Produced by WebRover, MFR, Graeme Macketh and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: Hale's Birthplace.] THE TWO SPIES NATHAN HALE AND JOHN ANDRÃ BY BENSON J. LOSSING, LL. D. _ILLUSTRATED WITH PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES BY H. ROSA_ ANNA SEWARD'S MONODY ON MAJOR ANDRÃ NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 72 FIFTH AVENUE. 1897. Copyright, 1886, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. FORETALK. This little volume contains a brief account of the most important events in the life-career of two notable spies in our War for Independence, NATHAN HALE and JOHN ANDRÃ. They were both young men, well educated, endowed with genius and ability for conspicuous achievements, brave and accomplished soldiers, pure and virtuous in private character, truthful, manly, refined in thoughts and manners, handsome in person, lovely in disposition, and beloved by all who knew them. Yet they were spies! "Spies," says Vattel, "are generally condemned to capital punishment, and not unjustly, there being scarcely any other way of preventing the mischief which they may do. For this reason a man of honor, who would not expose himself to die by the hand of a common executioner, ever declines serving as a spy. He considers it beneath him, as it can seldom be done without some kind of treachery." May not a spy be a man of lofty honor, and act under the inspiration of disinterested patriotism? Stratagem, an artifice or scheme for deceiving an enemy in war, is regarded as honorable, but is it not seldom exercised "without some kind of treachery"? It is the _motive_ which gives true character to the deed. When the motive is a purely mercenary one, the deed is dishonorable; when it is the lofty one of a desire to serve one's country or his race, unselfishly, the act is certainly honorable. Nathan Hale truthfully said, "Every kind of service necessary for the public good becomes honorable by being necessary." The motives of the two spies were expressed by themselves. Hale said: "I wish to be useful. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar service, its claims to the performance of that service are imperious." AndrÃ© avowed that in the enterprise in which he was engaged all he sought "was military glory, the applause of his king and country, and, perhaps, a brigadiership." The last words uttered by AndrÃ© under the gibbet indicated that his supreme thought at that moment was of _himself_. He said to the American officers present, "I request you, gentlemen, that you will bear me witness to the world that I die like a brave man." Hale's last words upon the ladder indicated that his supreme thought at that moment was of his _country_. He said, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country!" In 1856 a "Life of Captain Nathan Hale," by I.W. Stuart, was published at Hartford, in a small volume of 230 pages. In 1861 "The Life and Career of Major John AndrÃ©," by Winthrop Sargeant, was published at Boston in a small octavo volume of nearly 500 pages. It is an exhaustive work. To these two books I acknowledge much indebtedness. The spirited pen-and-ink sketches which illustrate this little volume were largely copied from original drawings by the author; also from other original drawings and autographs. The two pictures, _Cunningham destroying Hale's Letters_, and _The Tournament_, are original designs by the artist. This volume contains the full text of AndrÃ©'s "Cow-Chase," and the famous "Monody on Major AndrÃ©," by Miss Anna Seward, with a portrait and a brief biographical sketch of the author; also three characteristic letters written by AndrÃ© to Miss Seward, when he was a youth of eighteen. The "Monody," I believe, has never been published in America. B.J.L. The Ridge, _April, 1886_. CONTENTS. NATHAN HALE. CHAPTER I. PAGE Hale's Birthplace and Parentage.--The Hale Family 3 Hale's Youthhood and Education 4 Dr. Munson's Recollections of him 5 Hale at Yale College and as a School-teacher 7 Patriotism of 8, 9 His Military Career at Boston and New York 9-12 CHAPTER II. The American Army at New York 12, 13 A Man for Secret Service sought 18 Hale's Idea of the Service; he volunteers 14 His Career as a Spy 15-20 His Arrest 17 Taken to General Howe's Headquarters 19 Sentenced to be hanged without Trial.--Great Fire in New York 20 CHAPTER III. Hale at the Place of Execution 21 Cruelly treated by Cunningham, the Provost-Marshal 22 His Last Words 23 Sympathy, expressed; his Execution 24 Monumental Memorials of Hale 25-27 Literary Contributions to his Memory 27-31 Tribute to Hale by Henry J. Raymond 31 Proposed Monument in Memory of Hale at New York 33 Proposed Epitaph 34 JOHN ANDRÃ. CHAPTER I. AndrÃ©'s Birth, Parentage, Education, and Family 37 His Acquaintance with Anna Seward and her Literary Friends 38 His Betrothal to Honora Sneyd 40 His Correspondence with Miss Seward 41 Enters the Army 42 Presaging Omens 42, 43 AndrÃ© goes to America 43 Made a Prisoner 44 At Philadelphia--his Accomplishments and Captivating Manners 45 Lord Howe entertained 45 CHAPTER II. The Mischianza described by AndrÃ© 46-59 CHAPTER III. The Mischianza and the Character of General Howe criticised 59, 60 The British fly from Philadelphia toward New York, General Clinton in Command.--Battle of Monmouth 60 Expedition to Rhode Island 61 AndrÃ©'s Genius and Social Position 62 His Letter to Benedict Arnold's Wife 63 Arnold's Career in Philadelphia 63, 64 His Treasonable Correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton and AndrÃ© 64, 65 AndrÃ© a Spy in Charleston 66 Arnold's Premeditated Treason.--Occasion of "The Cow-Chase" 67 CHAPTER IV. "The Cow-Chase" 68 CHAPTER V. Gloomy State of Public Affairs.--Proposed Personal Meeting between Arnold and AndrÃ© 79 Arrangements for such a Meeting 79, 80 AndrÃ© at a Dinner-Party 80, 81 Goes to meet General Arnold 81 The Meeting 81, 82 They go to Smith's House 83 The Terms of Treasonable Service agreed upon.--AndrÃ© compelled to attempt a Return to New York by Land 84 Receives Papers from Arnold.--His Journey.