Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/464

 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