USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
Mr. Chief Justice TAFT. Mr. Chairman, I am at least glad we have your vote.
MR. TILSON. I now introduce to you Mr. George Dudley Seymour, who
339
FORT HALE PARK
has done more for progress in the direction of beautifying the city of New Haven and its surroundings than any other one man. He is what we some- times good-naturedly call a crank in that direction, fully realizing that it is the crank that makes things turn in this world. That is what Mr. Seymour has done in the direction of beautifying New Haven and its surroundings. He is also a great lover of Nathan Hale, and one who has done much to collect historical data concerning Nathan Hale. I may say also that through his efforts more than those of any other man, a statue of Nathan Hale was erected in Yale College yard at New Haven. Mr. Seymour appears at the request of the mayor of New Haven (he is secretary of the commission on the city plan) as the accredited delegate of the Chamber of Commerce of New Haven, and for himself as a life-long admirer of Nathan Hale.
STATEMENT OF MR. GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR, OF NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Mr. SEYMOUR. First of all, I wish to invite your attention to a book in which I have gathered substantially all of the available historical data on the Fort Hale Reservation, as well as numerous representations of the fort and its site, together with considerable historical material regarding Capt. Nathan Hale, in whose honor the fort was named over a century ago.
The CHAIRMAN. Can you not give us some of the historic facts regard- ing the matter, as to how Hale Park was given to the Goverment in 1809?
Mr. SEYMOUR. Before answering your specific question, I will, with your permission, give a brief history of the site of the fort and its use for defen- sive and park purposes, from the first settlement of New Haven down to the present day. When the first settlers sailed into New Haven Harbor in 1637-38, they saw a bold rock of black basalt rising from the water close to the east shore of the harbor. The first recorded mention of this black rock was in 1657. On account of its strategic position, it was made a coast- guard station in 1659 and mounted with two "greate guns." Early in 1775, the Revolutionary War fort, called "Black Rock Fort," was built here and fortified with cannon made in Salisbury, Conn., at the iron works which also turned out the great defensive chain stretched across the Hudson at West Point. Black Rock Fort was captured in 1779 by Gen. Tryon's forces, at the time of the invasion of New Haven by the British, but reoccupied on the retreat of the British to their ships. After the close of the Revolu- tionary War in 1783, the fort fell into decay. At the beginning of the nine- teenth century, when the war cloud was threatening Europe, Congress con- ceived a plan of fortifying the Atlantic seaboard, and in pursuance of that policy money was voted in 1808 to erect a new fort on this ancient site for the defense of New Haven Harbor. For this new fort more land was required, and in 1809 Gen. Andrew Hull, of the Derby family of that name, acting as agent for the Federal Government, bought for $430 three parcels of land from Kneeland Townsend, Truman Colt, and Philemon Augur, respectively.
340
NEW HAVEN :
In 1871 the Reservation was again enlarged by the purchase of salt meadow land and now covers from thirty to thirty-two acres. The new fort which was built in 1809 surmounted this same black rock, on which the Revolution- ary fort had been built and the colonial fort before that. The new fort, elliptical in form and built of brick and stone, mounted six guns and cost something over $6,000. At the beginning of the War of 1812, the fort was garrisoned with 78 artillerymen and, according to one writer, was then named "Fort Hale," after Capt. Nathan Hale, a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1773, who lost his life in 1776 in an effort to secure information for Gen. Washington in one of the darkest hours of the Revolutionary conflict. Just when and on whose order the fort was named Fort Hale, I have been unable to discover, though I have devoted much time to that end. In Stuart's "Life of Nathan Hale, the Martyr Spy," published in 1856, he says that the fort was named Fort Hale in 1809, but gives no authority for the statement, and I doubt if any such authority exists. Under date of November 26, 1913, the War Department wrote me :
"Nothing has been found of record in this department to show whether the fort was so named at the time of its erection or later, or to show at whose suggestion it was so named."