--The Neutral Ground 85 AndrÃ© arrested 86 Patriotism of his Captors 88 Their Reward 89 AndrÃ© discovered to be a Spy 90 His Confession 91 His Letter to Washington 91-93 CHAPTER VI. Washington returns from Hartford at a Critical Moment.--Arnold receives Notice of AndrÃ©'s Arrest 93 Painful Interview with his Wife.--He escapes to the _Vulture_ 94 Washington at Arnold's Quarters.--Discovers Arnold's Treason.--His Calmness and Tenderness 96 AndrÃ© brought to Arnold's Quarters and sent to General Greene at Tappaan 97 His Free Conversation with Major Tallmadge 98 Effects of the News of his Capture 99 Tried by a Board of Officers and condemned as a Spy 100 Efforts to save him 101 His Choice of the Mode of Death 102 His Execution 103-105 CHAPTER VII. Almost Universal Sympathy felt for AndrÃ© 105, 106 Honored by his King 106 A Monument to his Memory in Westminster Abbey, described 106-108 AndrÃ©'s Remains removed to the Abbey 108 Memorials to mark the Place of his Execution 109-115 Memorial-Stone erected by Mr. Field at Tappaan 110-115 Mr. Field's Generous Proposition 110, 114, 118 Attempts to destroy the Field Memorial at Tappaan 117, 118 An Indignation Meeting at Tappaan 119 A Monument to mark the Place where AndrÃ© was captured at Tarrytown 119-121 Biographical Sketch of Anna Seward 125 Monody on Major AndrÃ© 135 AndrÃ©'s Letters to Miss Seward 152 Index 165 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Nathan Hale's Birthplace _Frontispiece_ Fac-simile of Hale's Handwriting 6 Union Grammar School-house at New London 8 The Beekman Mansion 18 Beekman's Greenhouse 19 Cunningham destroying Hale's Letters 22 The Hale Monument at Coventry 26 Portrait of John AndrÃ© _face_ 37 Portrait of Honora Sneyd 39 The Mischianza Ticket 47 Lady's Head-Dress 48 The Joust at the Tournament 52 Fac-simile of Arnold's disguised Handwriting 65 Fac-simile of AndrÃ©'s disguised Handwriting 65 Fac-simile of the Last Stanza of the Cow-Chase 78 The Smith House 82 Fac-simile of Arnold's Passport 87 Portrait of John Paulding 89 The Robinson House 95 "The '76 Stone House" 97 Washington's Headquarters at Tappaan 100 Passage from the Vulture 104 AndrÃ©'s Monument in Westminster Abbey 107 Bowlder-Monument 109 Dean Stanley's Autograph 112 Memorial at Tappaan 116 Memorial at Tarrytown 120 Portrait of Anna Seward _face_ 125 NATHAN HALE. NATHAN HALE. CHAPTER I. In a picturesque region of Tolland County, Connecticut, twenty miles eastward of Hartford, situated upon an eminence which commands a beautiful and extensive prospect westward toward the State capital, there once stood, and perhaps now stands, a pleasant farm-house, built of wood, and two stories in height.[1] In that house, on the 6th of June, 1755, a child was born whose name appears conspicuous in our national history. It was a boy, and one of twelve children, whose father, Richard Hale, had emigrated in early life from Newberry, in Massachusetts, to Coventry, and there married Elizabeth Strong, a charming maiden eighteen years of age. He was a descendant of Robert Hale, or Hales, who settled in Charlestown, in 1632, and who seems to have been a scion of the Hales of Kent, for he bore their coat-of-arms--three broad arrows feathered white, on a red field. Both Richard and Elizabeth Hale were of the strictest sect of the Puritans of their day. They revered the Bible as the voice of God; reverenced magistrates and gospel ministers as his chosen servants; regarded the strict observance of the Christian Sabbath as a binding obligation, and family worship and grace before meals as imperative duties and precious privileges. The sixth child of Richard and Elizabeth Hale they named NATHAN. He was feeble in body at the beginning of his life, and gave very little promise of surviving the period of infancy; but tender motherly care carried him safely over the critical second year, and he became a robust child, physically and mentally. He grew up a lively, sweet-tempered, and beautiful youth; and these qualities marked his young manhood. Nathan Hale, the distinguished person alluded to, bright and active, loved out-of-door pastimes, and communing with Nature everywhere. He was conspicuous among his companions for remarkable athletism. He would spring, with apparent ease, out of one hogshead into another, through a series; and he would place his hand upon a fence as high as his head, and spring over it at a bound with apparently little effort. Having an intense thirst for knowledge, young Hale was very studious. His father designed him for the Christian ministry, and he was fitted for college by the Rev. Dr. Huntington, one of the most eminent Congregational divines and scholars of his day, and then the pastor of the parish in which Nathan was born. Young Hale entered Yale College when in the sixteenth year of his age. His brother Enoch, the grandfather of Rev. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, and two years the senior of Nathan, entered Yale at the same time. The students then numbered about sixty. His course of college-life was eminently praiseworthy; and he was graduated with the highest honors in September, 1773. Popular with all the students, the tutors, and the faculty, he was always a welcome visitor in the best families of New Haven. In the autumn of 1848 I visited the venerable Eneas Munson, M.D., at New Haven. He had been assistant surgeon, under Dr. Thatcher, in the old War for Independence. He knew young Hale well during the later period of his life at Yale College, for he was then a frequent visitor at the home of Dr. Munson's father. "I was greatly impressed," said Dr. Munson, "with Hale's scientific knowledge, evinced during his conversation with my father. I am sure he was equal to AndrÃ© in solid acquirements, and his taste for art and talents as an artist were quite remarkable. His personal appearance was as notable. He was almost six feet in height, perfectly proportioned, and in figure and deportment he was the most manly man I have ever met. His chest was broad; his muscles were firm; his face wore a most benign expression; his complexion was roseate; his eyes were light blue and beamed with intelligence; his hair was soft and light brown in color, and his speech was rather low, sweet, and musical. His personal beauty and grace of manner were most charming. Why, all the girls in New Haven fell in love with him," said Dr. Munson, "and wept tears of real sorrow when they heard of his sad fate. In dress he was always neat; he was quick to lend a helping hand to a being in distress, brute or human; was overflowing with good-humor, and was the idol of all his acquaintances." Such was the verbal testimony of a personal acquaintance of Nathan Hale as to his appearance and character. When he left Yale College.