Nathan Hale Part 3

School-keeping is a business of which I was always fond, but since my residence in this town, everything has conspired to render it more agreeable. I have thought much of never quitting it but with life, but at present there seems an opportunity for more extended public service.

The kindness expressed to me by the people of the place, but especially the proprietors of the school, will always be very gratefully remembered by, gentlemen, with respect, your humble servant,

NATHAN HALE

CHAPTER IV

A CALL TO ARMS

The place "allotted" to him was that of lieutenant in the third company of the 7th Connecticut regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles Webb. No doubt exists that Lieutenant Nathan Hale was the same Nathan Hale who had won distinction in all his college work, in his subsequent teaching, and in all the events thus far a.s.sociated with his early manhood, with this difference; he was now lifted to a line of service that in his opinion seemed the highest possible for him to follow, and no one who studies his subsequent course can question that in this following he found the loftiest consecration thus far possible to him. Perhaps unconsciously he was to verify the poet's a.s.sertion,

"So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is G.o.d to man, When Duty whispers low, _Thou must_, The youth replies, _I can._"

With no trace of merely personal ambition, but with that splendid power of absorption in duty as in work, Nathan Hale followed in the steps of those devoted American patriots whose blood, so freely shed at Lexington, was calling upon their countrymen to shed theirs as freely, should duty demand it.

Dead almost one hundred and forty years, we still are thrilled by proofs of the splendid manhood henceforth to be so prominent in every remaining day of Hale's brief life. A few letters to friends, a fairly comprehensive diary for a few months, his camp-book, and the recollections of a few of the officers and of his body-servant, give a moderately complete picture of Nathan Hale for a few brief weeks, during which time he had been doing all in his power to perfect himself and the men under him in the duties of soldiers.

By the middle of September the Connecticut troops, having received orders from General Was.h.i.+ngton to proceed to the camp near Boston, the 7th Regiment, containing Lieutenant Hale's company, went to the spot appointed, remaining there during the winter, and leaving for New York, again by Was.h.i.+ngton's orders, in the spring. Of these intervening months, so momentous to the little army whose many members were impatient for the close of the war, Nathan Hale himself gives us vivid pictures; of the work he was trying to do; of the men he was meeting; of the religious life he was in no sense forgetting, and of his own deepening patriotism. Letters written to him show the att.i.tude of friends at home, and their interest both in the affairs of the country and in him personally. The following letter from Gilbert Saltonstall, a young Harvard graduate and warm friend of Hale while in New London, shows how fully the men at home, as well as those in the army, entered into the anxieties of the times:

NEW LONDON, Octo. 9th, 1775.

DEAR SIR:

By yours of the 5th I see you're Stationd in the Mouth of Danger--I look upon yr. Situation more Perilous than any other in the Camp--Should have thought the new Recreuits would have been Posted at some of the Outworks, & those that have been inured to Service advanc'd to Defend the most exposed Places--But all Things are concerted, and ordered with Wisdom no doubt--The affair of Dr.

Church[1] is truly amazing--from the acquaintance I have of his publick Character I should as soon have suspected Mr. Hanc.o.c.k or Adams as him.

[Footnote 1: Of this Dr. Church, John Fiske writes: "In October, 1775, the American camp was thrown into great consternation by the discovery that Dr. Benjamin Church, one of the most conspicuous of the Boston leaders, had engaged in a secret correspondence with the enemy. Dr.

Church was thrown into jail, but as the evidence of treasonable intent was not absolutely complete, he was set free in the following spring, and allowed to visit the West Indies for his health. The s.h.i.+p in which he sailed was never heard from again."]

(Then follow accounts of an affair on Long Island Sound, and extracts from a paper two days old just brought from New York, describing army matters in the North.)

I have extracted all the material News--should have sent the Paper but its the only one in Town and every one is Gaping for news.

Your sincere Friend GILBERT SALTONSTALL.

Another, also from Saltonstall, reads in part as follows:

ESTEEMED FRIEND

Doctor Church is in close Custody in Norwich Gaol, the windows boarded up, and he deny'd the use of Pen, Ink, and Paper, to have no converse with any Person but in presence of the Gaoler, and then to Converse in no Language but English. ... what a fall ...

Yr &c GILBERT SALTONSTALL.