The first appearance of the name Fort Hale of which I am aware, is upon an official map of Connecticut, based on the survey of 1811, published by authority of the General Assembly of Connecticut, and known as the Governor Roger Griswold map. The engraving of the plates was not com- pleted until the latter part of May in 1813. We may suppose that the delivery of the maps took place soon afterwards. By whose order the name Fort Hale was applied to this map of Connecticut I have been as yet unable to ascertain, though I am continuing an investigation to that end. In Sep- tember of 1813 and again in September of 1814 I find newspaper references to Fort Hale. After the War of 1812 the fort was garrisoned for some years and then allowed to fall into decay. In 1861 the fort was entirely demolished, as well as Black Rock, and a new fort of earthworks, defended by Dahlgren guns, constructed. The Civil War fort was, in due time, dis- mantled and but few evidences of it remain. In 1890, by act of Congress, the city of New Haven was allowed to incorporate the reservation into its park system, of which it now forms an important feature. · What I particu- larly wish to point out is that the fort built in 1809 was as early as 1813 named Fort Hale in honor of Capt. Nathan Hale; that the fort and its site have borne the name of Fort Hale from 1813 continuously down to the present day, and that the naming of this small and obscure fort actually constitutes the first and only Federal recognition of the services of the martyr spy of the Revolutionary War, since the Federal Government adopted the name, if it did not originate it.
The Fort Hale Reservation provides practically the only public bathing beach within easy reach of New Haven, and has, at the expense of the park commission, been developed for that purpose. Each year, as long as the bathing season lasts, Fort Hale Park, as it is commonly called, is a source of incalculable pleasure and benefit to thousands of citizens of all ages, who
341
FORT HALE PARK
go there to enjoy salt-water bathing. Deprived of the bathing stretches of Fort Hale Park, the great mass of our citizens would have no free bath- ing beach within reach. The reservation was last year listed for sale by the Secretary of War among other reservations no longer needed by the Federal Government. Fearing that this property might be sold to some amusement company and the only Federal memorial to Hale lost or at least degraded by being converted into a cheap and flamboyant resort, I asked our Con- gressman, Col. Tilson, to introduce a bill into Congress, authorizing the Secretary of War to cede the reservation to the city of New Haven in perpetuity ; such was the origin of H. R. 7849. Later on, Mr. Tilson, at my instance, introduced H. R. 9778, petitioning for the same disposition of the small reservation known as Lighthouse Point, a spot of historical inter- est, of increasing use to the public, though very limited in area, and the site of an ancient masonry lighthouse, still a landmark and still of use as a signal station, and also deserving of preservation as a national monument. Other speakers have urged the cession of Lighthouse Point to the city. I advocate it warmly, but my chief concern is with the Fort Hale Reservation.
It seems not out of place for me to now turn to another phase of this question, especially on account of the interest already shown by the Chief Justice of the United States and the chairman of this committee in Nathan Hale, fitly described as our national symbol of patriotism.
Hale's sacrifice in 1776 passed almost unnoticed, though temporarily revived in 1780 at the time of the treason of Arnold and the hanging of Andre. In 1812 or 1813 Fort Hale on New Haven Harbor was named in Hale's honor. In 1821 the British nation erected a splendid memorial to Andre in Westminster Abbey, and, in the same year, a British warship was sent from England to America and Andre's remains, exhumed at Tappen where he was executed, were conveyed to England and placed beside his monument in the Abbey, where the greatest heroes of England repose. This caused a great sensation at the time on both sides of the Atlantic; meanwhile noth- ing was done to preserve the memory of Hale, whose name was almost forgotten. Hale's comrade in arms, Capt. William Hull (a native of Derby, Conn.), who died in 1825, wrote in his Memoirs (not printed until many years later), "The memory of Andre is enshrined in monuments of art; that of Hale in the hearts of his countrymen." Hale and Andre, as I may here state, were actuated by quite different motives. When Hull endeavored to dissuade Hale from undertaking his dangerous mission of going into the British lines to secure the information so much desired by Washington, Hale replied, "I wish to be useful," while Andre's avowed purpose, as. stated to Col. Talmadge (another son of Connecticut), was to achieve military glory, the thanks of his general, the approbation of his king, and perhaps a brigadiership. Hale had no thought but of serving his country; Andre aimed at fame.
