation, was instrumental in assembling Hull's biography, and with his mother's help, published Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of Gen. William Hull (1848) at a time when Nathan Hale was already a high-profile national hero. The biography is supposedto have been based on Hull's own writings, but these were soon afterwards lost in a fire and thus it is impossible to evaluate how much interpolationand rearrangementwere done by Clarke and his mother. This much is clear:the book's agendawas to re-establishHull's reputation as a Revolutionary War patriot,as well as his close relationship with Nathan Hale in order to lend credibility to the project.l3 As schoolmates,colleagues, and comrades in arms, Hale and Hull would have arguedmany topics. Debate and rhetorical skill were highly prized among this gener- ation,and in school, in correspondence,and in pastime, Hale and Hull must have regularlytaken up opposing sides in order to sharpentheir skills and to amuse them- selves.Inject into suchan exercisethe advicethat Hull gave Hale about not engaging in spying,one can easily view their conversationin terms of a rhetorical debate.Yet, ignoring the theoretical context of their discussionsabout espionage,Hull's biogra- phershave him attempting to dissuadeHale from going under cover on a particular spy mission on purely personal grounds rather than an analysis of the actual issue: spying.Though later writers were apparently unaware of it, Hull's advice - taken at face value - was both entirely logical and unoriginal. As Swiss philosopherand authorof the influential Law of Nations (1758) explained,

Spiesare generally condemned to capitalpunishment, and not unjustly, there being scarcely any otherway of preventingthe mischief.. . . A man of honor. . . ever declincsscrving ls u spy. He considers it beneath him, as it can seldom be done without some kind o1'treachery.l4

Hull's conversationwith Hale was very likely hypothetical, a general discussion in which nothing on any particular mission was discussed. Yet later inference has always been that Hale had only one mission and shared all the particulars with his schoolchum. Take for example John Bakeless's version inTurncoat,s, Traitors and Heroes (1959), which treats the Hull material as if it were eye-witness testimony. Bakelessrefers to the hand-raising scenein Stuart's biography, surmising that every officer in Knowlton's Rangersmust have known about the spying mission when Hale left camp in early September of 1116 becausehe had discussed"the whole plan" with Hull, a most unprof'essionalthing for a spy to have done. The twentieth century conclusion that Hale's behavior was naive, typified in Bakeless's account, is not, however,based on contemporaryevidence, but, rather, on nineteenthcentury drama- S C,rNrur','rrc'r'r'HrsrrrnY

tizaiion that soughtto illustratethe nobility of the ,\nrericauciiuracter, an iclealIhat includcdquick decisionsmade in the heato1'putriotie tenor. l5 This much seemsreasonabiy celtain: Hull debatc'clwith Halc-the honorablerress of spying.with Hull recitingthe stanclardaclvice that espionageis not ir.rthe clraracter o1'agentlerntrn. In def-endingHull's reputation,his descenclantstooli thc interchange betweenthe two men a step fr"rrther.going orr to ask. "Did his country cienrandthe moral degradationof her sons.to advanccher intcrests'/"The rcply is reportedas i1' verbalim,with Halc sayingthat he was "l'Lrllysensiblc of tlreconsequences lof spy- ingl" but that hc would clo v'hatcverrnight bc rnostuseful to Iris country: ". . . every kirrd of service.necessary to the pLrblicgood, becorreshclnorable by being necessary. I1'theexigencies o1'rny countrv clemand a pecrrliarservice. its claintsto perfbrmthat serviceare irnperious."|(' Given the War of ltll2. sucha responsernight easily havc becnpnrnounced by Hull hirnsclfat the lossof Detroit.the surrcndcr-ol'u'l'tichr,,'as hoth his gkrry,because he hacl"claled to clo his clLrty."tnd his shanrc."because the epithctsol' traitol und cowardwere attirchecl to his nanre. . . ."'fhe st-'lectiono1'this llcvolutionary incident by'HLrll's biographerssurely huclnrore to clo r"'itlrHull's ou,n hisloly than u'illr I'lale's.l7 Still, it is wolth ernphasizin-r:tha{ both nrcnundorrbtetlly rrracle theil choices with the inlerestsol'thc broaderconrrrrunityirr rnintl, clcspitc thc personalcosts. Both. it would appeaf,wcre truly heroic,hou,ever theil respcctivcbiographcrs havc ror.nan- ticizedthern.

For thc Revolutional'ygencrati

L- CoNNecrrcur Hrsronv S containsmuch aboutHale that is likely accurate.Hull was not a witnessto Hale's missionor demise,learning of the executionfrom AlexanderHamilton at Harlem Heightson the night after Hale's death,after Hamilton with Colonel Reed,Adjutant General,and Major GeneralIsrael Putnammet the British CaptainJohn Montresor undera flag of truce.Montresor, aide-de-camp to British GeneralWilliam Howe, wasprobably a witnessto Hale's hastyexecution and was said to havebefriended him at the gallows.This much is confirmedthrough other sources.The ostensible purposeof the Americans' meeting with Montresor was to receive a letter about illegalweapons (musket balls fixed on nailsfound in the vacatedAmerican encamp- ments),but the real subjectseems to havebeen the burning of New York by Yankee incendiariesand the executionof Hale,events that happenedon the weekendof 2l- 22 September1776. Hull got permissionto go with the returnletter concerning the musketballs, and thus may have learned"the melancholyparticulars" from Mon- tresorin person.20 Accordingto Hull's biographers,Hale got throughLong Island to New York wherehe wascaught with incriminatingpapers, including sketches of fortifications. Uponbeing taken, he immediately"declared his name,his rank in the American army,and his objectin coming within the British lines." He was summarilysen- tenced,being automatically denied a trial. A Bible and clergymenwere alsodenied him. The accountends as follows: "But a f'ew personswere aroundhim, yet his characteristicdying wordswere remembered. He said,'I only regret,that I havebut onelife to losefor my country."' 2l Hull's accountand early newspaper stories have a numberof commonmistakes, includingthe locationof Hale's captureas well as the lettershe supposedlywrote beforehis death.According to the most credibleinformation, collected by Hale's brotherEnoch Hale soonafter the execution,Nathan wrote to his commandingof- ficer andto Enoch- not to his mother(who was long dead),his father,sister, or girlfriend- as newspapersand other early publishedaccounts variously claimed. ThatHull (or ratherhis biographers)made the samemistakes indicates a relianceon similarsecondary sources, oral or literary.Indeed, Hull's biographer(in this section, his daughter)notes in referenceto the chapteron Hale, "l have introducedre- marks. . . familiarto ruy recollection.. . ."22 Perhapslike Bakeless,twentieth century writers on Hale have receivedHull's testimonyvia GeorgeDudley Seymour's Documentary Lifu andhave thus missed the pointthat the storywas published years after Hull's deathby descendantswho hadan agenda,and that in any event,Hull's informationwas secondand third hand,at best. Anotherpoint invariably missedis that NathanHale was alreadyfamous at this time and not solely the product of I.W. Stuart or a century later, George Dudley Seymour.23

Fame

Consideringhis age,rank, and shortlife, Hale is well-known,even in our own era of Hollywoodcelebrities. Though no longer much mentionedin schooltexts, # Co**"ctrcLrr Hrsrclnv

Hale bearsremarkable staying power in the popularimagination. He is the subjectof nurlerouschildren's books and even a PBS cartoon.There are well over 50,000web sitespresentin-s infbrrration about him. including the Central IntelligenceAgency's Kids' Page,which puts Hale's story into a first-personnarrative:

Arrnetl with rny Yale degrec and under cover as a l)utch schoolmaster,I went behrnd British lines arrclprocceclccl to collcct inlirrnration.Other than my covcr, I wasn't wcll trarnedin thc alt ol spying. I was cap(urcdby thc British anclhangcd on Septcmber22. 1716.The British executioneraskctl il'l had any linal worcls,and I told him, "l only regretI havc hut one life t

As l'urthcrcvidence of Hale'splace amon-{ America's famous, he is one of the f-ewearly agentsI'eatured in the new InternationalSpy Museum in Washington,D.C. An exhibit at the rnuseumpoints out that the identitieso1'successful spies are hardly ever kltown so that historiansare inevitably stlrckjudging the professionby its fail- ures.The interpretationo1'Hale is as favorableas possible,given the tragic circunr- stancesof the deatho1'this patron saint of the CIA, a title Hale is ofien given.l5 But Nathan Hale was, two hundred years ago, relatively more famous.26Of coursethe cilcle of'clairnantswas snrallerthen, but many Revolutionaryfigures now consideledol'f irst irrportancewere scarcelyrecognized in the early decadesof the Republic. Not so tbr Nathan Hale. Though written eighty years atter Hale's death, lsaacStuart's biography ( l8-56)predates Henry Randall'swork on ThomasJefl'erson, and car.nebelbre rra.iorworks on Adarns,Hamilton, Madison,or Jay. Indeed,before the Civil War, Hale's real rivals fbr public attention,besides Washington, Jetl-erson, anclFranklin, were the likes of John Paul Jones,Richard Montgomery,and Francis Marion. Atier the pr"rblicationof Stuart'sbook, historianJared Sparks wrote: "lt is a .justtribute to the memory of a man, whose name will ever standhigh on the list of those who have saclificedtheir lives in the serviceof their country."JT At the close of the 1700s.when HannahAdams was writing her New England histoly, Arnericannational identity was definedmainly by contrastingit with British rnodels.Not surprisingly,Adarns's retelling of the Hale story is presentedin contrast to the story of his Britisl.rcounterpart, the gentlemanand officer, John Andr6, exe- cuted as a spy by the Americansfbur yearsand one day after Hale's demise.lndeed, Andr6 was a star of the first magnitudeamong RevolutionaryWar figures,and only by comparisonwas Hale relativelyunknown, judging fiom early newspaperaccounts and other sources.lnterestingly, Hale was well-known, even to Andr6.28But fiom Aclams'time on, the complaintabout Harlechanged little: He is an unsunghero, even arron-qthose who ought to rememberhis sacrificebest. This cornplaintbecame part of the usualjererniad fiom the 18-50sto the l9-50s,along with the hero's innocence, inexperiencc,and patriotic bravery.29 Americanscontinue to honor Hale's sacrificein quaint ceremoniesand heart-f'elt sneeches.but it has beenmore usualin recentdecades to think ofthe vouns hero as a

