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Nathan Hale Was Executed OTD in 1776
Remembering America’s First Spy Martyr
On September 22, 1776, Nathan Hale was executed by the British army. It’s an episode in history that American schoolchildren used to know.
Hale was a 21-year-old schoolteacher who volunteered to go on an intelligence-gathering mission in and around New York City for the Continental Army during the autumn of 1776.
The city was now under British occupation. General Washington’s army had been badly defeated by the British and driven from the city. He needed to know the dispositions and intentions of the British army. That meant he needed scouts and spies to get behind enemy lines, at significant risk to themselves, to gather intel for his army.
Over the course of the war, Washington would effectively become America’s first spymaster — putting together an impressive roster of men and women who procured critical information (and sometimes helped sow misinformation) for his army.
In the fall of 1776, Washington turned to the brave men who were a part of Knowlton’s Rangers. The first call for volunteers yielded none. Hale stepped forward on the second.
A fellow officer reportedly warned Hale of the danger to which the schoolteacher replied:
“I am fully sensible of the…