Stirred no doubt by what England had done to honor the memory of Andre, in 1834 certain citizens of Connecticut presented a petition to Con- gress asking for an appropriation of $1,000 for a monument to Hale, to be erected at his birthplace in Coventry, a remote town among the hills east of the Connecticut River. The then Committee on Military Affairs reported
342
NEW HAVEN :
that they were sensible of the laudable motives of the memorialists, but "they are not aware that a mark of national respect of that kind has hereto- fore been conferred under the like circumstances, and for the present forbear to recommend it."
In 1836 another petition was presented to Congress, having the same end in view, this petition being signed by citizens of New Haven. But nothing came of it. In 1838, and again in 1840, Congress was urged to appropriate a small sum of money for the erection of a memorial to Hale, but still with no success. Congress remained deaf to all these appeals, though meanwhile other patriots had been signally honored. It was enough that Hale should, as Hull said, "be enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen." Finally, Hale's neighbors and friends in his own native town rallied their forces and with some help from the State of Connecticut, in 1846, erected a simple shaft to his memory.
And now citizens of Connecticut again bring Hale's name before Congress, asking at this time no more than that a Federal reservation which has borne his name for at least 109 years may not be sold and wrenched away from the New Haven park system, of which it is an important and useful adjunct. It is thus 82 years since anyone has appeared before this committee to urge the recognition of the service of Nathan Hale.
The CHAIRMAN. When Hale went on this enterprise, which resulted in his being taken as a spy, he was then a schoolmaster, was he not?
Mr. SEYMOUR. No; at that time he was a Captain in the Continental Army, having received a captaincy about January 1, 1776.
The CHAIRMAN. I have heard stated that he was a teacher before the outbreak of the Revolution.
Mr. SEYMOUR. You are correct. After graduation from College in Sep- tember, 1773, he taught school in Moodus, a parish of the ancient town of East Haddam on the Connecticut River, for a few months. He was so suc- cessful in this school that he was called to New London to take charge of the Union Grammar School, which he was conducting when the war broke out.
The interest evinced in Hale induces me to ask to be permitted to extend my remarks (I believe that is the expression) by appending an extract from an article I prepared for the Yale Pagent of 1916, when Charles P. Taft, 2d, a son of the Chief Justice, enacted with touching dignity, the part of Hale.
Hull's account of Hale, as given in his Memoirs, is as follows :
"I learned the melancholy particulars from this officer (Montresor), who was present at his execution, and seemed touched by the circumstances attending ·it.
"He said that Capt. Hale had passed through their army, both of Long Island and York Island. That he had procured sketches of the fortifica- tions, and made memoranda of their number and different positions. When apprehended he was taken before Sir William Howe, and these papers, found concealed about his person, betrayed his intentions. He at once declared his name, his rank in the American Army, and his object in coming within the British lines.
"Sir William Howe, without the form of a trial, gave orders for his execution the following morning. He was placed in the custody of the
343
FORT HALE PARK
provost marshal, who was a refugee, and hardened to human suffering and every softening sentiment of the heart. Capt. Hale, alone, without sympathy or support, save that from above, on the near approach of death asked for a clergyman to attend him. It was refused. He then requested a Bible; that, too, was refused by his inhuman jailer.
" 'On the morning of his execution,' continued the officer, 'my station was near the fatal spot, and I requested the provost marshal to permit the pris- oner to sit in my marquee while he was making the necessary preparations. Capt. Hale entered; he was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity in the consciousness of rectitude and high intentions. He asked for writing materials, which I furnished him; he wrote two letters, one to his mother and one to a brother officer.' He was shortly after summoned to the gallows. But a few persons were around him, yet his characteristic dying words were remembered. He said, 'I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.' "
The most detailed account of Hale's personal appearance that has come down to us is that contained in the pungent reminiscences written by Lieut. Elisha Bostwick, of New Milford, on his commission (signed by John Hancock), now on file in the Revolutionary War Pension Archives at Washington. It was the writer's good fortune to rediscover this document at Washington some years ago. Of Hale, Bostwick writes con amore:
"I will now make some observations upon the amiable and unfortunate Capt. Nathan Hale whose fate is so well known; for I was with him in the same Regt. both at Boston & New York & until the day of his tragical death; & although of inferior grade in office was always in the habits of friendship & intimacy with him; & my remembrance of his person, manners & character is so perfect that I feel inclined to make some remarks upon them; for I can now in imagination see his person & hear his voice-his person I should say was a little above the common stature in height, his shoulders of a moderate breadth, his limbs straight & very plump; regular features-very fair skin-blue eyes-flaxen or very light hair which was always kept short-his eyebrows a shade darker than his hair and his voice rather sharp or piercing-his bodily agility was remarkable. I have seen him follow a football & kick it over the tops of the trees in the Bowery at New York (an exercise which he was fond of)-his mental powers seemed to be above the common sort-his mind of a sedate and sober cast, & he was undoubtedly Pious; for it was remarked that when any of the soldiers of his company were sick he always visited them & usually prayed for & with them in their sickness.
