Nathan Hale: One Life to Give | 5-Minute Videos

He was 21 years old, a schoolteacher turned soldier. Captured by the British, he faced the hangman’s noose with one legendary line: “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” Eric Metaxas, author of “Revolution,” tells the story of Nathan Hale and the spirit of sacrifice that helped win America’s independence.

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Transcript:
Nathan Hale: One Life to Give
Presented by Eric Metaxas

“I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”

This is one of the signature lines of the American Revolution — the quintessential statement of American patriotism.

It was spoken by Nathan Hale just before a British hangman executed him on September 22, 1776.

Hale was twenty-one years old.

Who was this remarkable young man? And why was he willing to sacrifice his promising young life for the cause of liberty?

Nathan Hale was born June 6, 1755 in Coventry, Connecticut to a family with a hundred-year history in New England. His great-grandfather John Hale had been a prominent figure in the Salem Witch Trials.

His father Richard Hale subscribed to the same fire-and-brimstone doctrines and instilled in his children a deep, abiding reverence for God.

Studious, pious, but enormously charming, Nathan convinced everyone that he was destined for greatness. And the first stop on that road, at age 14, was a Yale education. There, Nathan thrived. He was curious about everything and attempted to master everything, from Greek and Latin to science and philosophy.

Tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp blue eyes, he was quick to smile. In the fashion of the age, he tied his thick blondish-brown hair in a ponytail.

Jared Sparks, future Harvard president and Hale’s first biographer, said, “No young man of his years put forth a fairer promise of future usefulness and celebrity…”

Upon graduating, Hale found a job as a schoolmaster in New London, Connecticut. He was an instant success: firm, demanding, charismatic — a born teacher and leader. According to one of his students, “Everyone who knew Hale was attached to him—that’s the fact.”

It was in New London that he was drawn into the patriot cause. In April of 1775, talk of revolution turned into bloody conflict when, in the neighboring Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord, American militiamen rebuffed the professional British army.

The war was on. Hale answered the call for volunteers.

“A sense of duty urged me to sacrifice everything for my country,” he wrote his father. God, he believed, had called him to military service. For Hale, America’s cause was God’s cause.

Recognizing Hale’s obvious leadership qualities, his commanding officer made him a lieutenant in the Connecticut regiment. The title was flattering, but he had no idea what it meant to be a soldier. So he read manuals, studied tactics, pored over military histories to make up for his lack of military experience.

His first taste of real action came on his own initiative. In May 1776, he snuck aboard a British supply sloop in the middle of the night and steered it to the American side of the East River while the British crew slept below. The escapade made him a hero in the camp. The badly-needed captured supplies, not to mention the captured sailors, made the victory all the sweeter.

His initiative and daring brought Hale to the attention of Thomas Knowlton. A veteran of the French and Indian War, Knowlton had been personally selected by General Washington to lead an elite “special forces” unit. Whatever needed to be done, no matter how difficult, Knowlton’s Rangers would do it: espionage, covert reconnaissance, raids behind enemy lines. Knowlton asked Hale if he wanted to join. The former schoolmaster didn’t hesitate.

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