Word: haling
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...Hale and a friend, Sergeant Stephen Hempstead, went to Norwalk, Conn. "Capt. Hale had changed his uniform for a plain suit of citizen's brown clothes," the sergeant recalled later, "with a round broad-brimmed hat; assuming the character of a Dutch schoolmaster." Before they parted company, Hale left all his valuables and papers, except for his Yale diploma (which he needed to establish his disguise) with the sergeant. Then a friendly sea captain ferried him across Long Island Sound to Huntington, and left...
Immortality at 11 a.m. From that point until his death, the story of Nathan Hale is misted over with legend. It is certain that he wandered through the enemy lines for at least a week and reached Manhattan Island (the lower part of which the British had captured since Hale left Norwalk), that he collected detailed maps of fortifications, with Latin notations in the margins, and hid them under the inner soles of his shoes. Just how he was captured is unknown, but one story put it that he was recognized by a Tory relative as he sat in Rachael...
After his capture Hale was brought to the headquarters of General William Howe in Manhattan's Beekman Mansion (at what is now the corner of First Avenue and 51st Street), where he volunteered his name, rank and mission. He was condemned to death, and held overnight in the greenhouse of the mansion. The next morning, Sept. 22, 1776, at 11 a.m., he was hanged at a point which is now 66th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan. His calm dignity and poise made a deep impression on Captain John Montresor, an aide-de-camp to General Howe...
...grandfather of Author Edward Everett (The Man Without a Country) Hale...
...Hale's words were inspired by a line from one of his favorite plays, Joseph Addison's Cato. The line: "What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country!" Another line from the same play-"Chains, or conquest; liberty, or death"-is believed to be the source of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death...