"A little anecdote I will relate; one day he accidentally came across some of his men in a bye place playing cards-he spoke-what are you doing-this won't do-give me your cards, they did so, & he chopd them to pieces, & it was done in such a manner that the men were rather pleased than other- wise-his activity on all occasions was wonderful-he would make a pen the quickest, & the best of any man- One more reflection I will make-why is it that the delicious Capt. Hale should be left & lost to an unknown grave & forgotten !"
344
NEW HAVEN :
Through the eyes of Bostwick, we have seen Hale as he looked to his comrades in arms; Hull has preserved for us Montresor's impression of Hale in the hour of his sacrifice.
A brief sketch of Hale's short life and we must part from him. Nathan Hale was born at Coventry, Conn., June 6, 1755, the fourth son and sixth child of the 12 children of. Deacon Richard Hale, an energetic farmer, a man of sturdy character and public spirit. On both sides the inheritance was of the best old New England stock. He was prepared for college by the village minister and entered Yale in 1769 with the class of 1773. It is plain from the evidence at hand that he was one of the foremost figures in his class. His engaging personality, serious mindedness, skill as an athlete, and his ardent temperament, made him a marked man in the college world of his time. He was one of the chief supporters and a strong partisan of Linonia and was the prime-mover in building up its library. We have no more interesting and attractive picture of fraternity life at Yale than we get through the fading minutes of the Linonia Society now preserved in the college library, and partly written in Hale's own clear and even elegant hand. After graduation in 1773, he taught school in East Haddam for a few months, leaving there in March, 1774, to become the preceptor of the Union Grammar School in New London, where he was teaching when the war broke out. Ardently patriotic, he enlisted and served as first lieutenant in a Connecticut regiment throughout the siege of Boston. In March, 1775, he went with his regiment to New York and served there until his untimely end, meanwhile having been commissioned a captain in the Continental Army.
In responding to Washington's call in September, 1776, for information of the enemy's strength and position, he seems to have been fully conscious of the danger of his undertaking. He started on his hazardous mission about September 12, crossing the Sound at Norwalk. Nothing is known of his experiences in the enemy's lines, and no satisfactory account of the place and mode of his capture has yet appeared. He was executed in New York on Sunday morning, September 22, 1776, 145 years ago. It is hard for us now to realize that he was only in his twenty-second year, having passed his twenty-first birthday on the 6th of the previous June. Recent researches place his execution at about the intersection of Third Avenue and Sixty-fifth or Sixty-sixth Streets.
Hale had many friends in the Continental Army, and a wide general and college acquaintance. The neglect of his memory by those who should have cherished it and paid tribute to him, as well as by the Federal Government, is one of the strange passages in our history and not satisfactorily explained by the ignominy that attached to the mode of his death, since Andre, also hanged, was widely mourned on both sides of the Atlantic, while the sacrifice of Hale passed almost unnoticed and was soon almost forgotten and never widely mourned as was that of Andre, for whom England raised a splendid memorial in Westminster Abbey. To-day, barring the living, Nathan Hale is probably the best known American, after Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, a striking statement but a reasonable one, when it is considered that it would be hard to find, throughout the length and breadth of our land, a schoolboy or schoolgirl unacquainted with the memorable last words of this youthful patriot, who, so long ago, "resigned his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty." Hale has not yet been admitted to the official Hall of
345
FORT HALE PARK
Fame, which may be thought to need the luster of his name more than his fame needs anything that the Hall of Fame could bring to it. It is a cause for thankfulness that after comparative neglect for a century, he should now have definitely taken his place as our youthful national hero and our match- less symbol of patriotism. In his youth, in his personal beauty and athletic prowess, in his simplicity and straightforwardness of character, in his supreme sacrifice and early death, he has an unfading brightness which must forever endear him to all who are quick to feel a modest and manly spirit.
