by Gen. Reed, than whom a more intelligent officer was not under Washington. The late eminent scholar, John Pickering, sent us an eulogy upon him, from the English Annual Register, which he thought was written by the great Edmund Burke. Gen. Dearborn says, “The universal popularity of Putnam at the commencement of the Revolution was such as can scarcely now be conceived, even by those who then felt the whole force of it.” Gen. Burbeck says, “He was the great gun of the day.” President Dwight, and no one knew him better, says he was “a man whose generosity was singular, whose honesty was proverbial; a hero who dared to lead where any dared to follow.” But Washington has stamped on Putnam the fiat of fame. The first moment he met him on Prospect Hill, he paid him a flattering compliment, “that he inspired every man under him with his own energy and spirit;” and he pronounced various eulogies on him up to the moment of bidding him his last farewell. Their mutual confidence and friendship were uninterrupted, except for an instant, when Washington thought Putnam was desirous of doing more than his share of the fighting. Washington called for part of the troops of Putnam, who waited to entreat permission to head them first against New York, as he had before against Boston. Washington, though his military sternness was as gigantic as all his other good qualities, rebuked him with more forbearance than he ever exhibited on a similar occasion. He was more severe on Hamilton for a slight want of punctuality, when he said to him, “You must change your watch, or I must change my Aid.”[6]

But the appointment of Putnam as Brigadier-General by Connecticut, and Major-General by the Federal Congress, over the heads of many most respectable officers, would prove, without any of these notices, that no other officer could have been selected as the commander of the battle, as he had been on three very conspicuous occasions before. If commander there was, he must have been the commander; and “that there was, all nature cries aloud.” Since the world began, in all history or natural history, there never was a battle known without a commander. It is the instinct of all animated nature, insect, animal, or man; from the bee to the buffalo, from the Indian savage to Gen. Taylor. Milton’s battles of the angels were fought under Michael and Satan as the commanders.

Our next incontrovertible proof that Putnam was the commander is founded on the fact, that the army at Cambridge was regularly organized and consolidated under Ward, Warren, Putnam, and other officers in regular gradation, without any distinction in regard to the colonies whence the troops came. The author acknowledges, if this was the fact, that Putnam was the commander; we take him at his word, and will make this so clear, that he who runs may read. The question is one of fact only, as regards both the army and Gen. Putnam; whether the army was, in fact, a consolidated and organized body, and whether Putnam was commander of the battle de facto. Whether all this was technically legal and constitutional is a question as abstract and useless as that other of the author’s, whether Putnam had any right to command Prescott; and more hopeless: it is almost on a par with that of free agency, or the origin of evil. It would be as preposterous to deny that Putnam was the commander, even if the army was not a legal one, as for British historians to have denied that Washington was the commander in the battles he fought, because they said he was not a legal commander, and Gen. Howe said he was no General, only Mr. &c.; though he found to his sorrow, that Washington and Putnam both were generals, and out-generalled him,—Putnam at Bunker Hill, and Washington ever afterwards. There is poor encouragement for any one to enter into this question of the legality of the organization of the army, when Pres. Adams, sen. and Judge Tudor failed under it so egregiously. They both jumped into this quickset hedge, and the author shuts his eyes and follows them. The result is, Pres. Adams doubts whether any one was authorized to command the troops of all the colonies; and whether any one, except the old militia Gen. Pomeroy, a volunteer with no command over an individual in Cambridge, had a right to command the troops of Massachusetts. Judge Tudor doubts with him. The author is positive that the army was one of allies only, and Putnam a mere volunteer. Putnam was no more a volunteer than the whole army at Cambridge was a volunteer army, or than the governments of the colonies who sent the troops there were volunteer governments; and they were in fact mere governments de facto, without constitutions, or conventions to form any. New Hampshire, rather the worst off in this respect, had two separate governments,—the royal, under the very popular and conciliatory Gov. Wentworth; and the rebel, under a convention; and both were in operation for a month after the battle. But just as much legality and constitutionality as there was in these governments, so much there was in the consolidation and organization of the army under Gen. Ward. The facts were perfectly well known to all three of the colonies, and their tacit consent and approbation was as binding on them as if it was expressed by their regular enactments enrolled and recorded.

