Nathan Hale - New London, CT - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

A 7.75' by 2.5' by 2' bronze statue of Nathan Hale stands on a 7.33' high by 7.33' diameter circular granite base. Hale is wearing a knee-length overcoat, a vest, a and a frilly shirt opened wide at the collar, breeches, and buckled shoes. He is bound with ropes around his elbows and feet. He is looking slightly towards his right shoulder.

The monument was created by Frederick William MacMonnies and Battista Bottinelli in 1890, cast by Jaboeuf & Rouard Fondeurs in 1934, and dedicated on June 6, 1935.

Around the top of the base is the famous quote by Nathan Hale:

"I ONLY REGRET THAT I HAVE BUT ONE LIFE TO LOSE FOR MY COUNTRY"

Along with a bronze laurel wreath on the front of the base is the inscription:

NATHAN HALE

BORN IN
COVENTRY CONNECTICUT
JUNE 6, 1755
A SCHOOLMASTER
IN NEW LONDON
A CAPTAIN
IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
WHO "RESIGN'D HIS LIFE
A SACRIFICE TO HIS
COUNTRY'S LIBERTY
AT NEW YORK
SEPT 22D
1776"

The back of the base has the inscription:

ERECTED 1935
CONNECTICUT SOCIETY OF THE
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
AND BY A
GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF A
CONNECTICUT SOLDIER IN THE
CONTINENTAL ARMY

Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut on June 6, 1755. He attended Yale University and graduated in 1773. In 1775, he joined a Connecticut militia as a first lieutenant. After the battle of Long Island in, August 1776, Washington retreated to Manhattan. He desperately needed information on British troop movements. On September 8, 1776, Captain Nathan Hale volunteered to go behind enemy lines to obtain the information and report back to General Washington.

He was secretly ferried into Long Island. Hale was captured by the British in Flushing Bay, Queens and brought to Manhattan where, on September 22, 1776, twenty-one year old Nathan Hale was hanged as a spy. In 1985, he was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.

TITLE: Nathan Hale ARTIST(S): Frederick William MacMonnies and Battista Bottinelli DATE: created 1890; cast 1934; dedicated June 6, 1935 MEDIUM: bronze statue nd wreath, granite base CONTROL NUMBER: IAS CT000072 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: Williams Park at Broad and Williams Streets New London, CT DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: Front inscription NATHAN HALE is above, not within, the bronze wreath A CAPTAIN/IN THE CENTINENTAL ARMY/ is actually A CAPTAIN/IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY/ the quote begins with "RESIGN'D ..." not "resigned..." and is all in capital letters. Back inscription: The year is no longer illegible. It's 1935

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