I am afraid I am taking too much time of the committee on this subject, but that shows the risk you ran in allowing an enthusiast to talk to you.
The CHAIRMAN. We are very glad, indeed, to have you give this talk about Nathan Hale. He has been a hero of mine since I was 15 years of age.
Mr. TILSON. The reports made by the Committee on Military Affairs include a report that was made in the Senate by Mr. Benton on June 27, 1834, in which a memorial is brought to the committee. Again, in the Twenty-fourth Congress, in 1836, the Committee on Military Affairs in the House made a report on the same subject; and again in the Twenty-fifth Congress, in 1838, Mr. Holt, from a select committee appointed on the sub- ject, and still again in the Twenty-sixth Congress Mr. Brockway of a select committee made a report on it. So this has been a subject which has been of interest to various committees long before any member of this committee was born.
Mr. SEYMOUR. It is rather a curious coincidence that eighty odd years afterwards we should have much the same subject before the same committee of Congress.
Capt. Hull, to recur to him, was most anxious after Hale entered the British lines. As soon as it was learned that Hale had been captured and hanged as a spy, Hull immediately had a conference with Capt. John Mon- tresor, who was on Gen. Howe's staff. Montresor gave Hull an account of Hale's execution and last words. Capt. Hull wrote this out and we are entirely indebted to him for the preservation of the story.
Mr. HULL. I am very much interested in your statement about the connec- tion of Capt. Hull with Nathan Hale, because he was unquestionably one of the original members of the present Hull family in this country.
The two bills were favorably reported out by the House Committee on Military Affairs, but the Secretary of War refused to endorse the Lighthouse Point Bill (H. R. 9778) in the absence of a definite commitment on the part of the City of New Haven to build and maintain a road to it and thus make it an integral part of the New Haven Park System.
The Fort Hale Park Bill (H. R. 8749) was passed by the House, under the leadership of the Hon. Schuyler Merritt, of Stamford, in the absence in Europe of Mr. Tilson, sent abroad on a special military mission by President Harding. The bill was passed by the Senate Sept. 18, 1922.
XXXVII.
HALE'S "LAST WORDS" DERIVED FROM ADDISON'S "CATO": A PSYCHOLOGICAL PARALLEL.
(See pp. 141-142. On reconsideration the writer has decided to print the article therein referred to in this book. Originally written in 1913, the article is printed in the form in which it was revised January, 1919. Joel I, iii. Now printed for the first time.)
Hale's Last Words as recorded by his friend and fellow- soldier, Captain William Hull in his Memoirs (p. 38) were: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
These Last Words were quoted by Hale, as there can, in my mind, be no possible doubt, from Addison's tragedy of "Cato," where Cato says, when the body of his son Marcus is brought before him :-
"How beautiful is death when earned by virtue. Who would not be that youth? What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country." (Cato, Act. 4, Scene 4.)
The words of Hale and Cato are not quite the same, nor should we expect it. Hale may not have quoted Cato's words exactly. Even if he did, and that is unlikely, Montresor may not have heard them distinctly, and even so may not have transmitted them accurately to Hull, and again Hull may not after long years, have written them down just as Montresor repeated them to him. What is remarkable, is that, all things considered, the Last Words of Hale are so much like the words of Cato in the great scene over the dead body of Marcus, who, like Hale, "resigned his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty."
Addison's "Cato" was, it is not too much to say, by far and away the most popular work of its kind in this country just prior to, and during the Revolutionary War, its theme being the struggle of Freedom against Tyranny, with Cato
347
HALE'S LAST WORDS
typifying Washington to the Colonials. It had its premiere in London April 1713, and the reverberations of its rapturous reception continued on this side of the Atlantic down to the period of the Revolutionary War.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.