[2] Dr. Jared Sparks, who knew several of Hale's intimate friends, writes of him: [Illustration: Please accept for yourself and Mrs. Munson the grateful thanks of one who will always remember the kindness he ever experienced whenever he visited your abode. your friend, Nathan Hale. Fac-simile of Hale's Handwriting.] "Possessing genius, taste, and order, he became distinguished as a scholar; and, endowed in an eminent degree with those graces and gifts of Nature which add a charm to youthful excellence, he gained universal esteem and confidence. To high moral worth and irreproachable habits were joined gentleness of manner, an ingenuous disposition, and vigor of understanding. No young man of his years put forth a fairer promise of future usefulness and celebrity; the fortunes of none were fostered more sincerely by the generous good wishes of his associates, and the hopes and encouraging presages of his superiors." Among Hale's classmates was (afterward Major) Benjamin Tallmadge, who had charge of AndrÃ© soon after his arrest. With William Robinson and Ezra Samson he was engaged with Hale at their graduation, in a Latin syllogistic dispute, followed by a debate on the question, "Whether the education of daughters be not, without any just reason, more neglected than that of the sons?" "In this debate Hale was triumphant," wrote James Hillhouse, another of his classmates, who was a few months his junior. "He was the champion of 'The Daughters,' and most ably advocated their cause. You may be sure that he received the plaudits of the ladies present." On leaving college, Hale engaged in school-teaching for nearly two years. He first taught a select school at East Haddam, on the left bank of the Connecticut River, then a place of much wealth. In 1774 he was called to the position of preceptor in the Union Grammar-School at New London, an institution of high grade, intended to furnish facilities for a thorough English education and the classical preparation necessary for entering college. The school-building stood on State Street. Young Hale was appointed its first preceptor after its organization. It was a high compliment to his ability. Hale's connection with this school was most agreeable. Everybody became warmly attached to him. His life moved on in a placid current, with scarcely a ripple upon its surface. He assiduously cultivated science and letters, moved in the most refined society, and engaged in social pleasures and religious repose. His future appeared full of joyful promises. [Illustration: Union Grammar School-house at New London.] Suddenly war's alarms dispelled Hale's dream of quiet happiness. The news of the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord aroused the continent--New England in a special manner. A messenger, riding express with the news, between Boston and New York, brought it to New London late on the 21st of April. It created intense excitement. A town meeting was called at the court-house at twilight. Among the speakers present whose words fired the hearts of the eager listeners was Nathan Hale. With impassioned language and intense earnestness he exhorted the people to take patriotic action at once. "Let us march immediately," he cried, "and never lay down our arms until we have obtained our independence!" This was the first public demand for independence made at the beginning of the great struggle. When the meeting adjourned, Hale, with others, enrolled himself as a volunteer. A company was soon formed. On the following morning when the school assembled, he prayed with his pupils, gave them good advice, bade each one of them an affectionate farewell, and soon afterward departed for Cambridge. He returned and resumed his duties at the school, but it was not long before his intense desire to serve his country caused him to enlist as a lieutenant of a company in Colonel Charles Webb's regiment--a body raised by order of the General Assembly for home defense, or, if necessary, for the protection of the country at large. Late in September Hale marched with his regiment to Cambridge, and participated in the siege of Boston. He received the commission of captain early in January, and was vigilant and brave at all times. The British were driven from the New England capital in March (1776), and sailed away to Halifax with a host of Tories, who fled from the wrath of the Whigs whom they had oppressed. After the British left Boston, the bulk of the American army proceeded to New York. So earnest and unselfish was Hale's patriotism that, when, late in 1775, the men of his company, whose term of service had expired, determined to return home, he offered to give them his month's pay if they would remain so much longer. Soon after Hale's arrival at New York, he successfully performed a daring feat. A British sloop, laden with provisions, was anchored in the East River under the protection of the guns of the man-of-war _Asia_ sixty-four. General Heath gave Hale permission to attempt the capture of the supply-vessel. With a few picked men (probably of Glover's brigade, who were largely seamen), as resolute as himself, he proceeded in a whale-boat silently at midnight to the side of the sloop, unobserved by the sentinel on the deck. Hale and his men sprang on board, secured the sentinel, confined the crew below the hatches, raised her anchor, and took her into Coenties Slip just at the dawn of day. Captain