TO treat of recent transactions and persons still living, is always a delicate and frequently a thank­less office. Yet, while the partiality of friends, or the malignity of enemies, decides with rashness on every de­lineation of character, or recital of circumstances, a consolation remains, that distant nations and remoter ages, free from the influence of prejudice or passion, will judge with impartiality, and appreciate with justice. We have fallen upon an aera singularly prolific in extraordi­nary personages, and dignified by splendid events. Much is expected from the selections of the judicious biogra­pher, as well as from the labours of the faithful histo­rian. Whatever prudential reasons may now occur to postpone the portrait of our own times, the difficulties which oppose themselves to the execution, instead of being diminished, will encrease with the lapse of years. Every day will extinguish some life that was dear to same, and obliterate the memorial of some deed which would have constituted the delight and admiration of the world.

[Page 191] So transient and indistinguishable are the traits of cha­racter, so various and inexplicable the springs of action, so obscure and perishable the remembrance of human af­fairs, that, unless attempts are made to sketch the pic­ture, while the present generation is living, the like­ness will be for ever lost, or only preserved by a vague recollection; disguised, perhaps, by the whimsical co­lourings of a creative imagination.

IT will doubtless, hereafter, be an object of regret, that those, who, having themselves been conspicuous actors on the theatre of public life, and, who in conjunction with a knowledge of facts, possess abilities to paint those characters, and describe those events, which (during the progress of the American Revolution) interested and a­stonished mankind, should feel an insuperable reluctance to assume the task—a task, which (if executed with fide­lity) must, from the dignity of its subject, become grate­ful to the patriots of all nations, and profitable in ex­ample to the remotest posterity. Equally severe will be the mortification of contemplating the reveries and fic­tions, which have been substituted by hacknied writers in the place of historical facts. Nor should we suppress our indignation against that class of professional authors, who, placed in the vale of penury and obscurity, at an immense distance from the scenes of action, and all op­portunities of acquiring the necessary documents, with insufferable effrontery, obtrude their fallacious and crude performances on a credulous public. Did the result of their lucubrations terminate only in relieving their own distresses, or gratifying their individual vanity, it might be passed in silent contempt. But the effect is extensive, [Page 192] permanent, and pernicious: The lie, ^* however impro­bable or monstrous, which has once assumed the sem­blance of truth, by being often repeated with minute and plausible particulars, is at length so thoroughly esta­blished, as to obtain universal credit, defy contradiction, and frustrate every effort of refutation. Such is the mischief, such are the unhappy consequences on the be­wildered mind, that the reader has no alternative, but to become the dupe of his credulity, or distrust the veracity of almost all human testimony. After having long been the sport of fiction, he will perhaps probably run into the opposite extreme, and give up all confidence in the annals of ancient as well as modern times: and thus the easy believer of fine fables and marvellous stories, will find, at last, his historical faith change to scepti­cism, and end in infidelity.

THE numerous errors and falshoods relative to the birth and atchievements of Major General Putnam, which have (at a former period) been circulated with assiduity on both sides of the Atlantic, and the uncer­tainty which appeared to prevail with respect to his real ^‡ character, first produced the resolution of writing this [Page 193] essay on his life and induced the editor to obtain ^* mate­rials from that hero himself. If communications of such authenticity, if personal intimacy as an aid-de-camp to that general, or if subsequent military employments, which afforded access to sources ^† of intelligence not [Page 194] open to others, give the writer any advantages; the un­blassed mind will decide how far they exculpate him [Page 195] from the imputations of that officiousness, ignorance and presumption, which in others have been reprehended with [Page 196] severity. He only wishes that a premature and unfa­vorable construction may not be formed of his motive or object. Should this essay have any influence in cor­recting mistakes, or rescuing from oblivion the actions of that distinguished Veteran; should it create an emu­lation to copy his domestic, manly and heroic virtues; or should it prompt some more skilful hand to pourtray the illustrious groupe of Patriots, Sages and Heroes, who have guided our counsels, fought our battles, and a­dorned the memorable Epocha of Independence, it will be an ample compensation for the trouble, and excite a consolatory reflection through every vicissitude of life.

ISRAEL PUTNAM, who, through a regular gradation of promotion became the senior Major Gene­ral in the army of the United States, and next in rank to General Washington, was born at Salem in the Pro­vince, now State, of Massachusetts, on the 7th day of January, 1718. His father, Capt. Joseph Putnam, was the son of Mr. John Putnam, who, with two brothers, came from the south of England, and were among the first settlers of Salem.

WHEN we thus behold a person, from the humble walks of life, starting unnoticed in the career of fame, and by an undeviating progress through a life of honor, arriving at the highest dignity in the state; curiosity is strongly excited, and philosophy loves to trace the path of glory from the cradle of obscurity to the summit of elevation.

ALTHOUGH our ancestors, the first settlers of this [Page 197] land, amidst the extreme pressure of poverty and danger, early instituted schools for the education of youth, de­signed for the learned professions; yet it was thought sufficient to instruct those destined to labor on the earth, in reading, writing, and such rudiments of arithmetic as might be requisite for keeping the accounts of their lit­tle transactions with each other. Few farmers sons had more advantages, none less. In this state of mediocrity it was the lot of young Putnam to be placed. His early instruction was not considerable, and the active scenes of life, in which he was afterwards, engaged, prevented the opportunity of great literary improvement. His nume­rous original letters, though deficient in scholastic accu­racy, always display the goodness of his heart, and fre­quently the strength of his native genius. He had a certain laconic mode of expression, and an unaffected epigrammatic turn, which characterised most of his writings.

To compensate partially for the deficiency of educa­tion (though nothing can remove or counterbalance the inconveniencies experienced from it in public life) de­rived from his parents the source of innumerable advan­tages in the stamina of a vigorous constitution. Nature, liberal in bestowing on him bodily strength, hardiness, and activity, was by no means parsimonious in mental endowments. While we leave the qualities of the un­derstanding to be developed in the process of life, it may not be improper, in this place, to designate some of the circumstances which were calculated to distinguish him afterwards as a partizan officer.

[Page 198] COURAGE, enterprize, activity and perseverance were the first characteristics of his mind. There is a kind of mechanical courage, the offspring of pride, habit or dis­cipline, that may push a coward not only to perform his duty, but even to venture on acts of heroism. Putnam's courage was of a different species. It was ever attended with a serenity of soul, a clearness of conception, a de­gree of self-possession and a superiority to all the vicissi­tudes of fortune, entirely distinct from any thing that can be produced by the ferment of blood, and flutter of spirits; which, not unfrequently, precipitate men to ac­tion, when stimulated by intoxication or some other transient exhilaration. The heroic character, thus founded on constitution and animal spirits, cherished by education and ideas of personal freedom, confirmed by temperance and habits of exercise, was completed by the dictate of reason, the love of his country, and an invincible sense of duty. Such were the qualities and principles, that enabled him to meet unappalled the shafts of adversity, and to pass in triumph through the furnace of affliction.

His disposition was as frank and generous, as his mind was fearless and independent. He disguised no­thing; indeed he seemed incapable of disguise. Perhaps, in the intercourse he was ultimately obliged to have with an artful world, his sincerity, on some occasions, outwent his discretion. Although he had too much suavity in his nature to commence a quarrel, he had too much sensibility not to feel, and too much honor not to resent an intended insult. The first time he went to Bo­ston, he was insulted for his rusticity by a boy of twice his size and age; after bearing the sarcasms until his [Page 199] patience was worn out, he challenged, engaged and van­quished his unmannerly antagonist, to the great diver­sion of a crowd of spectators. While a stripling, his am­bition was to perform the labor of a man, and to excel in athletic diversions. In that rude, but masculine age, whenever the village-youth assembled on their usual occasions of festivity; pitching the bar, running, leap­ing and wrestling were favorite amusements. At such gymnastic exercises (in which during the heroic times of ancient Greece and Rome, conquest was considered as the promise of future military same) he bore the palm from almost every ring.

BEFORE the refinements of luxury, and the consequent increase of expences had rendered the maintenance of a family inconvenient or burdensome in America, the sexes entered into matrimony at an early age. Competence, attainable by all, was the limit of pursuit. After the hardships of making a new settlement were overcome, and the evils of penury removed, the inhabitants enjoy­ed, in the lot of equality, innocence, and security, scenes equally delightful with those pictured by the glowing imagination of the poets in their favorite pastoral life or fabulous golden age. Indeed the condition of man­kind was never more enviable. Neither disparity of age and fortune, nor schemes of ambition and grandeur, nor the pride and avarice of high-minded and mercenary pa­rents, interposed those obstacles to the union of congenial souls, which frequently in more polished society prevent, imbitter or destroy all the felicity of the connubial state. Mr. Putnam before he attained the twenty-first year of his age, married Miss Pope, daughter of Mr. John Pope [Page 200] of Salem, by whom he had ten children, seven of whom are still living. He lost the wife of his youth in 1764. Some time after he married Mrs. Gardiner, widow of the late Mr. Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island, by whom he had no issue. She died in 1777.

IN the year 1739 he removed from Salem to Pom­fret, an inland fertile town in Connecticut, forty miles east of Hartford: having here purchased a considerable tract of land, he applied himself successfully to agricul­ture.

THE first years, on a new farm, are not, however exempt from disasters and disappointments, which can only be remedied by stubborn and patient industry. Our farmer, sufficiently occupied in building an house and barn, felling woods, making fences, sowing grain, plant­ing orchards and taking care of his stock, had to encoun­ter, in turn, the calamities occasioned by drought in summer, blast in harvest, loss of cattle in winter, and the desolation of his sheep-fold by wolves. In one night he had seventy fine sheep and goats killed, besides many lambs and kids wounded. This havoc was com­mitted by a she-wolf, which, with her annual whelps, had for several years infested the vicinity. The young were commonly destroyed by the vigilance of the hunt­ers, but the old one was too sagacious to come within reach of gun-shot: upon being closely pursued she would generally fly to the western woods, and return the next winter with another litter of whelps.

THIS wolf, at length, became such an intolerable [Page 201] nuisance, that Mr. Putnam entered into a combination with five of his neighbors to hunt alternately until they could destroy her. Two, by rotation, were to be con­stantly in pursuit. It was known, that, having lost the toes from one foot, by a steel-trap, she made one track shorter than the other. By this vestige, the pursuers recognized, in a light snow, the route of this pernicious animal. Having followed her to Connecticut river, and found she had turned back in a direct course towards Pomfret, they immediately returned, and by ten o'clock the next morning, the blood-hounds had driven her in­to a den, about three miles distant from the house of Mr. Putnam: The people soon collected with dogs, guns, straw, fire, and sulphur, to attack the common enemy. With this apparatus several unsuccessful efforts were made to force her from the den. The hounds came back badly wounded and refused to return. The smoke of blazing straw had no effect. Nor did the fumes of burnt brimstone, with which the cavern was filled, com­pel her to quit the retirement. Wearied with such fruit­less attempts (which had brought the time to ten o'clock at night) Mr. Putnam tried once more to make his dog enter, but in vain. He proposed to his negro man to go down into the cavern and shoot the wolf: the negro de­clined the hazardous service. Then it was, that their master, angry at the disappointment, and declaring that he was ashamed to have a coward in his family, resolved himself to destroy the ferocious beast, left she should escape through some unknown fissure of [...] rock. His neighbours strongly remonstrated against [...] en­terprize: but he knowing, that wild animal were in­timidated by fire, and having provided several strips of [Page 202] birch-bark, the only combustible material which he could obtain, that would afford light in this deep and darksome cave, prepared for his descent. Having, ac­cordingly, divested himself of his coat and waistcoat, and having a long rope fastened round his legs, by which he might be pulled back, at a concerted signal, he entered head foremost, with the blazing torch in his hand.

THE aperture of the den, on the east side of a very high ledge of rocks, is about two feet square; from thence it descends obliquely fifteen feet, then running horizontally about ten more, it ascends gradually sixteen feet towards its termination. The sides of this subter­raneous cavity are composed of smooth and solid rocks, which seem to have been divided from each other by some former earthquake. The top and bottom are also of stone, and the entrance, in winter, being covered with ice, is exceedingly slippery. It is in no place high enough for a man to raise himself upright: nor in any part more than three feet in width.

HAVING groped his passage to the horizontal part of the den, the most terrifying darkness appeared in front of the dim circle of light afforded by his torch. It was silent as the house of death. None but monsters of the desert had ever before explored this solitary mansion of horror. He, cautiously proceeding onward, came to the ascent, which he slowly mounted on his hands and knees, until he discovered the glaring eye-balls of the wolf, who was sitting at the extremity of the cavern. Started at the sight of fire, she gnashed her teeth and gave a sul­len growl. As soon as he had made the necessary dis­covery, [Page 203] he kicked the rope as a signal for pulling him out. The people at the mouth of the den, who had listened with painful anxiety, hearing the growling of the wolf and supposing their friend to be in the most im­minent danger, drew him forth with such celerity that his shirt was stripped over his head and his skin severely lacerated. After he had adjusted his clothes and loaded his gun with nine buck-shot, holding a torch in one hand and the musquet in the other, he descended the se­cond time. When he drew nearer than before, the wolf, assuming a still more fierce and terrible appear­ance, howling, rolling her eyes, snapping her teeth, and dropping her head between her legs, was evidently in the attitude and on the point of springing at him. At the critical instant, he levelled and fired at her head. Stunned with the shock, and suffocated with the smoke, he immediately found himself drawn out of the cave. But having refreshed himself, and permitted the smoke to dissipate, he went down the third time. Once more he came within sight of the wolf, who appearing very passive, he applied the torch to her nose; and per­ceiving her dead, he took hold of her ears, and then kicking the rope (still tied round his legs) the people above, with no small exultation, dragged them both out together.

I HAVE offered these facts in greater detail, because they contain a display of character; and because they have been erroneously related in several European pub­lications, and very much mutilated in the history of Con­necticut, a work as replete with falsehood as destitute of genius, lately printed in London.

[Page 204] PROSPERITY, at length, began to attend the agricul­tural affairs of Mr. Putnam. He was acknowledged to be a skilful and indefatigable manager. His fields were mostly enclosed with stone walls. His crops commonly succeeded, because the land was well tilled and manured. His pastures and meadows became luxuriant. His cat­tle were of the best breed and in good order. His gar­den and fruit-trees prolific. With the avails of the sur­plusage of his produce, foreign articles were purchased. Within doors he found the compensation of his labors in the plenty of excellent provisions, as well as in the happiness of domestic society.

A MORE particular description of his transition from narrow to easy circumstances might be given; but the mind that shall have acquired an idea of the habits of labor and simplicity, to which the industrious colonists were accustomed, will readily supply the omission. The effect of this gradual acquisition of property, ge­nerally favorable to individual virtue and public felici­ty, should not however be passed over in silence. If there is something fascinating in the charms of a country life, from the contemplation of beautiful landscapes; there is likewise something elevating to the soul, in the consciousness of being lord of the soil, and having the pow­er of creating them. The man can scarcely be guilty of a sordid action, or even descend to an ungenerous thought, who, removed from the apprehension of want, sees his farm daily meliorating and assuming whatever appear­ance he pleases to prescribe. This situation converts the farmer into a species of rural philosopher, by inspiring an honest pride in his rank as a freeman, flattering the [Page 205] natural propensity for personal independence, and nou­rishing an unlimited hospitality and philanthropy in his social character.

BUT the time had now arrived, which was to turn the instruments of husbandry into weapons of hostility, and to exchange the hunting of wolves, who had ravaged the sheep folds, for the pursuit after Savages who had deso­lated the frontiers. Mr. Putnam was about 37 years old, when the war between England and France, which preceded the last, broke out in America. His reputa­tion must have been favorably known to the govern­ment, since among the first troops that were levied by Connecticut, in 1755, he was appointed to the command of a company in Lyman's regiment of Provincials. I have mentioned his age at this period expressly to obvi­ate a prevalent opinion, that he was far advanced in life when he commenced his military service.

As he was extremely popular, he sound no difficulty in enlisting his complement of recruits from the most hardy, enterprizing, and respectable young men of his neighborhood. The regiment joined the army, at the opening of the campaign, not far distant from Crown­Point. Soon after his arrival at camp, he became ac­quainted with the famous partizan Captain, afterwards, Major Rogers; with whom he was frequently associated in traversing the wilderness, reconnoitring the enemy's lines, gaining intelligence, and taking straggling prison­ers; as well as in beating up the quarters and surprising the advanced pickets of their army. For these opera­tions a corps of rangers, was formed from the irregulars. [Page 206] The first time Rogers and Putnam were detached with a party of these light troops, it was the fortune of the latter to preserve, with his own hand, the life of the former, and to cement their friendship with the blood of one of their enemies.

THE object of this expedition was to obtain an accurate knowledge of the position and state of the works at Crown Point. It was impracticable to approach with their party near enough for this purpose, without being discovered. Alone, the undertaking was sufficiently hazardous on account of the swarms of hostile Indians, who infested the woods. Our two partizans, however, left all their men at a convenient distance, with strict orders to continue concealed until their return. Hav­ing thus cautiously taken their arrangements, they ad­vanced with the profoundest silence in the evening; and lay, during the night, contiguous to the fortress. Early in the morning, they approached so close as to be able to give satisfactory information to the general who had sent them, on the several points to which their at­tention had been directed: but Capt. Rogers, being at a little distance from Capt. Putnam, fortuitously met a stout Frenchman, who instantly seized his fuzee with one hand, and with the other attempted to stab him, while he called to an adjacent guard for assistance. The guard answered. Putnam, perceiving the imminent danger of his friend, and that no time was to be lost, or farther alarm given by firing, ran rapidly to them, while they were yet struggling, and with the but-end of his piece laid the Frenchman dead at his feet. The partizans, to elude pursuit, precipitated their flight, [Page 207] joined the party, and returned without loss to the en­campment. Not many occasions occurred for partizans to display their talents in the course of this summer.—The war was chequered with various fortune in differ­ent quarters—such as the total defeat of General Brad­dock, and the splendid victory of Sir William Johnson over the French troops commanded by the Baron Dies­kau. The brilliancy of this success was necessary to console the Americans for the disgrace of that disaster. Here I might, indeed, take a pride in contrasting the conduct of the British Regulars, who had been ambu­scaded on the Monongahela, with that of the Provinci­als (under Johnson) who, having been attacked in their lines, gallantly repulsed the enemy and took their Ge­neral prisoner, did I consider myself at liberty to swell this essay with reflections on events, in which Putnam was not directly concerned. The time for which the colonial troops engaged to serve, terminated with the campaign. Putnam was re-appointed, and again took the field in 1756.

FEW are so ignorant of war as not to know, that mi­litary adventures, in the night, are always extremely liable to accidents. Captain Putnam, having been com­manded to reconnoitre the enemy's camp at the Ovens, near Ticonderoga, took the brave Lieutenant Robert Durkee as his companion. In attempting to execute these orders, he narrowly missed being taken himself in the first instance, and killing his friend in the second. It was customary for the British and Provincial troops to place their fires round their camp, which frequently exposed them to the enemy's scouts and patroles. A [Page 208] contrary practice, then unknown in the English army, prevailed among the French and Indians. The plan was much more rational; they kept their fires in the centre, lodged their men circularly at a distance, and posted their centinels in the surrounding darkness. Our partizans approached the camp—and supposing the centries were within the circle of fires, crept upon their hands and knees with the greatest possible caution, until, to their utter astonishment, they found themselves in the thick­est of the enemy. The centinels, discovering them, fired and slightly wounded Durkee in the thigh. He and Put­nam had no alternative. They fled. The latter, being foremost and scarcely able to see his hand before him, soon plunged into a clay-pit. Durkee, almost at the identical moment, came tumbling after. Putnam, by no means pleased at finding a companion, and believing him to be one of the enemy▪ lifted his tomahawk to give the deadly blow—when Durkee, (who had follow­ed so closely as to know him) enquired whether he had escaped unhurt. Captain Putnam, instantly recognizing the voice, dropped his weapon: and both, springing from the pit, made good their retreat to the neighbour­ing ledges, amidst a shower of random shot. There they betook themselves to a large log, by the side of which they lodged the remainder of the night. Before they lay down. Captain Putnam said he had a little rum in his canteen, which could never be more acceptable or necessary; but on examining the canteen, which hung under his arm, he sound the enemy had pierced it with their balls, and that there was not a drop of liquor left. The next day he sound fourteen bullet holes in his blanket.

