American revolutionary soldier, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, USA. A captain in the French and Indian War (175563), he was tortured by the Indians, given command of a regiment in 1759, and in 1762 went on the West India campaign. In 1764 he helped to relieve Detroit, then besieged by Pontiac. Given command of the forces of Connecticut in 1775, then of New York, he was defeated by Howe (1776) at Brooklyn Heights. In 1777 he was appointed to the defence of the Highlands of the Hudson.
Israel Putnam (January 7, 1718 – May 29, 1790) was an American army general who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775) during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Although Putnam never quite attained the national renown of famous heroes like Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone, in his own time his reckless courage and fighting spirit were known far beyond Connecticut's borders through the circulation of folk legends celebrating his exploits.
Early life
Putnam was born in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts, to Joseph and Elizabeth Putnam, a prosperous farming family of Salem Witch Trials fame.
Strong oral tradition in northeastern Connecticut claims that, in his youth, Putnam--with the help of a group of farmers from Mortlake--killed the last wolf in Connecticut. There is a section of the Mashamoquet Brook State Park in modern day Putnam named "Wolf Den" (which includes the 'den' itself), as well as a "Wolf Den Road" in Brooklyn, Connecticut. Between 1755 and 1765, Putnam participated in campaigns against the French and Indians as a member of Rogers' Rangers, as well as with regular British forces.
As the commander of the Connecticut force in 1758, Putnam was sent to relieve Pontiac’s siege of Detroit.
In 1759, Putnam led a regiment in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga and later at Montreal. It is believed that Major Putnam returned to New England from Cuba with Cuban tobacco seeds that he planted in the Hartford area resulting in the development of the renowned Connecticut Wrapper agricultural product.
Putnam was outspoken against British taxation policies and around the time of the Stamp Act crisis in 1766, he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly and was one of the founders of the Connecticut Sons of Liberty.
The American Revolution
On April 20, 1775, when Putnam received news of the Battle of Lexington that started the day before, he left his plow in the field and rode one hundred miles in eighteen hours, reaching Cambridge the next day, to offer his services to the Patriot cause.
Shortly after the Battle of Lexington, Putnam led the Connecticut militia to Boston and was named major general, making him second in rank to his Chief in the Continental Army. During that battle Putnam ordered his troops, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," which has since become one of the American Revolution's more memorable quotes.
In 1777 Putnam received another, though lesser, military command in the Hudson Highlands.
Epilogue
Putnam died in Brooklyn, Connecticut ten years later in 1790, and was buried in an above-ground tomb in Brooklyn's South Cemetery. Within a few years, however, the site was visited by so many people visiting Putnam's tomb that the badly-mutilated marble marker was removed for safe keeping to the Capitol Building in Hartford. In 1888, Putnam's remains were removed from the Brooklyn cemetery and placed in a sarcophagus built into the foundation of a monument, newly erected on a plot of ground near the Brooklyn town green.
In the early days of the war, Putnam was regarded by Washington as one of America's most valuable military assets, but this view was probably based primarily upon earlier exploits from his colorful past.
Today there are many places named for Israel Putnam HI
Mural "The Life and Times of General Israel Putnam of Connecticut,"
Recently a mural depting General Putnam was to be returned to the newly renovated Hamilton Avenue School in Greenwich, CT. Instead, the group agreed to leave the mural, "The Life and Times of General Israel Putnam of Connecticut," at its current location at Greenwich Library. Painted by James Daughtery of Weston as part of the Works Progress Administration program in 1935, the mural depicts Putnam, Greenwich's war hero, aiming his musket at snarling wolves while all around him Native Americans hurl tomahawks and men armed with guns and knives tussle.
He was a first cousin once removed of Ann Putnam Jr
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