Nathan Hale: The Life and Legacy of the Revolutionary War's Most Famous Spy

*Includes pictures *Includes some of Hale's letters during the war *Includes accounts about Hale's final words *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading “I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar service, its claim to perform that service are imperious.” – Nathan Hale’s statement to Captain William Hull prior to his spying mission, as quoted in Captain Nathan Hale (1755 - 1776) by Rev. Edward Everett Hale For over 230 years, American schoolchildren have been taught about the story of Nathan Hale, or at least a legend of it, and in the process the myth of Hale and his apocryphal final words have immortalized the young man as America’s most famous spy, despite his failed mission. After the siege of Boston forced the British to evacuate that city in March 1776, Continental Army commander George Washington suspected that the British would move by