[Page 209] IN the same summer a body of the enemy, consisting of 600 men, attacked the baggage and provision wag­gons at a place called the Half-way Brook; it being e­quidistant from Fort Edward, and the south end of lake George. Having killed the oxen and plundered the waggons, they retreated with their booty without hav­ing met with such resistance as might have been expect­ed from the strength of the escort. General Webb, up­on receiving intelligence of this disaster, ordered the Captains Putnam and Rogers ‘to take 100 volunteers in boats, with two wall-pieces and two blunderbusses, and to proceed down lake George to a certain point: there to leave the batteaux under a proper guard, and thence to cross by land so as to harrass, and if practicable, intercept the retreating enemy at the narrows.’ These orders were executed with so much punctuality, that the party arrived at the destined place half an hour before the hostile boats came in view. Here they waited, under cover, until the enemy (igno­rant of these proceedings) entered the narrows with their batteaux loaded with plunder. Then the volunteers pour­ed upon them volley after volley, killed many of the oarsmen, sunk a number of the batteaux, and would soon have destroyed the whole body of the enemy, had not the unusual precipitancy of their passage (favored by the wind) carried them through the narrows into the wide part of South-Bay; where they were out of the reach of musquet shot. The shattered remnant of the little fleet soon arrived at Ticonderoga and gave in­formation that Putnam and Rogers were at the narrows. A fresh party was instantly detached to cut them in pieces, on their return to Fort Edward. Our partizans, [Page 210] sensible of the probability of such an attempt, and being full twenty miles from their boats, strained every nerve to reach them as soon as possible; which they effected the same night. Next day, when they had returned as far as Sabbath-day-Point, they discovered, on shore, the before-mentioned detachment of 300 men, who had pas­sed them in the night, and who now, on perceiving our party, took to their boats with the greatest alacrity, and rowed out to give battle. They advanced in line, main­taining a good mein and felicitating themselves upon the prospect of an easy conquest, from the great superi­ority of their numbers. Flushed with these expecta­tions, they were permitted to come within pistol-shot be­fore a gun was fired. At once, the wall-pieces and blunderbusses, which had been brought to take them in the most vulnerable point, were discharged. As no such reception had been foreseen, the assailants were thrown into the utmost disorder. Their terror and confusion were greatly encreased by a well-directed and most de­structive fire of the small arms. The larger pieces be­ing re-loaded, without annoyance, continued alternately, with the musquetry, to make dreadful havoc, until the route was completed and the enemy driven back to Ti­conderoga. In this action, one of the bark canoes con­tained twenty Indians, of whom fifteen were killed. Great numbers, from other boats, both of French and Indians were seen to fall overboard: but the account of their total loss could never be ascertained. Rogers and Putnam had but one man killed and two slightly wound­ed. They now landed on the Point, and having refresh­ed their men at leisure, returned in good order to the British camp.

[Page 211] SOON after these rencounters, a singular kind of race was run by our nimble-footed Provincial and an active young Frenchman. The liberty of each was by turns at stake. General Webb, wanting a prisoner for the sake of intelligence, sent Captain Putnam with five men to procure one. The Captain concealed himself near the road which leads from Ticonderoga to the Ovens. His men seemed fond of shewing themselves, which unsoldi­erlike conduct he prohibited with the severest reprehen­sion. This rebuke they imputed to unnecessary fear. The observation is as true as vulgar, that persons, dis­tinguishable for temerity, when there is no apparent danger, are generally poltroons whenever danger ap­proaches. They had not lain long, in the high grass, before a Frenchman and an Indian passed—the Indian was considerably in advance. As soon as the former had gone by, Putnam, relying on the fidelity of his men, sprang up, ran and ordered them to follow. After run­ning about thirty rods, he seized the Frenchman by the shoulders and forced him to surrender: But his prison­er, looking round, perceiving no other enemy, and know­ing the Indian would be ready in a moment to assist him, began to make an obstinate resistance. Putnam, finding himself betrayed by his men into a perilous dilemma, let go his hold, stepped back and snapped his piece, which was levelled at the Frenchman's breast. It missed fire. Upon this, he thought it most prudent to retreat. The Frenchman, in turn, chaced him back to his men, who, at last raised themselves from the grass; which his pursuer, espying in good time for himself, made his escape. Putnam, mortified that these men had frustrat­ed his success, dismissed them with disgrace; and, not [Page 212] long after accomplished his object. Such little feats, as the capture of a single prisoner, may be of infinitely more consequence than some, who are unacquainted with military affairs, would be apt to imagine. In a country covered with woods, like that part of America, then the seat of war, the difficulty of procuring, and the importance of possessing good intelligence, can scarcely be conceived even by European commanders. They, however, who know its value, will not appreciate lightly the services of an able partizan.

NOTHING, worthy of remark, happened during this campaign except the loss of Oswego. That sort, which had been built by General Shirley to protect the peltry trade, cover the country on the Mohawk-River, and fa­cilitate an invasion of Canada by Frontenac and Niagara, fell into the hands of the enemy, with a garrison of six­teen hundred men and one hundred pieces of cannon.

THE active services of Captain Putnam, on every oc­casion, attracted the admiration of the public, and indu­ced the Legislature of Connecticut to promote him to a majority in 1757.

LORD Loudon was then Commander in Chief of the British forces in America. The expedition against Crown Point, which, from the commencement of hostilities, had been in contemplation, seemed to give place to a more important operation that was meditated against Louis­bourg. But the arrival of the Brest squadron at that place prevented the attempt; and the loss of Fort Wil­liam-Henry served to class this with the two former un­successful [Page 213] campaigns. It was rumored and partially credited at the time, that General Webb, who com­manded in the northern department, had early intima­tion of the movement of the French army, and might have effectually succored garrison. The subsequent facts will place the affair in its proper light.

A FEW days before the siege, Major Putnam, with two hundred men, escorted General Webb from Fort Edward to Fort William-Henry. The object was to examine the state of this fortification, which stood at the southern extremity of Lake George. Several abortive attempts having been made by Major Rogers and others in the night season. Major Putnam proposed to go down the lake in open day-light, land at Northwest-Bay and tarry on shore, until he could make satisfactory disco­very of the enemy's actual situation at Ticonderoga and the adjacent posts. The plan (which he suggested) of landing with only five men and sending back the boats, to prevent detection, was deemed too hazardous by the General. At length, however, he was permitted to proceed with eighteen volunteers in three whale-boats: but before he arrived at Northwest-Bay he discovered a body of men on an island. Immediately upon this, he left two boats to fish at a distance, that they might not occasion an alarm, and returned himself with the infor­mation. The General, seeing him rowing back with great velocity, in a single boat, concluded the others were captured, and sent a skiff with orders for him alone to come on shore. After advising the General of the circumstances, he urged the expediency of returning to make further discoveries, and bring off the boats. Leave [Page 214] was reluctantly given. He found his people, and, pas­sing still onward, discovered (by the aid of a good per­spective glass) a large army in motion. By this time several of the advanced canoes had nearly surrounded him, but, by the swiftness of his whale-boats, he escap­ed through the midst of them. On his return, he in­formed the General minutely of all he had seen, and intimated his conviction that the expedition must obvi­ously be destined against Fort William-Henry. That Commander, strictly enjoining silence on the subject, di­rected him to put his men under an oath of secrecy, and to prepare, without loss of time, to return to the Head Quarters of the Army. Major Putnam observed ‘he hoped his Excellency did not intend to neglect so fair an opportunity of giving battle, should the enemy pre­sume to land.’— ‘What do you think we should do here,’ replied the General. Accordingly, the next day he returned, and the day after Colonel Monro was ordered from Fort Edward, with his regiment, to rein­force the garrison. That officer took with him all his rich baggage and camp equipage, notwithstanding Major Putnam's advice to the contrary. The day following his arrival, the enemy landed and besieged the place.

THE Marquis de Montealm, Commander in chief for the French in Canada (intending to take advantage of the absence of a large proportion of the British force, which he understood to be employed under Lord Lou­don against Louisbourg) had assembled whatever men could be spared from Ticonderoga, Crown Point and the other garrisons; with these he had combined a consi­derable corps of Canadians and a larger body of Indians [Page 215] than had ever before been collected: making in the whole an army of nearly eight thousand men. Our gar­rison consisted of twenty-five hundred and was com­manded by Colonel Monro, a very gallant officer; who found the means of sending express after express to Ge­neral Webb, with an account of his situation and the most presling solicitation for succour. In the mean time, the army at Fort Edward, which originally amounted to about four thousand, had been considerably augmented by Johnson's troops and the militia. On the 8th or 9th day after the landing of the French, General Johnson (in consequence of repeated applications) was suffered to march for the relief of the garrison, with all the Pro­vincials, Militia and Putnam's Rangers: but before they had proceeded three miles, the order was countermanded, and they returned. M. de Montealm informed Major Putnam, when a prisoner in Canada, that one of his run­ning Indians saw and reported this movement; and, upon being questioned relatively to the numbers, an­swered in their figurative style, "If you can count the leaves on the trees, you can count them." In effect, the operations of the siege was suspended, and preparations made for re-embarking, when another of the runners reported that the detachment had gone back. The Mar­quis de Montcalm, provided with a good train of artillery, meeting with no annoyance from the British army, and but inconsiderable interruption from the garrison, acce­lerated his approaches so rapidly, as to obtain possession of the Fort, in a short time after completing the investi­ture. An intercepted letter from General Webb, ad­vising the surrender, was sent into the Fort to Colonel Monro by the French General.

[Page 216] THE garrison engaged not to serve for eighteen months, and were permitted to march out with the honors of war. But the savages regarded not the capitulation, nor could they be restrained, by the utmost exertion of the Commanding Officer, from committing the most outrageous acts of cruelty. They stripped and plunder­ed all the prisoners, and murdered great numbers in cold blood. Those, who escaped by flight, or the pro­tection of the French, arrived in a forlorn condition at Fort Edward: Among these was the Commandant of the garrison.

THE day succeeding this deplorable scene of carnage and barbarity, Major Putnam having been dispatched with his Rangers, to watch the motions of the enemy, came to the shore, when their rear was scarcely beyond the reach of musquet shot. They had carried off all the cannon, stores and water-craft. The Fort was demolish­ed. The barracks, the out-houses and suttlers booths were heaps of ruins. The fires, not yet extinct, and the smoke, offensive from the mucilaginous nature of the fuel, but illy concealed innumerable fragments of human skulls and bones, and, in some instances carcases half consumed. Dead bodies, weltering in blood, were every where to be seen, violated with all the wanton mutilations of savage ingenuity. More than one hun­dred women, some with their brains still oozing from the battered heads, others with their whole hair wrench­ed collectively with the skin from the bloody skulls, and many (with their throats cut) most inhumanly stabbed and butchered, lay stripped entirely naked, with their bowels torn out, and afforded a spectacle too horrible for description.

[Page 217] NOT long after this misfortune, General Lyman suc­ceeded to the command of Fort Edward. He resolved to strengthen it. For this purpose one hundred and fifty men were employed in cutting timber. To cover them, Captain Little was posted (with fifty British Regulars) at the head of a thick swamp about one hundred rods eastward of the Fort—to which his communication lay over a tongue of land, formed on the one side by the swamp, and by a creek on the other.

ONE morning, at day break, a centinel saw indis­tinctly several birds, as he conceived, come from the swamp and fly over him, with incredible swiftness. While he was ruminating on these wonderful birds, and endeavouring to form some idea of their colour, shape and size, an arrow buried itself in the limb of a tree just above his head. He now discovered the quality, and design of these winged messengers of fate, and gave the alarm. Instantly the working party began to retreat along the desile. A large body of Savages, had con­cealed themselves in the morass before the guard was posted, and were attempting in this way to kill the centinel without noise, with design to surprize the whole party. Finding the alarm given, they rushed from the covert, shot and tomahawked those who were nearest at hand, and pressed hard on the remainder of the unarmed fugi­tives. Captain Little flew to their relief, and, by pour­ing on the Indians a well-timed fire, checked the pursuit, and enabled such of the fatigue-men as did not fall in the first onset, to retire to the fort. Thither he sent for assistance, his little party being almost over-powered by numbers. But the Commandant, imagining that the [Page 218] main body of the enemy were approaching for a gene­ral assault, called in his out-posts and shut the gates.

MAJOR Putnam lay, with his Rangers, on an Island adjacent to the fort. Having heard the musquetry and learned that his friend Captain Little was in the utmost peril, he plunged into the river at the head of his corps, and waded through the water towards the place of en­gagement. This brought him so near to the fort, that General Lyman, apprized of his design, and unwilling that the lives of a few more brave men should be ex­posed to what he deemed inevitable destruction, mount­ed the parapet and ordered him to proceed no farther. The Major only took time to make the best short apology he could, and marched on. This is the only instance in the whole course of his military service, wherein he did not pay the strictest obedience to orders; and in this instance, his motive was highly commendable. But when such conduct, even if sanctified by success, is pass­ed over with impunity, it demonstrates that all is not right in the military system. In a disciplined army, such as that of the United States became under General Washington, an officer, guilty of a slighter violation of orders, however elevated in rank or meritorious in ser­vice, would have been brought before the bar of a Court Martial. Were it not for the seductive tenden­cy of a brave man's example, I might have been spared the mortification of making these remarks on the con­duct of an officer, whose distinguishing characteristics were promptitude for duty and love of subordination, as well as cheerfulness to encounter every species of diffi­culty and danger.

[Page 219] THE Rangers of Putnam soon opened their way for a junction with the little handful of Regulars, who still obstinately maintained their ground. By his advice, the whole rushed impetuously with shouts and huzzas into the swamp. The Savages fled on every side, and were chaced, with no inconsiderable loss on their part, as long as the day-light lasted. On ours only one man was killed in the pursuit. His death was immediately re­venged by that of the Indian who shot him. This In­dian was one of the runners—a chosen body of active young men, who are made use of not only to procure intelligence and convey tidings, but also to guard the rear on a retreat.

HERE it will not be unseasonable to mention some of the customs in war, peculiar to the aborigines, which, on the present as well as other occasions, they put in practice. Whenever a retreating, especially, a flying party had gained the summit of a rising ground; they secreted one or two runners behind trees, copses or bush­es to fire at the enemy upon their ascending the hill. This commonly occasioned the enemy to halt and form for battle. In the interim the runners used such dexterity as to be rarely discovered, or if discovered, they vanished behind the height and rejoined their brother-war­riors, who having thus stolen a distance, were oftentimes seen by their pursuers no more. Or if the pursuers were too eager, they seldom failed to atone for their rash­ness by falling into an abuscade. The Mohawks, who were afterwards much employed in scouts under the or­ders of Major Putnam, and who were perfectly versed in all the wiles and stratagems of their countrymen, shew­ed [Page 220] him the mode of avoiding the evils of either alterna­tive. In suspicious thickets, and at the borders of every considerable eminence, a momentary pause was made, while they, in different parts, penetrated or ascended with a cautiousness that cannot be easily described. They seemed all eye and ear. When they found no lurking mischief, they would beckon with the hand and pro­nounce the word, "OWISH," with a long labial hissing, the O being almost quiescent. This was ever the watch-word for the main body to advance.

INDIANS, who went to war together, and who, for any reason found it necessary to separate into different routes, always left two or three runners at the place of separa­tion, to give timely notice to either party in case of pur­suit.

IF a warrior chanced to straggle and lose himself in the woods, or be retarded by accident or wound; the party missing him, would frequently, on their march, break down a bush or a shrub and leave the top pointing in the direction they had gone, that the straggler, when he should behold it, might shape his course accord­ingly.

WE come to the campaign when General Abercrom­bie took the command at Fort Edward. That General ordered Major Putnam, with sixty men, to proceed by land to South-Bay on Lake George, for the purpose of making discoveries and intercepting the enemy's parties. The latter, in compliance with these orders, posted him­self at Wood-Creek, near its entrance into South Bay. [Page 221] On this bank, which forms a jutting precipice ten or twelve feet above the water, he erected a stone parapet thirty feet in length; and masked it with young pine-trees, cut at a distance, and so artfully planted as to imitate the natural growth. From hence he sent back fifteen of his men, who had fallen sick. Distress for want of provi­sions, occasioned by the length of march and time spent on this temporary fortification, compelled him to devi­ate from a rule he had established, never to permit a gun to be fired but at an enemy, while on a scout. He was now obliged himself to shoot a buck, which had jumped into the Creek, in order to eke out their scanty subsist­ance until the fourth day after the completion of the works. About ten o'clock that evening, one of the men on duty at the margin of the Bay informed him, that a fleet of bark canoes, filled with men, was steering to­wards the mouth of the creek. He immediately called in all his centinels and ordered every man to his post. A profound stillness reigned in the atmosphere, and the full moon shone with uncommon brightness. The creek, which the enemy entered, is about six rods wide, and the bank opposite to the parapet above twenty feet high. It was intended to permit the canoes in front to pass—they had accordingly just passed, when a soldier acci­dentally struck his firelock against a stone. The com­manding officer in the van canoe heard the noise and repeated several times the Savage watch-word OWISH! Instantly the canoes huddled together, with their centre precisely in front of the works, covering the creek, for a considerable distance, above and below. The officers appeared to be in deep consultation and the fleet on the point of returning; when Major Putnam, [Page 222] who had ordered his men in the most peremptory man­ner, not to fire until he should set the example, gave the signal by discharging his piece. They fired. No­thing could exceed the inextricable confusion and appa­rent consternation occasioned by this well concerted at­tack. But, at last, the enemy finding, from the unfre­quency, (though there was no absolute intermission) in the firing, that the number of our men must be small, resolved to land below and surround them. Putnam, apprehensive of this from the movement, sent Lieute­nant Robert Durkee ^*, with twelve men, about thirty rods down the creek, who arrived in time to repulse the party which attempted to land. Another small detach­ment, under Lieutenant Parsons, was ordered up the creek to prevent any similar attempt. In the mean time, Major Putnam, kept up (through the whole night) an incessant and deadly fire on the main body of the ene­my, without receiving any thing in return but shot void of effect, accompanied with dolorous groans, miserable shrieks and dismal savage yells. After day-break, he was advised that one part of the enemy had effected a sanding considerably below, and were rapidly advancing to cut off his retreat. Apprised of the great superiority still opposed to him, as well as of the situation of his own soldiers, some of whom were entirely destitute of [Page 223] ammunition, and the rest reduced to one or two rounds per man, he commanded them to swing their packs. By hastening the retreat, in good order, they had just time to retire far enough up the creek to prevent being enclosed. During this long continued action, in which the Americans had slain at least five times their own number, only one Provincial and one Indian were wounded on their side. These unfortunate men had been sent off for camp in the night, with two men to assist them, and directions to proceed by Wood-Creek as the safest, though not the shortest, route. But hav­ing taken a nearer way, they were pursued and overtaken by the Indians, who, from the blood on the leaves and bushes, believed that they were on the trail of our whole party. The wounded, despairing of mercy, and unable to fly, insisted that the well soldiers should make their escape, which, on a moment's deliberation, they effect­ed. The Provincial, whose thigh was broken by a ball, upon the approach of the Savages fired his piece and kil­led three of them; after which he was quickly hacked in pieces. The Indian, however, was saved alive. This man, Major Putnam saw, afterwards, in Canada; where he likewise learned that his enemy in the rencounter at Wood-Creek, consisted of five hundred French and Indi­ans, under the command of the celebrated partizan Mo­lang, and that no party, since the war, had suffered so severely, as more than one half of those who went out never returned.

