The organization of the army at Cambridge, just before the battle, was as follows: Two full regiments, under Stark and Reid, and another small one under Sargent, from New Hampshire, and one full regiment from Connecticut under Lieut.-Col. Storrs, immediately after the battle of Lexington, about two months before that of Bunker Hill, came to Cambridge, and voluntarily united themselves with the army under Major-Gen. Ward. All these troops previous to the battle, as we stated in our history of it, in the very words, we believe, of Gov. Brooks (Maj. Brooks, of Ward’s army), were regularly organized and consolidated, and the routine and operations of a regular army were performed by them precisely as though they had been all of one province. The following extracts from Gen. Ward’s orderly book will put this beyond dispute:—April 22, he orders Col. Stark to march to Chelsea with three hundred men. May 2, he orders Maj. M’Clary, of the same regiment, to keep a vigilant look-out as far as Winter Hill. June 6, Lieut.-Col. Storrs is officer of the main guard. June 7, Maj. Durkee Connecticut troops are made repeatedly; and, on the 12th of June, Ward orders a court-martial with Col. Frye, president, and other officers of Massachusetts, united with Coit and Keyes, and Jos. Trumbull, judge advocate, all of Connecticut. Here, then, we have a demonstration, as clear as were it mathematical, of the complete union and coalition of the whole army, not only with their own consent, but with the sanction and approbation of their several provinces, to whom all this was known. But allow the gentleman, as in regard to Callender, to manufacture his own case, grossly regardless of all known facts. Allow that these New England provinces, who had always lived like brothers under one general government, should, when their object, danger, and enemy were one, be so discordant and repulsive, that each provincial corps, even in battle, must be insulated, he would not be one step nearer to his object. Is it possible he is ignorant that allies, as he calls them, when in military detachments, must be under the command of the oldest allied officer, who ranks the rest? This is so perfectly settled, that it would be burning daylight to prove it.
We have thus proved a second time, from the nature of the army, and the rank of Putnam, according to the author’s own acknowledgment, that Putnam was the commander of the battle. We now proceed to prove it a third and fourth time, by his conduct in the battle, and the evidence in the case. Our troops were well fed at Cambridge, through contributions from the New England towns, who thought, with the old general, that men fought best on full stomachs: but, after waiting two months, they grew impatient for fighting; and Putnam’s whole soul was with them. Notwithstanding Ward’s prudence, Putnam persuaded him at last to grant him two thousand men to meet the enemy. The heights of Charlestown were carefully reconnoitred by Putnam, fascines and empty casks were prepared for intrenchments, and all the intrenching tools far and near were collected; but enough only could be found for one thousand men, and Prescott’s detachment was limited to that number from necessity; but they were to be relieved in the morning by an equal number in their places. The still more important preparation of gunpowder was anxiously attempted, though nearly in vain. During the turmoil of the day of battle, Putnam called on the Committee of Safety to receipt for eighteen barrels of powder from Connecticut. He went on to Breed’s Hill the night before the battle, and assisted in laying out the intrenchments.[8] He likewise took his small soldiers’ tent on to the ground, and Capt. Trevett says it was erected. This shows a “foregone conclusion,” that he was to be indissolubly connected with the expedition, and all its consequences. But, what was still more in the spirit of the man, he prepared for himself a relay of horses for the battle; and nothing more difficult: even Col. Prescott could not find one for Maj. Brooks to ride to Cambridge, though he endeavored to press one from the artillery. Putnam was the only officer mounted in the battle, unless Maj. Durkee was part of the time, as one of the documents relates. Durkee had been his intimate associate in the previous war, as he was through that of the Revolution. By daylight on the morning of the battle, Putnam sent to Gen. Ward for a horse, and procured another himself; he seemed to consider this as important as Richard did, when