Nathan Hale Part 4

Favored by copies of these letters by Saltonstall, one must regret all the more that so few of Hale's own letters have been discovered, ten being the limit. Within a comparatively short period, however, some sixty more records--mostly letters written to Hale--have come to light, preserved, as it is now seen, by the same "orderly care" that marked his interest in all the correspondence of his friends.

In them are expressed, in letter after letter, the affectionate interest and warm admiration of the writers. It is now said that Hale kept these letters with him down to the date of his tragic mission. We can easily imagine the glow of satisfaction that must have filled his brotherly soul in the few spare moments he could devote to these letters.

Brief extracts are made from his diary, fortunately preserved for evidence as to his work and growing interest in the duties he had entered upon. The diary was found in the camp-book brought to his family by Asher Wright, Hale's attendant in camp before he left New York.

In the diary, under date of November 19, 1775, this entry is made:

" ... Robert Latimer the Majrs Son went to Roxbury to day on his way home. The Majr who went there to day and ... return'd this eveng bt acts that the _Asia_ Man of War Station'd at N. York was taken by a Schooner arm'd with Spear's &c.... This account not creditted."

A month after the return from camp mentioned above, Robert Latimer wrote to Captain Hale, his former teacher, the following interesting and diverting letter:

DR SIR,

As I think myself under the greatest obligations to you for your care and kindness to me, I should think myself very ungrateful if I neglected any oppertunity of expressing my grat.i.tude to you for the same. And I rely on that goodness, I have so often experienc'd to overlook the deficiencies in my Letter, which I am sensible will be many as maturity of Judgment is wanting, and tho' I have been so happy as to be favour'd with your instructions, you can't Sir, expect a finish'd letter from one who has as yet practis'd but very little this way, especially with persons of your nice discernment.

Sir, I have had the pleasure of hearing by the soldiers, which is come home, that you are in health, tho' likely to be deserted by all the men you carried down with you, which I am very sorry for, as I think no man of any spirit would desert a cause in which, we are all so deeply interested. I am sure was my Mammy willing I think I should prefer being with you, to all the pleasures which the company of my Relations Can afford me.

I am Sir with respect yr Sincere friend & very H'ble St ROB'T LATIMER

Decbr 20th 1775--

P. S. My Mammy and aunt Lamb presents Complimts. My Mammy would have wrote, but being very busy, tho't my writing would be sufficient--my respects to Capt Hull. Addressed to Capt. Hale.

Here is a second letter from the same ardent friend of Captain Hale. His admiration for his former teacher is evident in every line.

NEW LONDON, March 5th 1776

DEAR SIR,

as my letter meet with such kind reception from you, I still continue writing & hope that the desire I have of improving, added to the pleasure, I take in hearing often from so good a friend, will sufficiently excuse me for writing so often--I Recd your kind letter Sr pr the post & cant deny but your approbation, of my writing, gives me the greatest pleasure, & should be afraid of its raisg my pride; did I not consider that your intention in praising my poor performance, must be with a design, of raising in me an ambition, to endeavour to deserve your praise--& I hope that instructions convey'd in such an agreeable manner, will not, be thrown away upon me--You write Sr that you have got another Fifer, & a very good one too, as I hear. Which I am very Glad to hear, tho' I sincerely wish I was in his Place--

Have not any News.

So will Conclude--I am Sr with Respect Yr friend & S't,

ROBERT LATIMER

P. S. My Mammy & Aunt Present Compts &c--

CAPT. HALE.

Only one thought dims the pleasure with which we read these two letters,--the consciousness of the depth of distress that must have filled that loyal boy's heart to overflowing when he learned of the tragic death of his hero friend.

Two notable records from Captain Hale's diary are these:

November 6. It is of the utmost importance that an officer should be anxious to know his duty, but of greater that he should carefully perform what he does know. The present irregular state of the army is owing to a capital neglect in both of these.

November 7. Studied ye best method of forming a Reg't for a review, of arraying the Companies, also of marching round ye reviewing Officer. A man ought never to lose a moment's time. If he put off a thing from one minute to the next, his reluctance is but increased.

Later in November, when the men in his company were unwilling to reenlist, this notable entry was made, signed with his full name:

28, Tuesday. Promised the men if they would tarry another month, they should have my wages for that time.

NATHAN HALE.

These brief quotations, proving as they do Hale's intense devotion to duty, and his practical efforts to hold his men to their duty, show how clearly he understood the tremendous responsibility resting upon the commander-in-chief as given in Was.h.i.+ngton's own words in letters to friends and to Congress, soon to be quoted; and that, known or unknown to Was.h.i.+ngton, there were men among his officers fully aware of the condition of the army, and as anxious to serve it as was their magnificent leader.

We here quote from Was.h.i.+ngton's letters; the first one was written to a friend:

I know the unhappy predicament in which I stand; I know that much is expected of me; I know that without men, without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done, and what is mortifying, I know that I cannot stand justified to the world without exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause, by declaring my wants which I am determined not to do farther than unavoidable necessity brings every man acquainted with them. My situation is so irksome to me at times, that if I did not consult the public good more than my own tranquillity, I should long ere this have put everything on the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand men, well armed, I have been here with less than half that number, including sick, furloughed, and on command; and those neither armed nor clothed as they should be. In short, my situation has been such, that I have been obliged to conceal it from my own officers.