Hale was at the helm. The victors were greeted with loud huzzas from a score of voices when the sloop touched the wharf. The stores of provisions of the prize-vessel were distributed among Hale's hungry fellow-soldiers. We have no information concerning Hale's movements from the time of his capture of the supply-vessel until after the battle of Long Island. He became captain of a company of Connecticut Rangers in May--a corps composed of choice men picked from the different Connecticut regiments, and placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Knowlton, who had distinguished himself in the battle of Bunker's (Breed's) Hill. They were known as "Congress's Own." In two or three letters written by Hale to his brothers in the earlier part of the summer, he mentions some hostile movements, but there are no indications that he was engaged in any of them. He seems not to have been in the battle of Long Island or a participant in the famous retreat of Washington across the East River, from Brooklyn, at the close of August. He was among the troops that remained in New York when the British invaded Long Island (for he was sick at that time), and joined the retreating forces in their march toward Harlem Heights early in September. He first appears after that movement in the presence of Washington, at the house of the opulent Quaker merchant, Robert Murray, on Murray Hill, to receive instructions for the performance of an important mission. What was the nature of that mission? Let us see: The American army on Manhattan Island was in a most perilous condition after the retreat from Long Island. It was fearfully demoralized, and seemed to be on the point of dissolution. Despair had taken possession of the minds of the militia. They deserted by companies and even by regiments. Impatient of restraint, insubordination everywhere prevailed. The soldiers clamored for pay; the money-chest was empty. They clamored for clothing and blankets, as cold weather was approaching; the commissary could not respond. One third of the men were without tents, and one fourth of them were on the sick-roll. Only fourteen thousand men were fit for duty, and these were scattered in detachments lying between each extremity of the island, a distance of a dozen miles or more. The British army was then twenty-five thousand strong, and lay in compact detachments along the shores of New York Bay and the East River, from (present) Greenwood Cemetery to Flushing and beyond. The soldiers were veterans, and were flushed with the recent victory. They were commanded by able generals. The army was supported by a powerful naval force which studded with armed vessels the waters that clasped Manhattan Island. Each arm of the service was magnificently equipped with artillery, stores, and munitions of war of every kind. Such was the condition and relative position of the two armies when, on the 7th of September, Washington called a council of war to consider the important questions, What shall be done? Shall we defend or abandon New York? Washington had already asked Congress, "If we should be obliged to abandon the town, ought it to stand as winter-quarters for the enemy?" He was answered by a resolve that, in case he should find it necessary that he should quit New York, he should "have special care taken that no damage be done to the city, Congress having no doubt of their being able to recover it." It was resolved to remain and defend the city. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: See the frontispiece, copied from a drawing by J.W. Barber, of New Haven, in 1840.] [Footnote 2: Dr. Munson allowed me to read the following letter written by Hale to his father, from New London, late in September, 1774, and to make a _fac-simile_ of the last paragraph as seen above: "New London, _November_ 30, 1774. "SIR: I am very happily situated here. I love my employment; find many friends among strangers; have time for scientific study, and seem to fill the place assigned me with satisfaction. I have a school of more than thirty boys to instruct, about half of them in Latin; and my salary is satisfactory. During the summer I had a morning class of young ladies--about a score--from five to seven o'clock; so you see my time is pretty fully occupied, profitably I hope to my pupils and to their teacher. "Please accept for yourself and Mrs. Munson the grateful thanks of one who will always remember the kindness he ever experienced whenever he visited your abode. Your friend, Nathan Hale."] CHAPTER II. Perils were gathering thick and fast, and at another council, held on the 12th, it was resolved to abandon the city and take a position on Harlem Heights. The sick were sent over to New Jersey, and the public stores were taken to Dobb's Ferry, twenty miles up the Hudson River. Then the main army moved northward, leaving in the city a guard of four thousand men under General Putnam, with orders to follow if necessary. Washington made his headquarters at the house of Robert Murray on the 14th. The position of the American army now appeared more perilous than ever. Two ships-of-war had passed up the East River. Others soon followed. Scouts reported active movements among the British troops everywhere, but could not penetrate, even by reasonable conjecture, the designs of the enemy. It was of the utmost importance to know something of their real intentions. Washington wrote to General Heath, then stationed at Kingsbridge: "As everything, in a manner, depends upon obtaining intelligence of the enemy's motions, I do most earnestly entreat you and General Clinton to exert yourselves to accomplish this most desirable end. Leave no stone unturned, nor do not stick at expense, to bring this to pass, as I was never more uneasy than on account of my want of knowledge on this score. Keep constant lookout, with good glasses, on some commanding heights that look well on to the other shore." The vital questions pressing for answer were, Will they make a direct attack upon the city? Will they land upon the island, above the city, or at Morrisania beyond