He should be remembered. But he was not the only one to volunteer for the additional spying mission, and he did not think he was on a suicide mission. Taking his Yale diploma with him, he probably wanted something to use as ID when he returned north of Harlem Heights. The British claimed that revolutionaries set the New York fires, whereas there were no orders from General Washington or Congress to do so. It was also partially a looting exercise by local individuals. Nonetheless the British rounded up 200 people for questioning, but no charges were filed. 21-year-old Captain Hale had been detained the day before the fire, but was a convenient person for the British to link to the initial cause of the destruction of between 400 - 1000 buildings, claiming it was a Washington strategy. And they had evidence of Hale's identity. So he was hanged, and said he regretted that he had only one life to give for his country. Several people were killed by the British without a formal trial and because of the suspicion of arson, but Hale is remembered because there were important accounts, poems, stories, etc. of his execution and his heroism, as a spy for General Washington. For the next 200 years after the Revolutionary War, there were many publications that focused on the heroic work of individuals, including Hale, as a way of providing a heroic narrative of the fight for independence and the origins of the USA.
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He should be remembered. But he was not the only one to volunteer for the additional spying mission, and he did not think he was on a suicide mission. Taking his Yale diploma with him, he probably wanted something to use as ID when he returned north of Harlem Heights. The British claimed that revolutionaries set the New York fires, whereas there were no orders from General Washington or Congress to do so. It was also partially a looting exercise by local individuals. Nonetheless the British rounded up 200 people for questioning, but no charges were filed. 21-year-old Captain Hale had been detained the day before the fire, but was a convenient person for the British to link to the initial cause of the destruction of between 400 - 1000 buildings, claiming it was a Washington strategy. And they had evidence of Hale's identity. So he was hanged, and said he regretted that he had only one life to give for his country. Several people were killed by the British without a formal trial and because of the suspicion of arson, but Hale is remembered because there were important accounts, poems, stories, etc. of his execution and his heroism, as a spy for General Washington. For the next 200 years after the Revolutionary War, there were many publications that focused on the heroic work of individuals, including Hale, as a way of providing a heroic narrative of the fight for independence and the origins of the USA.