American Minute - Sept. 22 - Nathan Hale

American Minute
with
Bill Federer

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" were the last words of 21-year-old American patriot Nathan Hale, who was hanged by the British without a trial on SEPTEMBER 22, 1776.

A Yale graduate, he almost became a Christian minister, as his brother Enoch did, but instead became a teacher at Union Grammar School.

Nathan Hale fought in the siege of Boston, capturing a boat of provisions from under the gun of a British man-of-war.

After the British left Boston for New York, General Washington was desperate for information.

Nathan Hale volunteered to penetrate the British line at Long Island, but was captured upon return. General Howe ordered him to be hanged the next morning.

Hale wrote a letter to his mother and brother, but the British destroyed them, not wanting it known a man could die with such firmness. He asked for a Bible, but was refused.

Nathan Hale was marched out and hanged from an apple-tree in Rutgers's orchard, near the present streets of East Broadway and Market in New York City.

Nathan Hale's nephew, well-known author Edward Everett Hale, wrote:

"We are God's children, you and I, and we have our duties...Thank God I come from men who are not afraid in battle."