OUR brave little company, reduced to forty in num­ber, had proceeded along the bank of the creek about an hour's march, when, Major Putnam, being in front, [Page 224] was fired upon by a party just at hand. He, rightly ap­preciating the advantage often obtained by assuming a bold countenance on a critical occasion, in a stentoropho­nic tone, ordered his men to rush on the enemy, and pro­mised that they should soon give a good account of them. It proved to be a scout of Provincials, who conceived they were firing upon the French; but the Commanding Officer, knowing Putnam's voice, cried out, ‘that they were all friends.’—Upon this the Major told him ab­ruptly, ‘that friends or enemies, they all deserved to be hanged for not killing more when they had so fair a shot.’ In fact, but one man was mortally wound­ed. While these things were transacted, a faithful sol­dier, whose ammunition had been early exhausted, made his way to the Fort, and gave such information, that Ge­neral Lyman was detached with five hundred men to co­ver the retreat. Major Putnam met them at only twelve miles distance from the fort, to which they returned the next day.

IN the winter of 1757, when Colonel Haviland was Commandant of Fort Edward, the barracks adjoining to the north-west bastion took fire. They extended within twelve feet of the Magazine, which contained three hun­dred barrels of powder. On its first discovery, the fire raged with great violence. The Commandant en­deavoured, in vain, by discharging some pieces of hea­vy artillery against the supporters of this flight of bar­racks, to level them with the ground. Putnam arrived from the Island where he was stationed, at the moment when the blaze approached that end which was contigu­ous to the Magazine. Instantly a vigorous attempt was [Page 225] made to extinguish the conflagration. A way was open­ed by a postern gate to the river, and the soldiers were employed in bringing water; which he, having mount­ed on a ladder to the eves of the building, received and threw upon the flame. It continued, notwithstanding their utmost efforts, to gain upon them. He stood, en­veloped in smoke, so near the sheet of fire, that a pair of thick blanket mittens were burnt entirely from his hands—he was supplied with another pair dipt in water. Colonel Haviland fearing that he would perish in the flames, called to him to come down. But he entreated that he might be suffered to remain, since destruction must inevitably ensue if their exertions should be re­mitted. The gallant Commandant not less astonished than charmed at the boldness of his conduct, forbade any more effects to be carried out of the fort, animated the men to redoubled diligence, and exclaimed ‘if we must be blown up, we will go all together.’ At last, when the barracks were seen to be tumbling, Putnam descend­ed, placed himself at the interval, and continued from an incessant rotation of replenished buckets to pour water upon the Magazine. The outside planks were already consumed by the proximity of the fire, and as only one thickness of timber intervened, the trepidation now be­came general and extreme. Putnam, still undaunted, covered with a cloud of cinders, and scorched with the intensity of the heat, maintained his position until the fire subsided, and the danger was wholly over. He had contended for one hour and an half with that terrible element. His legs, his thighs, his arms, and his face were blistered; and when he pulled off his second pair of mittens, the skin from his hands and fingers followed [Page 226] them. It was a month before he recovered. The Com­mandant, to whom his merits had before endeared him, could not stifle the emotions of gratitude, due to the man who had been so instrumental in preserving the Maga­zine, the Fort, and the Garrison.

THE repulse before Ticonderoga, took place in 1758. General Abercrombie, the British Commander in Chief in America, conducted the expedition. His army, which amounted to nearly sixteen thousand Regulars and Pro­vincials, was amply supplied with artillery and military stores. This well-appointed corps passed over Lake George, and landed, without opposition, at th [...] point of destination. The troops advanced in columns. Lord Howe having Major Putnam with him, was in front of the cen­ter. A body of about five hundred men (the advance or pickets of the French army) which had fled at first, be­gan to skirmish with our left. "Putnam," said Lord Howe, "what means that firing?" ‘I know not, but with your Lordship's leave will see,’ replied the for­mer. "I will accompany you," rejoined the gallant young Nobleman. In vain did Major Putnam attempt to dissuade him, by saying— ‘My Lord, if I am killed, the loss of my life will be of little consequence, but the preservation of yours is of infinite importance to this army.’ The only answer was, Putnam, your ‘life is as dear to you as mine is to me; I am deter­mined to go.’ One hundred of the van, under Major Putnam, filed off with Lord Howe. They soon met the left flank of the enemy's advance, by whose first fire his Lordship sell—It was a loss indeed; and particular­ly felt in the operations which occurred three days after­wards. [Page 227] His manners and his virtues, had made him the idol of the army. From his first arrival in America, he had accommodated ^* himself and his regiment to the pe­culiar nature of the service. Examplary to the officer, a friend of the soldier, the model of discipline, he had not failed to encounter every hardship and hazard. No­thing could be more calculated to inspire men with the rash animation of rage, or to temper it with the cool perseverance of revenge, than the fight of such a hero, so beloved, fallen in his country's cause. It had the effect. Putnam's party, having cut their way obliquely through the enemy's ranks, and having been joined by Captain D'Ell with twenty men, together with some other small parties, charged them so furiously in rear, that nearly three hundred were killed on the spot, and one hundred and forty-eight made prisoners. In the mean time, from the unskilfulness of the guides, some of our columns were bewildered. The left wing, seeing Put­nam's party in their front, advancing over the dead bo­dies towards them, commenced a brisk and heavy fire, which killed a serjeant and several privates. Nor could they, by sounds or sighs, be convinced of their mistake, until Major Putnam, preserving (if Heaven had thus or­dained it) the loss of his own life to the loss of the lives of his brave associates, ran through the midst of the flying balls, and prevented the impending catastrophe.

THE tender feelings, which Major Putnam possessed, taught him to respect an unfortunate foe, and to strive, [Page 228] by every lenient art in his power to alleviate the mise­ries of war. For this purpose, he remained on the field, until it began to grow dark, employed in collecting such of the enemy as were left wounded, to one place; he gave them all the liquor and little refreshments which he could procure; he furnished to each of them a blanket; he put three blankets under a French serjeant who was badly wounded through [...] and placed him in an easy posture by the [...] tree—the poor fellow could only squeeze his hand with an expressive grasp. "Ah," said Major Putnam, ‘depend upon it, my brave soldier you shall be brought to the camp as soon as possible, and the same care shall be taken of you as if you were my brother.’—The next morning Major Rogers was sent to reconnoitre the field, and to bring off the wounded prisoners—but finding the wounded unable to help them­selves, in order to save trouble, he dispatched every one of them to the world of spirits. Putnam's was not the only heart that bled. The Provincial and British Officers who became acquainted with the fact, were struck with inexpressible horror.

TICONDEROGA is surrounded on three sides by water, on the fourth, for some distance, extends a dangerous morass, the remainder was then fortified with a line eight feet high, and planted with artillery. For one hun­dred yards in front, the plain was covered with great trees, cut for the purpose of defence; whose interwo­ven and sharpened branches projected outwards. Not­withstanding these impediments, the engineer, who had been employed to reconnoitre, reported, as his opinion, that the works might be carried with musquetry. The [Page 229] difficulty and delay of dragging the battering cannon, over grounds almost impracticable, induced the adop­tion of this fatal advice—to which, however, a rumour that the garrison, already consisting of four or five thou­sand men, was on the point of being augmented with three thousand more, probably contributed. The at­tack was as spirited in execution as ill-judged in design. The assailants, after having been for more than four hours exposed to a most fatal fire, without making any impression by their reiterated and obstinate proofs of valor, were ordered to retreat. Major Putnam, who had acted as an aid in bringing the Provincial regiments successively to action, assisted in preserving order. It was said, that a great number of the enemy were shot in the head, every other part having been concealed behind their works. The loss on our side was upwards of two thousand killed and wounded. Twenty-five hundred stands of arms were taken by the French. Our army, after sustaining this havoc, retreated with such extraor­dinary precipitation, that they regained their camp at the southward of Lake George, the evening after the action.

THE successes, in other parts of America, made a­mends for this defeat. Louisbourg, after a vigoros siege, was reduced by the Generals Amherst and Wolfe; Frontenac, a post of importance on the communication between Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, surrender­ed to Colonel Bradstreet: and Fort Du Quesne, situat­ed at the confluence of Monongahela with the Ohio, (the possession of which had kindle [...] the flame of war, [Page 230] that now spread through the four quarters of the globe) was captured by General Forbes.

A FEW adventures, in which the public interests were little concerned, but which, from their peculiarity, ap­pear worthy of being preserved, happened before the conclusion of the year. As one day, Major Putnam chanced to lie, with a batteau and five men, on the eastern shore of the Hudson, near the Rapids, contigu­ous to which Fort-Miller stood; his men on the oppo­site bank had given him to understand, that a large body of Savages were in his rear, and would be upon him in a moment.—To stay and be sacrificed—to attempt cross­ing and be shot—or to go down to the falls, with an al­most absolute certainty of being drowned, were the sole alternatives, that presented themselves to his choice. So instantaneously was the latter adopted, that one man who had rambled a little from the party, was, of necessity, left, and fell a miserable victim to savage barbarity. The Indians arrived on the shore soon enough to fire many balls on the batteau before it could be got under way. No sooner had our batteau-men escaped, by fa­vor of the rapidity of the current, beyond the reach of musquet-shot, than death seemed only to have been avoided in one form, to be encountered in another, not less terrible. Prominent rocks, latent shelves, absorb­ing eddies, and abrupt descents, for a quarter of a mile, afforded scarcely the smallest chance of escaping without a miracle. Putnam, trusting himself to a good Provi­dence, whose kindness he had often experienced, rather than to men, whose tenderest mercies are cruelty, was now seen to place himself sedately at the helm, and af­ford [Page 231] an astonishing spectacle of serenity: his compani­ons, with a mixture of terror, admiration and wonder, saw him, incessantly changing the course, to avoid the jaws of ruin, that seemed expanded to swallow the whirl­ing boat. Twice he turned it fairly round to shun the rifts of rocks. Amidst these eddies in which there was the greatest danger of its foundering, at one moment the fides were exposed to the fury of the waves; then the stern, and next the bow glanced obliquely onward, with inconceivable velocity.—With not less amazement the Savages beheld him sometimes mounting the billows, then plunging abruptly down, at other times skilfully veering from the rocks, and shooting through the only narrow passage; until, at last, they viewed the boat safely gliding on the smooth surface of the stream be­low. At this sight, it is asserted, that these rude sons of nature were affected with the same kind of supersti­tious veneration, which the Europeans in the dark ages entertained for some of their most valorous champions. They deemed the man invulnerable, whom their balls (on his pushing from shore) would not touch; and whom they had seen steering in safety down the rapids that had never before been passed. They conceived it would be an affront against the Great Spirit, to attempt to kill this favoured mortal with powder and ball, if they should ever see and know him again.

IN the month of August, five hundred men were em­ployed, under the orders of Majors Rogers and Putnam, to watch the motions of the enemy near Ticonderoga. At South-Bay they separated the party into two equal [Page 232] divisions, and Rogers took a position on Wood-Creek, twelve miles distant from Putnam.

UPON being, some time afterwards, discovered, they formed a re-union, and concerted measures for returning to Fort-Edward. Their march through the woods, was in three divisions by FILES, the right commanded by Ro­gers, the left by Putnam, and the centre by Captain D'Ell. The first night they encamped on the banks of Clear River, about a mile from old Fort-Ann, which had been formerly built by General Nicholson. Next morning, Major Rogers and a British officer, named Irwin, in­cautiously suffered themselves from a spirit of false emu­lation, to be engaged in firing at a mark. Nothing could have been more repugnant to the military principles of Putnam than such conduct; or reprobated by him in more pointed terms. As soon as the heavy dew which had fallen the preceding night would permit, the detachment moved in one body, Putnam being in front, D'Ell in center, and Rogers in the rear. The impervious growth of shrubs, and under-brush that had sprung up, where the land had been partially cleared some years before, occa­sioned this change in the order of march. At the moment of moving, the famous French partizan Molang, who had been sent with five hundred men to intercept our party, was not more than one mile and an half distant from them. Having heard the firing, he hasted to lay an ambuscade pre­cisely in that part of the wood most favorable to his pro­ject. Major Putnam was just emerging from the thicket, into the common forest, when the enemy rose, and with discordant yells and whoops, commenced an attack upon the right of his division. Surprised, but undismayed▪ [Page 233] Putnam halted, returned the fire, and passed the word for the other divisions to advance for his support. D'Ell came. The action, though widely scattered, and prin­cipally fought between man and man, soon grew gene­ral and intensely warm. It would be as difficult as use­less to describe this irregular and ferocious mode of fight­ing. Rogers came not up: but, as he declared after­wards, formed a circular file between our party and Wood-Creek, to prevent their being taken in rear or en­filaded. Successful as he commonly was, his conduct did not always pass without unfavorable imputation. Notwithstanding, it was a current saying in the camp, "that Rogers always sent, but Putnam led his men to action," yet, in justice, it ought to be remark­ed here, that the latter has never been known, in relat­ing the story of this day's disaster, to affix any stigma up­on the conduct of the former.

MAJOR Putnam, perceiving it would be impractica­ble to cross the creek, determined to maintain his ground. Inspired by his example, the officers and men behaved with great bravery: sometimes they fought ag­gregately in open view, and sometimes individually un­der cover; taking aim from behind the bodies of trees, and acting in a manner independent of each other. For himself, having discharged his fuzee several times, at length it missed fire, while the muzzle was pressed against the breast of a large and well proportioned Savage. This warrior, availing himself of the indefensible atti­tude of his adversary, with a tremendous war-hoop sprang forward, with his lifted hatchet, and compelled [Page 234] him to surrender; and having disarmed and bound him fast to a tree, returned to the battle.

THE intrepid Captains D'Ell and Harman, who now commanded, were forced to give ground for a little dis­tance: the Savages, conceiving this to be the certain harbinger of victory, rushed impetuously on, with dread­ful and redoubled cries. But our two partizans, col­lecting a handful of brave men, gave the pursuers so warm a reception as to oblige them, in turn to retreat a little beyond the spot at which the action had commen­ced. Here they made a stand. This change of ground occasioned the tree to which Putnam was tied to be di­rectly between the fire of the two parties. Human ima­gination can hardly figure to itself a more deplorable si­tuation. The balls flew incessantly from either side, ma­ny struck the tree, while some passed through the sleeves and skirts of his coat. In this state of jeopardy, unable to move his body, to stir his limbs, or even to incline his head, he remained more than an hour. So equally bal­anced, and so obstinate was the fight! At one moment, while the battle swerved in favor of the enemy, a young Savage, chose an odd way of discovering his humor. He found Putnam bound. He might have dispatched him at a blow. But he loved better to excite the terrors of the pri­soner, by hurling a tomahawk at his head, or rather it should seem his object was to see how near he could throw it with­out touching him—the weapon struck in the tree a number of times at a hair's breath distance from the mark. When the Indian had finished his amusement, a French Bas-Of­ficer (a much more inveterate savage by nature, though descended from so humane and polished a nation) per­ceiving [Page 235] Putnam, came up to him, and, levelling a fu­zee within a foot of his breast, attempted to discharge it; it missed fire—ineffectually did the intended victim, soli­cit the treatment due to his situation, by repeating, that he was a prisoner of war. The degenerate Frenchman did not understand the language of honor or of nature: deaf to their voice, and dead to sensibility, he violently, and repeatedly, pushed the muzzle of his gun against Put­nam's ribs, and finally, gave him a cruel blow on the jaw with the butt of his piece. After this dastardly deed he left him.

AT length the active intrepidity of D'Ell and ^* Har­man, seconded by the persevering valor of their follow­ers, prevailed. They drove from the field the enemy, who left about ninety dead behind them. As they were retiring Putnam was untied by the Indian who had made him prisoner and whom he afterwards called mas­ter. Having been conducted for some distance from the place of action, he was stripped of his coat, vest, stock­ings and shoes; loaded with as many of the packs of the wounded as could be piled upon him; strongly pinion­ed, and his wrists tied as closely together as they could be pulled with a cord. After he had marched, through no pleasant paths, in this painful manner, for many a tedious mile, the party (who were excessively fatigued) halted to breathe. His hands were now immoderately swelled from the tightness of the ligature: and the pain had become intolerable. His feet were so much scratched that the blood dropped fast from them. Ex­hausted with bearing a burden above his strength, and [Page 236] frantic with torments exquisite beyond endurance; he entreated the Irish Interpreter to implore as the last and only grace he desired of the Savages, that they would knock him on the head and take his scalp at once, or loose his hands. A French officer, instantly interposing, ordered his hands to be unbound, and some of the packs to be taken off. By this time the Indian who captured him and had been absent with the wounded, coming up, gave him a pair of mocasons, and expressed great indig­uation at the unworthy treatment his prisoner had suffered.

THAT Savage Chief again returned to the care of the wounded, and the Indians, about two hundred in num­ber, went before the rest of the party to the place where the whole were, that night, to encamp. They took with them Major Putnam, on whom besides innumera­ble other outrages, they had the barbarity to inflict a deep wound with a tomahawk, in the left cheek. His sufferings were in this place to be consummated. A scene of horror, infinitely greater than had ever met his eyes before, was now preparing. It was determined to roast him alive.—For this purpose they led him into a dark forest, stripped him naked, bound him to a tree, and piled dry brush with other fuel, at a small distance, in a circle round him. They accompanied their labors, as if for his funeral dirge, with screams and sounds ini­mitable but by savage voices. Then they set the piles on fire. A sudden shower damped the rising flame. Still they strove to kindle it, until, at last, the blaze ran fiercely round the circle. Major Putnam soon began to feel the scorching heat. His hands were so tied that he could move his body. He often shifted sides as the fire [Page 237] approached. This sight, at the very idea of which all but Savages must shudder, afforded the highest diversion to his inhuman tormentors, who demonstrated the delirium of their joy by correspondent yells, dances and gesticu­lations. He saw clearly that his final hour was inevi­tably come. He summoned all his resolution and com­posed his mind, as far as the circumstances could admit, to bid an eternal farewel to all he held most dear. To quit the world would scarcely have cost a single pang, but for the idea of home, but for the remembrance of domestic endearments, of the affectionate partner of his soul, and of their beloved offspring. His thought was ultimately fixed on a happier state of existence, beyond the tortures he was beginning to endure. The bitter­ness of death, even of tha [...] death which is accompanied with the keenest agonies, was, in a manner, past—na­ture, with a feeble struggle, was quitting its last hold on sublunary things—when a French officer rushed through the crowd, opened a way by scattering the burning brands, and unbound the victim. It was Mo­lang himself—to whom a Savage, unwilling to see ano­ther human sacrifice immolated, had run and communicat­ed the tidings. That Commandant spurned and severely reprimanded the barbarians, whose nocturnal Powwas and hellish Orgies he suddenly ended. Putnam did not want for feeling or gratitude. The French Command­er, fearing to trust him alone with them, remained un­til he could deliver him in safety into the hands of his master.

