Produced by Graeme Mackreth, Michael Ciesielski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "OLD PUT" THE PATRIOT BY FREDERICK A. OBER AUTHOR OF CRUSOE'S ISLAND, THE STORIED WEST INDIES, PUERTO RICO AND ITS RESOURCES, ETC. _ILLUSTRATED_ NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1904 Copyright, 1904, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY _Published, September, 1904_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.--Birthplace and Youth 1 II.--"Old Wolf Putnam" 11 III.--First Taste of War 25 IV.--A Partizan Fighter 39 V.--The Adventurous Soldier 53 VI.--Fighting on the Frontier 65 VII.--Strategy and Woodcraft 79 VIII.--A Prisoner and in Peril 92 IX.--A Campaign in Cuba 106 X.--Tavern-Keeper and Oracle 120 XI.--On the Side of His Country 134 XII.--At the Battle of Bunker Hill 150 XIII.--Holding the Enemy at Bay 171 XIV.--In Command at New York 184 XV.--Washington's Chief Reliance 198 XVI.--Defending the Hudson Highlands 212 XVII.--Last Years in the Service 226 XVIII.--The Disabled Veteran 243 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE "Old Put" escaping from the British at Horseneck _Frontispiece_ The Wolf Den at Pomfret, Connecticut 18 Fort near Havana where the Colonials landed 112 Israel Putnam 188 _From a painting by Trumbull._ Statue to General Putnam at Brooklyn, Connecticut 254 "OLD PUT," THE PATRIOT CHAPTER I BIRTHPLACE AND YOUTH This is the life story of one who was born on a farm, and died on a farm, yet who achieved a world-wide fame through his military exploits. It has been told many times, it will be told for centuries yet to come; for the world loves a man of high emprise, and such was Israel Putnam, the hero of this story. He was born January 7, 1718, in Danvers, then known as Salem Village, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. His father's Christian name was Joseph, his mother's Elizabeth, and Israel (as he was called at baptism, after his maternal grandfather, Israel Porter) was the great-grandson of his first American ancestor, John Putnam, who had come from England, where the original name of the family was Puttenham. He had settled at Salem more than eighty years before, and his son, Thomas, built, in 1648, the house in which Israel was born in 1718. On the death of Thomas it had become the property of Joseph, who first occupied it in 1690, after his marriage to Elizabeth Porter.