he exclaims, “My kingdom for a horse.” He went to Breed’s Hill the night before the battle; and this he did under the express agreement with Gen. Ward that he was to do so, and to have the direction and superintendence of the whole expedition. For the minute detail of Putnam’s conduct relative to the battle and connection with it, we refer to our history and notes. The well-known, honorable, and intelligent Col. Putnam, son of the general, who observes he was with the army at the time of the battle, and afterwards an officer under his father till near the close of the war, and during his whole life frequently conversed on the subject of the battle with his father and all others, wrote a memoir, which he communicated to the Monument Association. Putnam, he says, early urged Ward to have the heights of Charlestown fortified, who, with Warren, objected the want of powder and battering cannon. Ward hoped for peace and reconciliation with the enemy, and wished to continue on the defensive. Putnam said we should gain peace only by the sword, and he wished only to draw out the enemy so as to meet them on equal terms. He frequently reconnoitred the heights; and, just before the battle, Ward agreed to put two thousand men under him to form intrenchments and defend them. General Putnam went with half this force to Breed’s Hill the night of the 16th, repairing at dawn to Cambridge for the other thousand to relieve the fatigue-party; but the cannonade of the enemy called him instantly back. Gov. Brooks went on to the ground with Gen. Putnam, and was present whilst he assisted in laying out the works. Col. Trumbull, with the army at the time, says the detachment went under the command of Gen. Putnam and Col. Prescott. Judge Grosvenor, an officer of the army at the time, and in the detachment, says “Putnam was with them; and, under his immediate superintendence, ground was broken and the redoubt formed; and that he commanded the troops engaged afterwards.” Pres. Stiles, of New Haven College, recorded in his Diary, that Putnam took possession of Bunker Hill the night of the 16th. Pres. Dwight, of the same college, says Putnam was the commander of the battle. Rev. Dr. Whitney, the pastor and most intimate friend of Gen. Putnam, states explicitly Gen. Putnam’s own declaration to him, that the detachment was at first put under his command, and that with it he took possession of the hill, and ordered the battle from the beginning to the end. “These facts,” he says, “Gen. Putnam himself gave me soon after the battle, and also repeated them to me after his life [by Humphreys] was printed.” This is in a note of Dr. Whitney to his funeral discourse on Gen. Putnam, 1790, and repeated in his letter, 1818. Col. Putnam, in his letter to me, confirms Dr. Whitney’s declarations as to his father’s assertions. Frothingham thinks they may have mistaken the general’s meaning. Col. Putnam’s reasons for his accurate recollections, we have given. Dr. Whitney says, “Soon after Bunker Hill Battle, I was at Cambridge some weeks chaplain to Gen. Putnam’s regiment, resided in his family, and had peculiarly favorable opportunities of learning, from him and others, in detail, the things which took place in the battle from its beginning to its end.” Dr. Aaron Dexter says, from memoranda written at the time, that he was informed by the officers at Ward’s quarters the day after the battle, that Putnam had command of all the troops that were sent down over-night, and that might be ordered there the next day. Col. Bancroft, the distinguished captain in the redoubt, says he was at the laying-out of the works by Putnam, and that the rail breastwork was formed and lined under the direction of Putnam. John Boyle, Esq. of Boston, who was aide-de-camp to Gov. Hancock, in the expedition to Rhode Island, writes in his Diary, 16th June, 1775: “Gen. Putnam, with a detachment of about one thousand of the American forces, went from Cambridge, and began an intrenchment on an eminence below Bunker Hill.” Col. Samuel Ward, of Rhode Island, then a captain in the army at Roxbury, writes, 20th June: “Putnam had a sore battle on Saturday.” Ethan Clarke writes to Capt. Ward, “We hear that Putnam is defeated, and Dr. Warren slain.” The most astonishing inadvertence of the author, though mere inadvertence we believe, is his publishing two pages out of Rivington’s Gazette of 3d August, 1775, and never hinting, that in the same paper of 29th June, 1775, it is stated that “Putnam on the evening of the 16th inst. took