PUTNAM
PUTNAM
Col. Diivid Brewer's Worcester County regiment
on liis rt'tiirii toMassacluisettsin 1775, joined the
AuH*rirai» army at Koxlmry. and was appointed
engineer to take cliarge of the works about
Boston. On the niglitof March 4-5. 1775, he con-
structed the fortification on Pmspect Hill, Dor-
cliester Heiglits. a masterly piece of engineering,
which compelled the evacuation of Boston,
Marcli 17. 177G. saving Washington the necessity
of attacking with an inferior force the British
army entrenclied in Boston. He also constructed
fortifications for the defence of Providence and
New|wrt, Rliode Island, in December. 1775. He
wa«; transferred to New York when Gen. Israel
Putnam commanded that city, and planned its
defences. He was appointed chief engineer of the
Continental army witlitlie rank of colonel, Aug.
11. 1776, and took part in the battle of Long
Island, Aug. 27, 1776. and in the retreats of the
army to Harlem and across into New Jersey. He
directed the construction of the temporary forti-
fications that protected the rear of Washington's
army and prevented the enemy capturing the
baggage trains and stores. Congress, disap-
pointed that New York had fallen into the pos-
session of the British, and fearing for the safety
of Pliiladelphia. questioned the engineering skill
of Colonel Putnam and he resigned, Dec. 8, 1776.
Wasliington, however, stated that he was the
best engineer in the army, wliether American or
French. Upon returning to Massachusetts Put-
nam rejoined the army, Dec. 17, 1776, as colonel
of the 5th Massachusetts regiment under General
Gates, and in the campaign that culminated in
the surrender of General Burgoynes army at Sar-
atoga, Oct. 17, 1777, he bore a conspicuous part.
In March, 1778, he .superintended the construction
of the defences of the Highlands of the Hudson
in the neighborhood of West Point, building forts
Wyllis, Webb and Putnam, the last being named
for him by General McDougall. He also com-
manded a regiment in Gen. Anthony Wayne's
brigade, joining the American forces at Peekskill
in June. 1778. and was in active service from the
battles of Stony Point to the close of the cam-
paign. He was transferred to Boston where he
obtained relief from the government for the
Ma.ssachu.setts troops in 1780, and was engaged
from February to July, 1782. in adju.sting the
claims of citizens of New York for damages
caused to their property by the war. He was
commis-sioned brigadier-general, Jan. 8, 1783, and
at the request of Washington reported a compre-
hensive plan for fortifying the whole country,
which was submitted to congress but not acted
upon, owing to the opposition in that body to pre-
paring for war in time of peace. He i)urchased the
confiscated property of Daniel Murray, an absen-
tee, located at Rutland, Mass., in 17bO, and made
it his home. He was aide to Gen. Benjamin Lin-
coln in quelling Shays's rebellion in 1787, and rep-
resented his town in the general court of jMassa-
chusetts in 1787. He planned the settlement of
Ohio territory by a company of veteran soldiers
from New England in 1782, and in his plans made
the absolute exclusion of slavery an inflexible
condition. He urged the matter upon President
Washington, 1782-87, as shown by his correspon-
dence, and the President in turn urged the scheme
upon congress, but could get that body to take no
interest in it. Washington therefore secured the
appointment of Putnam by congress as surveyor of
the Northwest territory, and Putnam sent Gen.
Tupper as his deputy to examine the country in
the winter of 1785-86. The two veterans met at
Putnam's home, Rutland, Mass.. Jan. 9, 1786, and
planned the meeting of the veteran soldiers of
Massachusetts in Boston, March 1. 1786. When
the Ohio company was organized in 1787. Putnam
was made the director of all their affairs. He
.sent Samuel H. Parsons (q.v.) to congress in 1787
to negotiate the purchase, but when he retired
unsuccessful, Putnam sent Manasseh Cutler
(q.v.), who secured the territory, including the
provision to exclude slavery by the passage of the
ordinance, July 13, 1787, — the sum to be paid, as
fixed by the measures passed July 27, to be
$1,500,000, the veteran soldiers settling in the ter-
ritory to surrender their claims for half pay. Gen-
eral Putnam then organized his band of forty-
eight men and made the journey to Ohio, reach-
ing Marietta, April 7, 1788, where they made the
first permanent settlement in the eastern part of
the Northwest territory. The centennial of the
settlement was celebrated by the states carved
from the Northwest territory, April 7, 1888, when
Senator Hoar of Massachusetts delivered the ora-
tion, in which he took occasion to give General
Putnam his rightful place in the history of the
settlement of the Northwest. General Putnam
was appointed judge of the supreme court of the
territory in 1789, and was commissioned brig-
adier-general, U.S.A., May 4, 1792, serving with
General Wayne in the operations to quell the
Indian trouble on the frontier. He was U.S.
commissioner to treat with the Indians, 1792-93,
which led to a treaty with eight Indian tribes
at Point Vincent, Sept. 27, 1792. He resigned
his commis.sion in the army, Feb. 15, 1793, and
was surveyor-general of the United States, 1793-
1803; a founder of Muskingum academy, 1798;
a trustee of the Ohio university, 1804-2-1 ; a dele-
gate to the Ohio constitutional convention of 1802,
where his determined opposition prevented by
one vote the introduction of a clause preserving
the rights of slaveholders within the state. He
was an organizer of the first bible society west of
the Alleghanies in 1812. He was the last living
