AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE OF GENERAL PUTNAM. To TREAT of recent transactions and persons still living, is always a delicate, and frequently a thankless office. Yet, while the partiality of friends, or the malignity of enemies, decides with rashness on every delineation of character, or recital of circumstances, a consolation remains, that distant nations, and remoter ages, free from the influence of prejudice or passion, will judge with impartiality, and appreciate with justice. We have fallen upon an era singularly prolific in extraordinary personages, and dignified by splendid events. Much is expected from the selections of the judicious biographer, as well as from the labours of the faithful historian. Whatever prudential reasons may now occur to postpone the portrait of our own times, the difficulties which oppose themselves to the execution, instead of being diminished, will increase with the lapse of years. Every day will extinguish some life that was dear to fame, and obliterate the memorial of some deed which would have constituted the delight and admiration of the world. So transient and indistinguishable are the traits of character, so various and inexplicable the springs of action, so obscure and perishable the remembrance of human affairs, that, unless attempts are made to sketch the picture, while the present generation is living, the likeness will be for ever lost, or only preserved by a vague recollection; disguised perhaps, by the whimsical colourings of a creative imagination. It will, doubtless, hereafter be an object of regret, that those who, having themselves been conspicuous actors on the theatre of public life, and who, in conjunction with a knowledge of facts, possess abilities to paint those characters, and describe those events which, during the progress of the American Revolution, interested and astonished mankind, should feel an insuperable reluctance to assume the task-a task which, if executed with fidelity, must, from the dignity of its subject, become grateful to the patriots of all nations, and profitable in example to the remotest posterity. Equally severe will be the mortification of contemplating the reveries and fictions which have been substituted by hacknied writers in the place of historical facts. Nor should we suppress our indignation against that class of professional authors, who, placed in the vale of penury and obscurity, at an immense * distance from the scenes of action, and all opportunities of acquiring the necessary documents, with insufferable effrontery, obtrude their fallacious and crude performances on a credulous public. Did the result of their lucubrations terminate only in relieving their own distresses, or gratifying their individual vanity, it might be passed in silent contempt. But the effect is extensive, permanent, and pernicious. The lie, however improbable or monstrous, which has once assumed the semblance of truth, by being often repeated with minute and plausible particulars, is, at length, so thoroughly established, as to obtain universal credit, defy contradiction, and frustrate every effort of refutation. Such is the mischief, such are the unhappy consequences on the bewildered mind, that the reader has no alternative, but to become the dupe of his credulity, or distrust the veracity of almost all human testimony. After having long been the sport of fiction, he will, perhaps, probably run into the opposite extreme, and give up all confidence in the annals of ancient as well as modern times; and thus the easy believer of fine fables and marvellous stories will find, at last, his historical faith change to scepticism, and end in infidelity. * The writer had here particularly in his eye, the Rhapsody palmed upon the public, under the name of a History, by a certain Frenchman, called D'Auberteiul: Perhaps so much falsehood, fol ly and calumny was never before accumulated in a single perform ance. The numerous errors and falsehoods relative to the birth and achievements of MajorGeneral Putnam, which have (at a former period) been circulated with assiduity on both sides of the Atlantic, and the uncertainty which appeared to prevail with respect to his real character,* first produced the resolution of writing this essay on his life, and induced the Editor to obtain† materials from that hero himself. If communications of such authenticity, if personal intimacy as an aid-de-camp to that General, or if subsequent military employments, which afforded access to sources The following lines are extracted from a poem, entitled "The Prospect of America:" written by the late ingenious Dr. Ladd. "Hail Putnam! hail, thou venerable name! "Who first in virtue and in battle shone. "When fourscore years had blanch'd thy laurell'd head, On which Dr. Ladd made this note: The brave Putnam seems to have been almost obscured amidst "the glare of succeeding worthies; but his early and gallant ser"vices entitle him to an everlasting remembrance." Other bards have also asserted the glory of this venerable veteran. In the first concise review of the principal American heroes who signalized themselves in the last war, the same character is thus represented: "There stood stern Putnam, seam'd with many a scar, The Vision of Columbus. Book V. The editor seizes with eagerness an opportunity of acknowledging his obligations to Dr. Albigence Waldo, who was so obliging as to commit to writing many anecdotes, communicated to him by General Putnam in the course of the present year. A multitude of proofs might be produced to demonstrate that military facts cannot always be accurately known but by the commander in chief and his confidential officers. The Marquis de of intelligence not open to others, give the writer any advantages, the unbiassed mind will decide how far they exculpate him from the imputations of that officiousness, ignorance and presumption, which, in others, have been reprehended with severity. He only wishes that a premature and unfavourable construction may not be formed of his motive or object. Should this essay have any influence in correct Chastelleux (whose opportunity to acquire genuine information, respecting those parts of the American war which he hath casually mentioned, was better than that of any other writer) gives an account of a grand forage which General Heath ordered to be made towards King's bridge in the autumn of 1780. The Marquis, who was present when the detachment marched, and to whom General Heath shewed the orders that were given to General Stark, the commanding officer of the expedition, observes that he had never seen, in manuscript, or print, more pertinent instructions. Now the fact is, that this detachment, under the pretext of a forage, was intended by the Commander in Chief to cooperate with the main army in an attempt against the enemy's posts on York Island; and that General Heath himself was then ignorant of the real design. The Commander in Chief spent a whole campaign in ripening this project. Boats, mounted on travelling carriages, were kept constantly with the army. The marquis de la Fayette, at the head of the Light Infantry, was to have made the attack in the night on fort Washington. The period chosen for this enterprise was the very time, when the army were to break up their camp and march into winter quarters: so that the Commander in Chief, moving in the dusk of the evening, would have been on the banks of the Hudson, with his whole force, to have supported the attack. The cautious manner in which the cooperation on the part of the troops sent by General Heath, on the pretended forage, was to have been conducted, will be understood from the following secret instructions. "SIR, To Brigadier General STARK. Head Quarters, Passaic Falls, Nov. 21, 1780. "Colonel Humphreys, one of my Aids-de-camp, is "charged by me with orders of a private and particular nature, "which he is to deliver to you, and which you are to obey. He " will inform you of the necessity of this mode of communication. "I am, Sir, &c. "G. WASHINGTON.” |