L

I CoNNscrtcur Hrsronv # productof nineteenthcentury nostalgia resuscitated by GeorgeDudley Seymourin the 1920sand 1930s,an artifactof no real historicalimportance. Of courseit might be arguedthat artifactsare important,but on Hale's election as StateHero of Con- necticutin 1985,then State Historian Christopher Collier saidin an AssociatedPress storythat Hale had been an "indiscreet"and "foolish" spy,memorable only because of a "pieceof rhetoric."Wishing someonewho had more materiallycontributed to Americansociety had beenchosen, Collier opinedthat Hale was a most "unprofes- sional"choice on the part of the statelegislature. Collier wasnot alonein this judg- ment.It had beenpointed out againand againthat Hale was not a successfulspy, howeverbrave and honorablehe may havebeen. As if in answerto Dr. Collier, a formerhead of the CIA hadthis pronouncement:"Hale is what he is in the American pantheonnot becauseof what he did but becauseof why he did it."30 Althoughthe latertwentieth century trend of deconstructingpatriotic figures has not automaticallydoomed all to the historicaldumpster, a deepskepticism concern- ing thepolitical agenda of historianspersists. Daniel Boorstin's mid-century dismis- sal of Americanbiography as a kind of crossbetween medieval hagiography and Greekmythology bolstered the generalnotion that historiansof early Americahad lostsight of their role as chroniclers.All too often writerswaxed long and hard in presenting"the embodimentof the true spirit of the nation" without much concern for realevidence. Forgenerations, the effort to enshrinesuitable emblems of patriotism- the con- certedeffort of historians,teachers, and civic leaders- took precedenceover other considerations.By the secondhalf of the twentiethcentury, the debunkingof these nanativeshad become a focusof interest,and it continuesto be,at leastin the media. Nevertheless,a new generationof researchershas been eager to sift throughthe icon- oclasticsweepings and in the pastdecade or so therehas been a spateof rehabilita- tive biographies.3lStill, in terms of de-mystifyingAmerican history, Consider Tiffanyanticipated many latter-dayhistorians by more thantwo hundredyears. Tiffany's"The AmericanColonies and the Revolution"is a roughlychronologi- calcompilation of eventsfrom a Loyalist viewpoint,punctuated by talesof natural disasterand celestial coincidence. His treatmentof Hale comprisesless than a page of hisbook-length manuscript. How did Tiffany know Hale'sstory a decadeafter the event?Was he on Long Island in Septemberof 1776,at the time of Hale's last mission?Clearly not. Tiffany was a non-combatantwho, becauseof his Loyalist sympathies,was placed under house arrest on his Barkhamstedfarm aroundthe time Halewas sacrificing his life in New York. Like mostchroniclers of the time,Tiffany gothis versionof the Hale storyfrom oral reports,personal letters, and storiespub- lishedin newspapers.Rumors reaching Tiffany's earsin northernConnecticut might well haveincluded those passed on by Loyalist clergy, like-mindedlocals whose sonswere combatants,or even Tory spies.Direct borrowingfrom publishedand unpublishedsources, without verificationor attribution,was standardpractice then andneeded no apology.One thing is clearfrom Tiffany's treatmentof him: Halewas alreadyfamous in the period just after the Revolution. i0 t?,1Clc,rr.,n.c rrc'ur Hrsr-or

('onsiclcr''fil'llny'shortrc. l'rrrilt in 1778.Harllartcl. ('onlr. l:llr Ir. Wligltt. 'l OertrulogictrlSkttclt ol tltt if.lurt.t'/'rrlrllt (Wulct'burv.1904).

Unlike many New Enslurrdcl's,C'onsicler''l'il'['an-y rlid nol n]igrltc wost aiier the war. lrorclid hc, like so nlruryNcw EnslanclLoyalists, rcnrovc to the C'lLnaclianMari- tinre provincesin the l7u0s. Hc clicdal the age ol'63 at honte.and his sonsalso stayedput. Anotherthirr-9 that sct Ilinl upufl:Tifl'any nraclc llo sccrctof havingan uxe to grind, and uscdNathan Halc ar.:countsfilr a srnallbit ol'whctstrlrrc.rl Hale'sf ivc-nrinutesof l'arncin Til'fanr,'srncanclclinr: history. corrrplctcd uround 1787,is imbecldedwithin his apologylu',,uring Col. RobcrtRotcrs (1731-l7c).5). thc heroof the Frenchand lndianwurs. who hetilrcthe Revolrrtir)r.lwls anr()ngthc fcw truly fhr

theil fame rnay be spokeno1 by thosethat are yet unborn (Book VI, p. 36)." Tiltany clcclinesto give rndiviclualhistories of all thesefhmous Americans, except in the case of Washingtonand Arnold. As a t'ellow Loyalist, BenedictArnold commandsatten- 'lil?rny tion. aclmits.General Washingtonis also noticed, not only becauseo1' his grert popularitybr"rt because he is "an HclnestEpiscopalian." Tiffany's commentson Washington. howcvcr. are confined to his activities during the war with France, t754-1761. Perhapsthe most colorful descriptionin Tiffany's entire narrative is of a tax levolt in his udoptecltown of Barkhamsted.This instanceof'civil disobediencewas calliecl oLrtcntifcly by women, alnong the f'ew sentientcreatures in New England, 'fhe Tifl'any observes. furol createdby taxes,excise, and impostsfbllowing the war. the eeonornicdcprcssion. and variousarguments among the Arrerican statesdernou- stratcclthat "the costol'being independent one yearvastly exceeded all the taxations and othel clutics irnposed by the crown tbr filiy years if the whole had been plricl. . . ." Tifl'anyclairns tl.rat American ccnsorship has kept the citizenryirr uttcr isnonrncc.L.Jnawarc of the hopelessnessol'thsir predicarnent.he concludcs,". thcr-encvcl wus a pcopletl'rat were hi-qhlicrfavour'd than they and yet a pcoplewho wcre ulwuys lnultingtheil lulers anclfillcd with contentionand clotrcsticcluarrels, hut thc lorrscrtltcy livccl.the worsc they grew, and sor"rghtthe rr-rino1'the nation, which pclhlpsin tinrcwill bc tl'rcruin of the UnitedStates. . .(BookVl. p.4lt" 1;

Ilrtl tc t'l llt t yc t',s' 'l'il'lurry's vcrsionol'the Hlrlestory is alonc in clairningthat Hale llied to clerry ivho hc rvus. Yct as irrlelcstingancl plovocative as soutcof Tiflany's histoly is, his stolvof'Hllc lrclclslittlc to thc tangleo1'rnystely arrcl guess-work alretdy at our dispo- sal.Til'firny clocs corlobt)rale sonlc of what is clefinitelyknown aboLrtHalc's capture. but wrr still lail to firrclout what inlirrn.ration,if any. was cliscovereclon his pcrson. Still. il'Halc rctlly haclnothing, it seemsdoLrbtful he would have beenexecuted, givcn lll the baclpless bourrd to result.lndeed, Hale's hanginggot ncarlyas ntuch rregativcpublicity in linglanclas it did in Arnelica.For example,a newsaccount of []alc's crecutiou in the Ltttrdott('ountnt & WesttninstcrChronicle (4 Decernbet l7tlO)rcporteclthat he I'raclsucceeded in gainingvaluable infirrrration, prool'o1 which was lilunclon his pcrson.l'lere Hale cornparesflvorably with the reccntlyexecuted lllitish "spy." MlLjorJohn Andr6.another bipartisan henr.sE ln llJ6 Hale's erecution was Llnpopularamong both old and New England Wlrigs.Ile was universullyviewecl with syrnpathy,being the llrst Arnericanexecuted by thc flritislr in the Revolr-rtion,though he was not thrl first captuledspy. Also in his lirrror.Halc was An olficer'.very young, and an educatedgentleman from "the college at Nerv Huvcn." Withor-rtbencl'it of a trial or any other consideration,he was summa- lily hangccl not even shot as was the customaryprivilege among officers. It is harullysurplising. tlierr.that Hale cluickly rose to symbolic importanceamong the Anrelicansas iur cxalnpleof British imperiousnesson the one hand and American selllessnesson thc other. lt was no doubt for this reasonthat betbre introducing

L CoNNecrrcur Hrsronv # I --)

Hale's sadstory, Tiffany choseto give a long litany of British sympathizerswho had been abusedby the American insurgents in "this unnatural civil war."3e Though it has long been known that Robert Rogers played a role in Hale's cap- ture,the literatureon Nathan Hale has rarely mentioned it. Nor has it been noted that Rogersand Hale sharedfamily associationson Boston's North Shore, at Newbury- port and Portsmouth,and that they may possibly have known of each other before Hale's fatal encounterwith Rogers. Shortly before the war, Hale went to stay with his Uncle Hale, the head of a well-known Latin school in Portsmouth, and there met his Loyalist cousin Samuel Hale, son of a another uncle. Robert Rogers' estranged wife, ElizabethBrowne, also of Portsmouth,was the daughterof a prominent clergy- man who would certainly have been known to most congregantsthere, including the Hales,whose forebear was among the best-known clergymen in New England: the Rev.John Hale, of Beverly, Massachusetts.l0 NathanHale's first cousin, Samuel Hale, banishedfrom Portsmouthon account of his loyalty to the Crown in 1776, went to New York as GeneralHowe's deputy commissaryof prisonersat the same time that Robert Rogers came into that sphere. Both men left wives in Portsmouth.never to be reunited.Both lived as American exilesin London after the war. Both were villainized in the press in their own lif'e- times.Given the interrelatednessof New Englanders at the time, it seems unlikely that the two families were unknown to one other, however distantly acquainted.In- deed,the role later given to Samuel Hale as Nathan's betrayer may have been played by Rogersor one of his Connecticutloyalist rangers. Anotherconcerning aspect of our ignoranceabout Hale's demise is the usual assertionthat NathanHale had never before Septemberll76been involved in gath- ering intelligence,was ill-prepared for such a mission, and worked solo. None of theseassumptions have ever been supported by evidence. The work of successful spies,especially those who leave behind accomplices,is rarely known to history. Hale'sown diary is of linle help becauseit was left blank for much of 1116, with somepages torn out. This, of course, should not surprise us if Hale was indeed al- readyoperating under cover at the time. In one place in his account book (February of 1776),he notes money paid "To the Secret." Perhapshe had agents working fbr him already.Other hints are given in brother Enoch Hale's diary. He and Nathan Hale sometimescoresponded in code and experimented in "short hand." Judging fromentriesmade early in l7'76,Hale was gatheringstrategic information and men- tioned conespondenceabout such matters. He even used the word "intelligence" when writing Enoch about Washington's having received word by way of "friends" in London of British plans fbr the New York campaign.al Hale arrived in New York with Capt. Nathaniel Webb's regiment on 26 March 1776,buthe did not stay put. Webb's orderly book indicatesthat Hale was intermit- tently away from camp on Long Island through May and June. In June he wrote an unidentifiedfemale friend, "PH," mentioning the dangershe had encounteredduring one of theseunexplained absences: "The risque I had run was not trifling. My escape demandedthe most heartfelt gratitude." Biographer George Dudley Seymour inter- I-1 iS C,r*,.'trctrcu'r' Hrsronv pfL'tcdthis u:; a rel'elenceto Hale's legenclaryexploit of cutting out a sloop loacled witLrsupplics lirm underthe gunsol'the British man-of-warAsia. This rnay have been.but l-tisrnustel rolls show that during this time Hale had beento easternLong islancl"rcclLriting" with Thomas Updike Fosdickand JererniahTallrnadge, men r,vho nrir)\\cll ltrrrchccrt 1,.'llori spics.l: By thecnd of Nla1,.Hale uas backin New York (Manhattan)i.rnd again wrote his hlo{hcr l:nocli: "l arn rtot on the end of Lorrg lsland,but in New York. encamped lLt-.outonc rnile back o1'city.We have lreenon the Islancland spentabout three weeks tlrele ."'l'hus. we hnow hc lraclbeen on a rrissioninto a heavily Loyalistarea w'lrich.us cvcl'voneprcdictcd. would soonbe under Biitish control.l'he letteralso lcvcirissonrcIhins of'llale's iluxicties,knor'ving first-hartd as hc did the nunrberand (rcngth01' l-()_valists:

It rrorrltlgrierc crcrl,urxrrlnrarr tocorrsidc|rihat Lrnniltural nlonstcrs u,c have as it u'crcin orrrhoucls. Nrrrrthcls irt this C'olonv. lrntl Iikcuisc in lhc wcslcfnparl ol ('orrnccticut.would bc t:llLtllo intbructhcil ltirrttlsin lltcir-('ounlry'slikxxl. Iilrclslcntlcl lltisItxr cvirlcnt lo atlnritof' riisprrtc.. . . It is leallv li criticrl Pcliod.+r

Halc s wor.kon [-ong lslundrnust have involvecl gauging the relativesuccess of l,o,llrlist lccruitrrrcrrtas well enlistingagents firr Washington.essential activities at tltisstage irt thc conl'lict.Wherr New York fcll to thc British.it woulclbe paran'rount tlrattr'cll-counectr:cl ittlirrrttirnts bc in place.fror [ialc to havcbcen sent back to Long lslrtrrrlin Scptcrubclol' lll6 seenlsunsurprising in this contcxt.Whether he hacl l)Lrfsoulilkrlowlcdgc Turtle liit,r'onNcw York'-rupper East Sidc'- cornportswith otherevidence about the place of lialc"r erecutiorr.-l'heecho o1'Hale's legcudary words is also intriguing.whether Jltnicslteard thc u'urclshirnsclf or got them secondhilnd.That Hale had cineregret CoNNe,crrcur Hrsronv S 15 seemscertain, and sincehis famousone-liner was no doubt part of a much longer final oration,it is not surprisingthat different peopleremembered different things. In additionto the questionof whetheror not Hale servedon only one mission, whichfailed, there is alsothe questionof his working alone,as is usuallyassumed. He certainlywas not the only Americansent to Long Islandto get in the way of Rogers,whose rangers, spies, and marauders were a tremendousworry to New York andConnecticut authorities in the summerof 1716.Like Col. Knowlton's corps, underwhom Hale operated,Rogers' band actedas scouts,pickets, and raiders,and theymade significant incursions all alongLong IslandSound. As the British intelli- genceofficer Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie noted in his diary, Rogershad ven- turedinto westernConnecticut where his men freed British hostagesand raiseda "secret"army of Loyalists.On 30 September,Washington wrote Connecticut Gover- norJohn Trumbull that he was afraidRogers would soonraise an army "of our own people."Trumbull responded on 13 October:"The designof Rogers,as far as we can learn,is from Huntington[Long Island]to makea suddendescent in the night more especiallyon the town of Norwalk [Connecticut],not only to take the storesthere, butto burnand destroy all betbrethem."46 Trumbull,then, was gettingintelligence and wantedmore. On the other sideof theconflict, Consider Tiffany noted that Trumbull had directedthe plunderingof Tory-heldfarms on Long Island.Trumbull, Tiffany wrote, had gainedpersonally fromthe illegal tradebetween Loyalists and Whigs (Book V, pp. 30). Nor was he alone.Many Connecticutprivateers did well during the Revolution. With an open mind about Hale's possibleexperience in undercoverwork and generalfitness for the job, let us returnto the detailsof Tiffany's versionof hale's capture.The idea that Hale did not recognizeRogers because Rogers had assumed a disguise,as Tiffany claims,or thatRogers personally shadowed Hale for a numberof days,seems preposterous at first glance.Rogers was a very famousperson at the time,and though fame did not then carry the kind of instantrecognition now suffered by mediastars, a personof Rogers'renown could not easilyhave moved about for longwithout his reputationpreceding him, howeverhe was disguised.Moreover, Rogerswas in chargeof hundredsof rangerswho were constantlyslipping behind enemylines, into andout of Connecticutand Long Island,and necessarily, off andon vessels.The idea that such a personhad time to go aroundpersonally shadowing suspiciouslooking young men in tavernsin September1176 seems highly unlikely. Buton secondthought, Rogers would havehad agents and scouts doing precisely this kind of work, and whateverhis men found out, Rogerswould have receivedthe credit. AssumingHale carriedhis own identity papers,a diploma would have been aboutthe only form of identificationthen availableand was of coursea requisiteto anyoneseeking a teachingjob, and this was Hale's reputedcover. Rogerswould havebeen immediately informed of Hale'sname, story, and whereabouts. Assuming Rogerswas even remotely familiar with the Hale family, he may havearranged to interviewHale personallv before handine him over to the British authoritiesin case t6 # Co**u,ctrctrl Hls'lony some use could be made of him as a double-agent.Evidently, none could be. In any event, some level of personalinvolvement between Hale and Rogers is plausible.aT Tiftany writes that Hale was openly testingthe degreeof loyalty among thosehe met, and this too is credible.At the time of Hale's capture.hundreds of Anericans were desertingto the Crown, countingon a quick British victory and wanting to find employmentwith the winning side. As a pretendeddeserter. Hale would have been recruitingagents as well as gaining strategicinfbrmation. He was probably success- ful, whateverhe said at the gallows.Though speculative,such a view is considerably less presumptuousthan the usual interpretationof Hale's hopelessnaivete. A nurnberof patriotsare known to have infiltratedthis areaof Long Islandat the same time as did Hale. George Clinton, general of the New York rnilitia, wrote Washirrgtonfiom New Rochelleon l0 September1116 that he hirnselfhacl consid- ered crossingthe Sound from Connecticutin an effbrt to get inlbrmation. l'hat had proven far too dangerousand Clinton, instead,sent two men. "l have the pleasurett'r infbrm you however," he wrote Washington:

I got ovcr last Night two Mcn o1'Ingcnuity& Intcgrityon thc Islanclwho havc in thc nrosl sollcntn Manncr engagcclto run cvery Risk to gain thc ncccsslry Intcllir:cncc& I doubt not thcy will clltct it or lurse lsicl thcir [-ives; besidcsthcsc, I hrvc laid a Plan lirr catchingtwo Torics now on thc lsland(distant Ncighbours of nrinc)& cxpcctcdhcrc this fivcning. wlxr Ihrrn thcir Scnsc& [mpol'tonccnlust be ablc il willrng to givc us rnuch lnlirrrnation& ll l can ca(ch thom l'll rnakcthcnr willing.4S

PerhapsClinton's spies were rnore successtulthan was Hale. anclthus manageclto elude his fate and fhrre.

Fortune

Whetheror not Rogersknew the Hales,it is likely thatConsider Tiffany's fanrily did, and certain that Tiffany knew Rogers,having servedunder him in 1756.Con- sider was born in 1733 (decadesbefbre Nathan Hale) in the New London County shoretown of Lyrne, about 40 miles distantfiom Hale's birthplaceat Coventry.Tif'- fhny was educatedat home and taught school in the vicinity fbr a number of years beltlre he natried and mo\cd on, which he.did around 1758. Leaving behind l'riends and relativeson the coast,Titfany took his growing tarnily 6-5miles to the frosfy north-centralhill town of Hartland,Connecticut, just over the Balkharrstedline on Center Hill, where the land was rocky, inf'ertile,and cheap.4e A temporaryresident in TifTany'shometown was Nathan Hale's brother Enoch, who came to teach in Lyme around 1773.Befbre joining Washington'sfirrces, Na- than also taught nearby,first in East Haddam,just north of Lyme, and then east in New London, until 1775.TifTany may have had sourcesclose to the Hale family. As already stated,Enoch Htrle, soon to start his fifiy-seven years as a Congregational pastorin centralMassachusetts, undertook his own investigationabout what had hap- pened to his brother.and word of Enoch's discoveriescirculated.s0 CoNNecrrcur Hrsrony # I]

Oftenmisrepresented or ignoredin discussionsof NathanHale is the fact that Americanauthorities, even at the beginningof the Revolution,had good information aboutthe enemiesactivities. As British intelligenceofficer Lt. Mackenzieadmitted in his diary(5 November7776): "The Rebelshave good intelligence of what we are doing. . . ." Mackenzieof courseknew that Rogers'colps was composedof rebel desertersfrom Connecticutand Long Island.It would hardlybe surprisingif at least oneof thesehad beenable to identify NathanHale as an unusuallytall, muscular youthknown in New Londonand New Havenas a forcefulpublic speakerof decid- edlywhig opinions- a youngman with a powderburn on his faceand a hair mole justbelow one ear.5l A contemporaryaccount of Hale'sexecution is foundin Mac- kenzie'sdiary. The entry for 22 september1776 includes the followins:

A personnamed Nathaniel Hales, a Lieutenantin the RebelArmy, and a nativeof Con- necticut,was apprehended as a Spy, last night uponLong Island;and havingthis day madea full andfree confession to the Commanderin Chief of his beingemployed by Mr. Washington in thatcapacity, he was hangedat 1I o'clock in front of the Park of Artillery. He was about24 yearsof age,and had beeneducated at the College of New-havenin Connecticut.He behaved with greatcomposure and resolution,saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer, to obeyany orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief;and desired the Spectatorsto be at all timesprepared to meetdeath in whatevershape it might appear.52

DespiteMackenzie's reputation for reliability,a numberof errorsare notewor- thy,including Hale's name,rank, and age.But sinceHale's diploma,in Latin, was foundon his person,Mackenzie might reasonablyhave thought, in 1776,that a lj73 Yalecollege graduate would be abouttwenty-four years old. (Nathanentered yale at 14.)"Nathan" is often the shortform of "Nathaniel."As to the spellingof ..Hales," Mackenziemay havemistaken a possessiveform of the namein a book belongingto thecaptured school teacher, as othershave. Above all, Mackenziewas understanda- bly interestedin notingthat Hale wasobeying the ordersof washington,was part of anorganized covert operation, and not just an independent,zealous revolutionary.s3 Anotherof the primarysources on Hale'scapture, also dated 22 september1j76, is the diary of captain william Bamford of the 40th Regimentof Foot. Bamford camewith the British troopsto Kipps Bay (Manhattan)on 15 septemberand was soonafterwards put in chargeof the military police. Bamford may well have wit- nessedthe execution. writing,

22 Su.[11761 bright hot Mg.

NathanHales, a capt in ye Rebel Army & a spy was taken by Majr Rogers& this mg hang'd t"".t.t Paperswt acctsofour Force&ca he confess'dmany deserterscome in. he was a l;rlif

Again we seethe mistaken spelling of Hale, though Bamford at least got the first nameright. The associationof Hale and "deserters"corroborates the idea that Hale wasattempting to infiltrate Loyalist forceson Long Island as one of many deserters, andthat he wascaptured by Rogers'men, though not necessarilyby Rogersperson- t8 # Co"ruuctrcur Hrsrclr

