"Old Put" the patriotOber, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion)
History
"Old Put" the patriot
Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion)
Putnam, Israel, 1718-1790
On an old tombstone in the graveyard at Brooklyn, Connecticut, is this
inscription:
"In Memory of Mr. Daniel Putnam, son of Col^o. Israel Putnam & Mrs.
Hannah his wife, who died Aug. 8th, 1758, Aged 17 Years."
Also of David Putnam, Son of y^e above Col^o. Israel & Mrs. Hannah
Putnam, who died Nov. 21, 1761, aged 1 month."
The first death, of Daniel, his pet and pride, occurred, it is said, on
the very day (August 8, 1758), at the close of which Major Putnam was in
direst peril, tied to a tree in the forest, environed by fire and within
a circle of whooping, yelling savages. The demise of David, whom he
never saw, took place while the father was away on the Amherst
expedition, or just before his return from that campaign. Sturdy Israel,
the first-born son, had taken charge of the farm while his father was
off on his various campaigns--or at least had done his best to do so,
and the family had not wanted for provisions during the enforced
absences of the head of the family. As he was now a robust young man of
nearly twenty, and possessed all the home-loving traits of his father,
Israel was considered perfectly competent to carry on the farm at least
another season, and in the spring of 1759 his father, now advanced to
the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, went away again to the wars.
Israel Putnam seemed never to know when he had enough of fighting; or
else his sense of duty to the king and his country was paramount to all
other considerations else. At all events, one of his bravery and force
could not be omitted from the great expedition that General Amherst (who
had been sent by Pitt to supersede Abercrombie) was then organizing. In
July, 1759, we find him with his command at Lake George, where the
second expedition against Ticonderoga set forth, following the route
taken by Abercrombie, over the lake to Ticonderoga, which was reached on
the 22d. On the 23d, the French officer in command of the fortress
suddenly departed down Lake Champlain with nearly all his men; but
Amherst did not know it, and kept on with his preparations for
bombardment, having his batteries in position before he was made aware,
by French deserters, that the place had been abandoned. Soon the powder
magazine blew up, having been left by the French with a lighted
slow-match attached for the purpose, the barracks caught fire, and
Ticonderoga, which had held out so well against British and Provincial
assaults, was at last laid low. It was reconstructed, as we know, and
served both British and Patriots in the Revolutionary War; but is now in
ruins, picturesque and imposing in their decay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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