Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 - September 22, 1776)

Nathan Hale was born on June 6, 1755, in Coventry, Connecticut. He attended college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, from age 14 until the time he was 16. He graduated from Yale and became a teacher at age 18. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775, his spirit and patriotism got him a position as a lieutenant in the Continental Army. The following year, Hale was promoted to a captain and took the position of Captain of the Rangers, a group known for their bravery and courage in dangerous missions. In September 1776, George Washington was planning to infiltrate the British by going behind enemy lines in New York. Once Nathan Hale heard about this he immediately went to his superior, Major Thomas Knowlton. The plan was set into action. Nathan Hale went behind the enemy lines disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster. He successfully penetrated the British in New York and recovered important military information. Unfortunately, on September 21, 1776, the night he was planning to go home he was arrested by British soldiers after being betrayed by his loyalist cousin. Commander-in-Chief of the British, General William Howe, tried to bribe Nathan Hale into coming onto the British side. He refused. On September 22, 1776, Nathan Hale was hanged. Before he died, he said these words of a true American, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."