Captain Nathan Hale - New Haven, CT
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 41° 18.495 W 072° 55.717
18T E 673397 N 4575046
A statue of Nathan Hale is located outside Connecticut Hall on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, CT.
Waymark Code: WMFJKT
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 10/27/2012
Views: 5
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut on June 6, 1755. He attended Yale University and graduated in 1773. In 1775, he joined a Connecticut militia as a first lieutenant. After the battle of Long Island in, August 1776, Washington retreated to Manhattan. He desperately needed information on British troop movements. On September 8, 1776, Captain Nathan Hale volunteered to go behind enemy lines to obtain the information and report back to General Washington.
He was secretly ferried into Long Island. Subsequently, lower Manhattan was captured by the British and Washington fled to Harlem Heights. Hale was captured in Flushing Bay, Queens and brought to Manhattan where, on September 22, 1776, twenty-one year old Nathan Hale was hanged as a spy. In 1985, he was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.
A 6.5' high bronze sculpture of Nathan Hale stands in front of Connecticut Hall, the dormitory he lived in while attending Yale University. The statue rests on a 3' high by 2.25' square granite base. He is shown in the moments before he was hanged as a spy in 1776. He is wearing a long coat, vest, open color shirt, knee-length pants and long stockings. He is looking straight ahead with his feet tied together and his hands tied behind his back.
The sculpture was created by Bela Lyon Pratt and cast at the Roman Bronze Works in 1913. It was a gift to Yale from its graduates and friends.
The front of the base is inscribed:
NATHAN HALE
1755-1776
CLASS OF 1773
The back of the base is inscribed:
A GIFT TO YALE COLLEGE
BY GRADUATES AND FRIENDS
ANNO DOMINI MCMXIV
The edge of bronze base is inscribed with the famous quote:
I ONLY REGRET THAT I HAVE BUT ONE LIFE TO LOSE FOR MY COUNTRY