THE Savage approached his prisoner kindly, and seemed to treat him with particular affection. He of­fered [Page 238] him some hard biscuit, but finding that he could not chew them, on account of the blow he had received from the Frenchman, this more humane Savage soaked some of the buiscuit in water and made him suck the pulp-like part. Determined, however, not to lose his captive (the refreshment being finished) he took the mo­casons from his feet and tied them to one of his wrists: then directing him to lie down on his back upon the bare ground, he stretched one arm to its full length, and bound it fast to young tree; the other arm was ex­tended and bound in the same manner—his legs were stretched apart and fastened to two saplings. Then a number of tall, but slender poles were cut down; which, with some long bushes, were laid across his body from head to foot: on each side lay as many Indians as could convenienly find lodging, in order to prevent the possi­bility of his escape. In this disagreeable and painful posture he remained until morning. During this night, the longest and most dreary conceivable, our hero used to relate that he felt a ray of cheerfulness come casually across his mind, and could not even refrain from smiling, when he reflected on this ludicrous groupe for a paint­er, of which he himself was the principal figure.

THE next day he was allowed his blanket and moca­sons, and permitted to march without carrying any pack, or receiving any insult. To allay his extreme hunger, a little bear's meat was given, which he suck­ed through his teeth. At night, the party arrived at Ticonderoga, and the prisonor was placed under the care of a French guard. The Savages, who had been prevented from glutting their diabolical thirst for blood, [Page 239] took other opportunity of manifesting their malevo­lence for the disappointment, by horrid grimaces and angry gestures; but they were suffered no more to offer violence or personal indignity to him.

AFTER having been examined by the Marquis de Montcalm, Major Putnam was conducted to Montreal, by a French officer, who treated him with the greatest indulgence and humanity.

AT this place were several prisoners. Colonel Peter Schuyler, remarkable for his philanthropy, generosity, and friendship, was of the number. No sooner had he heard of Major Putnam's arrival, than he went to the Interpreter's quarters, and enquired, whether he had a Provincial Major in his custody? He found Major Put­nam in a comfortless condition—without coat, waistcoat, or hose—the remnant of his cloathing miserably dirty and ragged—his beard long and squalid—his legs torn by thorns and briars—his face gashed with wounds, and swollen with bruises. Colonel Schuyler, irritated be­yond all sufferance at such a sight, could scarcely restrain his speech within limits, consistent with the prudence of a prisoner and the meekness of a Christian. Major Put­nam was immediately treated according to his rank, cloathed in a decent manner, and supplied with money by that liberal and sympathetic patron of the distressed.

THE capture of Frontena [...] by General Bradstreet af­forded occasion for an exchange of prisoners. Colonel Schuyler was comprehended in the cartel. A generous [Page 240] spirit can never be satisfied with imposing tasks for its generosity to accomplish. Apprehensive, if it should be known that Putnam was a distinguished partizan, his liberation might be retarded, and knowing that there were officers, who, from the length of their captivity, had a claim of priority to exchange; he had, by his happy address, induced the Governor to offer, that what­ever officer he might think proper to nominate, should be included in the present cartel. With great politeness in manner, but seeming indifference as to object, he ex­pressed his warmest acknowledgements to the Governor, and said: ‘There is an old man here, who is a Provin­cial Major, and wishes to be at home with his wife and children. He can do no good here, or any where else: I believe your Excellency had better keep some of the young men, who have no wife or children to care for, and let the old fellow go home with me.’ This jus­tifiable finesse had the desired effect.

AT the house of Colonel Schuyler, Major Putnam be­came acquainted with Mrs. Howe, a fair captive, whose history would not be read without emotion, if it could be written in the same affecting manner, in which I have often heard it told. She was still young and handsome herself, though she had two daughters of marriageable age. Distress, which had taken somewhat from the ori­ginal redundancy of her bloom, and added a softening paleness to her cheeks, rendered her appearance the more engaging. Her face, that seemed to have been formed for the assemblage of dimples and smiles, was clouded with care. The natural sweetness was not, however, soured by despondency and petulance; but chastened by [Page 241] humility and resignation. This mild daughter of sorrow looked as if she had known the day of prosperity, when serenity and gladness of soul were the inmates of her bo­som. That day was past, and the once lively features, now assumed a tender melancholy, which witnessed her irreparable loss. She needed not the customary weeds of mourning, or the fallacious pageantry of woe to prove her widowed state. She was in that stage of affliction, when the excess is so far abated as to permit the subject to be drawn into conversation, without opening the wound afresh. It is then rather a source of pleasure than pain to dwell upon the circumstances in narration. Eve­ry thing conspired to make her story interesting. Her first husband had been killed and scalped by the Indians some years before. By an unexpected assault in 1756 upon Fort Dummer, where she then happened to be pre­sent with Mr. Howe, her second husband, the Savages car­ried the Fort, murdered the greater part of the garrison, mangled in death her husband, and led her away with seven children into captivity. She was for some months kept with them: and during their rambles she was fre­quently on the point of perishing with hunger, and as often subjected to hardships seemingly intolerable to one of so delicate a frame. Some time after the career of her miseries began, the Indians selected a couple of their young men to marry her daughters. The fright and disgust which the intelligence of this intention occasi­oned to these poor young creatures, added infinitely to the sorrows and perplexities of their frantic mother. To prevent the hated connection, all the activity of female resource was called into exertion. She found an oppor­tunity of conveying to the Governor a petition, that her [Page 242] daughters might be received into a convent for the sake of securing the salvation of their souls. Happily the pi­ous fraud succeeded.

ABOUT the same time the Savages separated, and car­ried off her other five children into different tribes. She was ransomed by an elderly French officer, for four hun­dred livres. Of no avail were the cries of this tender mother—a mother desolated by the loss of her children, who were thus torn from her fond embraces, and re­moved many hundred miles from each other, into the ut­most recesses of Canada. With them (could they have been kept together) she would most willingly have wandered to the extremities of the world, and accepted as a desira­ble portion the cruel lot of slavery for life. But she was precluded from the sweet hope of ever beholding them again. The insufferable pang of parting, and the idea of eternal separation planted the arrows of despair deep in her soul. Though all the world was no better than a de­sert, and all its inhabitants were then indifferent to her—yet the loveliness of her appearance in sorrow had awakened affections, which, in the aggravation of her troubles, were to become a new source of afflictions.

THE officer, who bought her of the Indians, had a son, who also held a commission, and resided with his fa­ther. During her continuance in the same house, at St. John's, the double attachment of the father and the son, rendered her situation extremely distressing. It is true, the calmness of age delighted to gaze respectfully on her beauty, but the impetuosity of youth was fired to mad­ness by the sight of her charms. One day, the son, whose [Page 243] attentions had been long lavished upon her in vain, find­ing her alone, in a chamber, forcibly seized her hand, and solemnly declared, that he would now satiate the passion which she had so long refused to indulge. She recurred to intreaties, struggles, and tears, those pre­valent female weapons, which the distraction of danger, not less than the promptness of genius is wont to supply: while he, in the delirium of vexation and desire, snatch­ed a dagger, and swore he would put an end to her life, if she persisted to struggle. Mrs. Howe, assuming the dignity of conscious virtue, told him, it was what she most ardently wished, and begged him to plunge the poignard through her heart, since the mutual importu­nities and jealousies of such rivals, had rendered her life, though innocent, more irksome and insupportable, than death itself. Struck with a momentary compunction, he seemed to relent, and relax his hold—and she, avail­ing herself of his irresolution, or absence of mind, escaped down the stairs. In her disordered state, she told the whole transaction to his father, who directed her, in future, to sleep in a small bed at the foot of that in which his wife lodged. The affair soon reached the Governor's ears, and the young officer was, shortly afterwards, sent on a tour of duty to Detroit.

THIS gave her a short respite; but she dreaded his return, and the humiliating insults for which she might be reserved. Her children, too, were ever present to her melancholy mind. A stranger, a widow, a captive, she knew not where to apply for relief. She had heard of the name of Schuyler—she was yet to learn, that it was only another appellation for the friend of suffering hu­manity. [Page 244] As that excellent man was on his way from Quebec to the Jerseys, under a parole for a limited time, she came with feeble and trembling steps to him. The same maternal passion, which, sometimes, overcomes the timidity of nature in the birds, when plundered of their callow nestlings, emboldened her, notwithstanding her native diffidence, to disclose those griefs which were rea­dy to devour her in silence. While her delicate aspect was heightened to a glowing blush, for fear of offend­ing by an inexcusable importunity, or of transgressing the rules of propriety, by representing herself as being an object of admiration; she told, with artless simpli­city, all the story of her woes. Colonel Schuyler, from that moment became her protector, and endeavored to procure her liberty. The person who purchased her from the Savages, unwilling to part with so fair a pur­chase, demanded a thousand livres as her ransom. But Colonel Schuyler, on his return to Quebec, obtained from the Governor an order, in consequence of which, Mrs. Howe was given up to him for four hundred livres—Nor did his active goodness rest, until every one of her five sons was restored to her.

BUSINESS having made it necessary that Colonel Schuyler should precede the prisoners who were exchang­ed, he recommended the fair captive to the protection of his friend Putnam. She had just recovered from the meazles when the party was preparing to set off for New­England. By this time the young French officer had returned, with his passion rather increased than abated by absence. He pursued her wheresoever she went, and, al­though he could make no advances in her affection, he [Page 245] seemed resolved by perseverance to carry his point. Mrs. Howe, terrified by his treatment, was obliged to keep constantly near Major Putnam, who informed the young officer, that he should protect that lady at the risque of his life. However, this amorous and rash lover, in whose boiling veins such an agitation was excited, that while he was speaking of her the ^* blood would fre­quently gush from his nostrils, followed the prisoners to Lake Champlain; and, when the boat in which the fair captive was embarked, had pushed from the shore, he jumped into the Lake, and swam after her until it row­ed out of sight. Whether he perished in this distracted state of mind, or returned to the shore, is not known.

IN the long march from captivity, through an inhos­pitable wilderness, encumbered with five small children, she suffered incredible hardships. Though endowed with masculine fortitude, she was truly feminine in strength, and must have fainted by the way, had it not been for the assistance of Major Putnam. There were a thousand good offices which the helplessness of her con­dition demanded, and which the gentleness of his nature delighted to perform. He assisted in leading her little ones, and in carrying them over the swampy grounds and runs of water, with which their course was fre­quently intersected. He mingled his own mess with that of the widow and the fatherless, and assisted them in supplying and preparing their provisions. Upon ar­riving [Page 246] within the settlements they experienced a recipro­cal regret at separation, and were only consoled by the expectation of soon mingling in the embraces of their former acquaintances and dearest connections.

AFTER the conquest of Canada in 1760, she made a journey to Quebec, in order to bring back her two daughters whom she had left in a convent. She found one of them married to a French officer. The other, having contracted a great fondness for the religious sis­terhood, with reluctance, consented to leave them and return.

A FEW years previous to the war between Great Bri­tain and America, a question of some consequence arose respecting the title of the lands in Hinsdale (the town in which Mrs. Howe resided) insomuch that it was deem­ed expedient, that an Agent should be sent to England to advocate the claim of the town. It may be mention­ed as a proof of the acknowledged superiority of the un­derstanding and address of this gentlewoman, that she was universally designated for the mission. But the dis­pute was fortunately accommodated to the satisfaction of the people, without their being obliged to make use of her talents.

WE now arrive at the period, when the prowess of Britain, victorious, alike by sea and by land, in the new and in the old world, had elevated that name to the zenith of national glory. The conquest of Quebec, opened the way for the total reduction of Canada. On the side of the Lakes, Amherst having captured the posts [Page 247] of Ticonderoga and Crown-Point, applied himself to strengthen the latter. Putnam, who had been raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and present at these ope­rations, was employed the remainder of this and some part of the succeeding season in superintending the par­ties, which were detached to procure timber and other materials for the fortification.

IN 1760 General Amherst, a sagacious, humane, and experienced commander, planned the termination of the war in Canada, by a bloodless conquest. For this pur­pose, three armies were destined to co-operate by differ­ent routes against Montreal, the only remaining place of strength the enemy held in that country. The corps formerly commanded by General Wolfe, now by Ge­neral Murray, was ordered to ascend the river St. Law­rence; another (under Col. Haviland) to penetrate by the Isle Aux Noix; and the third, consisting of about ten thousand men, commanded by the General himself, after passing up the Mohawk-river, and taking its course by the Lake Ontario, was to form a junction by falling down the St. Lawrence. In this progress, more than one occasion presented itself manifest the intrepi­dity and soldiership Lieutenant Colonel Putnam. Two armed vessels obstructed the passage and prevented the attack on Oswegatchie. Putnam, with 1000 men, in 50 batteaux, undertook to board them. This daunt­less officer, ever sparing of the blood of others, as pro­digal of his own, to accomplish it with the less loss, put himself (with a chosen crew, a beetle and wedges) in the van, with a design to wedge the rudders, so that the vessels should not be able to turn their broadsides or [Page 248] perform any other manoeuvre. All the men in his little fleet were ordered to strip to their waistcoats, and ad­vance at the same time. He promised, if he lived, to join and shew them the way up the sides. Animated by so daring an example, they moved swiftly, in pro­found stillness, as to certain victory or death. The peo­ple on board the ships, beholding the good countenance with which they approached, ran one of the vessels on shore, and struck the colors of the other. Had it not been for the dastardly conduct of the ship's company, in the latter, who compelled the Captain to haul down his ensign, he would have given the assailants a bloody re­ception. For the vessels were well provided with spears, nettings, and every customary instrument of annoy­ance as well as defence.

IT now remained to attack the fortress, which stood on an Island, and seemed to have been rendered inaccessible by an high abbattis of black-ash, that every where projected over the water. Lieutenant Colonel Putnam proposed a mode of attack, and offered his services to carry it in­to effect. The General approved the proposal. Our partizan, accordingly, caused a sufficient number of boats to be [...]itted for the enterprize. The sides of each boat were surrounded with fascines (musquet proof) which covered the men compleatly. A wide plank, twenty feet in length, was then fitted to every boat in such manner, by having an angular piece sawed from one extremity, that, when fastened by ropes on both sides of the bow, it might be raised or lowered at pleasure. The design was, that the plank should be held erect, while the oarsmen forced the bow with the utmost exertion against the abat­tis; [Page 249] and that, afterwards, being dropped on the pointed brush, it should serve as a kind of bridge to assist the men in passing over them. Lieutenant Colonel Putnam, having made his dispositions to attempt the escalade in many places at the same moment, advanced with his boats in admirable order. The garrison, perceiving these extraordinary and unexpected machines, waited not the assault, but capitulated. Lieutenant Colonel Putnam, was particularly honored by General Amherst, for his ingenuity in this invention, and promptitude in its ex­ecution. The three armies arrived at Montreal, within two days of each other; and the conquest of Canada be­came compleat without the loss of a single drop of blood.

AT no great distance from Montreal, stands the Savage village, called Cochnawaga. Here our partizan found the Indian Chief, who had formerly made him prisoner. That Indian was highly delighted to see his old ac­quaintance, whom he entertained in his own well-built stone house, with great friendship and hospitality; while his guest did not discover less satisfaction in an oppor­tunity of shaking the brave Savage by the hand, and proffering him protection in this reverse of his military fortunes.

WHEN the belligerent powers were considerably ex­hausted, a rupture took place between Great Britain and Spain, in the month of January, 1762, and an ex­pedition was formed that campaign, under Lord Albe­marle, against the Havannah. A body of Provincials, composed of five hundred men from the Jerseys, eight hundred from New-York, and one thousand from Con­necticut, [Page 250] joined his Lordship. General Lyman, who raised the regiment of one thousand men in Connecticut▪ being the senior officer, commanded the whole: of course, the immediate command of his regiment developed upon Lieutenant Colonel Putnam. The fleet, that carried these troops, sailed from New-York, and arrived safely on the coast of Cuba. There a terrible storm arose, and the transport, in which Lieutenant Colonel Putnam had embarked with five hundred men, was wrecked on a rift of craggy rocks. The weather was so tempestu­ous, and the surf, which ran mountain-high, dashed with such violence against the ship, that the most experien­ced seamen expected it would soon part asunder. The rest of the fleet, so far from being able to afford assist­ance, with difficulty rode out the gale. In this deplor­able situation, as the only expedient by which they could be saved, strict order was maintained, and all those people, who best understood the use of tools, instantly employed in constructing rafts from spars, plank, and whatever other materials could be procured. There happened to be on board, a large quantity of strong cords, (the same that are used in the whale fishery) which, be­ing fastened to the rafts, after the first had with incon­ceivable hazard reached the shore, were of infinite ser­vice, in preventing the others from driving out to sea, as also in dragging them athwart the billows, to the beach: by which means, every man was finally saved. With the same presence of mind, to take advantage of circumstances, and the same precaution to prevent con­fusion, of similar occasions, how many valuable lives, prematurely lost, might have been preserved as blessings to their families, their friends, and their country. As [Page 252] soon as all were landed, Lieutenant Colonel Putnam for­tified his camp, that he might not be exposed to insult, from the inhabitants of the neighboring districts, or from those of Carthagena, who were but twenty-four miles distant. Here the party remained unmolested se­veral days, until the storm had so much abated, as to permit the convoy to take them off. They soon joined the troops before the Havannah, who, having been se­veral weeks in that unhealthy climate, already began to grow extremely ^* sickly. The opportune arrival of the Provincial reinforcement, in perfect health, contributed not a little to forward the works, and hasten the re­duction of that important place, But the Provincials suffered so miserably by sickness, afterwards, that very few ever returned to their native land again.

ALTHOUGH a general peace among the European powers was ratified in 1763, yet the Savages, on our western frontiers, still continued their hostilities. After they had taken several posts, General Bradstreet was sent in 1764, with an army against them. Colonel Put­nam, then, for the first time, appointed to the command of a regiment, was on the expidition; as was the In­dian [Page 250] Chief, (whom I have several times had occasion to mention as his capturer) at the head of one hundred Cochnawaga-warriors. Before General Bradstreet reach­ed Detroit, which the Savages invested, Captain D'Ell, the faithful friend, and intrepid fellow-soldier of Colo­nel Putnam, had been slain in a desperate sally. He, having been detached with five hundred men, in 1763, by General Amherst, to raise the siege, found means of throwing the succour into the Fort. But the garrison, (commanded by Major Gladwine, a brave and sensible officer) had been so much weakened, by the lurking and insiduous mode of war, practised by the Savages, that not a man could be spared to co-operate in an attack up­on them. The Commandant would even have dissuaded Captain D'Ell from the attempt, on account of the great disparity in numbers; but the latter, relying on the discipline and courage of his men, replied, ‘God for­bid, that I should ever disobey the orders of my Ge­neral,’ and immediately disposed them for action. It was obstinate and bloody. But the vastly superior num­ber of the Savages, enabled them to enclose Captain D'Ell's party on every side, and compelled him, finally, to fight his way, in retreat from one stone-house to ano­ther. Having halted to breathe a moment, he saw one of his bravest serjeants, lying at a small distance, wound­ed through the thigh, and wallowing in his blood. Whereupon he desired some of the men, to run, and bring the serjeant to the house, but they declined it. Then declaring, ‘that he never would leave so brave a soldier in the field, to be tortured by the Savages,’ he ran and endeavoured to help him up—at the instant, a volley of shot dropped them both dead together. The [Page 251] party continued retreating, from house to house, until they regained the Fort; where it was found, the conflict had been so sharp, and lasted so long, that only fifty men remained alive, of the five hundred, who had sallied.

UPON the arrival of General Bradstreet, the Savages saw, that all further efforts, in arms, would be vain, and, accordingly, after many fallacious proposals for a peace, and frequent tergiversations in the negociation, they con­cluded a treaty, which ended the war in America.