All of this minutiais confusing,and it is little wonderthat historianshave steered clearof it. Following in the tradition of Johnston,George Dudley Seymourin his DocumentaryLifu askedhis readersto "discard the babel of oral tradition and ru- mor." Like other biographers,Seymour smoothed over the contradictionsand com- plicationsthat might divert attention from the main message:Hale's patriotism. lnstead,the focus is on the second-handtestimony of Hull, an "educatedman," whoseversion complies with the naturalbias of Hale's hagiographers:Hale, a typical Americanyouth, was simply too good and honestto make a good spy.5e Yet the idea that Hale was taken by Rogersand his men has a long tradition, upheldtime andagain as a matterof local pride on Long Island.A placeon Hunting- tonBay is evencalled Halesite.One early researcher,the New York historianHenry Onderdonk,did not suffer from the usual prejudicefor respectedsecondary sources. Onderdonk'sfather had collected oral historiesin the early 1800s,and Onderdonk laterpublished some of them. According to theseaccounts there was a man who had workedfor the British during the Revolution namedSolomon Wooden who got an accountof Hale's capturefrom the crew of the Halifax. Another story came from a farmernamed Andrew Hegman,pressed into serviceas a wagonerby the British. He wasreportedly an eye-witnessto Hale's execution.There was also Tunis Bogart, anotherfarmer, who had seena spy hung "as a butcher would a calf' with women sobbingand the British officer in chargeof executions,William Cunningham,swear- ingat themfor it. Onderdonkalso mentionedRobert Townsend, who had heardCap- tain Quarmeof the Halifax speak of Hale's capture.60One or more of these oral reportsmay well have been known to Tiffany. Mostof Hale's biographers,more interestedin explicatingAmerican character thanin delvinginto the complexitiesof what actuallyhappened, have discounted the stories,but nearly a hundredyears after Onderdonk'sresearch, in the 1920s,it was discoveredthat RobertTownsend of Setauket,Oyster Bay, Long Island,was in fact a successfulAmerican agent throughoutthe Revolution.Hale may have been part of Townsend'sspy ring in its early days.But whoeverelse was involved,Hale gave nothingaway even at point of death,nor did thosewho survivedhim.6l Anotherquestion put asideby Hale'sbiographers is why Washingtonnever men- tionedHale or compensatedthe family as wasdone in similarcases. The mostobvi- ousreason for the silencewould havebeen to shieldAmerican agents like Townsend who at the time were assumedto be loyal British subjects.Among other Patriot agentsmentioned by Tiffany were "severalAmerican officers . . . sentto Long Island as spies"and detectedby Rogers,though not arrested.Any public recognition by Washingtonof Hale's true role might have compromisedthose who had alreadysac- rificedfriends, family, and personalwealth to the causeof American independence. It is alsopossible that the Hale family were compensatedprivately.62 Time and again,writers (exceptingTiffany) have concludedthat Hale must have beeninept as a spy becausehe carriedproof of his identity,his Yale diploma.Yet Hale'sone hope of leniency,if caught,would have beenthat he had not tried to deceiveanyone as to his true identity when he went behind enemylines. As already 20 it CoNNr'c'rrc'i,r'LHrsrony noted,as a def'ensivemeasure he probablyclid carry his own diplorna,antong the few identity papers recognizedat tl'retin're. Yet historianshave misinterpretedthis as proof of Hale's ineptitude.To top off the nlatter,Hale is said to have dressedhintself as a "Dutch" schoolrnastcr.despite his narneand nativelanguage.(,3 Whatever H;rle rnay have been wearing.a good reasonto carry his own identity papersis indicatedhy John Bakelessin his l9-59book on the Revolution.The suc- cessful spy, Lieutenant Lewis J. Costigin, was a paroled Amcrican officer who roatned lieely about British-occr-rpiedNew York. gatherin_er-rseful infbrrnatiorr throughoutthe war. Since Costigin was not pretendingto be anyonebut hirnself,he was not, coulclnot, be considereda spy. Major JolrnAndr6, caughtby the Arnericans in 1780,was lrot truly a spy. but becausehe was found impersonatinganother, he was treatedas one,disguise being enough to incriminatehinr. HaclAndrd ncltposed as "John Anderson."hc might well have escapedexccution.ba Hale's carryinghis own identitypapefs, rather than being a stupidnristake, wiis morelikely a calculated. dilect order.ancl his only "out" in cascof captule.Hale's cornrnanclers may lo-uically have reasoneclthat the enernywoulcl not deal too harshlywith sLrcha young rnan,i.rs long as he ruacleno pretcnseas to whu he was anclwhat hc had been doing. Cornmelttit.tgon the genelalcharactcr ol'fictional spies. one rcseiu'cherhas con- cludedthat disguise "was the f'alsecosturne which defined a spy anclcondemned hirn to ignorniniousdeath by hanging.Disguisc syrnbolized the dcepcrduplicity ol'espio- nage. .. The patrioticspy hasclisgr-risc thnrst r.rpon hinr. acccpts it unwillin-rrly,and is inept at rnaintainingit." Sr.rcha dcscriptionf its the usual interpr-ctatiolrol'Natharr Hale. As Johnstoncxclainred in disbeliel':"A l)Lrtchschoolrlasler with a New En- glanddiplortta!" Like nrostbiorraphcrs ol'Halc, Johnstonclid nol cluestionthc relia- bility o1'thesources ancl assuntcd that a patriotlike Hale,the epitorneof Anrerican virtue,was sinrplytoo innoccnt- loo Anrcrican- to ntakca good spy.65

*%.' Fg ti{ i:t; 1,,'',;

"Hale in his tfisguisecnlors lhc carnp o1'lhc cncury." I.W. Stuart,Lift' ol ('ultttrin NutltttrtHalt,. h4trrt.tr-.\ptol tlte t\rttt'ritun Retttlutiort(Hartlbrd, I856) CoNr.rEcrrcurHrsronv dF 2l

Becausewe do not know what Hale's preparationsand contactswere, can we assumethat he had none?Neither Benjamin Tallmadge,head of the first American SecretService, a close friend and classmateof Hale's, nor the British intelligence officer Mackenzie,left plans or recordsof undercoveroperations and yet historians havenever assumed they had none. Clearly, undocumenteddetails seemingto sup- port Hale'sineptitude have proliferated. As historianMichael Kammenobserved, by thetime of the AmericanCentennial, the historicalreality of the Revolutionhad been almostentirely lost in the interestof explicating the American character,and being anefficient spy was simply not considereda part of the grammarof American hero- ism.Indeed, the few works that paint the unfortunateCapt. Hale as a successfulspy areamong the most ludicrous in American historical literature.66 Hale'sexecution was deemedtragic on both sidesof the Atlantic. The idea that His Majesty'sforces had put to death an honestpatriot, barely twenty-oneyears of age,who had gone under his own name into enemy territory and had been hanged withouta trial did not serveto sooth the aching fracturesamong colonists. Consider Tiffany'sinclusion of the Hale storyhighlights Nathan Hale's fame in the late 1700s. It is alsoindicative of the pangshis story causedon both sidesof the conflict. If, as hasbeen suggested, the future of America dependednot only on winning the war but alsoon the Patriotsbeing worthy of the victory, then the appealof the Hale story in the early yearsof the nation makes considerablesense. The story of Nathan Hale servedto demonstrateAmerican virtue at a time when many doubtedthe moral char- acterof the collective and questionedthe terms of divorce from the "Mother CountrY."67 Hale was alreadygrowing as a sourceof patriotic pride when in 1787Consider Tiffanypresented him as trying to deny his true identity. For Tiffany, Americansin generalappeared to be in a stateof denial, having lost their way and true natureas British subjects.A spy trying to deny his identity would have looked considerably lessheroic to Tiffany's readers,honesty and purity being at the heart of this very Americanmyth from the start.As a Rogers' apologist,Tiffany's versionof the story woulddo nothingto detractfrom his own hero's glory, as Hale's apparentrefusal to lie certainlywould have,even in the eyesof Loyalists.Tiffany's Rogerssimply bests Haleat the spy game,as well he shouldhave given his superiorage and experience. While the Tiffany manuscriptdoes nothing to illuminate Hale's shadowyunder- covercareer, it, like Hull's versionof the story,reminds historians to carefully weigh the prejudicesof sourcesand to penetratethe motivationsof thosewho write about pastevents. Of Hale, as much as any figure in the Americanpantheon, it can truly be saidthat he had more than one life to give to a country that was in needof national icons. The scarcityof detail regardingHale's careerhas provided free rein for hero- makers,early and late. 22 fi C,',"xrrc'r'rctlr Hrs.r'or

||i tt

NOl'ES

lCur'l llartman's Sept.200.3Associatc Prcss story about thc l'ifluny ruanuscfiptfan un(lcr various heatllincsin dozcnsol nclvspapcrsllortt San I)icgo lo New I-ontlon,publrshcd urorrnrl the unrriversarlof llalc's Sept.)),1116 hanging.Thc storyr,,lLs basctl on iin intcrvicwri'ilh.lanrcs llulson lrntlhis article "One Lile to Lose." l.ihrary ol'f'ongrcss (LOC) In.lltnntrtiortIJrrllctirt (rl. no. 7 lJ (.lulr,-Aug.100.1). Scc alsir."Nathan Halc BlundcrerlInto a l-rap.Pupers Sholv." Ncw Yrtrk7'rrua.r, St-pl.21.2(X)3. scc. l. trr.37. 'l'hings Hutsonwas intcrvicwcdon thc subjccton Nrtionll Puhlic lladio. "All ('onsidcrcd."Scpt.22, 1001. Ilutson has bccn succcsslulin gaining nlrtionillpublicity firr thc L(X-'s holdings on nunlcr'ous -fhorras.lcllcrson's occasions.Scc. lbr cxarnplc,his l99u lrticle in thc LOC s Irt.fbnttutitttrllullctitt about lcttcr (fcstoredby thc FBt.tto lhc flaptrstsol l)anhur'1'.('onn., which inspilcd rrruchdcbalc. HLrtson (PhD Yalc 196-l)taught historl at Yale an(l Williarn & Muly' bclirrc.joirrin.uthc I-(Xl. uhcre, sincc 1981,he hasbecn ('hicl ol' thc ManuscriptDivision.

I fhc originul Tillitny rrranuscnpr(nrsl wils grvt:n to LO('by iiesccndrrrtsin l(X)0. hut a typcd lnanuscripl(tnr) \'ls donatcdovcr 70 ycarsugo. C'onsider'l'illanl'. ,{rchival rls (l-(' nrnr8306l77lt)"The Anrcricuncolonics and tltc Ilcvolution."TM hi, Clurcncc('artcf. ('urlcf (lll8 I l96l) rvasu wcll-known hisloriururrcl ctlitor who tried lnrl llilctl in lhc 1920sto lind a puhlishcrlirr thc'l'il'lirnvrrrs {Carlcr' ('ollcclion.L(X'). In 2(XX).a dcsccntlantol f illirny's.Ccolgc [3r'ucllirrd'l'illrrny.donatr:rl thc original nranuscfiplakrng with a ('D copy.

