Revolutionary Heroes, and Other Historical Papers | Page 6

American people. When asked if he had anything to say, Captain Hale
replied:
"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
The scene of his execution was probably an old graveyard in Chambers
Street, which was then called Barrack Street. General Howe formally
notified General Washington of his execution. In recent years, through
the industry of investigators, the pathos and sublimity of these events
have been in part revealed.
In 1887 a bronze statue of the young hero was unveiled in the State
House at Hartford. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner delivered a beautiful
address suitable to the occasion, and Governor Lounsberry worthily
accepted the statue on behalf of the State. It is greatly to be regretted
that our knowledge of this noble martyr is so slight; but we know
enough to be sure that he merits the veneration of his countrymen.

GENERAL WASHINGTON'S OTHER SPIES.
The reader would scarcely expect at this late day to get new light upon
the military character of General Washington. But, in truth, scarcely a
month passes in which some of our busy historical students do not add
to our knowledge of him. Recently Mr. H.P. Johnston published in the
Magazine of American History some curious documents, hitherto
unknown, exhibiting Washington's methods of procuring intelligence of
the movements of the British army.
Like a true general, he knew from the first all the importance of correct
and prompt information. How necessary this is, is known to every one
who remembers vividly the late war, particularly the first few months
of it, before there was any good system of employing spies. Some
terrible disasters could have been avoided if our generals had obtained
better information of the opposing army's position, temper, and
resources.
An attentive study of the dispatches of Napoleon Bonaparte will show
the importance which he attached to intelligence of this kind. He kept
near him at headquarters an officer of rank who had nothing to do but
to procure, record, and arrange all the military news which could be
gleaned from newspapers, correspondents, and spies. The name of
every regiment, detachment, and corps in the enemy's service was

written upon a card. For the reception of these cards he had a case made
with compartments and pigeon-holes. Every time a movement was
reported the cards were shifted to correspond, so that he could know at
a glance, when the cards were spread out upon a table, just how the
troops of the enemy were distributed or massed. Every few days, the
officer in charge had to send the emperor a list of the changes which
had taken place. This important matter was intrusted to a person who
knew the languages of the different nations engaged in the war.
It was Bonaparte's perfect organization of his spy system which
enabled him to carry out his plan of always having a superior force at
the point of attack. These two were the great secrets of his tactical
system, namely, to have the best information and the most men at the
decisive moment.
Bonaparte was a trained soldier; but when Washington took command
of the army in July, 1775, he had had very little experience of actual
warfare. That little, however, was precisely of the kind to prove the
value of correct information. For the want of it, he had seen General
Braddock lead an army into the jaws of destruction, and he may have
still possessed in some closet of Mount Vernon the coat with four
bullet-holes in it which he had himself worn on that occasion. There are
no warriors so skillful either at getting or concealing information as
Indians, and all his experience hitherto had been in the Indian country
and with warlike methods of an Indian character.
Hence it is not surprising to discover that the first important act which
he performed at Cambridge was to engage a person to go into the city
of Boston for the purpose of procuring "intelligence of the enemy's
movements and designs." An entry in his private note-book shows that
he paid this unknown individual $333.33 in advance.
A person who serves as a spy takes his life in his hand. It is a curious
fact of human nature that nothing so surely reconciles a man to risking
his life as a handsome sum in cash. General Washington, being
perfectly aware of this fact, generally contrived to have a sum of what
he called "hard money" at headquarters all through the war. Spies do
not readily take to paper money. There are no Greenbackers among
them. In the letters of General Washington we find a great many
requests to Congress for a kind of money that would pass current
anywhere, and suffer no deterioration at the bottom of a river