the Harlem River? Will they attempt to cut off our communications with the main, by seizing the region along the Harlem River or at Kingsbridge, by landing forces on the shores of the East and Hudson Rivers, at Turtle Bay, or at Bloomingdale, and, stretching a cordon of armed men from river to river, cut off the four thousand troops left in the city? Washington, in his perplexity, called another council of war at Murray's. He told his officers that he could not procure the least information concerning the intentions of the enemy, and asked the usual question of late, What shall be done? It was resolved to send a competent person, in disguise, into the British camps on Long Island to unveil the momentous secret. It needed one skilled in military and scientific knowledge and a good draughtsman; a man possessed of a quick eye, a cool head, unflinching courage; tact, caution, and sagacity--a man on whose judgment and fidelity implicit reliance might be placed. Washington sent for Lieutenant-Colonel Knowlton and asked him to seek for a trustful man for the service, in his own noted regiment or in some other. Knowlton summoned a large number of officers to a conference at his quarters, and, in the name of the commander-in-chief, invited a volunteer for the important service. They were surprised. There was a long pause. Patriotism, ambition, a love of adventure, and indignation, alternately took possession of their feelings. It was an invitation to serve their country supremely by becoming a spy--a character upon whom all civilized nations place the ban of scorn and contumely! They recoiled from such a service, and there was a general and even resentful refusal to comply with the request. Late in the conference, when Knowlton had despaired of finding a man competent and willing to undertake the perilous mission, a young officer appeared, pale from the effects of recent severe sickness. Knowlton repeated the invitation, when, almost immediately, the voice of the young soldier was heard uttering the momentous words, "I will undertake it!" It was the voice of Captain Nathan Hale. Everybody was astonished. The whole company knew Hale. They loved and admired him. They tried to dissuade him from his decision, setting forth the risk of sacrificing all his good prospects in life and the fond hopes of his parents and friends. They painted in darkest colors the ignominy and death to which he might be exposed. His warmly attached friend, William Hull (afterward a general in the War of 1812), who was a member of his company and had been a classmate at college, employed all the force of friendship and the arts of persuasion to bend him from his purpose, but in vain. With warmth and decision Hale said: "Gentlemen, I think I owe to my country the accomplishment of an object so important and so much desired by the commander of her armies, and I know no mode of obtaining the information but by assuming a disguise and passing into the enemy's camp. I am fully sensible of the consequences of discovery and capture in such a situation. But for a year I have been attached to the army, and have not rendered any material service, while receiving a compensation for which I make no return. Yet I am not influenced by any expectation of promotion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful; _and every kind of service necessary for the public good becomes honorable by being necessary_. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar service, its claims to the performance of that service are imperious." These manly, wise, and patriotic words--this willingness to sacrifice himself, if necessary, for the good of his country--silenced his brother officers. Accompanied by Knowlton, he appeared before Washington the same afternoon, and received instructions concerning his mission. His commander also furnished him with a general order to the owners of all American vessels in Long Island Sound to convey him to any point on Long Island which he might designate. Hale left the camp on Harlem Heights the same evening, accompanied by Sergeant Stephen Hempstead, a trustworthy member of his company, whom he engaged to go with him as far as it would be prudent. He was also accompanied by his trusty servant, Ansel Wright. They found no safe place to cross the Sound until they arrived at Norwalk, fifty miles from New York, owing to the presence of small British cruisers in those waters. There Hale exchanged his regimentals for a citizen's dress of brown cloth and a broad-brimmed round hat, and directed Hempstead and Wright to tarry for him at Norwalk until his return, which he supposed would be on the 20th. He directed a boat to be sent for him on the morning of that day, and left with Hempstead his uniform and his military commission and other papers. There are somewhat conflicting accounts concerning Hale's movements after he left Norwalk. All agree that he was conveyed across the Sound to Huntington Bay, where he landed; that he assumed the character of a schoolmaster and loyalist disgusted with the "rebel" cause, and that he professed to be in quest of an engagement as a school-teacher. It is known that he entered the British camps in personal disguise and with the pretext of loyalty and the character of a pedagogue; that he was received with great cordiality as a "good fellow"; that he visited all the British camps on Long Island, made observations openly, and drawings and memoranda of fortifications, etc., secretly; that he passed over from Brooklyn to New York city and gathered much information concerning affairs there, the British having invaded Manhattan Island and secured possession of the town since his departure;[3] and that he returned to Long Island and passed through the various camps to Huntington Bay for the purpose of going back to Norwalk. Tradition tells us that Hale was conveyed from Norwalk to Huntington Bay on a sloop, and was landed from her yawl two hours before daybreak in the neighborhood of a place called "The Cedars." Near there a Widow Chichester, a stanch loyalist (called "Widow Chich"), kept