The author omits, in his extracts from Adams’s letter, far the most interesting and important part of it, as it regards the subject, and especially Putnam’s claims. Adams thinks his objections to the legality of the army extend to it, and to Washington, when he took command. Now, this fortunately gives us the conclusive authority of Washington, to show that all these legal subtleties are of no practical importance. Adams doubts whether the army was sufficiently organized to authorize Washington to try by courts-martial the delinquents in the battle. But Washington did not hesitate a moment to cut this Gordian knot. He brought Mansfield, Gerrish, Scammans, and all other delinquents, before courts-martial; and made Gen. Greene, of Rhode Island, the president of them, as if for the express purpose of declaring his opinion, that this colonial question did not affect in the slightest degree the organization of the army, or the authority and liabilities of the officers. Our author labors to make out an argument against Putnam’s command, by showing that there was more legality and intimacy in the connection of the New Hampshire troops with the rest of the army, than in that of the troops from Connecticut. So complete was the union of the Connecticut troops with the rest of the army, that Putnam could not obtain Ward’s permission to take the Connecticut regiment to Charlestown the night before the battle, though he strenuously urged it. The most he could obtain was two hundred of them; and they were placed under the command of Prescott, who had likewise a company from New Hampshire (Capt. Dow’s) under his command. Could any thing be more conclusive as to the consolidation of the army? We have the pay-rolls of New Hampshire to prove, that her troops were adopted and paid by her from the first moment they went to Cambridge. On the side of Connecticut this union was not only expressed by the manner in which their officers were detailed for duty by Ward; but he placed under the immediate command of Putnam, Patterson’s Massachusetts and Sargent’s New Hampshire regiments, in addition to one from Connecticut, at Inman’s Farm, the most exposed and important outpost of the army.[7] And the very important action was fought, and the victory achieved, under the command of Putnam, the 27th of May, at Chelsea. On the 13th May, all the troops at Cambridge marched under the command of Putnam to Charlestown, and defied the enemy under the very muzzles of their guns. Lieut-Col. Huntington writes to Gov. Trumbull from Cambridge, 27th April: “Gen. Ward being at Roxbury, Gen. Putnam is commander-in-chief at this place.” Now, how is it conceivable, that the author, after narrating these three striking cases of Putnam’s command over all the troops, and after this overwhelming evidence of the complete coalescence of these troops, should a few days after, when Putnam appears again with the army at Bunker Hill, turn to the right about face, like lightning, and deny that he could possibly command, because it was an army of allies?

The organization of the army at Cambridge, just before the battle, was as follows: Two full regiments, under Stark and Reid, and another small one under Sargent, from New Hampshire, and one full regiment from Connecticut under Lieut.-Col. Storrs, immediately after the battle of Lexington, about two months before that of Bunker Hill, came to Cambridge, and voluntarily united themselves with the army under Major-Gen. Ward. All these troops previous to the battle, as we stated in our history of it, in the very words, we believe, of Gov. Brooks (Maj. Brooks, of Ward’s army), were regularly organized and consolidated, and the routine and operations of a regular army were performed by them precisely as though they had been all of one province. The following extracts from Gen. Ward’s orderly book will put this beyond dispute:—April 22, he orders Col. Stark to march to Chelsea with three hundred men. May 2, he orders Maj. M’Clary, of the same regiment, to keep a vigilant look-out as far as Winter Hill. June 6, Lieut.-Col. Storrs is officer of the main guard. June 7, Maj. Durkee Connecticut troops are made repeatedly; and, on the 12th of June, Ward orders a court-martial with Col. Frye, president, and other officers of Massachusetts, united with Coit and Keyes, and Jos. Trumbull, judge advocate, all of Connecticut. Here, then, we have a demonstration, as clear as were it mathematical, of the complete union and coalition of the whole army, not only with their own consent, but with the sanction and approbation of their several provinces, to whom all this was known. But allow the gentleman, as in regard to Callender, to manufacture his own case, grossly regardless of all known facts. Allow that these New England provinces, who had always lived like brothers under one general government, should, when their object, danger, and enemy were one, be so discordant and repulsive, that each provincial corps, even in battle, must be insulated, he would not be one step nearer to his object. Is it possible he is ignorant that allies, as he calls them, when in military detachments, must be under the command of the oldest allied officer, who ranks the rest? This is so perfectly settled, that it would be burning daylight to prove it.

