spirited affair checking the British supplies from
Noddle's Island, in Boston Harbor, and resolutely counselled the
occupation of the heights of Charlestown. When the company of Prescott
went forth on the night of June 16th, to their gallant work, he was
with them, taking no active command, but assisting where opportunity
served. He was seen in different parts of the field, but his chief
exertions appear to have been expended upon the attempted
fortification of Bunker's Hill, where he met the fugitives in the
retreat, and conducted "such of them as would obey him," says
Bancroft, to the night's encampment at Prospect Hill.

Putnam's was one of the first Congressional appointments, ten days
before the battle, when the rank of Major-General was conferred upon
him. He continued to serve at the siege of Boston, and when the
theatre of operations was changed by the departure of the British to
New York, was placed by Washington, in 1776, in command in that city
until his own arrival. He employed himself during this short period,
with several devices for the safety of the harbor. In August, on the
landing of Howe, he was, upon the sudden illness of Greene, who had
directed the fortifications, and after the arrival of the British,
left in command at the battle of Long Island, and much censure has
been thrown upon him for the neglect of the passes by which the
American left was turned. In the actual combat there appears to have
been a divided authority.

The abandonment of New York next followed, with the retreat to
Westchester and the passage through the Jerseys. Putnam was then, in
January, 1777, ordered to Philadelphia to make provision for its
defence. In May, he was put in command of the post at the Highlands,
to secure its defences, and observe, from that central position, the
movements of the enemy. In the summer of this year, Sir Henry Clinton,
at New York, sent up the river a flag of truce to claim one Edmund
Palmer, who had been taken in the American camp, as a lieutenant in
the British service. This drew forth from Putnam a reply which has
been often quoted:

"HEADQUARTERS, August 7, 1777.

"Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, was taken as a spy
lurking within our lines; he has been tried as a spy, condemned as a
spy, and shall be executed as a spy, and the flag is ordered to depart
immediately.

"ISRAEL PUTNAM.

"P.S.--He has