e 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.

Crown Point was also evacuated by the French, and thus at last the main
object of so many months' toil in the wilderness with such woful waste
of life and vast expenditure of treasure, was accomplished. While Putnam
and his comrades were engaged in restoring the fortifications of Crown
Point, they heard the news of British victories on every hand: of the
fall of Fort Niagara; and of the storming and capture of Quebec, when,
on that fateful thirteenth of September, 1759, Wolfe and Montcalm found
death and fame, the former at the hour of victory, the latter in defeat.

Israel Putnam met nearly all the great British commanders, with the
possible exception of Wolfe, and had assisted with all his might at the
upbuilding of English power in America, so it was not strange that when,
later, the Revolution opened, he was looked upon by them more as a
friend than an enemy. The next year, when Amherst moved upon Montreal,
then the chief, almost sole possession of the French in Canada, Colonel
Putnam went al