Hale was natural within Coventry, Connecticut, and was sent, with his brother Enoch, to Yale College at the age of Xiv. Two brothers belonged to a Yale literary fraternity, Linonia, which debated topics around uranology, maths, literature, & the ethics of slavery. Graduating sustaining 1st honors withwithin 1773, he taught school, number one in East Haddam and later inside New London, until the war began. Around 1774 he joined the Connecticut militia & was elective 1st sergeant.

While his militia unit participated in the Siege of Boston, Hale remained behind, but July 6, 1775, he joined the regular Continental Army's 7th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford. He was promoted to captainside & in March 1776 commanded the little unit of Lt-Col. Thomas Knowlton's Rangers in the defense of New York City, which rescued the ship good of provisions from either a guard of a British man-of-war. Around September of that season, Hale volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission within Long Island, which was at that time behind enemy lines. He disguised himself as a Dutch school teacher, & fallowing getting with success gathered the informatiin needed per mission, he was apprehended when giving to his regiment on Manhattan Island on September 21.

British Lieutenant General Sir William Howe ordered that he be hanged for espionage a below day. He was allowed to give a speech from either a gallows, a share of which, based on data from tradition, involved the words "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

In case he did give the notable speech, these are virtually all in all likelihood he was actually repeating a passage from either Joseph Addison's play, Cato, which was an ideological inspiration to numerous Whigs:

How else beautiful is demise, whilst earn’d by virtue!
World health organization would non become that youth? What pity is it
That i may die however it used to be that to serve my united states.

There is no official records of any sort with been saved of Hale's speech, these are impossible to verify that he actually delivered this memorable line; but, rumour of it afterward spread throughout the colonies, making a martyr of Hale & boosting morale for the subverter.

There are no authentic likeness is. A square-jawed image of an idealised Nathan Hale has been established per memorial statue by Frederick William Macmonnies that was erected around 1890 at a places within City Hall Park (Broadway at Murray Street) in New York City upon which Hale was executed (copies exist within many museums). Hale is buried inside Coventry, Connecticut.

The statue of Hale, sculpted around 1898 by Bela Lyon Pratt, was cast in 1912 & substitute front of Connecticut Hall at Hale's alma mater, Yale. Copies of this sculpture have at a Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, the Nathan Hale Homestead, the Department of Justice around Washington, D.C., and at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.

A United States Navy submarine USS Nathan Hale (SSBN-623) was named in his honor.