I liflsworth S. Gntnt.ct. ll.. TlrcMirutlc ol ('ontrt,r'titrtt(llaltlirrti: ('onrrcr:ticut llistolical Socicty, 1992).78. ILobSitnnton's talk on Ilulc airctlort pLrblicucccss nctworks in ('orrnct:ticulirr cur'lyI)cc. l(x).1.

I Stclrhcnti. Knott. Stttt,t ttnrl ,\ttttttiottttl:(.ot'(rt OItr(ttittttv ttrtr! tltt' Atttt'titrtttl'r'r,,rlrlr,rrlr'(Ncw Yolk: Oxlirrcl [Jnivcr-sityPrcss, 1996).5.

5lsaircW. S(uarl.'l'hcI-ili'ol'('aplain NrrthulrIIalc (tlalllirr-tl:li.A. flrou'n. ll'i-56).I60. Second cdition:[). Applcton('o., 185(rwith Iithogrlphsby Ir.l]. & ir.('. Kcllogg.

('llurtnaltAtliutts. A SurrrmrlyIlistoly ol'Ncw-L.inglantl(l)cclharrr: 1799; lloston: lti05. lfl07).'l'her lirst etlitiorrwts owttctl hy Nlthun LIalc'slanrily in ('ovcnlr-y.lir-u biortrphiL:irlskctclr ol Scylnour,sec VIary li. flitkcr. "r\ Born Anlrqttlrrttt," 77rr,Ctnrru'ttitrrt Arttitltrttrittt (\\'intcf 1990): I l-ltl. IIalc's llLst r.r'ottlsrtlrlrcaretl irt print as carly as |7 MrLy 178| in Iloston's lrtlt,lttrttlt,tttCltntrtit lt ttrttl IJrtittr:ul Atlrcrti.scr,rcpuhlishcd in CicolgcI)udlcv Scl,lrrour.I)tttrrrrtt'trtatt l.ifi, ol NtrtlttrttIltrlt (Ncu' lluven: privatcll' pr-intcd.lt).11 ). ll6-7.

7 For rr nrorcconrplctc uppluisal ol assurnptiorrsaboul I lalc. scc i\lu11I'ictlr Blrkcr. "'l'hc N,lukingund []rcrkirtg oi an Arncrican Icon" (rnlster's thcsis.Lllrivcrsilv ol ('orrrrccticLrl.l()91{). in u,hich it is ur-gLrcd that w'r'itelsort Hale havc lricd lo lintl hirrr hcloic bul irrcptas u sl)y us u wrw ol crlllicltrnl Arrrcricln chltlaclcr.Othcr th(rnlcsittvcstigatccl includc: thc belrayllol'Nuihlrrr IIllc hy his tr.ovulistcousin; Hulc's lisc to littrc in cornparisortto John Andrc; thc circurnstlurccsol his crrllturclrrtl tlcrrrisc;thc lirnrousltsl wor(ls. 'l-hc 8 Sturrrt. Li.fu ttl (.-ulttuitrllrtla, 83-84. ') Sc'\'ttttrur.I)ot tuncnlur.t'Lite. 389 Dirvid McCulk\rglt. 1776 (Ncw Yurk: Sirron & Schuster'. 20()5).2ll On thc goal ol rlorality ovcr anrl ilbovc lrcrlrory. scc Michacl Klrrnnrcrr.I'hc lvlt,ttitCltonlt 'fruditiotr ol Llttnor.t':'llte'[rtrrt,slitnnuliotr of irtAnrt'rittut (irllare (Ncw York: Alllcti A. Knopl, lt)t)l). 69-70. Foi anothcrtrcatnlcnt of tlirlc as a "tcckloss"youth "ycirfninglo snrcL-llrc unnulsol ,\rrrencarvith sorttcglcrrious dcctl," secThotuts J. Irarnhartr,t\ ('ltild I Stt ,llutlt Rr'(Ncu lllLren: Neu llirren Countv Historicrl Socicty, 197-5).

loJciurChristie Root, Mrdrrar Hclr,, (Ncu'York: N,lacmilllrn.l()li. IIILr:lratcdcdrtion. l9l.l). li2. CoNNecrrcur Hrsronv S

I I William Allen,American Biographical and Historical Dictionary (Boston: W. Hyde & Co., 2d edition,1832),475-6. 12Andrew T. Judson,"An Address delivered at South Coventry, CT at the requestof the Hale MonumentAssociation," (Norwich: Aurora Press,1837), 13-14. On the life of Judson,best-known as the judge in the Amistadcase, see Douglas L. Stein,"The Amistad Judge:The Life and trails of Andrew T. Judson,1784-1853," The Log of MysticSeaport (Spring 1998): 107-120. 13Maria Campbell and James Freeman Clark, Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of Gen. William Ifull(New York:D. Appleton& Co., 1848),33-38.The sectionon Hale,reprinted in Seymour,Docu- mentaryLife, 307-310. raln his "Foretalk"toThe Two Spies,Benson Lossing quotes Emerich de Vattel (,l714-67),Swiss phifosopher,author, diplomat. Vattel's Low of Nations,besides discussing treatment of spies,provided a justificationfor revolutionfor the sakeof liberty. BensonLossing, The Two Spies:Hale & Andre (New York: D. Appleton,1886). Robert McConnell Hatch,Major Andrd, A Gallant in Spy'sClothing (Boston, HoughtonMifflin, 1986),69, claims"lmposing capital punishment for espionagewas a relativelynew development."While it is truethat the Continental Congress had not authorizedit until latein 1775,there wasnothing new about being hanged for conspiringwith the enemy.Spying had alwaysbeen deadly. As to executionin general,it is worthnoting that in 1789,for example,ten peoplein New York City were sentencedto deathfor burglary,robbery or forgery. It was not until after 1801that the deathpenalty in NewYork wasconfined to treasonand murder.Thomas E. V. Smith,The Ciry of New York(Riverside: ChathamPress, 1972), 17. 15JohnBakeless,Tuntcoats, Traitors and Hentes,(Philadelphia: J B LippincottCo., 1959),112, 113,120.Bakeless notes as his sourceSeymour's Capt. Nathan Hale. . .Maj.Wyllys (New Haven:Tuttle, Morehouse& Tayler),25. Seealso William Henry Shelton,"What Was the Missionof NathanHale?" Journalof AmericanHistory, 9 (1915):269-89. 16Campbelland Clark, Hull, 36-37. l7Ibid. l8 lbid.,36-37, xv; reprintedin Seymour,Documentary Life. 19Lisa Wilson, Ye Heart of a Man: The Domestic Life of Men in Colonial New England (New Haven:Yale University Press. 1999). See also, James D. German,"The SocialUtility of WickedSelf- Love:Calvinism, Capitalism, and Public Policy in RevolutionaryNew England,"Journal of American History82, no. 3, (Dec. 1995):965-998. 20JohnMontresor (1736-1799), chief engineerfor the British in North America,left no memoran- dumon Hale.Hisjournals, published by the New-York HistoricalSociety in 1881,show considerable knowledgeof theAmerican situation. His talentfor map-makingis well-known.He lived manyyears in thecolonies and in 1772built a homeon Montresor's,today Randall's, Island. His handsomeportrait by JohnSingleton Copley is reprintedin many bookson Hale.Interestingly, Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple(1794), the bestselling novel in Americanuntil HarrietBeecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852),depicts the villainousseducer, Montraville, based on her own cousin,Montresor. See Penguin edition,1991, ed. by Ann Douglas. 2l The responsefrom Washingtoncame two days later and was brought by Tilghman, Webb and Hull.Montresor again represented Howe; reprintedin Seymour,Documentary Life,310. 22Emphasisadded. Campbelland Clark, Hull,iii-iv. 23During Enoch Hale's investigationin New York, where he went immediatelyafter hearingru- morsof his brother'sdeath, he learnedthat "minutes" had beenfound on Nathanat his capture.On his return,Enoch visited Wethersfield, CT to seethe recentlyreleased Major John PalsgraveWyllis. A Yale classmate,Wyllis had been a prisoner in New York at the time of Nathan Hale's capture.Enoch thus leamedthat two lettersand Nathan's dioloma had been confiscated from him on his capture.Wvllis had 24 l,l Ccr*Nrrctrcur Hrslor

24Sec www.cia.gov/cia/ciakids.Thc PBS anrnratcdscrics, "Lihcrty's Kids." plcnricrctlin thc fall ol' 2002. It targcts 7-12 ycar-olds ancl uscs a gamc-show lbrmat. The conlonts conccrn l{cvolutionary Anrcrica with Ben Franklin narfatedby Walter Cronkite,who scnclsout cuh rcportcrs(colonial kids) in searchof newsworthy pcoplo and placcs in order to publish a r)ewspaper.Thc issuc f'catr:ringNathan Halc ailccl March 29. 200.1.

25 For inlirrnrationahout thc InternationirlSpy Muscunr, scc http://www.sl)ynrLlsoLnn.olg.

26 An cxarnplc ol'Halc's rclative lanrc is inrplied in a 17130'ssk)ry ahout thc dcath ol the British Maior And16.sec Londott (-ttururt & WestntirtsterCltronitle,l)cccrnbcr-4. 17u0.in which thc r-cudcris advisetlt

17This vicw contrlsls with Robcrt Cray's ntrre usual vicw irr "'l'hc RcvolutionurySpy as [1cro: Nathan Halc in thc Public Mcnrory. 1776-l846," Cortrtt,r'tittrtIli,srort, Jll. no. I (Fall 1999):u5-l().1 . Cray writcs Halc was "alrnostlirrgottcn by thc carly rcpublic. . . ." Scc also,"Major'.lohn Arrclr-c and thc Thrcc Caplors: ('lass Dynanrcs and RcvolutionaryMcruory Wars in thc liarly llcpuhlic. l7u0-18.11." .lorrrnulol tltt Ettrlr Rrpuhlic, 17, no. J, (Fall 1997):l7l-3971 IsaacW. Sttrar-1.77icLi.lt'ol (-trlttttitt NatlutttHttlc (ilartlirrd: F.A. Brown, 1t356:2d ctlition: D. Applcton ('o.. lll,56ri ith lithogrlphs b1'fi.tt. & E.('. Kcllogg;.litlcdSpalks to LW. Stuarl,l6l'ch. lli-56.StLrarl papcls. ConncclicLrt lljsloricul Socictl'. Hartlirrd.('T: Hcnrv Phclps.lohnston. Nutltttrt ltulc 177(t(Nov Haven. l)cVirrnc l)rcss.l90l : Ylrlc I lni- vcrsity Prcss.rcviscd antl cnlargctl. l9l4). 193.

13 Bcnjarlin Tallrnaclgclcpurted convcrsatiolr:;u,ith Ancl'c. inclutling Andlc's prcssinghinr ahout his likeIy lirtc.Loath to ansu'cr.Tallnraclgc rclcntcd hy uskingAndrc il'hc had hcardol Nirthirnllalc and what had happcncrl1o hirn. Antlrc had.ancl no nrol'cnccdcd to hc said.Scc ('ampbcll ancl('lark. llull.49- 50.

