Son of liberty: Nathan Hale, a true patriot, believed that liberty is worth any price

New American, The, Sept 15, 2008 by Becky Akers

The Patriots ate better at the beginning of the war than at almost any other point. But whether his men were in Boston or New York, Washington had a tough time feeding them. Captain Hale helped fill bellies that summer when he led a detachment in swiping a British supply sloop from under the 64 guns of a man-of-war in the East River.

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Then, in August 1776, an enemy far more debilitating than the Redcoats decimated Continental ranks: typhus. Though antibiotics now cure the disease if modern hygiene doesn't prevent it, typhus then afflicted armies, prisoners, and other masses of unwashed people. It killed 10-60 percent of them, too. Victims suffered severe headaches and muscle pain, fever and chills, rashes, delirium and stupor, coughing fits, and sensitivity to light. Nathan may have fallen ill, or he may have fought in the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn at month's end.

Washington left half his disease-ravaged army to protect Manhattan, sending about 9,000 Continentals across the East River to the western end of Long Island. There they confronted twice as many Redcoats and hired German troops--with more in reserve. Thanks to an undefended pass and their lethal professionalism, the British encircled the Patriots, killing, capturing, or wounding 2,000 of Washington's "brave fellows." Nightfall saved the rest from annihilation as they huddled in their fortifications. But morning would come and with it, defeat. The British were already digging siege tunnels; the Continentals, with the East River behind them, were trapped.

Washington later credited "the Successful termination" of the Revolutionary War to the "patronage of Heaven" and the "interposition of Providence." Perhaps he was thinking of that desperate summer night when his soldiers faced certain doom at dawn--and of the rain that fell for the next three days. Eighteenth-century cannon and muskets would not fire in wet weather because rain or snow easily penetrated their mechanisms to dampen the gunpowder. The deluge kept the Redcoats from doing anything but squelching in the mud of their siege lines.

It also gave Washington time to concoct a daring rescue. He spent the third night silently ferrying his troops from Brooklyn to Manhattan's relative safety in anything that would float. But the boats were still gliding back and forth across the East River at sunrise. The British would soon see their quarry's ongoing flight and attack--except that a fog rose, unusual for that season. It obscured the last of the Americans as they hurried to the dock.

This first and very bitter defeat taught the Continentals the value of reconnaissance. Oarsmen were still rubbing their blistered hands when Washington deputized 36-year-old Colonel Thomas Knowlton to establish an intelligence unit. A scout during the French and Indian War, Knowlton recruited those soldiers he considered most skilled and conscientious from the Continentals' ranks. He asked Captain Hale to join his Rangers.

A Spy's Life

Despite the nigh-miraculous escape from Brooklyn, defeat still seemed inevitable. His Majesty's navy could shell the Continentals as it pleased from the waters surrounding Manhattan while it transported His Majesty's army from Brooklyn to Manhattan--the same cruise Washington's troops had recently taken. Once the Redcoats disembarked, they would sweep overland, mopping up rebels as they went. The only questions were the time and place of their beachhead.