I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.

This is one of the signature lines of the American Revolution, the quintessential statement of American patriotism.

It was spoken by Nathan Hale just before a British hangman executed him on September 22, 1776. Hale was 21 years old.

Who was this remarkable young man, and why was he willing to sacrifice his promising young

life for the cause of liberty? Nathan Hale was born June 6, 755 in Coventry, Connecticut,

to a family with a hundred-year history in New England.

His great-grandfather, John Hale, had been a prominent figure in the Salem Witch Trials.

His father, Richard Hale, subscribed to the same fire and brimstone doctrines and instilled

in his children a deep, abiding reverence for God. Studious, pious, but enormously

charming, Nathan convinced everyone that he was destined for greatness. And the first stop on that

road at age 14 was a Yale education. There Nathan thrived. He was curious about everything and attempted to master everything

from Greek and Latin to science and philosophy. Tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp blue eyes,

he was quick to smile. In the fashion of the age, he tied his thick, blondish-brown hair in a ponytail.

Jared Sparks, future Harvard president and

Hale's first biographer, said no young man of his years put forth a fairer promise of future

usefulness and celebrity. Upon graduating, Hale found a job as a schoolmaster in New London,

Connecticut. He was an instant success, firm, demanding, charismatic,

a born teacher and leader. According to one of his students, everyone who knew Hale was attached

to him. That's the fact. It was in New London that he was drawn into the patriot cause.

In April of 1775, talk of revolution turned into bloody conflict

when, in the neighboring Massachusetts towns of Lexington and conquered, American militiamen

rebuffed the professional British army. The war was on. Hale answered the call for volunteers.

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