Israel Putnam

Israel Putnam 1718-90, American Revolutionary general, b. Salem (now Danvers), Mass. A farmer at Pomfret, Conn., he fought in the French and Indian Wars , seeing action at Montreal (1760) and at Havana (1762). In 1764, he was commander of the Connecticut force sent to relieve Pontiac's siege of Detroit. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he joined the Continental army and was prominent in the battle of Bunker Hill. Putnam was in command at the unhappy battle of Long Island (1776) and in 1777 lost forts Montgomery and Clinton in the Hudson Highlands to the British. A paralytic stroke (1779) ended his military career.

Bibliography: See biographies by W. Cutter (1847, repr. 1970) and I. N. Tarbox (1876, repr. 1970).

Putnam, Israel (1718–90), Massachusetts‐born soldier, a major in the last French and Indian War, served in the expedition against Havana (1762), his journal of this and a later trip to West Florida being published in The Two Putnams … (1931). He commanded Connecticut troops during Pontiac's Rebellion, fought at Bunker Hill as a major general, and commanded at the Battle of Long Island. Exonerated of a later charge of insubordination, he remained in the service through 1779. He is the titular hero of a play by N.H. Bannister and often figures in literature about the Revolution.