At first glance there really isn’t anything remarkable about September 22. It isn’t a dedicated holiday. It isn’t really even fall yet — windy and rainy maybe, but even the leaves show that it’s not quite cold enough to change colors. And recently, at least outside of school activities, not much is going on in the news.
But something did happen on this date. In order to understand what it was, we must go back to the date 1776 in New York City, on a not-quite-fall day like today. It was morning and you could see the sunlight breaking over the horizon.
Clearly, it was the perfect morning to hang someone.
At least that’s what the British troops were doing that morning. And that particular “someone” was a man of 21 years of age named Nathan Hale: a Yale graduate, school teacher, and amature spy for Knowlton’s Rangers, the first spy network for the United States of America.
Hale volunteered for a mission to British-occupied New York despite his inexperience. And that mission led to Hale’s capture and arrest on September 21, 1776.
His final words are probably more famous and better remembered than even the name of the one who spoke them in the first place. He purportedly said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
What is so remarkable about this is that these words have stood the test of time for over two hundred years now and have been taught to us as children in history lessons. Nearly 6,800 people died in the revolutionary war, and yet how many of their words went down in history?
Aside from his final words, and perhaps his fearless devotion to his country, nothing about this man was anything special. But we remembered him. Why?
Maybe it is simply because his words resonated with so many people during his time period and far beyond into the future.
They inspired people in his time period because people genuinely weren’t sure if they were ever going to be truly free from Britain. But if one man could stand for having even a hope of a new, free country, then perhaps it was a notion worth fighting for.
And his last words are still inspiring to this day, for me at least, because it was sacrifices like his that made this country free, not for his lifetime, but for the lifetimes of all those that would follow after him even until now in September 22, of 2022.
As always, sometimes things can seem unremarkable, but if you take the time to look closer, you can always find that there is so much more than what can be seen. I hope you all are able to remember the little things this coming fall, including one man whose last words we can still recite 246 years later.
– by Ella Hughes (18) Panguitch
Feature image caption: Last Words of Nathan Hale by Alexander Hay Ritchie.
Ella Hughes – Panguitch
Ella Hughes is a junior journalist and editor at The Byway. She has recently graduated from Panguitch High School and has written for The Byway for two years now. Her favorite topics to write about are history as well as present-day local events. In her free time she enjoys singing, watching movies, reading books, and spending time with her family she adores.
Ella is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is serving in the Philippines Tacloban Mission.