19 Adants. A Surrnlrr-1'History. On the lhenrcol'Halc's lanrc and his stoly's rclutiorrto thc Andrc cpisodc. sce Bakcr. "Thc Making anrl Brcaking ol'an Anrcrican lcon." Thcrc arc lt lcasl ninc car-lv ncwspapcraccoullts in which Halc is relcrrcd to. but without survcying all publishcd.lournalson both sidcsofthcAtlanticlrorrScptcrnbcrll'76rctlTtJl,lcannotassunrcthillthislrstiscoruplctc: l)"Extract fiorn ir lettcr of an Aurcrrictn ol'ficcr to hrs friend," clatedHarlenr, 2(r Scpt. 1116, in tl'tcl)o.stotr (iu:.(tt( , Oct.1, 1776,Archivcs, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA; 2\ Kartti.slt(irr:ctle ((-arrtertuly,F.nglandl, Nov.9. 1776,(l-ilcs ol'Royal Muscurnand Puhlic Lihrary,Cantorbury, Kcnt, unrl Ncu'York l)uhlic Library), rcprinted in l.N. Phelps Stokcs, Ifte lcrtnogruplt.t'rll Mutrltotttrrtl.slatil ttn

CoNNscrrcurHrsronY AF 25

with the proliferationof hundredsof local newspapersand their practiceof freely borrowing storiesfrom one another,it would be impossibleto reach such a conclusionwithout much more research.

30"Historian QuestionsHero Selection," Hartford Courant, July 7, 1985; see also, Robin W. Winks,ed., The Historian As Detective, Essayson Evi.dence(New York: Harper & Row, 1968, 1969). RichardHelms is quotedin Edmund R. Thompson,Secret New England: Spiesof the AmericanRevolu- tion (Kennebunk:New England Chapter,Association of Former IntelligenceOfficers, 1991),46. Note thatConnecticut has since nameda stateheroine, Prudence Crandall, who likewise gave selflesslyfor a greatcause: equal education. The Sonsof the Revolutionin the Stateof New York have held an annual ceremonyat City Hall Park since 1893 during the week of September22 in honor of Hale with the exception,for security reasons,of the two anniversariesfollowing 9lll/2001.

3l Daniel J. Boorstin, The Genius of American Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953),19. Marshall W. Fishwick, American Heroes: Myth and Reality (Washington,D.C., Greenwood Press,1954). David Levin, History as RomanticArt: Bancroft,Prescott, Motley, and Parkman(Stanf.ord: StanfordUniversity Press, 1959). SacvanBercovitch, The Puritan Origins of the American Seff (New Haven:Yale UniversityPress, 1975), 148-148. For an exampleof conservativereaction to Hutson's "discoveries"about Nathan Hale, seeFreeRepublic.com, "A ConservativeNews Forum," Oct. 5, 2003, "New York Times TrashesRevolutionary War Hero Nathan Hale" by Amie Steinberg."This media suategyof belittling heroic figures in American history is a noticeablepart of the agendato dismantle andundermine the heritageon which the U.S. is built." Some of the biographies:David McCullough, lohn Adams (New York: Simon & Schuster,2001); Richard Brookhiser,Alexander Hamilton (New York: Simon & Schuster,1999) and Founding Father: RediscoveringGeorge Washington(New York: Simon& Schuster,1996); JosephJ. Ellis, American Sphinx: The Characterof ThomasJffirson (New York: RandomHouse, 1996);Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The RevolutionaryGeneration (New York:Random House, 2000); StephenF. Knott, AlexanderHamilton and the Persistenceof Myth (Law- rence:University Press of Kansas,2002); Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2004);Kay Comelius, Francis Marion: The SwampFo,r, (Philadelphia:Chelsea House, 2000); Garry Wills,Negro President:Jefferson and the S/ave(New York: HoughtonMifflin, 2003); Matthew L. Da- vis,Memoirs of Aaron Brrr (IndyPublish.com,2003); Phil L. Webster,Can a Chief JusticeLove God: TheLife of John Jay (2N2, first publishedon-line); H.W. Brands, The First American: The life and Timesof Benjamin Franklin (New York: Random House, 2000); Richard Norton Smith, Patriarch: GeorgeWashington and the New AmericanNatlon, (New York: HoughtonMifflin, 1993);Evan Thomas, JohnPaul Jones (New York: Simon & Schuster,2003); Edmund Morgan, Benjamin Franklin (New Haven:Yale University Press,2002); Lance Banning, The SacredFire of Liberty: JamesMadison (lth- aca:Cornelf University Press,1995); Bernard Bailyn, To Begin the World Anew: The Geniusand Ambi- guitiesof the American Founders(New York: Random House,2003).

32Consider Tiffany was not countedamong the ten ConnecticutTiffany families in the 1790Fed- eralCensus. Hartland and Barkhamsteddid not enter the censusuntil 1800. For Tiffany genealogies,see Ella F. Wright, GenealogicalSketch of the Tiffany Family (Waterbury: 1904);Nelson Otis Tiffany, Irf fanysof America. History and Genealogy,(Buffalo: 1901). 33Northwest Passage, directed by King Vidor (1940),starred Spencer Tracy, RobertYoung, Walter Brennan,and Ruth Hussey.In 1958-9,NBC-TV ured 26 episodesof a 30-minuteseries based on the moviecharacters in an attemptto gain viewers from Maverick and Rin Tin Tin. The TV seriesstarred Keith Larsenand Buddy Ebsen,with guest appearancesby Angie Dickinson and others.

34AUan Kulikoff, "RevolutionaryViolence and the Origins of American Democracy,"The Journal of the Historical Society,2, no. 2, (Spring 2002): 229-260. See also, Richard Purcell, Connecticutin Transition:1775-1818 (Middletown: WesleyanUniversity Press,1963). For an analysisof the turmoil andeven 'Jeopardy" in which the early Republic found itself and the "black hole" in the historiography of the period, seeRichard Buel, Jr., America on the Brink: How the Political Struggleover the War of l8l2 Almost destroyedthe YoungRepublic, (New York: PalgraveMacmillan, 2005); Richard Buel, Jr., 26 S Co**ric-r'rc'utHrsror

Deur Libern*: Conne(ticut's Mohili:lttion .fitr the Revolutionurt War (Middletown: Wcsleyan Univelsity Press,1980).

35 Kulikoff, "Revolutionary Violcnce." Refercncesto Til'lany's nrs. are liour thc typccl version, Ar- chival ms (LC rnm83062778)"Thc Arncricancolonics and thc llevolution," typcd rlunrrscriptby Cl:rr- ence Carter. A "book" amounts to sonrcthing like a chapter.

36 The topic of where and by whonr Hale was captured has long been a rnatlcr ol' argunrent. Scc Seymour, l)ocunrcntan Life, 300, 3 10, 3 13, 3 16, 336, 438. Seyrnourcalls the qucstion"the chief mys- tery" surroundincHale. Writing to [.W. Stuartin 1848,Hcnry Onderdonk,Jr. said, "l lost lruch of rny interestin thc aflair [of whcre Halc was captured]and the scvcralninutiu ol localitics.. . ." Onderdonk to Stuart,9 Fcb. ltJ48,Hale Collection,Connccticut Historical Socicty, Hartlbrd. CT. Irrtcrcstingly.Rog- ers is not thc llrst ligure said to havc 1.lrton a "whiggish phiz" in order to lbol Hrrlc. A l.oyalist Halc cousin,Sarrucl Halc, is supposcdto havc lr-icdto cleccivcNathan about his lol,altyto thc Crown in ordcr to gain inlbrrnrtion. In rcality. Cousin Sanruclsecr.ns ncvcr to havc hiddcn his political lcaningslrorn anyone,being at Icastas guilelessus his rnorc lirnrouscousin, but nrany ArncricansLrrrclcrstirndahly did keep their opinions to thcmsclvcs.or as is oltcn assunrccl.hatl nonc.

37Kulikot'l'in "Rcvolutionary Violcncc" notes that rt took thrcc decadcslirr'lhc Arncrican lunrily income to attain pre-war levels.

38 The account about Hale publishcd in tl'rcLondon (-ourunt & WastrrtittstcrCltntrtit lr, Dcccrnbcr 4, 1780 and rcprintcd in Seymour,I)rxurttt'rttun Lile,300. was thc l'irst(o cornparcNutlurrr I'lulc and.lohn Andr6, Anclrdhavrnu rccently bccn cxccutodhy the Amcricans.Fivc nronthslatcr'. Boslon's ltrtleltendcttt Chroni<;laund Uttiver.vl Adverti.:ar,May 17, l78l)prcscntccl nearly the sanrcstorv.'fl'rc Ltntdort Re- neniltrunce r rcprintcd a similar articlc liont thc Boston plpcr in I 7tt2, ( Pt.I , 2l{5). ljor carlicr relelenccs to the Hale story in thc press, sec thc 1Jo,rt.)nGuzattc, Oct. 1, 1116, printccl by l3cnjanrin Edcs ol' Wirtertown,Boston Public Liirrary Archivcs, Boston,MA, Kuttish a,i/:?t/?(CanlcrbLrry. lirrgland), Nov. 9, 1116, N 6-9; rcprintcd in I.N. Phclps Stokcs, The Icorutgrtrltltytl MurthutturrItluttd (Ncw Yolk: Robert H. I)odd. l9l5-1926), and in Scynrour,Dtxurttt'rtturt l.ilt'. 102:.Es.scr'.lountrrl (Ncwburyport, MA), Feb. 3 & 13. 1777: rcprintcd in Seyrnour,I)tx'utnt'rttury Lift'.303: Frat'trturt'.r.lottntul. Fcb. 18, 1117: The Cri:cttc (Ncu, London, C1-). MLrrch14, l71l\. Bcrnard Bailyn & Johrrll. Hcnch. I/re Prr',r,r tutd tlte Ane riutn Reyolution(Worccstcr: Arncrican Antiq uarian Socie ty, I 9lt0), 27.+.c xplain that "plugi- arism" and borrowing of' the sort so cvidcnt in the Halc rcports was the basis ol cightecnthcentury journalism.

39Til'lany highlights American Loyalist martyrs,sonre ol' whonr, he writes, werc hangcd and cut down beftrrcdcath so that their "bowcls could be takenout and burnt belirretheil own cycs." (Book VI, p.30). T'hestory ol'Moses Dunbar,thc only pcrsoncxccutod as a "traitor" in Connccticut,is presentedin E. Lcrcry Pond. Z/ra Tories ol Cltipltun'Hill, Comtectit&/ (New York: Gralton l)rcss, l(-X)9)basccl on Dunbar's autobiography.Well-known to both Hale and Til'flny would havc becn thc H,piscopalRcv. JamesNichols, accusedalong with Dunblr, but acquitted.Niclrols was at Yalc al thc srrrrctnnc ls wcrc Nathan and his brotherE,noch. Prcaching to the spectat(n'srt Dunbar's executionwas tlrc Hales' unclc, the Rev. Nathan Strong,-50 ycars pastol lt North Coventry,C1'.