a tavern, which was the resort of all the Tories in that region. Hale passed this dangerous place with safety before cock-crowing, and at a farm-house a mile distant he was kindly furnished with breakfast and a bed for repose after his night's toil. Then he made his way to the nearest British camp, and was received without suspicion of his real character. Concerning his movements after that, until his return from New York, tradition is silent. Hale, on his return, had reached in safety the point on the Long Island shore where he first landed, and prepared to recross the sound at Norwalk the next morning. He wore shoes with loose inner soles. Between the soles he had concealed the accurate drawings he had made of fortifications, etc., and also his memoranda, written in Latin on thin paper. He had given directions for the boat, from which he had landed, to come for him on a designated morning, which would be the next after his return. Satisfied that he was safe from harm, for he was remote from a British post, and happy with the thought that his perilous mission was ended successfully and that he should render his country most important service, he awaited the coming morning with patience and serenity of mind. Feeling secure in his simple dress and disguised manner, Hale entered the tavern of the Widow Chichester, at "The Cedars." A number of persons were in the room. A moment afterward, a man, whose face seemed familiar to him, suddenly departed and was not seen again. Hale passed the night at the tavern, and at dawn went out to look for the expected boat. To his great joy he saw one moving toward the shore, with several men in it. Not doubting they were his friends, he hastened toward the beach, where, as the vessel touched the shore, he was astounded by the sight of a barge bearing British marines. He turned to flee, when a loud voice called, "Surrender or die!" Looking back he saw six men standing erect, with muskets leveled at him. He was seized, taken into the barge, and conveyed to the British guard-ship _Halifax_, Captain Quarne, which was anchored behind a point of wooded land of Lloyd's Neck. It has been asserted that the man who so suddenly departed from the room of the tavern at "The Cedars" when Hale entered was a Tory cousin of his, a dissipated fellow, who recognized his kinsman in disguise and betrayed him into the hands of the enemy; but there is no warrant for such an accusation. Hale's captors stripped and searched him, and found the evidences of his being a spy in the papers concealed between the soles of his shoes. These formed as positive testimony as to his true character as did the papers found in AndrÃ©'s boot, which convicted the adjutant-general of the British army of being a spy. [Illustration: The Beekman Mansion.] [Illustration: Beekman's Greenhouse.] Captain Hale was taken in one of the boats of the _Halifax_ to General Howe's headquarters, at the elegant mansion of James Beekman, at Mount Pleasant, as the high bank of the East River at Turtle Bay was called. The house was situated at (present) Fifty-first Street and First Avenue. It was then deserted by its stanch Whig owner. Around it were beautiful lawns and blooming gardens; and near it was a greenhouse filled with exotic shrubbery and plants.[4] In that greenhouse Hale was confined, under a strong guard, on Saturday night, the 21st of September. He had been taken before Howe, who, without trial, and upon the evidence found in his shoes, condemned him to be hanged early the next morning. Howe delivered him into the custody of William Cunningham, the notorious British provost-marshal, with orders to execute him before sunrise the next day. This severity, nay, absolute inhumanity, was doubtless the result of great irritation of the minds of the British officers at that moment. They had looked upon the little city of New York, containing twenty thousand inhabitants, as a most comfortable place for their winter-quarters. On the very morning when Hale was arrested (at a little past midnight), a fearful conflagration was accidentally begun at a low tavern on the wharf near Whitehall Slip (now Staten Island Ferry). Swiftly the flames spread, and were not quenched until about five hundred buildings were consumed. The British believed, and so declared, that the fire was the work of Whig incendiaries, to deprive the army of comforts. The city was yet ablaze while Hale was lying in Beekman's greenhouse, awaiting his doom in the early morning. When Hale was taken before Howe, he frankly acknowledged his rank and his purpose as a spy. He firmly but respectfully told of his success in getting information in the British camps, and expressed his regret that he had not been able to serve his country better. "I was present at this interview," wrote a British officer, "and I observed that the frankness, the manly bearing, and the evident disinterested patriotism of the handsome young prisoner, sensibly touched a tender chord of General Howe's nature; but the stern rules of war concerning such offenses would not allow him to exercise even pity." FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 3: On the day after Hale's departure, a strong British force crossed the East River and landed at Kip's Bay at the foot of (present) Thirty-fourth Street, drove off an American detachment stationed there, and formed a line almost across the island to Bloomingdale. On the 16th detachments of the two armies had a severe contest on Harlem Plains, in which the Americans were victorious, but at the cost of the life of the gallant Colonel Knowlton.] [Footnote 4: I made a sketch of the Beekman mansion in 1849, and of the greenhouse in 1852, a few days before it was demolished, with all the glories of the garden, at Mount Pleasant; for, at the behest of the Street Commissioner, streets were opened through the whole Beekman domain. The site of the greenhouse was in the center of (present) Fifty-second Street, a little east of First Avenue. It was erected with the mansion in 1764. The mansion was occupied, during the war, as headquarters