Nathan Hale Part 10

Let others toil amidst the lofty air By fancy led through every cloud above Let empty Follies build her castles there My thoughts are settled on the friend I love.

Oh friend sincere of soul divinely great Shedest thou for me a wretch the sorrowed tear What thanks can I in this unhappy state Return to you but Grat.i.tude sincere T'is friendship pure that now demand my lays A theme sincere that Aid my feeble song Raised by that theme I do not fear to praise Since your the subject where due praise belong Ah dearest girl in whom the G.o.ds have join'd The real blessings, which themselves approve Can mortals frown at such an heavenly mind When G.o.ds propitious shine on you they love Far from the seat of pleasure now I roam The pleasing landscape now no more I see Yet absence ne'er shall take my thoughts from home Nor time efface my due regards for thee.

(3) _Benjamin Tallmadge_

Benjamin Tallmadge, one year older than Nathan Hale, was Hale's cla.s.smate and one of his correspondents. Like Hale he became a teacher for a time, and then, entering the army, served with distinction throughout the war. He was intrusted by Washington with important services. In October, 1780, he was stationed with Col. Jameson at North Castle. He had been out on active service against the enemy and returned on the evening of the day when Major Andre had been brought there and had been started back to Arnold for explanations. This was four years after the death of Hale.

Listening to the account of the capture, and the pa.s.s from Arnold, Tallmadge at once surmised the importance of retaining Andre and insisted upon his being brought back.

When Andre was once more in American hands, Tallmadge is said to have been the first to suspect, from the prisoner's deportment as he walked to and fro and turned sharply upon his heel to retrace his steps, that he was bred to arms and was an important British officer. Major Tallmadge was charged with his custody, and was almost constantly with him until his execution. Tallmadge writes: "Major Andre became very inquisitive to know my opinion as to the result of his capture. In other words, he wished me to give him candidly my opinion as to the light in which he would be viewed by General Washington and a military tribunal if one should be ordered.

"This was the most unpleasant question that had been propounded to me, and I endeavored to evade it, unwilling to give him a true answer. When I could no longer evade his importunity and put off a full reply, I remarked to him as follows: 'I had a much loved cla.s.smate in Yale College, by the name of Nathan Hale, who entered the army in the year 1775. Immediately after the battle of Long Island, General Washington wanted information respecting the strength, position, and probable movements of the enemy.

"'Captain Hale tendered his services, went over to Brooklyn, and was taken just as he was pa.s.sing the outposts of the enemy on his return.'

Said I with emphasis,

"'Do you remember the sequel of this story?'

"'Yes,' said Andre, 'he was hanged as a spy. But you surely do not consider his case and mine alike?'

"I replied, 'Yes, precisely similar, and similar will be your fate.'

"He endeavored to answer my remarks, but it was manifest he was more troubled in spirit than I had ever seen him before."

Major Tallmadge walked with Andre from the Stone House where he had been confined to the place of execution, and parted with him under the gallows, "overwhelmed with grief," he says, "that so gallant an officer and so accomplished a gentleman should come to such an ignominious end."

What would have occurred if Andre had not been recalled, but had reached Arnold--whether both could have escaped by boat to the _Vulture_ as did Arnold; whether Arnold, leaving Andre to his fate, could have escaped alone under these suspicious circ.u.mstances; or whether Hamilton and the others, who were dining with Arnold when the news of Andre's capture reached him, could have managed to hold both until Washington's arrival, cannot now be surmised. We only know that to Major Tallmadge belongs the credit of the recall and retention of Andre as a prisoner, thereby preventing the loss of West Point.

Major Tallmadge remained in the army and was greatly trusted by Washington, rendering important a.s.sistance in the secret service. He took part in many battles and in time became a colonel. For sixteen years he was in Congress. He died at the age of eighty, leaving sons and grandsons who won honored names in various callings.

(4) _William Hull_

When Captain William Hull, impelled by a strong natural caution, spoke as forcibly as he could of the disastrous results that might follow Nathan Hale's acceptance of the office of a spy in his country's service, he described not only the result of the failure which seemed almost inevitable, and which would result in a disgraceful death, but also the contempt that would be felt among his fellow-officers should he be successful. Hale, as we have seen, deliberately chose these dangers that appeared so appalling, and lost his life in the manner predicted by Hull.

Could Captain Hull, on that September day in 1776, have looked forward to other days in 1812, when, because of his surrender of Detroit, he himself would stand as the most disgraced man in the American army, he would have wondered what disastrous set of causes could have doomed him to lower depths of discredit than he had imagined possible for his friend Hale.

This is the story of Captain Hull as told by his grandson, the Rev.

James Freeman Clarke, a Unitarian clergyman, and an author of high repute.