We have thus proved a second time, from the nature of the army, and the rank of Putnam, according to the author’s own acknowledgment, that Putnam was the commander of the battle. We now proceed to prove it a third and fourth time, by his conduct in the battle, and the evidence in the case. Our troops were well fed at Cambridge, through contributions from the New England towns, who thought, with the old general, that men fought best on full stomachs: but, after waiting two months, they grew impatient for fighting; and Putnam’s whole soul was with them. Notwithstanding Ward’s prudence, Putnam persuaded him at last to grant him two thousand men to meet the enemy. The heights of Charlestown were carefully reconnoitred by Putnam, fascines and empty casks were prepared for intrenchments, and all the intrenching tools far and near were collected; but enough only could be found for one thousand men, and Prescott’s detachment was limited to that number from necessity; but they were to be relieved in the morning by an equal number in their places. The still more important preparation of gunpowder was anxiously attempted, though nearly in vain. During the turmoil of the day of battle, Putnam called on the Committee of Safety to receipt for eighteen barrels of powder from Connecticut. He went on to Breed’s Hill the night before the battle, and assisted in laying out the intrenchments.[8] He likewise took his small soldiers’ tent on to the ground, and Capt. Trevett says it was erected. This shows a “foregone conclusion,” that he was to be indissolubly connected with the expedition, and all its consequences. But, what was still more in the spirit of the man, he prepared for himself a relay of horses for the battle; and nothing more difficult: even Col. Prescott could not find one for Maj. Brooks to ride to Cambridge, though he endeavored to press one from the artillery. Putnam was the only officer mounted in the battle, unless Maj. Durkee was part of the time, as one of the documents relates. Durkee had been his intimate associate in the previous war, as he was through that of the Revolution. By daylight on the morning of the battle, Putnam sent to Gen. Ward for a horse, and procured another himself; he seemed to consider this as important as Richard did, when he exclaims, “My kingdom for a horse.” He went to Breed’s Hill the night before the battle; and this he did under the express agreement with Gen. Ward that he was to do so, and to have the direction and superintendence of the whole expedition. For the minute detail of Putnam’s conduct relative to the battle and connection with it, we refer to our history and notes. The well-known, honorable, and intelligent Col. Putnam, son of the general, who observes he was with the army at the time of the battle, and afterwards an officer under his father till near the close of the war, and during his whole life frequently conversed on the subject of the battle with his father and all others, wrote a memoir, which he communicated to the Monument Association. Putnam, he says, early urged Ward to have the heights of Charlestown fortified, who, with Warren, objected the want of powder and battering cannon. Ward hoped for peace and reconciliation with the enemy, and wished to continue on the defensive. Putnam said we should gain peace only by the sword, and he wished only to draw out the enemy so as to meet them on equal terms. He frequently reconnoitred the heights; and, just before the battle, Ward agreed to put two thousand men under him to form intrenchments and defend them. General Putnam went with half this force to Breed’s Hill the night of the 16th, repairing at dawn to Cambridge for the other thousand to relieve the fatigue-party; but the cannonade of the enemy called him instantly back. Gov. Brooks went on to the ground with Gen. Putnam, and was present whilst he assisted in laying out the works. Col. Trumbull, with the army at the time, says the detachment went under the command of Gen. Putnam and Col. Prescott. Judge Grosvenor, an officer of the army at the time, and in the detachment, says “Putnam was with them; and, under his immediate superintendence, ground was broken and the redoubt formed; and that he commanded the troops engaged afterwards.” Pres. Stiles, of New Haven College, recorded in his Diary, that Putnam took possession of Bunker Hill the night of the 16th. Pres. Dwight, of the same college, says Putnam was the commander of the battle. Rev. Dr. Whitney, the pastor and most intimate friend of Gen. Putnam, states explicitly Gen. Putnam’s own declaration to him, that the detachment was at