COLONEL Putnam, at the expiration of ten years from his first receiving a Commission, after having seen as much service, endured as many hardships, encountered as many dangers, and acquired as many laurels as any officers of his rank, with great satisfaction, laid aside his uniform and returned to his plough. The various and uncommon scenes of war in which he had acted a respect­able part, his intercourse with the world and intimacy with some of the first characters in the army, joined with occasional reading, had not only brought into view what­ever talents he possessed from nature, but, at the same time, had extended his knowledge and polished his man­ners to a considerable degree. Not having become in­flated with pride or forgetful of his old connections, he had the good fortune to possess entirely the good will of his fellow citizens. No character stood fairer in the public eye for integrity, bravery and patriotism. He was employed in several offices in his own town, and not unfrequently elected to represent it in the General As­sembly. The year after his return to private life, the minds of men were strangely agitated, by an attempt of [Page 253] the British Parliament, to introduce the memorable Stamp Act in America. This germe policy, whose growth was repressed by the moderate temperature in which it was kept by some administrations, did not fully disclose its fruit until nearly eleven years after­wards. All the world knows how it then ripened into a civil war.

ON the twenty-second day of March 1765, the Stamp Act received the royal assent. It was to take place in America on the first day of November following. This innovation spread a sudden and universal alarm. The political pulse in the Provinces, from Main to Georgia throbbed in sympathy. The Assemblies, in most of these colonies, that they might oppose it legally and in con­cert, appointed Delegates to confer together on the sub­ject. This first Congress met, early in October, at New­York. They agreed upon a Declaration of Rights and Grievances of the Colonists; together with separate Ad­dresses to the King, Lords, and Commons of Great Bri­tain. In the mean time, the people had determined, in order to prevent the stamped paper from being distribut­ed, that the Stamp Masters should not enter on the ex­ecution of their office. That appointment, in Connecti­cut, had been conferred upon Mr. Ingersol, a very dig­nified, sensible and learned native of the colony, who, upon being solicited to resign, did not, in the first instance, give a satisfactory answer. In consequence of which, a great number of the substantial yeomanry, on horseback, furnished with provisions for themselves, and provender for their horses, assembled in the eastern counties, and began their march for New­Haven to receive the resig­nation [Page 256] of Mr. Ingersol. A junction with another body was to have been formed in Branford. But having learn­ed at Hartford, that Mr. Ingersol would be in town the next day to claim protection from the Assembly, they took quarters there and kept out patroles during the whole night, to prevent his arrival without their know­ledge. The succeeding morning they resumed their march and met Mr. Ingersol in Wethersfield. They told him their business, and he, after some little hesita­tion, mounted on a round table, read his resignation ^*. That finished, the multitude desired him to cry out "li­berty and property" three times; which he did, and was answered by three loud huzzas. He then dined with some of the principal men at a tavern, by whom he was treated with great politeness, and afterwards was escort­ed [Page 254] by about five hundred horse to Hartford: where he again read his resignation amidst the unbounded accla­mations of the people. I have chosen to style this col­lection the yeomanry, the multitude, or the people, be­cause I could not make use of the English word mob (which generally signifies a disorderly concurrence of the rabble) without conveying an erroneous idea. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the people, their ob­jects being effected, without offering disturbance, dis­persed to their homes. ^*

COLONEL Putnam, who instigated the people to these measures, was prevented from attending by accident. But he was deputed soon after, with two other Gentle­men, to wait on Governor Fitch, on the same subject. The questions of the Governor, and answers of Put­nam, will serve to indicate the spirit of the times. Af­ter some conversation, the Governor asked, ‘What he should do, if the stamped paper should be sent to him by the King's authority?’—Putnam replied, ‘lo [...]k it up, until we shall visit you again,’— ‘And what will you do then?’ ‘We shall expect you to give us the key of the room, in which it is deposited; and, [Page 257] if you think fit, in order to screen yourself from blame, you may forewarn us upon our peril not to enter the room,’— ‘And what will you do afterwards?’— ‘Send it safely back again,’— ‘But if I should refuse admission?’— ‘In such a case, your house will be levelled with the dust in five minutes.’—It was sup­posed that a report of this conversation, was one reason, why the stamped paper was never sent from New-York to Connecticut.

SUCH unanimity in the Provincial Assemblies, and de­cision in the yeomanry, carried beyond the Atlantic, a conviction of the inexpediency of attempting to enforce the new Revenue System. The Stamp Act being re­pealed, and the measures in a manner quieted, Colonel Putnam continued to labor with his own hands, at farm­ing, without interruption, except (for a little time) by the loss of the first joint of his right thumb from one ac­cident, and the compound fracture of his right thigh from another—that thigh, being rendered nearly an inch shorter than the left, occasioned him ever to limp in his walk.

THE Provincial Officers and Soldiers from Connecti­cut, who survived the conquest of the Havannah, ap­pointed General Lyman to receive the remainder to their prize-money, in England. A company, composed part­ly of military, and partly of other gentlemen, whose ob­ject was to obtain from the Crown, a grant of Land on the Missisippi, also committed to him the negociation of their affairs. When several years had elapsed in appli­cations, a Grant of Land was obtained. In 1770, Ge­neral [Page 258] Lyman, with Colonel Putnam, and two or three others went to explore the situation. After a tedious voyage, and a laborious passage up the Missisippi, they accomplished their business.

GENERAL Lyman came back to Connecticut with the Explorers, but soon returned to the Natchez: theer form­ed an Establishment and laid his bones. Colonel Put­nam placed some laborers with provisions and farming utensils upon his location, but the encreasing troubles shortly after ruined the prospect of deriving any advan­tage from that quarter.

IN speaking of the troubles that ensued, I not only omit to say any thing, on the obnoxious claim asserted in the British declaratory act, the continuation of the duty on tea, the attempt to obtrude that article upon the Americans, the abortion of this project, the Boston Port Bill, the alteration of the charter of Massachusetts, and other to [...]ics of universal notoriety; but even wave all discussion of irritations on the one part, and suppli­cations on the other, which preceded the war between Great-Britain and her colonies on this continent. It will ever be acknowledged by those who were best ac­quainted with facts, and it should be made known to po­sterity, that the king of England had not, in his exten­sive dominions, subjects more loyal, more dutiful, or more zealous for his glory than the Americans; and that nothing short of a melancholy persuasion, that the ‘measures which for many years had been systematical­ly pursued, by his ministers, were calculated to sub­vert, their constitutions,’ could have dissolved their [Page 259] powerful attachment to that kingdom, which they fond­ly called their parent country. Here, without digression to develope the cause, or describe the progress, it may suffice to observe, the dispute now verged precipitately to an awful crisis. Most considerate men foresaw it would terminate in blood. But, rather than suffer the chains (which they believed in preparation) to be rivetted, they nobly determined to sacrifice their lives. In vain did they deprecate the infatuation of those transatlantic counsels which drove them to deeds of desperation. Convinced of the rectitude of their cause, and doubtful of the issue, they felt the most painful solicitude for the fate of their country, on contemplating the superior strength of the nation with which it was to contend. America, thinly inhabited, under thirteen distinct colo­nial governments, could have little hope of success, but from the protection of Providence and the unconquera­ble spirit of freedom which pervaded the mass of the people: it is true, since the peace, she had surprisingly encreased in wealth and population—but the resources of Britain almost exceeded credibility or conception. It is not wonderful then, that some good citizens, of weak­er nerves, recoiled at the prospect: while others, who had been officers in the late war, or who had witnessed by travelling, the force of Britain, stood aloof. All eyes were now turned to find the men, who, possessed of mi­litary experience, would dare, in the approaching hour of severest trial, to lead their undisciplined fellow-citi­zens to battle. For none were so stupid as not to com­prehend, that want of success would involve the leaders in the punishment of rebellion. Putnam was among the first and most conspicuous who stepped forth. Although [Page 260] the Americans had been, by many who wished their subjugation, indiscreetly as indiscriminately stigmatized with the imputation of cowardice—he felt—he knew for himself, he was no coward; and from what he had seen and known, he believed that his countrymen, dri­ven to the extremity of defending their rights by arms, would find no difficulty in wiping away the ungenerous aspersion. As he happened to be often at Boston, he held many conversations on these subjects with General Gage, the British Commander in Chief, Lord Piercy, Colonel Sheriff, Colonel Small, and many officers with whom he had formerly served, who were now at the Head Quarters. Being often questioned, ‘in case the dispute should proceed to hostilities, what part he would really take?’ He always answered, ‘with his country, and that, let whatever might happen, he was prepared to abide the consequence.’ Being interrogated ‘whether he, who had been a witness to the prowess and victories of the British fleets and ar­mies, did not think them equal to the conquest of a country which was not the owner of a single Ship. Regiment or Magazine?’ He rejoined, that ‘he could only say, justice would be on our side, and the e­vent with Providence: but that he had calculated if it required six years for the combined forces of Eng­land and her Colonies to conquer such a feeble coun­try as Canada; it would at least, take a very long time for England alone to overcome her own widely extended Colonies, which were much stronger than Canada: That when men sought for every thing dear, in what they believed to be the most sacred of all causes, and in their own native land; they would have [Page 261] great advantages over their enemies, who were not in the same situation; and that, having taken into view all circumstances, for his own part, he fully believed that America would not be so easily conquered by England as those gentlemen seemed to expect.’ Be­ing once, in particular, asked, ‘whether he did not seriously believe that a well appointed British army of five thousand veterans could march through the whole continent of America? He replied briskly,—no doubt, if they behaved civilly and paid well for every thing they wanted’—"but"—after a moment's pause added— ‘if they should attempt it in a hostile manner (though the American men were out of the question) the women, with their laddles and broom­sticks, would knock them all on the head before they had got half way through.’ This was the tenor, our hero hath often told me of these amicable inter­views. And thus, (as it commonly happens in disputes about future events, which depend on opinion) they parted without conviction: no more to meet in a friend­ly manner, until after the appeal should have been made to Heaven, and the issue confirmed by the sword. In the mean time, to provide against the worst contingen­cy, the militia in the several Colonies was sedulously trained; and those select companies, the flower of our youth, which were denominated minutemen, agreeably to the indication of their name, held themselves in rea­diness to march at a moment's warning.

AT length the fatal day arrived, when hostilities com­menced. General Gage, in the evening of the 18th of April, 1775, detached from Boston the Grenadiers and [Page 262] Light Infantry of the Army, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Smith, to destroy some military and other stores deposited by the Province at Concord. About sunrise the next morning, the Detachment, on marching into Lexington, fired upon a company of militia who had just re-assembled: for having been alarmed late at night, with reports that the Regulars were advancing to de­molish the stores, they collected on their parade, and were dismissed with orders to re-assemble at beat of drum. It is established by the affidavits of more than thirty persons who were present, that the first fire, which killed eight of the militia, then beginning to disperse, was given by the British, without provocation. The spark of war, thus kindled, ran with unexampled rapi­dity, and raged with unwonted violence. To repel the aggression, the people of the bordering towns spontane­ously rushed to arms, and poured their scattering shot from every convenient station upon the Regulars; who, after marching to Concord, and destroying the Maga­zine, would have found their retreat intercepted, had they not been reinforced by Lord Piercy with the bat­talion companies of three regiments, and a body of ma­rines. Notwithstanding the junction, they were hard pushed, and pursued until they could find protection from their ships. Of the British, two hundred and eigh­ty-three were killed, wounded and taken. The Ame­ricans had thirty-nine killed, nineteen wounded, and two made prisoners.

NOTHING could exceed the celerity with which the intelligence flew every where, that blood had been shed by the British troops. The country, in motion, ex­hibited but one scene of hurry, preparation, and revenge. [Page 263] Putnam, who was plowing when he heard the news, left his plough in the middle of the field, unyoked his team, and without waiting to change his clothes, set off for the theatre of action. But finding the British re­treated to Boston, and invested by a sufficient force to watch their movements, he came back to Connecticut, levied a regiment (under authority of the Legislature) and speedily returned to Cambridge ^*. He was now pro­moted to be a Major General on the Provincial Staff, by his Colony: and in a little time confirmed by Congress, in the same rank on the Continental establishment. Ge­neral Ward of Massachusetts, by common consent, com­manded the whole: And the celebrated Doctor Warren, was made a Major General.

[Page 264] NOT long after this period, the British Commander in Chief, found the means to convey a proposal, privately to General Putnam, that, if he would relinquish the Re­bel party, he might rely upon being made a Major Ge­neral on the British establishment, [...]ad receiving a great pecuniary compensation for his services. General Put­nam spurned at the offer: which, however, he thought prudent at that time to conceal from public notice.

IT could scarcely have been expected, but by those credulous patriots, who were prone to believe whatever they ardently desired, that officers assembled from Colo­nies distinct in their manners, and prejudices, selected from laborious occupations, to command a heterogene­ous crowd of their equals, compelled to be soldiers only by the spur of occasion, should long be able to preserve harmony among themselves, and subordination among their followers. As the fact would be a phaenomenon, the idea was treated with mirth and mockery by the friends to the British government. Yet this unshaken embryo of a military corps, composed of militia, minute­men, volunteers, and levies; with a burlesque appear­ance [Page 265] of multiformity in arms, accoutrements, cloathing and conduct, at last grew into a regular Army—an Ar­my, which, having vindicated the rights of human na­ture, and established the independence of a new Empire, merited and obtained the glorious distinction of the Pa­triot Army—the Patriot Army, whose praises for their for­titude in adversity, bravery in battle, moderation in con­quest, perseverance in supporting the cruel extremities of hunger and nakedness without a murmur or sigh, as well as for their magnanimity in retiring to civil life, at the moment of victory, with arms in their hands, and without any just compensation for their services, will on­ly cease to be celebrated, when time shall exist no more.

ENTHUSIASM for the cause of liberty, substituted in the place of discipline, not only kept these troops toge­ther, but enabled them at once to perform the duties of a disciplined army. Though the Commanding Officers from the four colonies of New-England, were in a man­ner independent, they acted harmoniously in concert. The first attention had been prudently directed towards forming some little redoubts and intrenchments; for it was well known, that lines, however slight or untenable, were calculated to inspire raw soldiers with a confidence in themselves. The next care was to bring the live stock from the Islands in Boston bay, in order to pre­vent the enemy (already surrounded by land) from mak­ing use of them for fresh provisions. In the latter end of May, between two and three hundred men were sent to drive off the stock from Hog and Noddle Islands, which are situated on the north-east side of Boston har­bor. Advantage having been taken of the ebb-tide, [Page 266] when the water is fordable between the main and Hog-Island, as it is between that and Noddle-Island the design was effected. But a skirmish ensued, in which some of the marines, who had been stationed to guard them, were killed: and as the firing continu­ed between the British water-craft and our party, a re­inforcement of three hundred men, with two pieces of artillery, was ordered to join the latter. General Put­nam took the command, and having himself gone down on the beach, within conversing distance, and ineffectually ordered the people on board an armed schooner to strike, he plied her with shot so furiously that the crew made their escape, and the vessel was burnt. An armed sloop was likewise so much disabled as to be towed off by the boats of the fleet. Thus ended this affair, in which several hundred sheep, and some cattle were removed from under the muzzles of the enemy's cannon, and our men, accustomed to stand fire, by being for many hours exposed to it, without meeting with any loss.

THE Provincial Generals, having received advice, that the British Commander in Chief, designed to take possession of the heights on the peninsula of Charles Town, detached a thousand men in the night of the 16th of June, under the orders of General Warren, to entrench themselves upon one of these eminences, named Bunker Hill. Though retarded by accidents, from be­ginning the work until nearly midnight, yet, by dawn of day, they had constructed a redoubt about eight rods square, and commenced a breast-work from the left to the low grounds: which an insufferable fire from the ship­ping, floating batteries, and cannon on Cop's Hill, in Boston, prevented them from compleating. At mid-day [Page 267] four battalions of foot, ten companies of Grenadiers, ten companies of Light Infantry, with a proportion of Ar­tillery, commanded by Major General Howe, landed under a heavy cannonade from the ships, and advanced in three lines to the attack. The Light Infantry, being formed on their right, was directed to turn the left flank of the Americans: and the Grenadiers, supported by two battalions, to storm the redoubt in front. Mean­while, on application, these troops were augmented by the 47th Regiment, the 1st Battalion of Marines, toge­ther with some companies of Light Infantry, and Gre­nadiers, which formed an aggregate force of between two and three thousand men. But so difficult was it to reinforce the Americans, by sending detachments a­cross the Neck, which was raked by the cannon of the shipping, that not more than fifteen hundred men were brought into action. Few instances can be produced in the annals of mankind, where soldiers, who never had before faced an enemy, or heard the whistling of a ball, behaved with such deliberate and persevering valor. It was not until after the Grenadiers had been twice repul­sed to their boats, General Warren slain, his troops ex­hausted of their ammunition, their lines in a manner en­filaded by Artillery, and the redoubt half filled with British Regulars, that the word was given to retire. In that forlorn condition, the spectacle was astonishing as new, to behold these undisciplined men, most of them without bayonets, disputing with the butt end of their musquets against the British bayonet, and receding in sullen despair. Still the Light Infantry, on their left, would certainly have gained their rear, and exterminat­ed this gallant corps, had not a body of four hundred [Page 268] Connecticut men, with the Captains, Knoulton and Chester, after forming a temporary breast-work, by pul­ling up one post and rail fence, and putting it upon ano­ther, performed prodigies of bravery. They held the enemy at bay, until the main body had relinquished the heights, and then retreated across the Neck, with more re­gularity, and less loss than could have been expected. The British, who effected nothing but the destruction of Charles Town, by a wanton conflagration, had more than one half of their whole number killed and wound­ed: the Americans, only three hundred and fifty-five kill­ed, wounded, and missing. In this battle, the presence and example of General Putnam, who arrived with the re­inforcement, were not less conspicuous than useful. He did every thing that an intrepid and experienced officer could accomplish. The enemy pursued to Winter Hill—Putnam made a stand, and drove them back under cover of their ships.

THE premature death of Warren, one of the most il­lustrious patriots that ever bled in the cause of Free­dom; the veteran appearance of Putnam, collected, yet ardent in action; together with the astonishing scenery and interesting groupe around Bunker Hill, rendered this a magnificent subject for the historic pencil. Ac­cordingly Trumbull, formerly an Aid-de-Camp to Ge­neral Washington, afterwards Deputy Adjutant General of the northern Army, now an artist of great celebrity in Europe, hath finished this picture with that boldness of conception, and those touches of art which demon­strates the master. Heightened in horror by the flames of a burning town, and the smoke of conflicting armies, [Page 269] the principal scene, taken the moment when Warren fell, represents that hero in the agonies of death, a Gre­nadier on the point of bayoneting him, and Colonel Small (to whom he was familiarly known) arresting the soldier's arm: at the head of the British line Major Pit­cairne is seen falling dead into the arms of his son: and not far distant General Putnam is placed at the rear of our retreating troops, in the light blue and scarlet uni­form he wore that day, with his head uncovered, and his sword waving towards the enemy, as it were to stop their impetuous pursuit. In nearly the same attitude he is exhibited by Barlow in that excellent Poem, the Vision of Columbus.

AFTER this action, the British strongly fortified them­selves on the Peninsulas of Boston and Charles Town: [Page 270] while the Provincials remained posted in the circumja­cent country in such manner as to form a blockade. In the beginning of July, General Washington, who had been, constituted by Congress, Commander in Chief of the American forces, arrived at Cambridge to take the command. Having formed the army into three grand divisions, consisting of about twelve Regiments each, he appointed Major General Ward to command the right Wing, Major General Lee the left Wing and Major Ge­neral Putnam the reserve. General Putnam's alertness, in accelerating the construction of the necessary defences, was particularly noticed and highly approved by the Commander in Chief.

