He was nearly six feet tall, broad-shouldered, wit blue eyes and brown hair, a pleasant voice, and a manner that was both attractive and dignified. A gentleman in New Haven who knew him well said of him, "That man is a diamond of the first water and calculated to excel in any station he assumes." After he graduated in 1773, he taught school for a few months in East Haddam. The country schools were very simple in those days. There were few books; a Psalter and a spelling-book were the most important ones used. There were no blackboards, and the teacher set "copies" on paper, and read out the "sums" in arithmetic, and often the whole school studied aloud. One of Nathan Hale's pupils in East Haddam, who lived to be an old lady, said of him as a teacher, "Everybody loved him, he was so sprightly, intelligent, and kind and withal so handsome." He was soon offered a better position in New London as the master of a new school in which he was expected to teach Latin as well as English. He wrote in one of his letters from New London:-- "I am happily situated here. I love my employment and find many friends among strangers. I have a school of thirty-two boys, half Latin, the rest English. In addition to this I have kept, during the summer, a morning school, between the hours of five and seven, of about twenty young ladies." The schoolhouses in East Haddam and New London where Nathan Hale taught have been restored and are kept now as memorials of him. While he was teaching in New London the war with England broke out. There was great excitement when the news came of the battle of Lexington (April 19, 1775), and a public meeting was held at which he is reported to have said, "Let us march immediately and never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence." He could not march immediately himself, for he was teaching school, but when summer came he entered the army as a lieutenant, and was soon made a captain. In September he went with some of the Connecticut troops to join Washington's army which was besieging Boston. The American flag was not adopted until the next year, and as the colors appointed for his regiment, the Seventh Connecticut, were blue, they marched away from New London under a blue banner. His camp-basket, a powder-horn made by him, and his army diary are still in existence, and can be seen in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford. Here are some of the entries in his diary that fall and winter:-- "Friday 29th (Sept.)--Marched for Cambridge. Arrived 3 o'clock, and encamped on the foot of Winter Hill. "Sat. 30th--Considerable firing upon Roxbury side in the forenoon. "October 9th, Monday--Morning clear and pleasant but cold. Exercised men 5 o'clock, one hour. "Sabbath, 22d--Mounted picket guard. Had charge of the advance picket. "Monday 6th (November)--It is of the utmost importance that an officer should be anxious to know his duty, but of greater that he should carefully perform what he does know.