40 Rogerswas lully creditcdlol Hale's capturein a l94l essayby JamesCnilion Ilo-uers.Master ol' Timothy Dwight Collcge, Yalc: "Whcrc tntl By Whom was Halc Capturetl:An Incluiry."reprinted in Seymour.I)oturnentury Lit|, 435-115.One of'thc Halcs' unclcs,Major Samucl Halc. was hcadmastcrol' a well-known Latin School in Portsrnouth.Nathan visitcd thc lirmily therc in 177.3or ellly 1774.l'hc Rev. John Hale (16.16-1700),33ycars pastorol Beverly, MA (Harvard 1657)was Nathan'sgrert grand- lither. He is crcditedwith curtailing thc SalcnrWitchcrali dclusion.Nathan's grand Lrnclcsincluded thc Rev. JatnesNoycs (I640-I7l9) ol Stonington,an originnllrustcc ol Yale, and Rev. Mosc'sNoyes (I639- 1729) ol Lynrc, also a Yale trustcc.

4l See Seymour,l)ot:tunerturtLi|e.223. Nathanexpeilrlented with code rn corrcspondingr.l'ith his brother E,noch,who on at lcast onc occasion(lzl June 1776)wrote a letter "in chtlactcls." Enoch, wrth

r_ CoNr,wcncur Hmronv # 27

tbe help of anotherbrother, David, developed a "short hand" method of writing with a distinctly hiero- glyphic appearance.See Enoch Hale Diaries, 17 July 1787, mss G662-20, Yale Divinity School Archives, New Haven, CT. See also, Nathan Hale to Enoch Hale, 30 May 1776; reprinted in Seymour, D6cunennry Life,77. On Washington'sundercover operations, which cost an estimatedll%o of total iiiilifaly slpsnditures during tle war, see Stephen F. Knott, Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations odthe Anerican Presi.dency(New York: Oxford University Press,1996). 42Portions , of Webb's Orderly Book reprinted in Seymour,Documentary Life, 168. Fragmentof later Uy Hale,June 1776;reprinted in Seymour,Documentary Life, 8l-82. The 64-gun ship of the line l$r,ls Asrawittr about 600 men. Fosdick wrote Hale (7 Dec. 1175)that he was resigning his office in Col. 's Companyin order to serve under Hale and to be "undauntedby Danger." See Seymour, Life, 56.According to Hale's Muster Rolls, Fosdick was sent"recruiting to the Eastend of Island& New London.. ." on 12 May 1776and returned8 June.Fosdick was born in New London and died in 1776, perhapson Long Island, where he also had relatives, as did many New On the 16August 1776,he was put in commandof a sloop during an attemptat night to burn 30-gunBritish frigate Phoenix. Of the l8 men detachedon this mission, a large portion were from London."Owing to accidentalcircumstances the enterprisefailed, but it was well conceived, and, as s it went, executedwith boldnessand skill." C. Hamilton Hvd, History of New Inndon County iladelphia:J. W. Lewis & Co., 1882). By an individual who was there, the attempt was termed a See Michael J. Crawford, ed. The Autobiography of a Yankee Mariner: Christopher and theAnerican Revolution(Washington, DC: Brasseys,Inc. 2002), 107.See also, William Bell andWilliam JamesMorgan, eds.,et al, Naval Documentsof the American Revolution (Washington, NavalHistorical Center, 1964-) Vol. 6, 206-8. JeremiahTallmadge returned to New York on 29 "havingbeen detained at home by Sickness." SeeSeymour, Documentary Life,284. What was the of dris Jeremiahto Benjamin Tallmadge (1754-1835),Hale's school friend, of Setauket,LI? Townsend(or Townshend)of Setauket,of the Culper spy ring, remainedunder cover throughout war, His sisterSarah befriended John Andrd as well as Benjamin Tallmadge.It was Tallmadge's via the Townsendsthat arousedhis suspicionsconcerning "Anderson" (Andre). As unlikely seems,writers on Hale have nonethelessassumed he worked solo. See Morton Pennypacker,The Spies:Natlvn Hale and Robert Townsend(Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1930); Morton Pennypacker, Washington'sSpies on Long Island and in New lorft (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, PennypackerScrap Book, Historical NotesRehting to Long Island,YoLI, Library at EastHamp- Long Island, N.Y.; Carl Van Doren, The Secret History of the American Revolution (New York: 1941);Charles Swain Hall, Benjamin Tallmadge,Revolutionary Soldier and AtnericanBusiness- (NewYork ColumbiaUniversity Press,1943), 53, 57.

43Nathan to Enoch Hale, 30 May 1776;reprinted in Seymour,Documentary Life,78, l4Edwin P. Adkins describes some of the local skirmishes and "marauding" common on Long at the time, in Setauket:The First 300 Years (East Setauket:Three Village Historical Society, 42-45.Washington let fabricateddocuments fall into enemy hands. He also allowed couriers bogusinformation to be "captured," and even had fake military facilities built during the period. 45Emphasis added. John Knox Laughton, ed.Journal of Rear-AdmiralBartholomew James (Navy Society,1896),34. This portion ofJames's "joumal" was, accordingto the editor, written from two yearsafter the event.If so, it can be questionedbut is still closer than most information on My thantsto Dr. Walter Powell for pointing out this likely mention of Hale's death,long ignored of the mistake in dates. Just before the quoted passage,James notes the buming of New York, ;dich he saysoccurred 29 Sept. The actual date was 20 Sept. This 9 day discrepancysupports the that Jameswas a witness of the events. Hale was executed on Sunday morning, Sept. 22, on an ,,gpb tee in Col. Rutgers' orchard, not far from British headquartersat the Beekman homesteadover- hoking Turtle Bay (where the U.N. building now stands). This was where Hale was reportedly kept ;riooner the night before his death. Henry Onderdonk, Jr., Documents and lztters (Vol. I, Newport: tiBqvitt,Trow & Co., 1846;Vol. II Hempstead:L. Vandiwater, 1884);Revolutionary Incidents (1849). 28 # C,rr*r,ctrcrrr-HrsroHy

Chlrlc's W. IJnrwn.Nrrllirirr Llule, Tltt'Murttr S1tt,Att lrttitlcrtt irt tha llevolutiort(Ncw Yoik: J.S. Ocil- rie. I899).9-10. 'l\trntout.s,'l l('Bakclcss. ruitors urtt!Ileroas: Licut. Fredcrick Mirckenzie. /)lrrn' (C'lrnblidge: Ilrrrvald Llnivcrsityl)rcss. l.l.l0). 87:.lohn R. Cuneo,futhcrt Roger.sof tlta Rttrtgcr.slNcu Yor-k:Oxlirrd Linivclsitl Plcss. It).59),l(rv.

l7 As srrggcslcrlin a nurrrbcrol early sourccs.onc or n]orc of Rogels' rccruitsnray have rccoqnizetl Hlilc lrs a rrcnrhcr ol thc rcbcl arnry. IIalc's Whig vicws wcrc no sccrct.llo was notetl lirl rrnpassionetl spccchr-sin suppolt ol'indcpenrlcnccrluring his studentdays in Ncw Havcn antl ulicrr.r'arrlas a tcachcl in Ncri I"onilon Coun11,.uhcrc lrlrnv of ConsiclcrTil'flny's r-elativcslivccl. In thc I790 I;ctlcnrl('cnsus. 'f lltclc werc sir Tillurtv lirntilicslivrng in Ncw L-ontkrnC'ounty, ancl at lcustonc illulty lutttilyin Halc's honlcto\\n.Corcntn. FLrrthcr.fivc of Natharr'sbrolhcrs also scrvcdin tlrc llcvolutionantl his llthcr'. Iiichultl FIulc.wus a wcll-known und altlcnt supllortcrol Arucricanintlcpcntlcncc in castcln('onncclicul. Ilobcr'(Ilrgels r.r'llslarnorrs. brrt c\cn bclirrc Nathan's callturc.thc Hltlc lltrttily wlts wcll-kltowtt in the rcgiort.

lhc luo r)rcnllll\'huvc bccn Williuln Trcadwctlund Ilcnjarnirrl-Lrdlurn, r'cltrrcrl 1o in a laler lcttcr. ('linton ulso ticscribcsvurious bouts hc obsclvcrl uith the aid ol u spy r:lass.Cicollc ('linton. l'uhlit l'trlttt.t rtl Ot'or,qt('lintrttt, l;ir.st (ioycntrtr ol N. l'.. cds. Huglt lllstings lLnd.l. A. Iloltlcn. llt99-l9l-1. (Ncw York: AN{S I'ress), Vol. I, .l-13--115.

l"'filllrn),'s llllr is now un(lcl wirtcf.plrrt ol' lhc Barkhrrntslcrlllcscnoil on Ilrndouncrl b,\'1hc 'l'hanks J\lctropolilrinl)istrjct ('ornnrission.uhich scrvcssrcutcr llirr-tlir-d. lo l)aul llarl ol'thc llrrrkhlrn- \lc(lllisl()ficrrlSocictvlirllhisinlirr-rnution.'l'hcl'illlnylarrttin[-ylttoisortcolthclcwinNcu l-ondon ('orrntvstill in opcllliorr.l'hc pr-cscnt owncr. Jack'l'illlnl', suys his larnilvhus lrvcd in [-yrtrcsincc l70lJ. Scc.Irrtl1'I]rit|ltr'.,'1Ylttrttt.l.i'|''|tttt'l.r|,lrl.lrir(prir'a1c|yprirtlct|.2(X)3t.Wright.()tnut|tl'qit'ttlSkt'tt'ltt'l|le 'Tillarty's 'l'illunl', 'lht 'l'i.flitrt.t't Iil.lttrt.tl'tttttil.t. Iirr' ('ortsidcr ntilitary carccr,scc ol Anttritu.

50 l'\!cntv nronlllsNirlhiul s scrrior'.l:noch's lilc prrrlrllclsNalhlrn's prcciscly ulllil thc tinrcol tlrc llcrolrrtion.l:noeh ulrs olillrinctlirt Wcs(hlrnllton.Masslrchrrselts in 177()lrnd sclvcrl lirr 57 vclrrs-irlso kccpirtusclttxrl tltclc. Iior lloclr's cally tcaching.scc lellcrol WilliatttIlobirtson. rcplirtlctl in Se1'ntorrr. I )()(!!ntt'ntttt'\' Lil;', I l .'l'hclc is linollterllossiblc lllLlc/'J't l l any conllcctionin Asltlilril. lr torvrtrtcur ('oven 1rr.ulrclc lr torrsinol Nalllur'slutltcr's. thc I{cv..lurttesIIalc. scttlcd lLs nlinistor'. A lirlcbcurol Tillirrry's, 'l'lrorrir:. uri: lr llrrt:cllrrrrlouncr lnd ollicc hoklcr irr Ashlirrd.anrl both nrcrrhlrtl rlcscenrllrrts thcfc irl lhc linrcol lhc Rcrolulion. Fol hon inlirlrnutionwirs galhcrctl Iirr publicution rluling tlris pcriod. sec RichlLrd llrttu'tt. Artrrr'/t'l,qtls l'ortr: I'ltt I)i.flir.rittttol lttfitrntuliortitt I:trrl.tt\nttrittr, 1700-1865(Ncu,Yolk: Orlirrtl Irnirclsitr Plcss.l9ll9).

