The First Patriot Spy?

Nathan Hale

Earlier this week was the 236th anniversary of the death of Nathan Hale. Hale is a peripheral but key figure in the first two books of the Yankee Doodle Spies Series.

On 22d September 1776, Nathan Hale, the first American (not rebel) spy was hanged by the British.  Born in 1755 on a farm near Coventry, Connecticut,  Hale attended Yale and after graduation in 1773, became a schoolmaster. Caught up in the fervor of patriotism that swept the colonies after the battles of Lexington and Concord, he joined the Continental Army forming around Boston in 1775. At first ambivalent, Hale joined the Cause after receiving a letter imploring him to service from his close friend, Benjamin Tallmadge. Ironically, (or causally) Tallmadge later became head of Washington's intelligence unit (and a recurring character in Yankee Doodle Spies).

Hale rose to the rank of Captain in a Connecticut Regiment but later joined Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton's (also a peripheral figure in the series) elite Ranger battalion. Hale was by all accounts an extremely handsome man, tall for his day, and extremely well-spoken. Liked by all, his commander, Knowlton, held him in special regard.  After the Continental Army retreated from its disastrous defense of Long Island, Lieutenant General George Washington needed to know the strength, activities, and morale of its British occupiers. Washington was most concerned with the time and place of the inevitable British assault on the Island of New York (now called Manhattan). He asked Knowlton to provide an agent for this extremely high-risk mission. In a society obsessed with the idea of "honor", espionage was an even dirtier business than it is today. Because of that, none of the officers in Knowlton's unit would volunteer. But Hale, who had yet to see combat and was bored with the so-far administrative nature of his duties. So he offered his services.

Spying under spurious cover?

In a mission both bold and futile, he was launched onto Long Island via Connecticut by longboat under the cover of an itinerant schoolmaster. In a lesson in trade-craft,  the idea of a young schoolmaster traveling a war zone seems desperate, if not ridiculous. However, Hale was a schoolmaster. It is always easiest to portray something close to what you are, have experienced, or know. Just how he was captured is subject to much speculation. In his book, Washington's Spies, author Alexander Rose claims the famous Loyalist Ranger Robert Roberts caught him.  Roberts was an American hero during the French and Indian War but sold his services to the crown for a commission during the American Revolution. According to Rose, Roberts and his operatives identified Hale on Long Island and lured him into a trap. Other accounts differ. Regardless, the cover did not hold up.

A Spy Uncovered

What we do know for certain is that Hale was captured on the 21st of September and was immediately brought for questioning before the British commander, General William Howe. By then, The British Army had already invaded New York. Howe had just moved into the Beekman Mansion (near the present corner of 51st Street and 1st Avenue on Manhattan). Intelligence information was found on Hale's person and since this was not in code or invisible ink, he was totally compromised.

The next morning, a Sunday, the erstwhile spy was marched north, about a mile up the post road to the Park of Artillery located next to a public house called the Dove Tavern, about 5 1/2 miles from the city limits. There, he was hanged.  Hale's apocryphal quote prior to execution is somewhat controversial and there are several accounts of it from various sources, all plausible. Hanging was considered a death for thieves and murderers, not soldiers, and certainly not an officer. It is likely  Hale meant his last words as much to remove the dishonor of being a spy, as much as providing a model of patriotic self-sacrifice.

I have but one duty...

To me, the most credible statement allegedly made by Nathan Hale prior to his execution comes from in the diary of a British officer named Lt. Robert MacKensie, who served in New York at the time. The entry is particularly plausible because it was made on the very day of Hale's execution.

"...He behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer, to obey any orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear."

The Legacy Today - Military Intelligence Corps

"There is nothing more necessary than good intelligence to frustrate a designing enemy, & nothing requires greater pains to obtain."
--George Washington

The Yankee Doodle Spies series is intended in part as a tribute to the United States’ first army – the Continental Army- and its first intelligence entity. In a sense, it is also a tribute to today’s Army and today’s Army intelligence.

