Captain Nathan Hale Monument
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Erected in 1846, this monument honors Coventry native and Revolutionary War hero, Nathan Hale, who captured by the British in New York while on an intelligence-gathering mission on September 21, 1776, and hung the next day. British Army protocol stipulated that anyone caught spying would be hanged immediately, so the mission was very risky. Nevertheless, Hale volunteered for the mission. According to an accounts Hale stated, before the hanging, "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." This quote (and three others) is etched onto one of the sides of the monument, which reaches a height of 42 feet. It is significant for being one of the first memorials of its size and kind built in the country. It is located in the Nathan Hale Cemetery and is situated next to the road. War memorials and other large monuments were not common until after the Civil War.
Images
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Sources
Hutson, James. "Nathan Hale Revisited: A Tory's Account of the Arrest of the First American Spy." Archive of Folk Culture, vol. 62, no. 7. Published July/August 2003. Retrieved from Information Bulletin - Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0307-8/hale.html.
Photo: Wikimedia Common
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Nathan_Hale_Monument#/media/File:Nathan_Hale_Memorial,_Coventry_CT.jpg