5l On thc cllcctircncsrol clLrll'Anrclicuncspionirlc. sec Jarncs F. O'ltcilly. "(icncralWuslrirrston's Spics in Neri,Yor-k. l77li-17u0: Iivcnirrgthc StratcgicOdds." /'rl:r, l..r,ir.r',rir l')rrly i\rrtt,tittrttIti.rtott, Vrrl. l.t i\41stie:Soeiell ol thc (-incinrrtti& Socictyol (-okrnralWlrs. l9(12).l99l.9l ll,rll.'fullrttttd.ry. J5: l'ltl ('r'cu,s."Spics arrtl Scouts.Socret Wliting, anclSyrnpalhetic Citizcrrs," ('olortiul Williurttsltur,q .lorttttttl(Surttrucr J(X)-.t) gircs xn illustraledolcrvicw ol cspionitt:r'durinsthc Rcvolulionbut sticksto (he Lrsuulussunrplions uboul IIirlc: "Washington'sgrelrtcst intclligcncc llrilurc involrcrl NlLthlrnIlalc. l)csl)cnrlclirr inlirrrratiorrin Scptcrttber 1776about clcvclopnrcntsbchinrl lJritishlirlcs. Wlshinstor) sont FIllc throLrghlhcrn us u spr,.IIule hud no tradccraltand a tissuc-lhirrcover. A rnanLrscril.rlliruntl in l00J at thc I-ihlrLlvol'Consrcss ler,eulcd thlt l loyalistugcnt casily dupctl IJulc irrtorcvealing his nrission.Hale's lir-r'cstund crccutionlirlloricd quickly."

5l l\'trrckcnzic.!)itrtt.I.6l-(12. Iirccrptsin Seyrrrour.I)txutrtettturt l,ife.292

5I Sclrrr,rrr,chrrnrctcrizcs Mlrckcnzic ls.jutlicious, cornpcter)1, kecn. arrclslrorving "no rancortoward lhe .\rncr-icrrns.l)rt Ltttrt'trtttr.t'Lile. )t)2. Thc rcpolt that rcachcdEnoch I{ulc whcrr lrc lisitcd Wchb's rcsirncntin Ncr,rYork wes utroLrt"one NalhanlelHalc." Sce Ilnoch HiLlc'sdilry.26 Ocl. 1116',rcpfinted ir SclrtroLrr.l)txuntt'rttttrt l,ift.297. Hnoch carclirlly notcrl thc dill'elentspclling. probably hoping that thc pcrsortlurrtlcd wls sonrconoothcf thln his brothcr. An aulographc-clparnphlct cntitled "li.ules & CoNNecrrcurHrsronv S 29

Articlesfor the BetterGovernment of Troops. . ." (Philadelphia,1775) with threelines in NathanHale's handwas sold at auctionin 1965to a private collector. The handwriting was authenticatedat the time. The nameis written "Nathan Hails his book." See a1so,Seymour, Documentary Life, 403-4. 54Firstpublishedin Marylnnd Historical Magazine,28 (1933): 10; reprintedin Seymour,Doca- mentaryLife, 446-447. 55Accordingto Enoch'sdiary, "Some desertersasserted the fact" ofNathan's death,"& described his person-Lieut. said he saw a Woman that said she was then in N Y, saw & k[n]ew him hanging havingbeen before acquainted with him. . ." Reprintedin Seymour,Documentary Life,297. 56The third primary sourceconcerning Hale is a notationin an orderly book of the British Brigade of Guards:"A spy from the Enemy (by his own full Confession)Apprehended Last night, was this day Executedat I I oclock in front of the Artilery Park[.] British HeadquartersOrder, 22 Sept. 1776,(New YorkHistoricalSociety); reprinted in Seymour,Documentary Life,29l. Nathan's"confession" was prob- ably his admissionas to identity. 57On the interpretationof ships' logs during this period, a late nineteenthcentury expert observed that"especially in the Americanwar, ships' logs were very far indeedfrom being kept with the strictness andpunctuality which have now come to be consideredinherent." John Knox Laughton,ed., Journal of Rear-AdtniralBartholomew James, (printed for the Navy RecordsSociety, 1896),xi; Johnston,N.H. 113; the log of the British 12-gunbrig the Halifax, commandedby Captain Quarme,noted "two rebel pri- vateers"in the neighborhoodof Huntington Bay on Sept. 17, 1776. See Seymour,Documentary Life, 439.

58The log of the Niger is quotedin JaneDarrow , Nathan Hale: A Story of Loyalties(New York & lnndon:Century Co., 1932),198. The military careerof Nathan'sbrother, Col. John (1748-1802),is undocumented.John, also a member of Knowlton's Rangers,was after the war a wealthy residentof Coventry,CT. He is not known to have used a middle name, but his mother's name was Elizabeth Strong. 59For a closer examinationof Hempsteadas a sourceof information on Hale, see Baker, "The Makingand Breaking of an American Icon." 60On the Long Island tradition of Hale's capture,see Henry Onderdonk,Jr., RevolutionaryInci- dentr,(Newport: Leavitt, Trow & Co. 1849); Benjamin F. Thompson,History of Long Island, vol. ll, (NewYork: E. French,1839), 475; Seymour,Documentary Lde, 444-445.Seymour concludes that Hale wascaptured near Laguardia Airport, as seemslikely. PerhapsHale landedin HuntingtonBay ratherthan beingcaught there. Nonetheless, in 1894a granitecolumn was erectedon Main Street,Huntington, L.I., to comrnemoratethe captureof Hale on the basisof Thompson,Onderdonk and Stuart'saccounts. A 45- tonboulder with memorialbronze tablets was mountedon a site on HuntingtonBay whereonce stood the homeof William Johnson,said to have beena safe housefor Hale. This stonewas moved to Halesite,a sectionof Huntington,in 1896. In 1938 a committeeheaded by Dr. Edward J. Humiston reviewedthe confroversyof whereHale was capturedand reportedat length to the Town of Huntington,the text of which is on file at the New York Historical Society. See Seymour,Documentary Life; JamesGrafton Rogers'"Where and By Whom was Hale Captured."According to this essay,the committee"strains to showthat the Halifax might have visited Huntington." See DocumentaryLife, 439; George Taylor, "Hale-Site,"(pamphlet, New London County Historical Society);Henry Onderdonk,Jr., Documents and ktters,vol. I (Newport:Leavitt, Trow & Co., 1846;vol. II, Hempstead,Long Island:L. Vandiwater, 1884).Onderdonk's father, Henry, Sr., collectedoral historiesin the 1820sand 1830s.Solomon Wooden, over44 yearsof age,shows up in the 1820Census living in an unspecifiedtown in Queens,N.Y., and in 1830,in OysterBay, Queens,between 70 and 80 years of age, near various families of the name of Townsend.Tunis Bogart, aged 30-40, is listed in Ward 4, Brooklyn in the 1830census. The Bogartswere an old Dutch family, intermarriedwith both Hegemansand Onderdonks. 61Seymour, Documentary Life,442,439; Johnston, N.fL, 198;Pennypacker, GeneralWashington's Spieson Long Island and in New York; Pennypacker,The Two Spies;"Nathan Hale Mystery SeenNear d[ CoNNscrrcur H

Conclusion,"Brooklyn Eagle,March 18, 1940.Onderdonk, Revolutionary Incidents, and lettersto Stuart,1848, Stuart Letter Book, ConnecticutHistorical Society, Hartford, CT. Both Onderdonk Thompsoncollected oral historiesin New York.

62 Less than a year after Hale's execution, another American agent went to the gallows in York. For the story of Abraham Patten and compensation made to his family see Roger Kaplan, HiddenWar," William andMary Quarterly,3 (47) no. l,(Jan.1990): 115-138. As Pennypacker GeneralWashington's Spies, the identitiesof mostagents will foreverremain hidden. 63Stephen Hempstead said Hale wore "a plain suit of citizensbrown clotheswith a round brimmedhat, assuming the characterof Dutchschoolmaster. . . ." Suchan identitymakes sense. the Revolution the New York Dutch were often neutral and thereforeallowed to passbetween the sides.Onderdonk questioned Hempstead's story of the Dutch schoolmaster'sdisguise. pointing out Haledid notspeak Dutch. and in a countyof Dutchmen.this would have been utler folly. Onderdonk Stuart,9 Feb. 1848,Stuart Notebook, Item J. MS StackHale, Connecticut Historical Society, CT. Still. a filih generationYale graduatewith identitypapers in Latin mightnot haveknown whateverhis ancestors'origins. In any event,Hale wore humble "citizens brown," which was a markof patriotism.See Nathan to EnochHale, 3 June1776, postscript, in Seymour,Documentary 81. @Bakeless,Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes,175. On Andr6, seeWillard SterneRandall, BenedictArnold Did lt," AmericanHeritage (Sept. Oct. 1990):60-73. For his own safety,Andrd instructednot to go behindenemy lines, not 1odisguise himself, to wearhis Britishunifbrm, and to no compromisingpapers. Andr6 was told thatif he violatedany of theserules of war,he couldbe as a spy. Unfortunatelyfor him, he followedArnold's instructionsinstead. 65Christine Bold, "secret Negotiations.. ." in WesleyK. Wark, ed., Spy Fiction, SpyFilms Real Intelligence(London: Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., l99l),22; Johnston,N.H., 106.Johnston was authorof "Capt. NathanHale," Harper's New Monthly Magazine,LXI (June 1880):53-60, and SecretService of the Revolution,"Maguzine of AmericanHistory,8, pt. I, (1882):95-105. On stead'sunreliability as a source,see Baker, "The Makingand Breaking of an Americanlcon." The role of Hale'sdiploma has been universally misinterpreted. It shouldbe notedthat a diplomawas one of the few identity papersanyone might have.The diploma was in Latin, with even the Latinizedso that the bearer'sethnic identity as "Yankee"would not havebeen immediately 66See, for example,Gideon H. Hollister,History of Connecticut,Vol. II,(New Haven:Durrie Peck 1855),281; Clyde Fitch,Nathan Hale: A P/ay (New York, R.H. Russell,1899). 67On the claim that Hale was a hero-come-latelv,see Thomas J. Flemine,Libertv, (New Y Viking, 1997),206; Charles Royster, A RevolutionaryPeople At War: The ContinentalArmy and ican Character,1775-1783 (Chapel Hill: North CarolinaUniversity Press, 1979), 3; JeanV. Mat "The Republicand the Problemof Virtue," TowardA New Society,American Thought and 1800-1830(Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991); Kammen, The Mystic Chnrds of Memory,65, says ican culturegathered a "discerniblememory" during the "culturalidentity and legitirnacy"crisis of early nationalperiod, when a "mythos"of the AmericanRevolution was created.