After remaining in the army throughout the Revolutionary War, where he distinguished himself on repeated occasions, constantly rising in rank, he settled in Ma.s.sachusetts, practicing law, becoming prominent as a legislator, and finally as one of the Ma.s.sachusetts judges. In 1805, as General Hull, he was appointed governor of the territory of Michigan by President Jefferson, and removed thither, stipulating that in case of war he should not be required to serve both as general and governor, as he did not believe the duties of both could be successfully administered by the same person.

The outbreak of the war of 1812, which occurred while Madison was President, found what was then the northern frontier of America wholly unprepared for hostilities. The country was new, with dense forests and few roads. There were no adequate means of land defense, and no adequate navy to patrol the lakes.

The British, as usual, had all the vessels needed, well-drilled soldiers, and, more terrible than all, more than a thousand Indians, ready to commit any atrocities upon defenseless white settlers. As Hull had insisted, another officer was appointed to command the troops, such as they were, but this officer became ill and Governor Hull was forced to take command.

In the meantime, no amount of urgent entreaties could induce the authorities at Washington to send reenforcements to the a.s.sistance of the defenseless settlers. The American troops were unprepared to maintain their own position, and absolutely unable to conquer and annex Canada, as the government expected them to do. General Hull found himself with some eight hundred men facing more than fifteen hundred British regulars, and threatened in the rear by a thousand Indians.

What President Madison or any of his officers would have done, we cannot say. They appear to have thought that it was General Hull's duty to annihilate the British army, effectually dispose of the Indians, and present Canada to the American government.

General Hull, however, was a practical soldier. He knew the fate that would await the women and children in his territory, to say nothing of his small army, if he risked a battle and was defeated, as he surely would be; so he did what seemed to him the only possible thing to save the people of Michigan. He surrendered. Canada remained unannexed; the white settlers of Michigan were not delivered to the tender mercies of the Indians, and General Hull paid the penalty of the independent stand he had taken.

He probably foresaw that he must face a terrible ordeal. The whole country appeared to be roused against him, and Hull at once became the best-hated man in America. A court-martial was appointed.

At first it was hoped that he would be convicted of treason, but the evidence showed that this charge could not be sustained. He was tried for cowardice in face of the enemy, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. The latter part of the sentence President Madison remitted, in consideration of his past eminent services in the army. So, stamped with indelible disgrace by all who did not know the facts, a ruined and dishonored man, in his sixty-first year General Hull went back to the farm in Newton that had come to him through his wife. Here, surrounded by the most devoted affection, he pa.s.sed his few remaining years.

A ruined and discredited man he truly was,--the reputation and the honor due him from his countrymen irrevocably lost and by no fault of his own.

Yet his grandson, the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, a.s.serts that he was not once heard to say an unkind word about the government that had treated him so cruelly.

After his death, in 1825, one of his daughters wrote the story of his life from his own writings, and the Rev. James Freeman Clarke sketched for the world an outline of his grandfather's services in Michigan.

This shows that the man who, in his youth, tried to dissuade his friend Nathan Hale from accepting the role of martyr, himself, in his old age, bravely and gently endured a martyrdom compared to which the ostracism he predicted for Hale, even if he succeeded in his mission, was but a pa.s.sing dream.

(5) _Stephen Hempstead_

To Stephen Hempstead, a sergeant in Nathan Hale's company in 1776, we are indebted for the most reliable account that is known of Hale's movements after he left New York in the service from which he was not to return. Sergeant Hempstead removed to Missouri after the war, and this account was first published in the _Missouri Republican_ in 1827. His own words describing his last days with Hale are these:

"Captain Hale was one of the most accomplished officers, of his grade and age, in the army. He was a native of the town of Coventry, state of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College--young, brave, honorable--and at the time of his death a Captain in Col. Webb's Regiment of Continental Troops. Having never seen a circ.u.mstantial account of his untimely and melancholy end, I will give it. I was attached to his company and in his confidence. After the retreat of our army from Long Island, he informed me, he was sent for to Head Quarters, and was solicited to go over to Long Island to discover the disposition of the enemy's camps, &c., expecting them to attack New York, but that he was too unwell to go, not having recovered from a recent illness; that upon a second application he had consented to go, and said I must go as far with him as I could, with safety, and wait for his return.

"Accordingly, we left our Camp on Harlem Heights, with the intention of crossing over the first opportunity; but none offered until we arrived at Norwalk, fifty miles from New York. In that harbor there was an armed sloop and one or two row galleys. Capt. Hale had a general order to all armed vessels, to take him to any place he should designate: he was set across the Sound, in the sloop, at Huntington (Long Island) by Capt.