possession of Bunker Hill, and began an intrenchment;” and this extract from Rivington was mentioned in a publication of ours, which he had among our documents. Josiah Cleveland’s[9] deposition says he was of Putnam’s regiment; went on the night of the 16th, Putnam at their head, who with others directed the works, and ordered the Connecticut and some Massachusetts troops to make the breastwork at the rail-fence. Abner Allen,[10] of the same regiment, in his deposition, says he went on the night before the battle; Putnam was then and there called general, and acted as such. Major Daniel Jackson, 16th June, 1775, then a sergeant in the artillery, entered in his Diary, “Gen. Putnam with the army went to intrench on Bunker Hill.” Trevett, senior captain of the artillery, the day of the battle, inquired officially of Maj. Gridley, then in command of all the artillery at Cambridge, and whose father was inferior to no one in the councils of war, “Who had the command of the troops?” and was informed by him, “Gen. Putnam.” “Then there is nothing to fear,” he observed at the time. He consequently applied to Putnam for orders, and received them. We have mentioned Putnam’s command over three regiments from different provinces; and that, while “Gen. Ward was at Roxbury, Gen. Putnam was commander-in-chief” at Cambridge. Gen. Dearborn,[11] who was in the battle, represents Putnam as the authorized commander. Our next witness is the Rev. Jos. Thaxter, of Edgarton, who, in his letter A.D. 1818, says, “On the evening of the 16th June, Col. Prescott and Col. Bridge, with their regiments, under the direction of Gen. Putnam, took possession of Breed’s Hill, and threw up a fort or intrenchment.” We have looked in vain into the author’s book for the name of Thaxter, that most venerable and interesting old man eloquent, and minister of the Most High, who, at the time of the battle, was chaplain in the army, and, while the battle raged, was wrestling with the Lord in prayer for victory; and, in 1825, with head as white and heart as unsullied as the driven snow, appeared again on the battle-field at the jubilee, and laying of the corner-stone for the monument, to bear up to the throne of grace the thanks of the hundred thousand who were present, for the very success that he had prayed for in ’75. The author has devoted twenty-two pages to this jubilee and monument, without one syllable to spare for the patriotism, eloquence, and unction of this most interesting relic of olden time, or for the mention of any religious service whatsoever on the occasion. He dwells on Webster’s eloquent address to the sovereign people, without the slightest notice of any address to the Sovereign of the universe. The neglect of all religious service on the occasion will be considered, by all those who give credit to the author’s history, as a serious imputation on our national character.
All this perfectly decisive testimony of Putnam’s command is fully confirmed by the whole of his conduct during the day after he left Gen. Ward at dawn, who promised to send on a reinforcement. The breastwork at the rail-fence was built under Putnam’s orders by the Connecticut and a few Massachusetts troops, though Frothingham does not give him the credit of it. He acknowledges it was built by Knowlton and the troops under him, and that Judge Grosvenor says Gen. Putnam placed them there. Adj.-Gen. Keyes, then lieutenant in Grosvenor’s company, says the same. Col. Putnam’s memoir states that his father placed them there, and ordered them to make the best preparation in their power for defence. Col. Bancroft and Mr. Josiah Cleveland,[12] as mentioned before, and Messrs. Aaron Smith[13] and William Low,[14] all of them present and in the battle, say expressly Putnam built it; and Low adds, Putnam took a rail on his shoulder, and ordered every man to do the same and build the breastwork. Greater service than this was never performed by Putnam for his country, nor greater service by him or any one at Bunker Hill. There were ingenuity, knowledge of position, and generalship in it, that have secured for him immortal honor, and the warmest gratitude of all his countrymen to the latest posterity. Without this defence, the overwhelming force of the enemy would have flanked, surrounded, and vanquished our ill-equipped troops instantly. There was scarcely a regiment, corps, or individual of the army, that Putnam did not personally command, direct, or encourage. The reinforcements not arriving, he galloped back to Ward’s quarters