About the 20th of July, the declaration of Congress setting forth the reasons of their taking up arms, was proclaimed at the head of the several divisions. It con­cluded with these patriotic and noble sentiments, ‘In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed until the late violation of it; for the protection of our pro­perty, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves; against violence actually [Page 271] offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the ag­gressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.’

‘With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Uni­verse, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to conduct us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and, thereby, to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.’—As soon as these memorable words were pronounced to General Putnam's Division, which he had ordered to be paraded on Prospect Hill, they shouted in three huzzas aloud, amen! Whereat (a cannon from the Fort being fired as a signal) the new Standard, lately sent from Connecticut, was suddenly seen to rise and unrol itself to the wind. On one side was inscribed in large letters of gold, "AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN," and on the other, were delineated the armo­rial bearings of Connecticut, which, without supporters or crest, consist, unostentatiously, of Three Vines: with this motto, " ^* "Qui transtulit, sustinet;" alluding to the pi­ous confidence our forefathers placed in the protection of Heaven, on those three allegorical Scions—KNOW­LEDGE—LIBERTY—RELIGION—which they had been instrumental in transplanting to America.

THE strength of position on the enemy's part, and want of ammunition on ours, prevented operations of magni­tude from being attempted. Such diligence was used in [Page 272] fortifying our camps, and such precaution adopted to pre­vent surprize, as to ensure tranquillity to the troops during the winter. In the spring, a position was taken so menacing to the enemy, as to cause them, on the 17th of March 1776, to abandon Boston: not without consi­derable precipitation and dereliction of royal stores.

As a part of the hostile fleet lingered for some time in Nantasket road (about nine miles below Boston) Ge­neral Washington continued himself in Boston, not only to see the coast entirely clear, but also to make many indispensable arrangements. His Excellency, proposing to leave Major General Ward with a few regiments, to finish the fortifications intended as a security against an attack by water, in the mean time dispatched the great­er part of the army to New-York, where it was most probable the enemy would make a descent. Upon the sailing of a fleet with troops in the month of January, Major General Lee had been sent to the defence of that city; who, after having caused some works to be laid out, proceeded to follow that fleet to South-Carolina. The Commander in Chief was now exceedingly solicit­ous that these works should be completed as soon as pos­sible, and accordingly gave the following

INVESTED with these commands, General Putnam travelled by long and expeditious stages to New-York. His first precaution, upon his arrival, was to prevent disturbance, or surprise in the night season. With these objects in view, after posting the necessary guards, he is­sued his ^* Orders. He instituted, likewise, other whole­some [Page 275] regulations to meliorate the police of the troops, and to preserve the good agreement that subsisted be­tween them and the citizens.

NOTWITHSTANDING the war had now raged, in o­ther parts, with unaccustomed severity for nearly a year, yet the British ships at New-York (one of which had once fired upon the town to intimidate the inhabitants) found the means of being supplied with fresh water and provisions. General Putnam resolved to adopt effectual measures for putting a period to this intercourse, and ac­cordingly expressed his prohibition ^* in the most point­ed terms.

[Page 276] NEARLY at the same moment, a detachment of a thou and Continentals was sent to occupy Governor's-Island, a Regiment to fortify Red Hook, and some companies of Riflemen to the Jersey shore. Of two boats, (be­longing to two armed vessels) which attempted to take on board fresh water from the watering place on Staten-Island, one was driven off (by the Riflemen) with two or three seamen killed in it; and the other captured with thirteen. A few days afterwards Captain Vandeput, of the Asia man of war, the senior officer of the ships on this station, finding the intercourse with the shore interdicted, their limits contracted, and that no good purposes could be answered by remaining there, sailed, with all the ar­med vessels, out of the harbor. These arrangements and transactions, joined to an unremitting attention to the completion of the defences, gave full scope to the acti­vity of General Putnam, until the arrival of General Washington, which happened about the middle of April.

THE Commander in Chief, in his first public orders. ‘ complimented the officers who had successively command­ed at New-York, and returned his thanks to them as well as to the Officers and soldiers, under their com­mand, for the many works of defence which had been so expeditiously erected: at the same time he express­ed [Page 277] an expectation that the same spirit of zeal for the service, would continue to animate their future con­duct,’—Putnam, who was then the only Major Gene­ral with the main army, had still a chief agency in for­warding the fortifications; and, with the assistance of the Brigadiers Spencer and Lord Sterling, in assigning to the different Corps their alarm Posts.

CONGRESS having intimated a desire of consulting with the Commander in Chief, on the critical posture of affairs, his Excellency repaired to Philadelphia accord­ingly, and was absent from the twenty-first of May, un­til the sixth of June. General Putnam, who command­ed in that interval, had it in charge, to open all letters directed to General Washington, on public service, and, if important, after regulating his conduct by their contents, to forward them by express; to expedite the works then erecting; to begin others which were specified; to e­stablish signals for communicating an alarm; to guard against the possibility of surprize; to secure well the Powder-Magazine; to augment by every means in his power the quantity of Cartridges; and to send Brigadier General Lord Sterling to put the Posts in the Highlands in­to a proper condition of defence. He had also a private and confidential instruction, to afford whatever aid might be re­quired by the Provincial Congress of New-York, for apprehending certain of their disaffected citizens: and as it would be most convenient to take the detachment for this service, from the troops on Long-Island, under the command of Brigadier General Greene, it was re­commended that this officer should be advised of the plan, and that the execution should be conducted with [Page 278] secrecy and celerity, as well as with decency and good order. In the records of the army, are preserved, the daily orders which were issued in the absence of the Commander in Chief, who, on his return, was not on­ly satisfied, that the works had been prosecuted with all possible dispatch, but also that the other duties had been properly discharged,

IT was the latter end of June, when the British fleet, which had been at Halifax, waiting for reinforcements from Europe, begun to arrive at New-York. To ob­struct its passage, some marine preparations had been made. General Putnam, to whom the directions of the whale boats, fire rafts, flat-bottomed boats, and armed vessels was committed, afforded his patronage to a pro­ject for destroying the enemies shipping, by explosion. A machine, altogether different from any thing, hither­to devised by the art of man, had been invented by Mr. David Bushnell, ^* for submarine navigation, which was [Page 279] found to answer the purpose perfectly, of rowing hori­zontally at any given depth under water, and of rising or sinking at pleasure. To this machine, (called the American Turtle) was attached, a magazine of powder, which it was intended to be fastened under the bottom [Page 280] of a ship, with a driving screw; in such sort, that the same stroke which disengaged it from the machine, should put the internal clock-work in motion. This being done, the ordinary operation of a gun-lock (at the distance of half an hour, an hour, or any determinate time) would cause the powder to explode, and leave the effects to the common laws of nature. The simplicity, yet combina­tion [Page 281] discovered in the mechanism of this wonderful ma­chine, were acknowledged by those skilled in physics, and particularly Hydraulics, to be not less ingenious than novel. The Inventor, whose constitution was too fee­ble [Page 282] to permit him to perform the labor of rowing the Turtle, had taught his brother to manage it with per­fect dexterity; but unfortunately his brother fell sick of a fever, just before the arrival of the fleet. Recourse was therefore had to a serjeant in the Connecticut troops; [Page 283] who, having received whatever instructions could be communicated to him in a short time, (went too late in the night) with all the apparatus under the bottom of the Eagle, a sixty-four gun ship, on board of which the British Admiral, Lord Howe, commanded. In coming up, the screw, that had been calculated to perforate the copper sheathing, unluckily struck against some iron plates, where the rudder is connected with the stern. This accident, added to the strength of tide, which pre­vailed, and the want of adequate skill in the serjeant, oc­casioned such delay, that the dawn began to appear, whereupon he abandoned the Magazine to chance, and (after gaining a proper distance) for the sake of expedi­tion, rowed on the surface towards the town. General Putnam, who had been on the wharf, anxiously expect­ing the result, from the first glimmering of light, beheld the machine near Governor's Island, and sent a whale­boat [Page 284] to bring it on shore. In about twenty minutes af­terwards, the magazine exploded, and blew a vast co­lumn of water, to an amazing height, in the air. As the whole business had been kept an inviolable secret, he was not a little diverted with the various conjectures, whether this stupendous noise was produced by a bomb, a meteor, a water-spout, or an earthquake. Other operations of a most serious nature, rapidly succeeded and prevented a repetition of the experiment.

ON the twenty-second day of August the van of the British landed on Long-Island, and was soon followed by the whole army, except one Brigade of Hessians, a small body of British, and some convalescents, left on Staten-Island. Our troops on Long-Island had been command­ed during the summer by General Greene, who was now sick; and General Putnam took the command, but two days before the battle of Flatbush. The instructions to him (pointing in the first place to decisive expedients for suppressing the scattering, unmeaning and wasteful fire of our men) contained regulations for the service of the guards, the Brigadiers and the Field officers of the day; for the appointment and encouragement of proper scouts; as well as for keeping the men constantly at their posts; for preventing the burning of buildings (except it should be necessary for military purposes) and for preserving private property from pillage and de­struction. To these regulations were added, in a more diffuse though not less spirited and professional style, re­flections on the distinction of an army from a mob; with exhortations for the soldiers to conduct themselves man­fully in such a cause, and for their Commander to op­pose [Page 285] the enemy's approach with detatchments of his best troops: while he should endeavor to render their advance more difficult by constructing abbattis, and to entrap their parties by forming ambuscades. General Putnam was within the lines, when an engagement took place on the 27th, between the British army and our advanced Corps, in which we lost about a thousand men in killed and missing, with the General Sullivan and Lord Sterling made prisoners. But our men (though attacked on all sides) fought with great bravery; and the enemy's loss was not light.

THE unfortunate battle of Long-Island, the masterly retreat from thenoe, and the actual passage of part of the hostile fleet in the East River above the town, precluded the evacuation of New-York. A promotion of four Majors General, and six Brigadiers, had previously been made by Congress. After the retreat from Long-Island, the main army, consisting for the moment, of sixty Bat­talions (of which twenty were Continental, the residue Levies and Militia) was, conformably to the exigencies of the service, rather than to the rules of war, formed in­to fourteen Brigades. Major General Putnam com­manded the right grand Division of five Brigades, the Majors General Spencer and Greene the center of six Brigades, and Major General Heath the left, which was posted near Kingsbridge, and composed of two Brigades. The whole never amounted to twenty thousand effective men; while the British and [...] forces under Sir William Howe, exceeded twenty-two thousand: indeed the Minister had asserted in Parliament, that they would consist of more than thirty thousand. Our two center [Page 286] divisions, both commanded by General Spencer in the sickness of General Greene, moved towards Mount Washington, Harlem Heights and Horn's Hook, as soon as the final resolution was taken, in a Council of War, on the twelfth of September, to abandon the city. That event, thus circumstanced, took effect a few days after.

ON Sunday the fifteenth the British, after sending three ships of war up the North River to Bloomingdale, and keeping up, for some hours, a severe cannonade on our lines, from those already in the East River, landed in force at Turtle Bay—our new Levies commanded by a state Brigadier General, fled without making resist­ance. Two Brigades of General Putnam's Division, or­dered to their support, notwithstanding the exertion of their Brigadiers, and of the Commander in Chief him­self, who came up at the instant, conducted themselves in the same shameful manner. His Excellency then ordered the Heights of Harlem, a strong position, to be occupied. Thither the forces in the vicinity, as well as the fugitives, repaired. In the mean time Ge­neral Putnam, with the remainder of his command and the ordinary out-posts, was in the city. After having caused the Brigades to begin their retreat by the rout of Bloomingdale, in order to avoid the enemy, who were then in the possession of the main road leading to Kingsbridge, he galloped to call off the pickets and guards. Having myself been a Volunteer in his Divi­sion, and acting Adjutant to the last Regiment that left the city, I had frequent opportunities that day of be­holding him, for the purpose of issuing orders and en­couraging [Page 287] the troops, flying, on his horse covered with foam, wherever his presence was most necessary. With­out his extraordinary exertions the guards must have been inevitably lost, and it is probable the entire Corps would have been cut in pieces. When we were not far from Bloomingdale, an Aid-de-Camp came from him at full speed, to inform, that a column of British Infantry was descending upon our right. Our rear was soon fired upon, and the Colonel of our regiment (whose order was just communicated for the front to file off to the left) was killed on the spot. With no other loss, we joined the army, after dark, on the Heights of Harlem.

BEFORE our Brigades came in, we were given up for lost by all our friends. So critical indeed was our situ­ation, and so narrow the gap by which we escaped, that the instant we had passed, the enemy closed it by ex­tending their line from river to river. Our men, who had been fifteen hours under arms, harrassed by march­ing and countermarching, in consequence of incessant a­larms, exhausted as they were by heat, and thirst (for the day proved insupportably hot, and few or none had canteens, insomuch that some died at the brooks where they drank) if attacked, could have made but feeble re­sistance.

IF we take into consideration the debilitating sickness which weakened almost all [...] troops, the hard duty by which they were worn down in constructing num­berless defences, the continual want of rest they had suffered (since the enemy landed) in guarding from noc­turnal surprize, the despondency infused into their [Page 288] minds by an insular situation, and a consciousness of inferiority to the enemy in discipline, together with the disadvantageous term upon which, in their state of sepa­ration, they might have been forced to engage; it ap­pears highly probable that day would have presented an easy victory to the British. On the other side, the Ame­rican Commander in Chief had wisely countenanced an opinion, then universally credited, that our army was three times more numerous than it was in reality. It is not a subject for astonishment, that the British, ignorant of the existing circumstances, imposed upon as to the numbers by reports, and recollecting what a few brave men, slightly entrenched, had performed at Bunker Hill, should proceed with great circumspection. For their reproaches, that the Rebels (as they affected to style us) loved digging better than fighting, and that they earthed themselves in holes like foxes, but ill concealed at the bottom of their own hearts the profound impression that action had made. Cheap and contemptible as we had once seemed in their eyes, it had taught them to hold us in some respect. This respect, in conjunction with a fixed belief that the enthusiastic spirit of our opposition must soon subside, and that the inexhaustible resources of Britain would ultimately triumph without leaving any thing to chance (not the avarice or treachery of the Bri­tish General, as the factious of his own nation wished to insinuate) retarded [...]eir operation, and afforded us lei­sure to rescue from annihilation the miserable relics of an army, hastening to dissolution, by the expiration of enlistments, and the country itself from irretrievable subjugtaion. IN TRUTH WE ARE NOT LESS INDEBT­ED TO THE MATTOCK AT ONE PERIOD, THAN TO [Page 289] THE MUSQUET AT ANOTHER, FOR OUR POLITICAL SALVATION. It required great talents to determine when one or the other was most profitably to be employed. I am aware how fashionable it has become to compare the American Commander in Chief, for the prudence dis­played in those dilatory and defensive operations, so hap­pily prosecuted in the early stages of the war, to illus­trious Romans, who acquired immortality in restoring the Commonwealth, by delay. Advantageous and flat­tering as the comparison at first appears, it will be found on examination to stint the American Fabius, to the smaller moiety of his merited fame. Did HE not in scenes of al­most unparalelled activity discover specimens of transcend­ent abilities, and might it not be proved to professional men, that boldness in council, and rapidity in execution were, at least, equally with prudent procrastination, and the quality of not being compelled to action, attributes of his military genius? This, however, was an occasion, as apparent as pressing, for attaining his object by delay. From that he had every thing to gain, nothing to lose. Yet there were not wanting Politicians, AT THIS VERY TIME, who querulously blamed these Fabian measures, and loudly clamored, that the immense labor and ex­pence bestowed on the fortification of New-York, had been thrown away; that, if we could not face the ene­my there after so many preparations, we might as well relinquish the contest at once, for we could no where make a stand; and that, if General Washington, with an army of sixty thousand men, strongly entrenched, de­clined fighting with Sir William Howe, who had little more than one third of that number, it was not to be expected he would find any other occasion that might in­duce [Page 290] him to engage.—But General Washington, content to suffer a temporary sacrifice of personal reputation, for the sake of securing a permanent advantage to his coun­try, and regardless of those idle clamors for which he had furnished materials, by making his countrymen, in order the more effectually to make his enemy believe his force much greater than it actually was; inflexibly pursued his system, and gloriously demonstrated how poor and pitiful in the estimation of A GREAT MIND, are the censorious strictures of those Novices in war and politics, who, with equal rashness and impudence, presume to de­cide dogmatically on the merit of plans they could nei­ther originate or comprehend!—

THAT night our soldiers, excessively fatigued by the sultry march of the day, their cloaths wet by a severe shower of rain that succeeded towards the evening, their blood chilled by the cold wind that produced a sudden change in the temperature of the air, and their hearts sunk within them by the loss of baggage, artillery, and works in which they had been taught to put great con­fidence, lay upon their arms, covered only by the clouds of an uncomfortable sky. To retrieve our disordered af­fairs, and prevent the enemy from profiting by them, no exertion was relaxed, no vigilance remitted on the part of our higher officers. The Regiments which had been least exposed to fatigue that day, furnished the necessary piquets to secure the army from surprize. Those, whose military lives had been short and unpractised, felt enough besides lassitude of body to disquiet the tran­quillity of their repose. Nor had those, who were older in service and of more experience, any subject for con­solation. [Page 291] The warmth of enthusiasm seemed to be ex­tinguished. The force of discipline had not sufficiently occupied its place to give men a dependence upon each other. We were apparently about to reap the bitter fruits of that jealous policy, which some leading men (with the best motives) had sown in our foederal coun­cils, when they caused the mode to be adopted, for car­rying on the war by detachments of militia; from ap­prehension that an established Continental army, after defending the country against foreign invasion, might subvert its liberties themselves. Paradoxical as it will appear, it may be profitable to be known to posterity, that, while our very existence as an independent people was in question, the patriotic jealousy for the safety of our future freedom had been carried to such a virtuous, but dangerous excess, as well nigh to preclude the at­tainment of our Independence. Happily that limited and hazardous system soon gave room to one more en­lightened and salutary. This may be attributed to the reiterated arguments, the open remonstrances and the confidential communications of the Commander in Chief; who, though not apt to despair of the Republic, on this occasion, expressed himself in terms of unusual despon­dency. He declared in his letters, that he found, to his utter astonishment and mortification, that no reliance could be placed on a great proportion of his present troops, and that, unless efficient measures for establish­ing a permanent force should be speedily pursued, we had every reason to fear the final ruin of our cause.

NEXT morning several parties of the enemy appeared upon the plains in our front. On receiving this intelli­gence, [Page 292] General Washington rode quickly to the out­posts, for the purpose of preparing against an attack, if the enemy should advance with that design. Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton's Rangers (a fine selection from the eastern Regiments), who had been skirmishing with an advanced party, came in and informed the General that a body of British were under cover of a small eminence at no considerable distance. His Excellency, willing to raise our men from their dejection by the splendor of some little success, ordered Lieutenant Colonel Knowl­ton with his Rangers, and Major Leitch with three Companies of Weedon's Regiment of Virginians, to gain their rear; while appearance should be made of an at­tack in front. As soon as the enemy saw the party sent to decoy them, they ran precipitately down the hill, took possession of some fences and bushes, and commenced a brisk firing at long shot. Unfortunately Knowlton and Leitch made their onset rather in flank than in rear. The enemy changed their front, and the skirmish at once became close and warm. Major ^* Leitch having received three balls through his side was soon borne from the field, and Colonel Knowlton (who had distinguished himself so gallantly at the battle of Bunker-Hill) was mortally wounded immediately after. Their men, however, un­daunted by these disasters, stimulated with the thirst of revenge for the loss of their leaders, and conscious of acting under the eye of the Commander in Chief, main­tained the conflict with uncommon spirit and persever­ance. But the General, seeing them in need of support, [Page 293] advanced part of the Maryland Regiments of Griffith and Richardson, together with some detachments from such eastern Corps, as chanced to be most contiguous to the place of action. Our troops this day, without exception, behaved with the greatest intrepidity. So bravely did they repulse the British, that Sir William Howe moved his Reserve with two field pieces, a bat­talion of Hessian Grenadiers, and a company of Chasseurs to succor his retreating troops. General Washington, not willing to draw on a general action, declined pres­sing the pursuit. In this engagement were the second and third Battalions of Light Infantry, the forty-second British Regiment, and the German Chasseurs, of whom eight officers and upwards of seventy privates were wounded, and our people buried nearly twenty, who were left dead on the field. We had about forty wound­ed: our loss in killed, except of two valuable Officer [...], was very inconsiderable.

