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 betook himself, once more, to a country life, filled several offices in his native town, to represent it in the general assembly. In 1770, he went, with general Lyman and some others, to explore a grant of land on the Mississippi. General Lyman died there; but Putnam returned after having made some improvements on his tract. When hostilities commenced between England and the colonies (April 18th, 1775,) Putnam received the intelligence as he was plowing in the middle of a field; he left his plow there, unyoked his team, and, without changing his clothes, set off for the scene of action. Finding the British shut up and closely invested with a sufficient force in Boston, he returned to Connecticut, levied a regiment under colonial authority, and marched to Cambridge. His colony now appointed him a major-general on the provincial staff, and congress soon after confirmed to him the same rank on the continental. About this time the British offered him the rank of a major-general in his majesty's army, with a pecuniary remuneration for his treason; but the temptation could not influence him. In the several preparatory operations for the battle of Bunker's hill, he took an active part. After the commencement of the retreat at the battle of Bunker's hill, Putnam arrived on the field with a reinforcement, and performed everything to be expected from a brave and experienced officer; the enemy pursued the retreating Americans to Winter hill, but Putnam halted there, and drove them back, under cover of their ships. On the evacuation of Boston, March 17th 1776, the greater part of the forces were dispatched to New York, and Putnam was, some time after, sent thither to take upon him the command. After the disastrous action on Long Island, and general Washington's masterly retreat from thence, Putnam was nominated to the command of the right grand division of the army. He served some time in the vicinity of New York and was sent to the western side of the Hudson, and shortly after, to suprintend the fortifications of Philadelphia. After the battles of Trenton and Princeton, he was posted at Princeton, where he continued till the ensuing spring, with a very inferior force, guarding a considerable extent of frontier, curtailing and harrassing the enemy, without sustaining the least disaster. During his stay at Princeton, by attacking the foraging parties of the enemy and assemblages of the disaffected who infested his vicinity, he captured nearly a thousand prisoners.

In the spring of 1777, he was appointed to the command of a separate army in the highlands of New York. There was no regular enemy in this neighborhood, but the country around was filled with tories, and a species of banditti, called cow-boys, who committed shocking depredations. Many of the tories clandestinely traversed the country, with messages from one British army to another, and even on recruiting expeditions for the royal service. One of them, a lieutenant in the new tory levies, was detected in the American camp, and reclaimed by governor Tryon, his commander, with threats of vengeance in case of his punishment. He received this laconic answer from general Putnam: 'Sir: Nathan Palmer, a lieutenant in your king's service, was taken in my camp as a spy; he was tried as a spy; he was condemned as a spy; and you may rest assured, Sir, he shall be hanged as a spy P. S. Afternoon. He is hanged.' After the capture of Fort Montgomery, Putnam selected West Point as the best calculated site for a fortress to protect the river. The reputation it