The surrender of Burgoyne left the north free from foes, and consequently with no use for great numbers of soldiers, so that Putnam was soon in command of more than nine thousand men, mainly drafts from Gates's army. He was then determined to carry out his twice-frustrated scheme of marching upon New York, and was pushing forward his plans with great confidence, when there appeared a marplot on the scene in the person of Colonel Alexander Hamilton, at that time aide-de-camp to General Washington, who peremptorily ordered Putnam to forward all the new arrivals to the Commander-in-Chief and fill their places with militia.
The order was a verbal one and delivered by a slender "snip of a boy" scarcely out of his teens, so it received scant attention from Old Put, who went on with his plans, while Colonel Hamilton mounted a fresh horse and posted off to Albany, where he had also great difficulty in impressing General Gates with the need of Washington for the best men in his command. But he succeeded in detaching a few regiments, and then hastened back to Peekskill, there to find, to his surprise and indignation, that Putnam still had all his men—and what was more, seemed inclined to keep them with him.
"I am pained beyond expression," wrote this precocious youth to Washington on the 10th of November, "to inform your Excellency that, on my arrival here, I find everything has been neglected and deranged by General Putnam.... Not the least attention has been paid to my order, in your name, for a detachment of one thousand men from the troops hitherto stationed at that post. Everything is sacrificed to the whim of taking New York.... By Governor Clinton's advice, I have sent an order, in the most emphatical terms, to General Putnam, immediately to despatch all the Continental troops under him to your assistance, and to detain the militia instead of them."
This order "in the most emphatical terms" finally moved the general to compliance; but it quite naturally excited his just resentment, and he sent it to the Commander-in-Chief, with his comments. It would have been a serious matter—detaching such a large body of troops on a mere verbal order from a hot-headed stripling; yet Washington in effect reprimanded the honest veteran by writing:
I can not but say, there has been more delay in the march of the troops than I think necessary; and I could wish that in future my orders may be immediately complied with, without arguing upon the propriety of them. If any accident ensues from obeying them, the fault will be upon me, not upon you.
Death, defeat, a reprimand—all within one short month—might have affected a stouter heart than Old Put's. But was there ever a stouter one?