Pond, who commanded the vessel. Capt. Hale had changed his uniform for a plain suit of citizen's brown clothes, with a round broad-brimmed hat, a.s.suming the character of a Dutch schoolmaster, leaving all his other clothes, commission, public and private papers, with me, and also his silver s...o...b..ckles, saying they would not comport with his character of schoolmaster, and retaining nothing but his College diploma, as an introduction to his a.s.sumed calling. Thus equipped, we parted for the last time in life. He went on his mission, and I returned back again to Norwalk, with orders to stop there until he should return, or hear from him, as he expected to return back again to cross the sound, if he succeeded in his object."

So far as there is any other evidence, it tends to confirm this part of Sergeant Hempstead's report, and he is to-day considered one of the most valuable authorities on Hale's last intercourse with brother soldiers.

Of the details of his captain's arrest and execution, which are told in the last part of the account, and of which Hempstead had no personal knowledge, he declares that he was "authentically informed" and did "most religiously believe" them. Some of the incidents he gives appear to have been proved since to have no basis in fact; others that vary from reports now accepted may yet, with more light gained, be found to be true.

The second letter sent by Sergeant Hempstead to the _Republican_ deals with his experience in the army in 1781, when he was one of the victims of the brutalities inflicted upon the hapless prisoners of war at Fort Griswold, Groton, Connecticut. The injuries he received there were, as he tells us, so severe that his own wife, having searched for his body in the fort among the dead, scanned carefully the face of every wounded soldier sheltered by pitying neighbors, pa.s.sing him twice without recognizing him--he too ill to make any sign--and then resuming her search among the dead.

Later she found him, and after a time he regained sufficient strength to be carried to his home. He was, however, incapacitated by his injuries for service in the field, and was thenceforth able to perform only duties calling for honest watchfulness rather than personal labor. After the removal to Missouri the whole family prospered greatly. He settled on a farm near the city of St. Louis, where he lived many years, respected by all who knew him. He died in 1831.

(6) _Asher Wright_

Near the place where the Hale family lie buried is another grave covering the dust of Asher Wright, once Nathan Hale's attendant. He was so strongly attached to Hale that his tragic death is thought to have unsettled his mind so that he never was quite himself again, and never able to earn his own living. For several years after Nathan Hale's death Wright was not heard of in his early home. Then he came back to Coventry, bringing with him some of Nathan Hale's effects that he had doubtless carried with him in his wandering, giving them, on his return, to Deacon Hale's family.

Asher Wright died in his ninetieth year, having lived all his later days in his house not far from the Hale home. His pension of ninety-six dollars a year was so supplemented by the Hale family, and by David Hale of New York, editor of the _Journal of Commerce_, that his last days were very comfortable. His grave is marked by a marble headstone giving his name, age, and former connection with Nathan Hale.

His farm adjoined that of the Hale homestead and has now become a part of it.

(7) _Elisha Bostwick_

One letter concerning Nathan Hale comes to us with a curious and interesting history.

Not long ago, while in the city of Washington, a loyal friend and warm admirer of Nathan Hale, George Dudley Seymour, Esq., of New Haven, had his attention called to a remarkable tribute to Hale. It proved to have been written by a fellow-soldier in the Revolutionary War, Captain Elisha Bostwick. This remarkable doc.u.ment was found in the musty records of a very old pension list, and the portion relating to Nathan Hale is here given. It came to light a hundred and thirty-five years after Hale's execution. We give this valuable record of Captain Bostwick's as it appeared in the _Hartford Courant_ of December 15th, 1914:

"I will now make some observations upon the amiable & unfortunate Capt.

Nathan Hale whose fate is so well known; for I was with him in the same Regt. both at Boston & New York & until the day of his tragical death; & although of inferior grade in office was always in the habits of friendship & intimacy with him: & my remembrance of his person, manners & character is so perfect that I feel inclined to make some remarks upon them: for I can now in imagination see his person & hear his voice--his person I should say was a little above the common stature in height, his shoulders of a moderate breadth, his limbs strait & very plump: regular features--very fair skin--blue eyes--flaxen or very light hair which was always kept short--his eyebrows a shade darker than his hair & his voice rather sharp or Piercing--his bodily agility was remarkable. I have seen him follow a football & kick it over the tops of the trees in the Bowery at New York (an exercise which he was fond of)--his mental powers seemed to be above the common sort--his mind of a sedate and sober cast, & he was undoubtedly Pious; for it was remarked that when any of the soldiers of his company were sick he always visited them & usually prayed for & with them in their sickness.--A little anecdote I will relate; one day he accidentally came across some of his men in a bye place playing cards--he spoke--what are you doing--this won't do,--give me your cards, they did so, & he chopd them to pieces, & it was done in such a manner that the men were rather pleased than otherwise--his activity on all occasions was wonderful--he would make a pen the quickest & best of any man--