AN ^* advantage, so trivial in itself, produced, in event, a surprising and almost incredible effect upon the whole [Page 294] army. Among the troops not engaged, who during the action were throwing earth from the new trenches, with an alacrity that indicated a determination to defend them, every visage was seen to brighten, and to assume, in­stead of the gloom of despair, the glow of animation. This change, no less sudden than happy, left little room to doubt that the men, who ran the day before at the sight of an enemy, would now (to wipe away the stain of that disgrace, and to recover the confidence of their General) have conducted themselves in a very different manner. Some alteration was made in the distribution of Corps to prevent the British from gaining either flank in the succeeding night. General Putnam, who com­manded on the right, was directed in orders, in case the enemy should attempt to force the pass, to apply for a reinforcement to General Spencer, who commanded on the left.

[Page 295] GENERAL PUTNAM, who was too good a husband­man himself, not to have a respect for the labors and improvements of others, strenuously seconded the views of the Commander in Chief in preventing the devasta­tion of Farms, and the violation of private property. For under pretext that the property in this quarter be­longed to friends to the British government (as indeed it mostly did) a spirit of rapine and licentiousness be­gan to prevail, which, unless repressed in the beginning, foreboded, besides the subversion of discipline, the dis­grace and defeat of our arms.

OUR new defences now becoming so strong as not to admit insult with impunity, and Sir William Howe, not choosing to place too much at risque in attacking us in front, on the 12th day of October, leaving Lord Piercy with one Hessian and two British Brigades in his lines at Harlem to cover New-York, embarked with the main body of his army with an intention of landing at Frog's Neck, situated near the town of West Chester, and little more than a league above the communication call­ed Kingsbridge, which connects New-York Island with the main. There was nothing to oppose him; and he effected his debarkation by nine o'clock in the morning. The same policy of keeping our army as compact as pos­sible; the same system of avoiding being forced to ac­tion; and the same precaution to prevent the interrup­tion of supplies, reinforcements or retreat, that lately dictated the evacuation of New-York, now induced Ge­neral Washington to move towards the strong grounds in the upper part of West Chester County.

[Page 296] ABOUT the same time, General Putnam was sent to the western side of the Hudson, to provide against an irruption into the Jerseys, and soon after to Philadel­phia, to put that town into a posture of defence. Thi­ther I attend him, without stooping to dilate on the sub­sequent incidents that might swell a folio, though here compressed to a single paragraph: without attempting to give in detail, the skilful retrograde movements of our Commander in Chief, who after detaching a Garrison for Fort Washington, by pre-occupying with extemporaneous redoubts and entrenchments, the ridges form Mile-Sqare to White Plains, and by folding one Brigade behind ano­ther, in rear of those ridges that run parallel with the Sound, brought off all his Artillery, Stores, and Sick, in the face of a superior foe: without commenting on the partial and equivocal battle fought near the last menti­oned village, or the cause why the British, then in full force (for the last of the Hessian Infantry, and British Light-Horse, had just arrived) did not more seriously en­deavor to induce a general engagement: without jour­nalizing their military manoeuvres in falling back to Kingsbridge, capturing Fort Washington, Fort Lee, and marching through the Jerseys: without enumerating the instances of rapine, murder, lust, and devastation, that marked their progress, and filled our bosoms with hor­ror and indignation: without describing how a division of our dissolving army, with General Washington, was driven before them beyond the Delaware: without painting the naked and forlorn condition of these much injured men, amidst the rigors of an inclement season, and without even sketching the consternation that seized the States, at this perilous period, when General Lee [Page 297] (in leading from the North a small reinforcement to our troops) was himself taken prisoner by surprize; when every thing seemed decidedly declining to the last extremity, and when every prospect but served to augment the depression of despair—until the genius of one man, in one day, at a single stroke, wrested from the veteran Battalions of Britain and Germany the fruits acquired by the total operations of a successful campaign, and re-animated the expiring hope of a whole Nation, by the glorious enterprize at Trenton.

WHILE the hostile forces, rashly inflated with pride by a series of uninterrupted successes, and fondly dreaming that a period would soon be put to their la­bors by the completion of their conquests, had been pursuing the wretched rem [...]ants of a disbanded army to the banks of the Delaware: General Putnam was diligently employed in fortifying Philadelphia, the cap­ture of which appeared indubitably to be their princi­ple object. Here, by authority and example, he strove to conciliate contending factions, and to excite the ci­tizens to uncommon efforts in defence of every thing interesting to Freemen. His personal industry was un­paralleled. His ^* Orders with respect to extinguish­ing [Page 298] accidental fires, advancing the public works, as well as in regard to other important objects were perfect­ly military and proper. But his health was, for a while, impaired by his unrelaxed exertions.

THE Commander in Chief, having in spite of all ob­stacles made good his retreat over the Delaware, wrote to General Putnam (from his Camp above the Falls of Trenton, on the very day he recrossed the river to sur­prise the Hessians) expressing his satisfaction at the re­establishment of that General's health, and informing, that, if he had not himself been well convinced before of the enemy's intention to possess themselves of Phila­delphia, as soon as the frost should form ice strong e­nough to transport them and their artillery across the Delaware, he had now obtained an intercepted letter which placed the matter beyond a doubt. He added, that, if the citizens of Philadelphia had any regard for the town, not a moment's time was to be lost until it should be put in the best possible posture of defence; but least that should not be done, he directed the removal [Page 299] of all public stores, except provisions necessary for imme­diate use, to places of greater security. He queried whether, if a party of Militia could be sent from Philadelphia to support those in the Jerseys about Mount Holly, it would not serve to save them from submission? At the same time, he signified (as his opinion) the expediency of sending an active and influential Officer to inspirit the people, to encourage them to assemble in arms, as well as to keep those already in arms from disbanding; and concluded by manifesting a wish that Colonel For­man, whom he desired to see for this purpose, might be employed on the service.

THE enemy had vainly, as incautiously imagined that to over-run was to conquer. They had even carried their presumption on our extreme weakness and expect­ed submission, so far as to attempt covering the country, through which they had marched, with an extensive chain of Cantonments. That link, which the post at Trenton supplied, consisted of a Hessian brigade of In­fantry, a Company of Chasseurs, a Squadron of Light Dragoons and fix Field Pieces. At eight o'clock in the morning of the twenty-sixth of December, Gene­ral Washington, with twenty-four hundred men, came upon them (after they had paraded) took one thousand prisoners, and repassed the same day without loss to his encampment. As soon as the troops were recovered from their excessive fatigue, General Washington re­crossed a second time to Trenton. On the second of January, Lord Cornwallis with the bulk of the British army advanced upon him, cannonaded his post, and of­fered him battle: but, the two armies being separated [Page 300] by the interposition of Trenton Creek, General Wash­ington had it in his option to decline an engagement; which he did for the sake of striking the masterly stroke that he then meditated. Having kindled fre­quent fires around his camp, posted faithful men to keep them burning, and advanced centinels whose fide­lity might be relied upon, he decamped silently after dark, and, by a circuitous route, reached Princeton at nine o'clock the next morning. The noise of the firing, by which he killed and captured between five and six hun­dred of the British Brigade in that town, was the first notice Lord Cornwallis had of this stolen march. Ge­neral Washington, the project successfully accomplished, instantly filed off for the mountainous grounds of Mor­ris Town. Meanwhile his Lordship, who arrived by a forced march at Princeton, just as he had left it, finding the Americans could not be overtaken, pro­ceeded without halting to Brunswick.

ON the fifth of January 1777, from Pluckemin, Ge­neral Washington dispatched an account of this second success to General Putnam, and ordered him to move im­mediately with all his troops to Crosswicks, for the pur­pose of co-operating in recovering the Jerseys: an event which the present fortunate juncture (while the enemy were yet panic-struck) appeared to promise. The Ge­neral cautioned him, however, if the enemy should still continue at Brunswick, to guard with great circum­spection against a surprise: especially, as they, having recently suffered by two attacks, could scarely avoid being edged with resentment to attempt retaliation. His Excellency farther advised him to give out his [Page 301] strength to be twice as great as it was; to forward on all the baggage and scattering men belonging to the Division destined for Morris Town; to employ as many spies as he should think proper; to keep a number of horsemen, in the dress of the country, going constantly backwards and forwards on the same secret service; and lastly, if he should discover any intention or motion of the enemy that could be depended upon and might be of consequence, not to fail in conveying the intelligence as rapidly as possible by express to Head Quarters. Major General Putnam was directed soon after to take post at Princ [...]ton; where he continued until the spring. He had never with him more than a few hundred troops, though he was only at fifteen miles distance from the enemy's strong garrison of Brunswick. At one pe­riod, from a sudden diminution, occasioned by the tar­diness of the militia, turning out to replace those whose time of service was expired, he had fewer men for duty than he had miles of frontier to guard. Nor was the Commander in Chief in a more eligible situation. It is true, that, while he had scarcely the semblance of an army, under the specious parade of a park of artillery, and the imposing appearance of his Head Quarters, e­stablished at Morris Town, he kept up in the eyes of his countrymen, as well as in the opinion of his enemy, the appearance of no contemptible force. Future gene­rations will find difficulty in conceiving how a handful of new-levied Men and Militia, who were necessitated to be inoculated for the Small-Pox in the course of the win­ter, could be subdivided and posted so advantageously, as, effectually to protect the inhabitants, confine the ene­my, [Page 302] curtail their forage, and beat up their quarters, without sustaining a single disaster.

IN the battle of Princeton, Capt. M'Pherson, of the 17th British Regiment, a very worthy Scotchman, was desperately wounded in the lungs and left with the dead. Upon General Putnam's arrival there, he found him languishing in extreme distress, without a surgeon, without a single accommodation, and without a friend to solace the sinking spirit in the gloomy hour of death. He visited and immediately caused every possible com­fort to be administered to him. Captain M'Pherson, who contrary to all appearances recovered, after having demonstrated to General Putnam the dignified sense of obligations which a generous mind wishes not to con­ceal, one day in familiar conversation demanded— ‘pray, Sir, what countryman are you?—An American, answered the latter.—Not a Yankee?—said the other. A full-blooded one, replied the General. By G—d, I am sorry for that, rejoined M'Pherson, I did not think there could be so much goodness and generosity in an American, or, indeed in any body but a Scotchman.’

WHILE the recovery of Captain M'Pherson was doubtful, he desired that General Putnam would per­mit a friend in the British army at Brunswick to come and assist him in making HIS WILL. General Putnam, who had then only fifty men in his whole command, was sadly embarrassed by the proposition. On the one hand, he was not content that a British Officer should have an opportunity to spy out the weakness of his post, [Page 303] —on the other, it was scarcely in his nature to refuse complying with a dictate of humanity. He luckily bethought himself of an expedient, which he hastened to put in practice. A Flag of Truce was dispatched with Captain M'Pherson's request, but under an injunc­tion not to return with his friend until after dark. In the evening, lights were placed in all the rooms of the College, and in every apartment of the vacant houses throughout the town. During the whole night, the fifty men, sometimes all together and sometimes in small de­tachments, were marched from different quarters by the house in which M'Pherson lay. Afterwards it was known, that the Officer who came on the visit at his re­turn reported, that General Putnam's Army upon the most moderate calculation could not consist of less than four or five thousand men.

THIS winter's campaign (for our troops constantly kept the field after regaining a footing in the Jerseys) has never yet been faithfully and feelingly described. The sudden restoration of our cause from the very verge of ruin, was interwoven with such a tissue of inscru­table causes and extraordinary events, that, fearful of doing the subject greater injustice by a passing dis­quisition than a purposed silence, I leave it to the lei­sure of abler pens. The ill policy of the British doubt­less contributed to accelerate this event. For the man­ner, impolitic as inhuman, in which they managed their temporary conquests, tended evidently to alienate the af­fections of their adherents, to confirm the wavering in an opposite interest, to rouse the supine into activity, to assemble the dispersed to the Standard of America, and [Page 304] to infuse a spirit of revolt into the minds of those men, who had from necessity submitted to their power. Their conduct in warring with fire and sword against the im­becility of youth and the decrepitude of age; against the Arts, the Sciences, the curious Inventions and the elegant improvements in civilized life; against the me­lancholy Widow, the miserable Orphan, the peaceable professor of humane Literature, and the sacred Minister of the Gospel, seemed to operate as powerfully, as if purposely intended to kindle the dormant spark of re­sistance into an inextinguishable flame. If we add, to the black catalogue of provocations already enumerat­ed, their insatiable rapacity in plundering friends and foes indiscriminately; their libidinous brutality in vi­olating the chastity of the female sex, their more than Gothic rage in defacing private Writings, public Re­cords, Libraries of learning, Dwellings of individuals, Edifices for education and Temples of the Deity; to­gether with their insufferable ferocity (unprecedented indeed among civilized nations) in murdering on the field of battle the wounded while begging for mercy, in causing their prisoners to famish with hunger and cold in Prisons and Prison-Ships, and in carrying their ma­lice beyond death itself by denying the decent rites of sepulture to the dead,—we shall not be astonished that the Yeomanry in the two Jerseys, when the first glim­mering of hope began to break in upon them, rose as one man, with the unalterable resolution to perish in the generous cause or expel their merciless invaders.

THE principal Officers, stationed at a variety of well­chosen, and at some, almost inaccessible positions, seem­ed [Page 305] all to be actuated by the same soul, and only to vie with each other, in giving proofs of vigilance, enterprize and valor. From what has been said respecting the scan­tiness of our aggregate force, it will be concluded, that the number of men, under the orders of each, was in­deed very small. But the uncommon alertness of the troops, who were incessantly hovering round the enemy in scouts, and the constant communication, they kept between the several stations most contiguous to each o­ther (agreeably to the ^* Instructions of the General in Chief) together with their readiness in giving, and con­fidence of receiving such reciprocal aid, as the exigen­cies might require, served to supply the defect of force.

[Page 306] THIS manner of doing duty not only put our own posts beyond the reach of sudden insult, and surprize; but so exceedingly harrassed and intimidated the enemy, that foragers were seldom sent out by them, and never except in very large parties. General Dickenson, who commanded on General Putnam's left, discovered about the 20th of January, a foraging party consisting of about four hundred men, on the opposite side of the Mill-Stone, two miles from Somerset court-house. As the bridge was possessed and defended by three field pieces, so that it could not be passed; General Dickenson, at the head of four hundred militia, broke the ice, crossed the river (where the water was about three feet deep) resolutely attacked and totally defeated the foragers. Upon their abandoning the convoy, a few prisoners, forty waggons, and more than a hundred draft horses, with a consider­able booty of cattle and sheep, fell into his hands.

NOR were ou [...] operations on General Putnam's right flank less fortunate. To give countenance to the nu­merous friends of the British Government in the coun­ty of Monmouth, appears to have been a principal mo­tive [Page 307] with Sir William Howe, for stretching the chain of his cantonments (by his own ^* confession previously to his disaster) rather too far. After that chain became broken, as I have already related, by the blows at Trenton and Princeton, he was obliged to collect dur­ing the rest of the winter, the useless remains in his barracks at Brunswick. In the meantime General Put­nam was much more successful in his attempt to pro­tect our dispersed and dispirited friends in the same di­strict; who, environed on every side by envenomed ad­versaries remained inseparably rivetted in affection to American Independence. He first detached Colonel [Page 308] Gurney, and afterwards Major ^* Davis, with such par­ties of militia as could be spared, for their support. Several skirmishes ensued, in which our people had al­ways the advantage. They took, at different times, many prisoners, horses and waggons from foraging par­ties. In effect so well did they cover the country, as to induce some of the most respectable inhabitants to declare, that the security of the persons, as well as the salvation of the property of many friends to freedom, was owing to the spirited exertions of these two de­tachments: who at the same time that they rescued the country from the tyranny of Tories, afforded an op­portunity for the militia to recover from their conster­nation, to embody themselves in warlike array and to stand on their defence.

[Page 309] DURING this period General Putnam having receiv­ed unquestionable intelligence, that a party of Refugees in British pay had taken post, and were erecting a kind of Redoubt at Lawrence's Neck, sent Colonel Nelson with one hundred and fifty militia to surprize them. That officer conducted with so much secrecy and deci­sion as to take the whole prisoners. These ^* Refugees commanded by Major Stockton, belonging to Skinner's Brigade and amounted to sixty in number.

A SHORT time after this event, Lord Cornwallis sent out another foraging party towards Bound-Brook. General Putnam, having received notice from his emis­saries, detached Major Smith with a few Riflemen to annoy the party and followed himself with the rest of his force. Before he could come up, Major Smith, who had formed an ambush, attacked the enemy, killed se­veral horses, took a few prisoners and sixteen baggage­waggons, without sustaining any injury. By such ope­rations, our hero, in the course of the winter, captured nearly a thousand prisoners.

[Page 310] IN the latter part of February General Washington advised General Putnam, that, in consequence of a large accession of strength from New-York to the British ar­my at Brunswick, it was to be apprehended they would soon make a forward movement towards the Delaware: in which case the latter was directed to cross the river with his actual force, to assume the command of the Militi [...] who might assemble, to secure the boats on the we side of the Delaware and to facilitate the passage of the rest of the army. But the enemy did not remove from their winter-quarters until the season arrived when green forage could be supplied. In the intermediate period, the correspondence on the part of General Putnam with the Commander in Chief consisted principally of re­ports and enquiries concerning the treatment of some of the following descriptions of persons: either of those who came within our lines with flags and pretended flags, or who had taken protection from the enemy, or who had been reputed disaffected to our cause, or who were designed to be comprehended in the American Proclamation, which required that those who had taken protections should give them to the nearest American Officer, or go within the British lines. The letters of his Excellency in return, generally advisory, were in­dicative of confidence and approbation.

WHEN the Spring had now so far advanced that it was obvious the enemy would soon take the field; the Commander in Chief, after desiring General Putnam to give the officers who was to relieve him at Princeton all the information necessary for the conduct of that post, [Page 311] appointed that General to the command of a separate Army in the Highlands of New-York.

IT is scarcely decided, from any documents yet pub­lished, whether the preposterous plans prosecuted by the British Generals in the Campaign of 1777, were al­together the result of their Orders from home, or whe­ther they partially originated from the contingences of the moment. The system, which, at the time, tended to puzzle all human conjecture, when developed served, also, to contradict all reasonable calculation. Certain it is, the American Commander in Chief, was for a con­siderable time so perplexed with contradictory appear­ances, that he knew not how to distribute his troops, with his usual discernment, so as to oppose the enemy with equal prospect of success in different parts. The gathering tempests menaced the northern Frontiers, the posts in the Highlands and the City of Philadelphia: but it was still doubtful where the sury of the storm would fall. At one time Sir William Howe was forcing his way by land to Philadelphia, at another relinquish­ing the Jerseys, at a third facing round to make a sud­den inroad, then embarking with all the forces that could be spared from New-York, and then putting out to sea—at the very moment when General Burgoyne had reduced Ticonderoga, and seemed to require a co­operation in another quarter.