to obtain them. He ordered Doolittle’s regiment[15] to go on at nine o’clock; ordered Stark’s regiment to the lines, and reserved a part of it to intrench on Bunker Hill; led on Woodbridge’s and Brewer’s regiments; ordered Gardner’s to build intrenchments on Bunker Hill; he ordered the companies of Little’s regiment to their posts; and Ford’s company of Bridge’s regiment he ordered to draw Callender’s deserted cannon to the line. Ford, though no submissive man, obeyed with the greatest reluctance, his company being infantry, and Putnam fired the pieces himself; some of the soldiers exclaiming that he made a lane, others a furrow, through the enemy. He beat, cut, and thrust with his sword a number of the soldiers who were backward and cowardly, broke his sword over a dastardly officer of Gerrish’s regiment, and compelled Capt. Callender to do his duty by threatening him with instant death. During the raging of the battle, frothing at the mouth from his vociferations, and his horse covered with foam, he was galloping from end to end of the line, encouraging, directing, and commanding everybody. My townsman Bagley, who was fighting at the time at the breastwork, and others, say, in their simple language, “he had a very encouraging look.” In the language of one of Shakspeare’s characters,—
“He outfaced the brow of bragging horror;
So that inferior men, who borrow their behavior
From the great, grew great by his example,
And put on the spirit of dauntless resolution.”
And we say the same of Prescott. When Putnam could no longer prevent the retreat of his troops, he was one of the last in the rear. He told Whittemore, an old companion of the former war, he would rally again directly, as he attempted to do at his slight intrenchments on Bunker Hill, where he obstinately remained till even the Leonidas company of Charlestown, and Trevett’s noble corps, left him alone. But, even then, Gen. Putnam it was who saved the honor of his country, as he had already secured for her all the advantages of victory in the battle, by rallying his troops again on Prospect Hill within cannon-shot of the enemy, who did not dare to follow him; and he made a drawn battle of it.
Seventy-five years since, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Who the commander was has ever since remained a mystery. Maj.-Gen. Ward was the commander-in-chief of the army at Cambridge; Maj.-Gen. Warren, the next; Brig.-Gen. Putnam, the third in command; and Col. Prescott, another officer of the army. Gen. Ward, from headquarters, ordered the preparations for the battle, and the general movements and disposition of the troops during the day. But, from want of staff officers, he was unable to ascertain or to direct the particular movements and manœuvres of the troops during the day. He was the commander of the general movements out of the field. Had Napoleon, with his numerous staff, been in Ward’s place, history, without hesitation, would have recorded him the commander. Warren[16] was on the field, and, notwithstanding he declined to issue any orders, was authorized so to do whenever he pleased. His situation was nearly identical with that of the admiral, who declined giving any orders to his fleet, and merely directed that “every commander of a ship should kill his own bird.” Warren, then, was the authorized, and for many years the supposed commander, as he was the distinguished hero, martyr, and volunteer of the battle. Gen. Putnam was the actual, and, on Warren’s declining, the authorized commander of Bunker Hill Battle. He was “the bright particular star,” to which, during all the storm and tempest of the battle, every eye was turned for guidance and for victory. Col. Prescott[17] was commander at Bunker Hill the night before the battle, and the next day till Gen. Putnam came on with the reinforcements; and, during the battle, the commander at the redoubt. He erected his works with his detachment of one thousand men, under a sheet of fire from the enemy like a volcano, and defended them afterwards most heroically to the latest moment of desperation. He immortalized his name. There were, then, four who in some sense participated in the command of Bunker Hill Battle; hence the multiplied mistakes on the subject. It may be equally impossible to demonstrate who was exclusively the commander, as to discover the author of Junius, or birthplace of Homer. It was our duty not the less to make the attempt; as we have done with the greatest diffidence, considering it a forlorn hope.
APPENDIX.