Welcome to Call to Decision 

American Minute with Bill Federer

 September 22

 "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" were
 the last words of 21-year-old American patriot Nathan Hale, who was
 hanged by the British without a trial on SEPTEMBER 22, 1776.

 A Yale graduate, he almost became a Christian minister, as his
 brother Enoch did, but instead became a teacher at Union Grammar
 School.

 Nathan Hale fought in the siege of Boston, capturing a boat of
 provisions from under the gun of a British man-of-war.

 After the British left Boston for New York, General Washington was
 desperate for information.

 Nathan Hale volunteered to penetrate the British line at Long Island,
 but was captured upon return.

 General Howe ordered him to be hanged the next morning.

 Hale wrote a letter to his mother and brother, but the British
 destroyed them, not wanting it known a man could die with such
 firmness.

 He asked for a Bible, but was refused. Nathan Hale was marched out
 and hanged from an apple-tree in Rutgers's orchard, near the present
 streets of East Broadway and Market in New York City.

 Nathan Hale's nephew, well-known author Edward Everett Hale, wrote:

 "We are God's children, you and I, and we have our duties...Thank God
 I come from men who are not afraid in battle."