Unlike today’s Army, the Continental Army lacked a holistic intelligence structure.Instead, various militia units and continental forces scattered across the states recruited their own local spy networks and attempted to detect British and Loyalist spy networks with varying degrees of success.  In 1775, Congress created a Committee of Secret Correspondence to oversee all intelligence activities – essentially America’s first intelligence entity (I hesitate to say agency). Benjamin Franklin was a member. A year later, Congress created a Committee on Spies. John Adams was a member of that one.  Also, New York’s “Committee to Detect Conspiracies” oversaw counterespionage operations in and around New York City. It famously uncovered a plot to assassinate George Washington.  John Jay was the committee’s original Chairman.

                                                                                                                                                                                

John Jay

As for military intelligence, Washington directed much of the intelligence activity centered on the main Continental Army. He was both the consumer and producer of intelligence.  His action arm was first under the direction of Thomas Knowlton and later Benjamin Tallmadge. Both play cameo roles in the Yankee Doodle Spies series. As commander in chief, he personally spent a great deal of time fretting over and developing sources of information, whether spies, informants, prisoners, intercepted correspondence, and even what we today call “open source.”

Benjamin Tallmadge

But after the war, there was no holistic intelligence organization for most of the Army’s history.  Instead, the function came and went. The Army finally adopted the modern staff system with intelligence centered around an appointed G2 with intelligence officers detailed from other Army branches. In wartime, things got done and were generally done well, but intelligence needs to be engaged in peace and war.

Fortunately, 50 years ago this year, the Army finally resolved the issue by creating Military Intelligence as a Branch, professionalizing its intelligence officer corps for the first time.  The Army went a step further 25 years ago when it established the Military Intelligence Corps, incorporating its enlisted cadre into a professional body to further the quality of intelligence provided to the United States Army.

The benefits of creating the MI Branch and Corps were many but first among them was a trained and dedicated cadre of men and women advocating for the arm of the service that George Washington valued so greatly.  

On Hallowed Ground

In an earlier post, I discussed the genesis for setting The Patriot Spy at the Battle of Long Island.  Several times during the writing of the book, I returned to the neighborhoods that the battle encompassed.  Some of them were neighborhoods I had lived in long ago, Park Slope and Flatbush - both in the heart of Brooklyn.

On one of my return trips,  I went to where I had reckoned was the site of the pivotal point of the battle  – the forlorn hope attack by the gallant Marylanders and their brothers in arms from Delaware (who are actually depicted on the cover of The Patriot Spy). It was a gray autumn day. We drove to the intersection of 3rd Avenue and 8th Street in Park Slope – the spot where I had believed the fallen 300 from the engagement had been laid to rest.  

There, in front of an auto repair shop, I stood looking at an old building across the street. Surrounded by scaffolding, it was clearly in the process of demolition.  A large burly guy with a thick gold necklace saw me standing there and exited the repair shop.

“Can I help you?” He asked, more as a challenge than a question, thick Brooklyn accent.

“I’m looking for a marker,” I replied.  One of the sourcebooks I used indicated the existence of a small marker on the side of a building.

“A marker?  Marker for whad?”  He asked with a really puzzled look.

“Almost three hundred  Americans died here and are buried in a mass grave,” I answered.

“Died? When?  How? Who done it?” He looked stunned and puzzled, and this being Brooklyn, likely thought this had something to do with the mob. 

“There was a great battle here in 1776.  Almost three hundred patriots were killed fighting the British and are supposed to be buried near here.”

He nodded his head knowingly. “Oh yeah, well, I ain’t never seen no marker, but it wuz probably on dat building.”

I looked across the street at the building, now encased in scaffolding and plywood and surrounded by a chain-link fence. I decided my search was over.  

I relate this anecdote to call readers' attention to a recent article in the New York Times that highlights the efforts of a local Brooklyn historian named Bob Furman. Furman is leading an effort to identify, preserve, and appropriately commemorate some of the key points on the battlefield. The article is worth reading as it highlights the challenges of trying to preserve a sense of history in the midst of urbanization.

Gowanus Canal

More than one hundred years ago, a growing city’s appetite for residential and industrial land overran the area. Hard to believe that this highly built-up slice of New York was once the site of beautiful farms, fields, orchards, and woods. Hard to believe that gallant and brave men once fought desperately for their lives and their new nation on these bustling streets.   Let's hope Furman and his associates at the Brooklyn Preservation Council have some success in reclaiming some of this hallowed ground. But sadly, most vestiges of the Revolutionary War battle and the very terrain it was fought are gone.