by Generals Howe, Clinton, and Robertson. It was the residence of the Brunswick General Riedesel and his family in the summer of 1780. General Carleton occupied it in 1783.] CHAPTER III. Long before daybreak of a Christian Sabbath, Nathan Hale was marched to the place of execution, in the vicinity of (present) East Broadway and Market Street. He was escorted by a file of soldiers, and there delivered to the provost-marshal. The young commander of a British detachment lying near, told Captain William Hull that on Hale's arrival he requested Cunningham to allow him to sit in his (the officer's) marquee while waiting for the necessary preparations. The boon was granted. Hale requested the presence of a chaplain; it was denied. He asked for a Bible; it was refused. At the solicitation of the compassionate young officer in whose tent Hale sat, he was allowed to write brief letters to his mother, sisters, and the young maiden to whom he was betrothed;[5] but, when they were handed to the provost-marshal to cause them to be forwarded, that officer read them. He grew furious as he perceived the noble spirit which breathed in every sentence, and with coarse oaths and foul epithets he tore them into shreds before the face of his young victim. Hale gave Cunningham a withering glance of scorn, and then resumed his usual calmness and dignity of demeanor. Tho provost-marshal afterward said that he destroyed the epistles "that the rebels should never know that they had a man who could die with such firmness." [Illustration: Cunningham destroying Hale's Letters.] It was in the morning twilight of a beautiful September day that Hale was led out to execution. The gallows was the limb of an apple-tree in Colonel Rutgers's orchard.[6] Even at that early hour quite a large number of men and women had gathered to witness the sad scene. Cunningham watched every arrangement with evident satisfaction; and, when everything was ready for the last scene in the tragedy, he scoffingly demanded of his victim his "last dying speech and confession!" The soul of the young martyr, patriot, and hero, who was standing upon the fatal ladder[7] with his eyes turned heavenward, was then in secret communion with his Maker, and his mortal ears seemed closed to earthly sounds. He did not notice the insulting words of the human fiend. A moment afterward he looked benignly upon the evidently sympathetic spectators, and with a calm, clear voice pronounced the last words uttered by him: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country!" The women wept; some of them sobbed audibly. The sublime and burning words of the victim about to be sacrificed upon the altar of liberty, and the visible tokens of sympathy among those who witnessed the scene, maddened the coarse-natured and malignant provost-marshal.[8] He cried out in a voice hoarse with anger, "Swing the rebel off!" and cursed the tearful women with foul imprecations, calling them rebels and harlots! So ended, in an atmosphere of mingled Christian faith, fortitude, and hope, and of savage barbarism and brutality, the beautiful life-drama of Nathan Hale, the early martyr for the cause of human freedom in the grand struggle for the independence of our country. It is a cause for just reproach of our people that their history, poetry, oratory, and art have, for more than a century, neglected to erect a fitting memorial to his memory--either in the literature of the land he so loved that he freely gave his young life a sacrifice for its salvation from bondage, or in bronze or marble. Nowhere in our broad domain, stretching from sea to sea, teeming with almost sixty million freemen, is there even a mural tablet seen with the name of Nathan Hale upon it, excepting a small monument in his native town, overlooking the graves of his kindred, in an obscure church-yard, which was erected forty years ago. The body of the martyr was laid in the earth near the spot where his spirit left it. A British officer was sent to acquaint Washington with his fate. A rude stone placed by the side of the grave of his father, in the burial-ground of the Congregational Church in his native town, for long years revealed to passers-by the fact that it was in commemoration of "Nathan Hale, Esq., a captain in the army of the United States, who was born June 6, 1755, received the first honors of Yale College, September, 1773," and "resigned his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty at New York, September 22, 1776, aged twenty-two." An entry of his death was made upon the town records of Coventry. Late in November, 1837--sixty-one years after his sacrifice--the citizens of Coventry formed a "Hale Monument Association" for the purpose of raising funds for the erection of a suitable memorial to the memory of the young patriot. The association applied in vain to Congress for aid. By fairs, tea-parties, private dramatic performances, and other social appliances, carried on chiefly by the gentler sex, and a grant of twelve hundred dollars by the State of Connecticut, a sufficient sum was secured in 1846 to erect the desired monument. At one of the fairs, a poem, addressed to "The Daughters of Freedom," and printed on white satin, was offered for sale, and was widely distributed. It contained the following verses: "Ye come with hearts that oft have glowed At his soul-stirring tale, To wreath the deathless evergreen Around the name of Hale. "Here his memorial stone shall rise In freedom's hallowed shade, Prouder than AndrÃ©'s trophied tomb 'Mid mightiest monarchs laid." [Illustration: The Hale Monument at Coventry.] The Hale memorial stands upon elevated ground near the Congregational Church in South Coventry, and by the side of the old burial-ground in which repose the remains of his nearest kindred. Toward the north it overlooks the beautiful Lake Waugumbaug, in the pellucid waters of which Hale angled in his boyhood and early youth. The monument was designed by Henry Austin, of New Haven, and was erected under the superintendence of Solomon Willard, the architect of the Bunker's Hill Monument. It was completed in the summer of 1846, at a cost of three thousand seven hundred and thirty-four dollars. The material is Quincy granite. Its form is seen in the engraving. The height is forty-five feet, and it is fourteen feet square at its base. The pedestal bears on its four sides the following inscriptions: _North side_: "CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE, 1776." _West side_: "Born at Coventry, June 6, 1755." _East side_: "Died at New York, September 22, 1776." _South side_: "I REGRET THAT I HAVE BUT ONE LIFE TO LOSE FOR MY COUNTRY." The fate of young Hale produced universal sorrow in the Continental army and among the patriotic people. In the Whig newspapers of the day tributes to his worth as a man and a patriot appeared in both prose and verse.