Novr. 27th 1775

A letter already referred to as showing Hale's interest in New London and its people, also his feeling as to camp life, is here given.

"Betsey" was one of his pupils in his early-morning cla.s.ses. We note the little touch of good-natured fun in the last paragraph.

CAMP WINTER HILL, Octr 19th 1775

DEAR BETSEY

I hope you will excuse my freedom in writing to you, as I cannot have the pleasure of seeing and conversing with you. What is now a letter would be a visit were I in New London but this being out of my power, suffer me to make up the defect in the best manner I can.

I write not to give you any news or any pleasure in reading (though I would heartily do it if in my power) but from the desire I have of conversing with you in some form or other.

I once wanted to come here to see something extraordinary--my curiosity is satisfied. I have now no more desire for seeing things here, than for seeing what is in New London, no, nor half so much neither. Not that I am discontented--so far from it, that in the present situation of things I would not except a furlough were it offered me. I would only observe that we often flatter ourselves with great happiness could we see such and such things; but when we actually come to the sight of them our solid satisfaction is really no more than when we only had them in expectation.

All the news I had I wrote to John Hallam--if it be worth your hearing he will be able to tell you when he delivers this. It will therefore not (be) worth while for me to repeat.

I am a little at a loss how you carry at New London--Jared Starr I hear is gone--The number of Gentlemen is now so few that I fear how you will go through the winter but I hope for the best.

I remain with esteem Yr Sincere Friend & Hble Svt.

N. HALE

TO BETSEY CHRISTOPHERS At New London

The next letter refers to the time when, on account of their personal privations, the Connecticut troops were thinking seriously of withdrawing from the struggle, and returning to their homes:

DEAR SIR NEW LONDON Decr-4th 1775

The behaviour of our Connecticut Troops makes me Heart-sick--that they who have stood foremost in the praises and good Wishes of their Countrymen, as having distinguished themselves for their Zeal & Public Spirit, should now shamefully desert the Cause; and at a critical moment too, is really unaccountable--amazing. Those that do return will meet with real Contempt, with deserv'd Reproach. It gives great satisfaction that the Officers universally agree to tarry--that is the Report, is it true or not?--May that G.o.d who has signally appear'd for us since the Commencement of our troubles, interpose, that no fatal or bad consequence may attend a dastardly Desertion of his Cause.

I want much to have a more minute Acct. of the situation of the Camp than I have been able to obtain. I rely wholly on you for information.

Your G. SALTONSTALL.

To explain some of Saltonstal's references to the feelings of some of the Connecticut troops, we quote from Captain Hale's diary of October 23:

"10 o'clock went to Cambridge with Field commission officers to General Putman to let him know the state of the Regiment and that it was through ill usage upon the Score of Provisions that they would not extend their term of service to the 1st of January 1776."

Other letters to Hale from New London friends, among them one from an officer absent on furlough, speak freely of the anxieties of those watching the progress of the reenlistments, and the home reception that would be given to any leaving the army.

Another letter from Saltonstall reads as follows:

NEW LONDON Decr. 18th 1775

DR. SIR....

I wholly agree with you in ye. agreables of a Camp Life, and should have try'd it in some Capacity or other before now, could my Father carry on his Business without me. I proposed going with Dudley, who is appointed to Commn. a Twenty-Gun s.h.i.+p in the Continental Navy, but my Father is not willing, and I can't persuade myself to leave him in the eve of Life against his consent....

Yesterday week the Town was in the greatest confusion imaginable; Women wringing their Hands along Street, Children crying, Carts loaded 'till nothing more would stick on, posting out of Town, empty ones driving in, one Person running this way, another that, some dull, some vex'd, more pleased, some flinging up an Intrenchment, some at the Fort preparing ye Guns for Action, Drums beating, Fifes playing; in short as great a Hubbub as at the confusion of Tongues; all of this occasioned by the appearance of a s.h.i.+p and two Sloops off the Harbour, Suppos'd to be part of Wallace's Fleet,--When they were found to be Friends, Vessels from New Port with Pa.s.sengers ye consternation abated....

A postscript runs as follows:

The young girls, B. Coit, S. and P. Belden [Hale's pupils] have frequently desired their Compliments to Master, but I've never thought of mentioning it till now. You must write something in your next by way of P.S. that I may shew it them.