ON our side, we have seen that the old Continental Army expired with the year 1776: since which, inven­tion had been tortured with expedients and zeal with efforts to levy another. For on the success of the re­cruiting [Page 312] service depended the salvation of the country. The success was such as not to puff us up to presump­tion, or depress us to despair. The army in the Jer­seys, under the orders of the General in Chief, consisted of all the troops raised south of the Hudson: that in the northern department, of the New-Hampshire Brigade two Brigades, of Massachusetts, and the Brigade of New-York, together with some irregular Corps: and that in the Highlands of the remaining two Bri­gades of Massachusetts, the Connecticut Line consisting of two Brigades, the Brigade of Rhode-Island and one Re­giment of New-York. Upon hearing of the loss of Ticonderoga, and the progress of the British towards Al­bany, General Washington ordered the northern army to be reinforced with the two Brigades of Massachusetts then in the Highlands—and, upon finding the army un­der his immediate command out-numbered by that of Sir William Howe, which had by the circuitous route of the Chesapeak invaded Pennsylvania, he also called from the Highlands one of the Connecticut Brigades and that of Rhode-Island to his own assistance.

IN the neighbourhood of General Putnam there was no enemy capable of exciting alarms. The army left at New-York seemed only designed for its defence. In it were several entire Corps, composed of Tories who had flocked to the British standard. There was, besides, a band of lurking miscreants, not properly enrolled, who staid chiefly at West Chester: from whence they infest­ed the Country between the two armies, pillaged the cattle and carried off the peaceable inhabitants. It was an unworthy policy in British Generals to patronize [Page 313] Banditti. The Whig inhabitants on the edge of our lines, and still lower down, who had been plundered in a merciless manner, delayed not to strip the Tories in return. People, most nearly connected and allied, fre­quently became most exasperated and inveterate in ma­lice. Then the ties of fellowship were broken—then, friendship itself being soured to enmity, the mind rea­dily gave way to private revenge, uncontroled retali­ation and all the deforming passions that disgrace huma­nity. Enormities, almost without a name, were perpe­trated—at the description of which, the bosom, not fro­zen to apathy, must glow with a mixture of pity and indignation. To prevent the predatory incursions from below and to cover the County of West-Chester, Gene­ral Putnam detached from his Head-Quarters, at Peek's­Kill, Meigs's Regiment, which in the course of the Campaign struck several partizan strokes and atchieved the objects for which it was sent. He likewise took measures, without noise or ostentation, to secure himself from being surprised and carried within the British lines by the Tories, who had formed a plan for the purpose. The information of this intended enterprize, conveyed to him through several channels, was corroborated by that obtained and transmitted by the Commander in Chief.

IT was not wonderful that many of these Tories were able, undiscovered, to penetrate far into the country and even to go with letters or messages from one British Ar­my to another. The inhabitants, who were well affected to the royal cause, afforded them every possible support, and their own knowledge of the different routes gave them a farther facility in performing their peregrina­tions. [Page 314] Sometimes the most active Loyalists (as the To­ries wished to denominate themselves) who had gone into the British Posts and received promises of Com­missions upon enlisting a certain number of Soldiers, came back again secretly with Recruiting Instructions. Sometimes these and others who came from the enemy within the verge of our Camps, were detected and con­demned to death in conformity to the usages of war. But the British Generals, who had an unlimited supply of money at their command, were able to pay with so much liberality, that emissaries could always be found­Still, it is thought that the intelligence of the Ameri­can Commanders, was, at least, equally accurate; not­withstanding the poverty of their military chest, and the inability of rewarding mercenary agents, for secret services, in proportion to their risque and merit.

A PERSON by the name of Palmer, who was a Lieu­tenant in the Tory new Levies, was detected in the Camp at Peek's-Kill. Governor Tryon, who command­ed the new Levies, reclaimed him as a British Officer, represented the heinous crime of condemning a man commissioned by his Majesty, and threatened vengeance in case he should be executed. General Putnam wrote the following pithy reply.

IMPORTANT transactions soon occurred. Not long after the two Brigades had marched from Peek's-Kill to Pennsylvania, a reinforcement arrived at New-York from Europe. Appearances indicated that offensive o­perations would follow. General Putnam, having been reduced in force to a single Brigade in the field, and a single Regiment in garrison at Fort Montgomery, re­peatedly informed the Commander in Chief that the posts committed to his charge must in all probability be lost, in case an attempt should be made upon them; and that, circumstanced as he was, he could not be respon­sible for the consequences. His situation was certainly to be lamented, but it was not in the power of the Commander in Chief to alter it, except by authorising him to call upon the Militia for aid—an aid always pre­carious; and often so tardy, as when obtained to be of no utility.

ON the fifth of October, Sir Henry Clinton came up the North River with three thousand men. After mak­ing many feints to mislead the attention, he landed, the next morning, at Stony Point, and commenced his march [Page 316] over the mountains to Fort Montgomery. Governor Clinton, an active, resolute and intelligent officer, who commanded the Garrison, upon being apprised of the movement, dispatched a letter by express to General Putnam for succor. By the treachery of the messen­ger the letter miscarried. General Putnam, astonished at hearing nothing respecting the enemy, rode, with General Parsons and Colonel Root his Adjutant General, to reconnoitre them at King's Ferry. In the mean time, at five o'clock in the afternoon, Sir Henry Clinton's co­lumns, having surmounted the obstacles and barriers of nature, descended from the Thunder-Hill, through thick­ets impassable but for light troops and ^* attacked the differ­ent [Page 317] redoubts. The garrison, inspired by the conduct of their leaders, defended the works with distinguished va­lor. But, as the post had been designed principally to prevent the passing of ships, and as an assault in rear had not been expected, the works on the land side were incomplete and untenable. In the dusk of twilight the British entered with their bayonets fixed. Their loss was inconsiderable. Nor was that of the garrison great. Governor Clinton, his brother General James Clin­ton, Colonel Dubois, and most of the officers and men effected their escape under cover of the thick smoke and darkness that suddenly prevailed. The capture of this fort by Sir Henry Clinton, together with the con­sequent removal of the chains and booms that obstructed the navigation, opened a passage to Albany, and seemed to favor a junction of his force with that of General Burgoyne. But the latter having been compelled to capitulate a few days after this event, and great num­bers of Militia having arrived from New-England, the successful army returned to New-York—yet not before a detachment from it, under the Orders of General [Page 318] Vaughan, had burnt the defenceless town of Esopus, and several scattering buildings on the banks of the river.

NOTWITHSTANDING the army in the Highlands had been so much weakened (for the sake of strengthening the armies in other quarters) as to have occasioned the loss of Fort Montgomery, yet that loss was productive of no consequences. Our main army in Pennsylvania, after having contended with superior force in two inde­cisive battles, still held the enemy in check. While the splendid success, which attended our arms at the North­ward, gave a more favorable aspect to the American af­fairs, at the close of this campaign, than they had ever before assumed.

WHEN the enemy fell back to New-York by water, we followed them a part of the way by land. Colonel Meigs, with a detachment from the several Regiments in General Parsons's Brigade, having made a forced march from Crompond to West-Chester, surprised and broke up for a time the band of freebooters, of whom he brought off fifty, together with many Cattle and Horses which they had recently stolen.

SOON after this enterprize, General Putnam advanced towards the British lines. As he had received intelli­gence that small bodies of the enemy were out with or­ders from Governor Tryon to burn Wright's Mills, he prevented it by detaching three parties of one hundred men in each. One of these parties fell in with and captured thirty-five, and another forty of the New Le­vies. But as he could not prevent a third hostile party [Page 319] from burning the house of Mr. Van Tassel, a noted Whig and a Committee man, who was forced to go along with them, naked and barefoot, on the icy ground, in a freezing night: he, for the professed purpose of retali­ation, sent Captain Buchanan, in a Whale-boat, to burn the house of General Oliver Delancey on York Island. Buchanan effected his object, and by this expedition put a period for the present to that unmeaning and wanton species of destruction.

WHILE General Putnam quartered at New-Rochel, a scouting party which had been sent to West Farms, below West-Chester, surrounded the house in which Colonel James Delancey lodged, and, notwithstanding he crept under the bed the better to be concealed, brought him to Head-Quarters before morning. This Officer was exchanged by the British General without delay, and placed at the head of the Cow-Boys, a licen­tious Corps of irregulars, who, in the sequel, commit­ted unheard-of depredations and excesses.

IT was distressing to see so beautiful a part of the country so barbarously wasted; and, often to witness some peculiar scene of female misery. For most of the female inhabitants had been obliged to fly within the lines possessed by one army or the other. Near our quarters was an affecting instance of human vicissitude. Mr. William Sutton of Maroneck, an inoffensive man, a merchant by profession, who lived in a decent fashion, and whose family had as happy prospects as almost any in the country, upon some imputation of Toryism went to the enemy. His wife, oppressed with grief in the [Page 320] disagreeable state of dereliction, did not long survive. Betsey Sutton, their eldest daughter, was a modest and lovely young woman, of about fifteen years old, when at the death of her mother, the care of five or six young­er children devolved upon her. She was discreet and provident beyond her years. But when we saw her, she looked to be feeble in health—broken in spirit—wan, melancholy, and dejected. She said ‘that their last cow, which furnished milk for the children, had lately been taken away—that they had frequently been plundered of their wearing apparel and furni­ture, she believed, by both parties—that they had little more to lose—and that she knew not where to procure bread for the dear little ones, who had no father to provide for them’— no mother—she was go­ing to have said—but a torrent of tears choaked articu­lation. In coming to that part of the country, again, after some campaigns had elapsed, I found the habita­tion desolate and the garden overgrown with weeds. Upon enquiry, I learnt, that, as soon as we left the place, some ruffians broke into the house, while she lay in bed, in the latter part of the night: and that, having been terrified by their rudeness, she ran half-naked into a neighbouring swamp, where she continued until the morning—there the poor girl caught a violent cold, which ended in a consumption. It finished a life with­out a spot—and a career of sufferings commenced and continued without a fault.

SIGHTS of wretchedness always touched with com­miseration the feelings of General Putnam, and prompt­ed his generous soul to succor the afflicted. But the [Page 321] indulgence, which he shewed (whenever it did not mi­litate against his duty) towards the deserted and suffer­ing families of the Tories in the State of New-York, was the cause of his becoming unpopular with no in­considerable class of people in that State. On the other side, he had conceived an unconquerable aversion to ma­ny of the persons, who were entrusted with the disposal of Tory-property, because he believed them to have been guilty of peculations and other infamous practices. But, although the enmity between him and the Seques­trators was acrimonious as mutual; yet he lived in ha­bits of amity with the most respectable characters in public departments, as well as in private life.

His character was also respected by the enemy. He had been acquainted with many of the principal Officers in a former war. As flags frequently passed between the out-posts, during his continuance on the lines, it was a common practice to forward News-Papers by them; and as those printed by Rivington, the Royal Printer in New-York, were infamous for the falsehoods with which they abounded, General Putnam once sent a Packet to his old friend General Robertson with this Billet: ‘Major General Putnam presents his Compli­ments to Major General, Robertson and sends him some American News-Papers for his perusal—when Gene­ral Robertson shall have done with them, it is request­ed they be given to Rivington, in order that he may print some truth.’

LATE in the year we left the lines and repaired to the Highlands. For upon the loss of fort Montgomery, [Page 322] the Commander in Chief determined to build another fortification for the defence of the river. His Excellen­cy, accordingly, wrote to General Putnam to fix upon the spot. After reconnoitering all the different places proposed, and revolving in his own mind their relative advantages for offence on the water and defence on the land, he fixed upon WEST POINT. It is no vulgar praise to say, that to him belongs the glory of having chosen this rock of our military salvation. The posi­tion for water batteries, which might sweep the chan­nel where the river formed a right angle, made it the most proper of any for commanding the navigation; while the rocky ridges, that rose in awful sublimity be­hind each other, rendered it impregnable, and even in­capable of being invested by less than twenty thousand men. The British, who considered this post as a sort of American Gibraltar, never attempted it but by the treachery of an American officer. All the world knows that this project failed, and that West Point continues to be the receptacle of every thing valuable in military preparations to the present day.

IN the month of January, 1778, when a snow two feet deep lay on the earth, General Parsons's Brigade went to West Point and broke ground. Want of co­vering for the troops, together with want of tools and materials for the works, made the prospect truly gloo­my and discouraging. It was necessary that means should be found, though our currency was depreciated and our treasury exhausted. The estimates and requi­sitions of Colonel la Radiere, the Engineer who laid out the works, altogether disproportioned to our circum­stances, [Page 323] served only to put us in mind of our poverty, and, as it were, to satirize our resources. His petulant behavior and unaccommodating disposition added fur­ther embarrassments. It was then that the patriotism of Governor Clinton shone in full lustre. His exertions to furnish supplies can never be too much commended. His influence, arising from his popularity, was unli­mited: yet he hesitated not to put all his popularity at risque, whenever the federal interests demanded. Not­withstanding the impediments that opposed our progress, with his aid, before the opening of the campaign, the works were in great forwardness.

ACCORDING to a resolution of Congress, an enquiry was to be made into the causes of military disasters. Major General M'Dougall, Brigadier General Hunting­ton and Colonel Wigglesworth composed the Court of Enquiry on the loss of Fort Montgomery. Upon full knowledge and mature deliberation of facts on the spot, they reported the loss to have been occasioned by want of men, and not by any fault in the Commanders.

GENERAL Putnam, who during the investigation, was relieved from duty, as soon as Congress had approv­ed the Report, took command of the right Wing of the Grand Army, under the Orders of the General in Chief. This was just after the Battle of Monmouth, when the three armies which had, last year, acted sepa­rately, joined at the White Plains. Our effective force, in one camp, was at no other time so respectable as at this juncture. The army consisted of sixty regular Re­giments of foot formed into fifteen Brigades, four Bat­talions [Page 324] of Artillery, four Regiments of Horse and se­veral Corps of State Troops. But as the enemy kept close within their Lines on York-Island, nothing could be attempted. Towards the end of Autumn, we broke up the Camp, and went first to Fredericksburg, and thence to winter quarters.

IN order to cover the country adjoining to the Sound, and to support the garrison of West Point, in case of an attack, Major General Putnam was stationed for the winter at Reading in Connecticut. He had under his Orders the Brigade of New-Hampshire, the two Bri­gades of Connecticut, the Corps of Infantry commanded by Hazen, and that of Cavalry by Sheldon.

THE troops, who had been badly fed, badly cloathed, and worse paid, by brooding over their grievances in the leisure and inactivity of winter-quarters, began to think them intolerable. The Connecticut Brigades form­ed the design of marching to Hartford, where the Ge­neral Assembly was then in Session, and of demanding redress at the point of the bayonet. Word having been brought to General Putnam, that the second Brigade was under arms for this purpose, he mounted his horse, galloped to the Cantonment and thus addressed them: ‘My brave lads, whither are you going? Do you in­tend to desert your Officers, and to invite the enemy to follow you into the country? Whose cause have you been fighting and suffering so long in, is it not your own? Have you no property, no parents, wives or children? You have behaved like men so far—all the world is full of your praises—and posterity [Page 325] will stand astonished at your deeds: but not if you spoil all at last. Don't you confider how much the country is distressed by the war, and that your officers have not been any better paid than yourselves? But we all expect better times, and that the Country will do us ample justice. Let us all stand by one another' then, and fight it out like brave Soldiers. Think what a shame it would be for Connecticut-men to run away from their Officers.’—After the several Regiments had received the General as he rode along the line with drums beating and presented arms; the Ser­geants, who had then the command, brought the men to an Order, in which position they continued while he was speaking. When he had done, he directed the acting Major of Brigade to give the word for them to shoulder, march to their Regimental parades and lodge arms. All which they executed with promptitude and appa­rent good-humor. One Soldier only, who had been the most active, was confined in the quarter-guard: from whence, at night, he attempted to make his escape. But the centinel, who had also been in the mutiny, shot him dead on the spot, and thus the affair subsided.

ABOUT the middle of winter, while General Putnam was on a visit to his out-post at Horse-Neck, he found Governor Tryon advancing upon that town with a corps of fifteen hundred men—to oppose these, General Put­nam had only a Picquet of one hundred and fifty men, and two iron field pieces without horses or drag-ropes. He, however, planted his cannon on the high ground by the meeting-house, and retarded their reproach by firing several times, until, perceiving the horse (sup­ported [Page 326] by the infantry) about to charge, he ordered the picquet to provide for their safety by retiring to a swamp inaccessible to horse; and secured his own by plunging down the steep precipice at the church upon a full trot. This precipice is so sleep, where he descend­ed, as to have artificial stairs composed of nearly one hundred stone-steps for the accommodation of foot pas­sengers. There the Dragoons, who were but a sword's length from him, stopped short. For the declivity was so abrupt that they ventured not to follow: and, before they could gain the valley by going round the brow of the hill in the ordinary road, he was far enough be­yond their reach. He continued his route unmolested to Stanford, from whence, having strengthened his pic­quet by the junction of some militia, he came back a­gain, and in turn, pursued Governor Tryon in his re­treat. As he rode down the precipice, one ball, of the many fired at him, went through his beaver. But Go­vernor Tryon, by way of compensation for spoiling his hat, sent him soon afterwards, as a present, a complete suit of cloaths.

IN the Campaign of 1779, which terminated the ca­reer of General Putnam's services, he commanded the Maryland line posted at Butter-milk falls, about two miles below West Point. He was happy in possessing the friendship of the officers of that line, and in living on terms of hospitality with them. Indeed there was no family in the army that lived better than his own. The General, his second son Major Daniel Putnam, and the writer of these Memoirs composed that family. This campaign, principally spent in strengthening the works [Page 327] of West Point, was only signalised for the storm of Sto­ny Point by the Light Infantry under the conduct of General Wayne, and the surprise of the post of Powles Hook by the Corps under the command of Colonel Henry Lee. When the army quitted the field and march­ed to Morris Town into winter-quarters, General Put­nam's family went into Connecticut for a few weeks. In December, the General began his journey to Morris Town. Upon the road between Pomfret and Hartford he felt an unusual torpor slowly pervading his right hand and foot. This heaviness crept gradually on, and until it had deprived him of the use of his limbs on that side, in a considerable degree, before he reached the house of his friend Colonel Wadsworth. Still he was unwilling to consider his disorder of the paralytic kind, and endeavoured to shake it off by exertion. Having found that impossible, a temporary dejection, disguised however under a veil of assumed chearfulness, succeeded. But reason, philosophy, and religion, soon reconciled him to his fate. In that situation he has constantly re­mained, favored with such a portion of bodily activity as enables him to walk and to ride moderately; and re­taining unimpaired his relish for enjoyment, his love of pleasantry, his strength of memory, and all the faculties of his mind. As a proof that the powers of memory are not weakened, it ought to be observed, that he has lately repeated from recollection all the adventures of his life, which are here recorded, and which had for­merly been communicated to the compiler in detached conversations.

IN patient yet fearless expectation of the approach of [Page 328] THE KING OF TERRORS, whom he hath full often faced in the field of blood, the Christian hero now enjoys in domestic retirement the fruit of his early industry. Ha­ving in youth provided a competent subsistence for old age, he was secured from the danger of penury and dis­tress, to which, so many Officers and Soldiers worn out in the public service have been reduced. To illustrate his merits the more fully, this Essay will be concluded with a copy of the last letter written to him, by Gene­ral Washington, in his military character,