The second letter was written to Congress:

To make men well acquainted with the duties of a soldier, requires time. To bring them under proper discipline and subordination, not only requires time, but is a work of great difficulty; and in this army where there is so little distinction between officers and soldiers, requires an uncommon degree of attention. To expect, then, the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did, and perhaps never will happen.

On the 23d of December, 1775, Hale began his first and only trip to Connecticut for the sake of securing additional enlistments. If on this one visit home he became engaged--as some have believed--to the woman he had so long loved, now a widow of about nineteen, Alice Adams Ripley, we may infer that love brightened his emba.s.sy even though patriotism inspired it. No record remains of the glorified hours he may have spent in Coventry. We have good reason to believe that, if he survived the war, he expected to marry the woman he had so faithfully loved. After a few brief days in his home, he left it, never to return, speeding on his way to serve his country's needs.

If this new zest entered his life at this time, we can easily imagine as he fared on, striving to arouse his countrymen to their duty as patriots, that the happiest hours of his life were urging him forward to the most perfect service he could render in the present, and to unlimited hopes and ambitions for the future he might well expect was awaiting him. Crowned by human love, and with unlimited opportunities to serve his country, who can tell by what "vision splendid" he was "on his way attended"? Who can help rejoicing that such days, brief as they were, and uplifting as they must have been, were given to this man, now past twenty?

Details concerning that trip are scanty. We know for a certainty that, starting from camp December 23, 1775, he returned to it the last week in January, 1776, having been in New London and other places seeking recruits, and going back with the recruits he himself had secured, joined by others coming from the various towns in Connecticut, and all heading toward the camp around Boston.

He received his commission as captain in the new army in January, being still in Colonel Webb's regiment, which now became the Nineteenth of the Continental Army. For a few weeks he followed the routine of his earlier months there, doing all that was possible to a.s.sist his brother officers in perfecting the discipline of the raw troops, deepening their patriotism, and proving himself a soldier as devoid of fear as he was rich in all manly qualities. Not a word of regret can be found in his diary. Acknowledging in a letter to a former pupil, Miss Betsey Christophers of New London, that the novelty and glamour of camp life had worn off, he a.s.serts, with intense ardor, that nothing would tempt him to "accept a furlough" or shrink in any manner from any of his duties as a soldier. And so the weeks pa.s.sed on.

During the winter heavy cannon from Fort Ticonderoga had been brought through the snows over the Green Mountains. The cannon were placed on Dorchester Heights which commanded the British camp, thus compelling the British general to choose between attacking the American army and evacuating the city. In a letter written in April, 1776, to his half-brother, John Augustine, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote thus regarding this time:

The enemy ... apprehending great annoyance from our new works, resolved upon a retreat, and accordingly, on the 17th (March) embarked in as much hurry, precipitation and confusion as ever troops did ... leaving the King's property in Boston to the amount, as is supposed, of thirty or forty thousand pounds in provisions and stores.

Was.h.i.+ngton's victory in this maneuver, his first great success, tremendously cheered the hearts of all patriotic Americans. Congress gave him a vote of thanks, also a gold medal--"the first in the history of independent America"--in commemoration of the event. Here again we catch a glimpse of the delight that must have thrilled the hearts of all his officers, not least among them that of Nathan Hale. But Was.h.i.+ngton, proving himself in these earlier events, as he was to, year after year, through successive discouragements, "the first in war," turned toward New York as his next base.

CHAPTER V

HALE'S ZEAL AS A SOLDIER

In the letter just quoted, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote further:

"Whither they [the enemy] are now bound,... I know not, but as New York and Hudson's River are the most important objects they can have in view ... therefore as soon as they embarked, I detached a brigade of six regiments to that government and when they sailed another brigade composed of the same number, and tomorrow another brigade of five regiments will march. In a day or two more, I shall follow myself, and be in New York ready to receive all but the first."

Uncertain as to his power to hold New York, Was.h.i.+ngton promptly took the next step that appeared open to him, carrying in his heart a heavy weight of care, and realizing, as perhaps no other man did, that only divine a.s.sistance could give him final success. He was bent upon a desperate mission, but to it, with sublime patience, he gave every energy of his masterly mind, and the entire consecration of all that he possessed.

Well was it for him that the power which controls nations was quietly working with him. Well, also, that in his army were men ready for any enterprise of danger, for any sacrifice that duty might demand.

Was.h.i.+ngton proceeded to New York, to ultimate victory, to final and permanent fame. Nathan Hale went also, simply as a captain of a Connecticut company,--he not to victory, not to immediate fame, but to something higher in one sense than either victory or fame, and to a service well worth a man's doing.

Nathan Hale belonged to the first brigade dispatched to New York--that of General Heath. After rapid marching, considering the state of the roads, "Hale found himself" (March 26th) "for the third time" among his New London friends. The next day they "embarked in high spirits on fifteen transports and sailed for New York." On March 30th the troops "disembarked at Turtle Bay, a convenient landing place" near what is now East 45th Street. Not far from that spot, within six months, Nathan Hale was to win a victory that time can never dim, even if, for a time, it appeared to have covered his memory with a pall. But in that landing-day no shadows were apparent,--only hope, and the zest inevitable in a soldier's life.