[9] During the War of 1812'-15, a little fort, erected upon Black Rock, at the entrance to New Haven Harbor, on the site of a smaller one, built during the Revolution, was named Fort Hale, the first monument of stone that commemorated him. It has long been in ruins. Then followed the simple structure built by his neighbors at Coventry. Brief notices of the martyr have been given from time to time in occasional poetic effusions and in oratory. Timothy Dwight, Hale's tutor at Yale College, and afterward president of that institution, wrote: "Thus while fond Virtue wished in vain to save, HALE, bright and generous, found a hapless grave; With genius' living flame his bosom glowed, And Science lured him to her sweet abode. In Worth's fair path his feet adventured far, The pride of peace, the rising hope of war; In duty firm, in danger calm as even, To friends unchanging, and sincere to Heaven. How short his course, the prize how early won! While weeping Friendship mourns her favorite gone." I.W. Stuart, in his little biography of Hale,[10] has preserved fragments of several poetic effusions. A short time after Hale's death, an unknown personal friend of the martyr wrote a poem of one hundred and sixty lines, in which he described the personal appearance of the young soldier--tall and with "a beauteous face." Of his qualities of temper and conduct he wrote: "Removed from envy, malice, pride, and strife, He walked through goodness as he walked through life; A kinder brother Nature never knew, A child more duteous or a friend more true." Of Hale's motives in becoming a spy he wrote: "Hate of oppression's arbitrary plan, The love of freedom, and the rights of man; A strong desire to save from slavery's chain The future millions of the Western main." The poet follows him in his career until he enters upon his perilous mission under instructions from Washington. Of the final scene he wrote: "Not Socrates or noble Russell died. Or gentle Sidney, Britain's boast and pride, Or gen'rous Moore, approached life's final goal, With more composed, more firm and stable soul." J.S. Babcock, of Coventry, wrote in the metre of Wolfe's "Sir John Moore": "He fell in the spring of his early prime, With his fair hopes all around him; He died for his birth-land--a 'glorious crime'-- Ere the palm of his fame had crowned him. "He fell in her darkness--he lived not to see The noon of her risen glory; But the name of the brave, in the hearts of the free, Shall be twined in her deathless glory." In a poem delivered before the Linonian Society of Yale College, at its centennial anniversary in 1853, a society of which Hale was a member, Francis M. Finch said, in allusion to the martyr: "To drum-beat and heart-beat, A soldier marches by; There is color on his cheek, There is courage in his eye; Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat In a moment he must die. "By starlight and moonlight He seeks the Briton's camp; He hears the rustling flag, And that armÃ¨d sentry's tramp; And the starlight and moonlight His silent wanderings lamp. "With slow tread, and still tread, He scans the tented-line; And he counts the battery-guns By the gaunt and shadowy pine; And his slow tread and still tread Gives no warning sign. "The dark wave, the plumed wave, It meets his eager glance, And it sparkles 'neath the stars Like the glimmer of a lance; A dark wave, a plumed wave, On an emerald expanse. * * * * * "With calm brow, steady brow, He listens to his doom; In his look there is no fear, Nor a shadow trace of gloom; And with calm brow and steady brow He robes him for the tomb. "In the long night, the still night, He kneels upon the sod; And the brutal guards withhold E'en the solemn Word of God! In the long night, the still night, He walks where Christ hath trod! "'Neath the blue morn, the sunny morn, He dies upon the tree; And he mourns that he can lose But one life for Liberty; And in the blue morn, the sunny morn His spirit-wings are free! * * * * * "From fame-leaf and angel-leaf, From monument and urn, The sad of earth, the glad of heaven, His tragic fate shall learn; And on fame-leaf and angel-leaf The name of HALE shall burn!" At the dedication of a monument in 1853, erected on the spot near Tarrytown where AndrÃ© was captured, the late Henry J. Raymond, in an address on the occasion, said: "At an early stage of the Revolution, NATHAN HALE, captain in the American army, which he had entered, abandoning brilliant prospects of professional distinction for the sole purpose of defending the liberties of his country--gifted, educated, ambitious--the equal of AndrÃ© in talent, in worth, in amiable manners, and in every manly quality, and his superior in that final test of character--the motives by which his acts were prompted and his life was guided--laid aside every consideration personal to himself, and entered upon a service of infinite hazard to life and honor, because Washington deemed it important to the sacred cause to which both had been sacredly set apart. Like AndrÃ©, he was found in the hostile camp; like him, though without trial, he was adjudged as a spy; and, like him, he was condemned to death. "And here
{'title': 'The Two Spies: Nathan Hale and John André by Benson John Lossing', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}