"Old Put" the patriot

by Frederick A. Ober

It was a current rumor in camp, later, that his escape was not altogether due to celerity of movement, nimble as he was, but to the clever ruse of a fair Quakeress, Mrs. Murray (mother of Lindley Murray, the renowned grammarian), who, being known to the British officers, invited them in, as they filed past her door, to refresh themselves with cake and wine. Being fatigued with their labors, and considering the Americans as good as captured by their clever flanking movement, they accepted the invitation gladly and remained enjoying her hospitality about two hours, or just long enough for Putnam and his men to slip out of the trap and scamper along the North River roads to the rendezvous.

Their joy at their escape when (as Major Humphreys, who was with them, said) they had been given up for lost by their friends, was tempered next day by the death of Colonel Knowlton, who had been sent out with his rangers to reconnoiter the enemy. In the ensuing engagement, known as the Battle of Harlem Heights, the gallant Knowlton was killed, besides about one hundred and seventy of his men. Knowlton, who had taken a prominent part in the battle of Bunker Hill, was an old friend and comrade of Putnam in the Indian wars, as well as at Havana, and the latter felt his loss most keenly.

There was no time for vain regrets, since the enemy were pushing after the Americans, giving them no pause for a while. When at last there was a cessation in their endeavors at direct assault, Washington was more uneasy than before, and did not rest until he had discovered what it meant. In short, General Howe was about trying the second in his remarkable series of flanking movements, by which he hoped to get in the rear of the Americans, and, with his overwhelming force, "bottle them up" and compel a general engagement. But, with a force far inferior to the British, Washington not only succeeded in avoiding a pitched battle (for which he was wholly unprepared), but finally extricated his army from the net which his enemy had spread on two sides and was now attempting to sweep around to cut off his retreat.

Sending several war-vessels up the North River, or Hudson (which had no trouble in breaking through the barrier stretched across it), General Howe embarked the main body of his troops in flatboats for Westchester, landing at a point about nine miles above the Heights of Harlem. The enemy's object was then apparent, and Washington set about defeating it by one of the most complicated and ingenious military movements on record.

Leaving General Greene in command of Fort Washington, on the Hudson, not far from Kingsbridge and the Heights, Washington hastened northward toward White Plains, seizing upon every naturally strong position by the way, and establishing a chain of entrenchments on the hill-crests that commanded all the roads leading from the North River to the Sound. The last week in October the opposing forces came in collision at Chatterton Hill, where was fought the so-called Battle of White Plains, at which, wrote Rufus Putnam, who had planned the defensive works, "the wall and stone fence behind which our troops were posted proved as fatal to the British as the rail-fence with grass hung on it did at Charlestown, June 17, 1775."

General Putnam was ordered to reenforce General McDougall, who was in command at the hill; but before he arrived the British had flanked the Americans and driven them from their position. Putnam's men covered their retreat by firing at the British and Hessians from behind fences and trees, Indian and Ranger fashion, and that night Washington practically began his famous retrograde movement to Fort Washington and Manhattan Island. "By folding one brigade behind another," in rear of those ridges he had fortified, he "brought off all his artillery, stores, and sick, in the face of a superior foe." He took position, first, at North Castle Heights, which he deemed impregnable; but after a few days the British left for the Hudson, with the purpose (as was afterward ascertained, and at the time divined by Washington) of attacking forts Washington and Lee and invading New Jersey. In anticipation of this move Putnam was detached with about four thousand men and ordered into New Jersey. Crossing the Hudson, he penetrated inland as far as Hackensack, near which place he encamped and awaited developments.

General Lee was left at North Castle Heights with seven thousand men to watch the movements of the foe, while Washington followed after Putnam to Hackensack. He was shortly recalled to the Hudson by a despatch informing him that the British were before Fort Washington in overwhelming force, and had demanded a surrender. Brave Colonel Magaw, in command of the garrison, refused a reply until he had consulted his superior officers, and as General Greene, in charge of both forts, was of the opinion that they could be held, the result was the storming of the fort and the loss of more than two thousand men.

The assault of the British, who had threatened to put the garrison to the sword, was witnessed by Washington, Greene, and Putnam from the west bank of the Hudson. Their distress may be imagined at beholding the slaughter that ensued, and there must have been some searching self-questioning by the Commander-in-Chief as to the wisdom of his policy, by which his divided forces became such an easy prey to the foe.

Lee could hardly be induced to leave his secure retreat, from which he departed only after repeated requests from Washington, whose great reliance at this time was sturdy Israel Putnam. He assisted at the evacuation of Fort Lee (now rendered useless by the loss of its sister fort across the river), and piloted the commander and his friends to his camp at Hackensack.

British troops under Lord Cornwallis had landed above Fort Lee at the base of the Palisades, and were now coming down to attempt to cut off the Americans before they could extricate themselves from the marshes lying between the Hudson and the Hackensack rivers. The latter left so precipitately that their fires were burning, with camp kettles over them, and tents still standing, when the British reached Fort Lee.