USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
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yet remains in the Leland family. He was finally transferred to Capt. William Page's company, of Hardwick, in the bat- talion of Lieut. Col. Ingersol, in Col. Ruggles' regiment; and was now advanced to the post of orderly sergeant; marching with the army by the old route, to the south end of Lake George.
On the 21st of July, they embarked in batteaux under the command of Gen. Amherst, " a sagacious, humane and ex- perienced commander." Mr. Putnam notices his kindness and attention to the welfare of the common soldiers, as highly commendable. On the 22d, they landed at the outlet of the lake, in nearly the same numbers, as of last year, without meeting with any opposition. The following day they took possession of the breastworks, where they were so signally repulsed the year before, with little opposition, and thinks the loss of so many lives in the previous attack, attributable to the rashness of Col. Bradstreet. On the 24th, they began to open their trenches for a regular siege and bombardment of Fort Ticonderoga. This was a regu- lar, strongly built, stone fort, erected by the French in 1756, and capable of resisting any common attack. The French had kept up a regular discharge of artillery, since the 23d, while their enemies were erecting their works for the batte- ries. That night, before any serious attack had been made, the garrison silently evacuated the fort, and embarked on the lake for Crown Point, a strong post, ten or twelve miles lower down on the west side of Lake Champlain. About three o'clock in the morning of the 27th the fort blew up, with a tremendous explosion. The French did not make any resistance at Crown Point, but proceeded on down the lake to Montreal. The cause of their sudden desertion of these strong posts, was the news of General Wolf's approach to Quebec, so that no aid could be sent them from below ; and rather than be captured they abandoned their positions. 3
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Thus terminated the third campaign, in which Mr. Putnam had been engaged, with the total demolition of the French power on the lakes George and Champlain, leading to their final expulsion from North America. This was a glorious conquest for the British arms, in which the Provincials shared largely ; but the greater good to them was the check it gave to the incursions of the savages, who for more than a century had invaded their frontier, assisted and encouraged with supplies of arms and ammunition from the French, plundering, murdering, and carrying into captivity their exposed inhabitants, from Maine to Pennsylvania.
As the army was. about to leave Ticonderoga in pursuit, greatly to his disappointment and vexation, he was ordered by the brigadier-general to remain and superintend the building of a saw-mill, at the lower falls on the outlet of Lake George, where it debouches into a bay of Lake Cham- plain. After the mills were completed, he obtained a pass to go to Crown Point, where his regiment then lay. When he arrived there, instead of going into the lines, he was or- dered by Maj. Skene, the superintendent of the works then building for the enlargement of the garrison, to labor as a carpenter on the block-houses, promising him the full wages for such work. After a few days he was ordered back to oversee the operations of the saw-mills, and retained until the 1st of December, some months after the discharge of his regiment. The engineer of the army, whose name is not given, when he was finally discharged, would not allow him the dollar a day as had been promised by Col. Robin- son, the quartermaster-general, but turned him off with fifteen pence, the pay of a private soldier; putting, no doubt, the extra pay justly due him into his own pocket.
On the 1st, in company with Col. Miller, Capt. Tate and others, eleven in number, he embarked on Lake George, to go up to the southerly end, in two batteaux. Expecting to
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1204205
reach Fort George the next day, they took but little pro- vision. But the wind failing them, they passed the night four miles north of Sabbath-day Point, a noted head-land. On the 2d, the wind arose to a perfect storm, with intense cold, so that they were confined to the shore, and could not move at all. On the 3d, their provisions were expended. The wind and cold continued, and their situation was be- coming alarming; but in rambling along the shore one of the men found an old provision bag, with about a dozen pounds of salted pork, which, with some damaged flour, brought by Col. Miller to feed two horses he had on board, made into dumplings, served well for that day. The 4th day was calm and they again embarked, but one of the boats being leaky, the ice formed so thick and heavy in it, that it was abandoned and the whole party entered the single boat. This additional burthen loaded her down within two or three inches of the top of her sides, and the least agitation of the water would have filled her. But, providentially, it remained calm all day, and they reached the fort at sunset without any accident. From thence he returned to Brookfield, in Massachusetts, on the 16th of December.
Disgusted with the treatment he had received in the ser- vice, in removing him from the duties of an orderly sergeant and placing him among the artisans, without any extra pay for his labor, he concluded not to engage any further in the army. The post of orderly sergeant is well calculated to improve the soldier in a knowledge of military duty, which appears to have been his object and aim that he might finally be promoted. It was a good school to prepare him by these trials, for the life intended for him by Providence. Beginning thus in the ranks, when he finally became a commander, he knew well what to require from the private soldier. Nearly all the famous marshals of Napoleon rose to this distin- guished honor from privates, solely by their merit. He seems
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early to have acquired the respect and confidence of those under his command, and several anecdotes are related of their implicit obedience to his orders.
The winter of 1759 was passed in New Braintree, working on a small farm of fifty acres, which he had purchased from the avails of his wages and bounty.
In March, 1760, orders were issued by the Provincial Gov- ernment to raise troops for another campaign. At the first muster of the militia he enrolled himself in the company of that town, and was by Capt. Page, presented with recruiting orders from Col. Ruggles. His well known character for bravery and soldierly conduct, enabled him to recruit very successfully. While occupied in this service he received a commission as ensign, in Col. Willard's regiment, Ruggles having been promoted to a brigadier. On the 2d of June he left recruiting and set out for the army, taking with him one of the men as a waiter, and joined his company, which had marched some time previous, under Capt. Thomas Be- man, at Ticonderoga, on the 18th. Here he found four com- panies of Provincials. His own was stationed at the land- ing on the outlet of Lake George, where they remained to the end of the campaign, and he was thus deprived of the honor of partaking in the fatigues of the siege and capture of the garrison at Isle au Noix, which opened the way for the junction of the three British armies before Montreal, and caused its surrender on the 8th of September, thus com- pleting the conquest of Canada. On the 19th of November his company was discharged at Ticonderoga, and on the 20th they crossed Lake Champlain, and began their march through the wilderness, by way of Otter creek, to Number Four, on the Connecticut river, a place often noticed in the early history of the country, and distant eighty miles from the lake ; which place they reached on the 25th. On the 1st of December he arrived at his home in New Braintree.
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In 1761, there being no further call for military service, he resumed his old employment of building mills and farming, which he followed for seven or eight years. After which time, to the period of the Revolution, he was engaged in prac- tical surveying for the neighboring landholders in that and the adjacent towns. This art he acquired under the direction of Col. Timothy Dwight, of Northampton, the father of Presi- dent Dwight, of Yale College. The book chiefly, and perhaps only studied, was Love's Art of Surveying, printed in Lon- don in 1768, and now in the family. He was one of the best writers on that subject. Geometry was acquired from the same source, to which he also added the study of navi- gation. His own natural mechanical cast of mind, and habits of close observation, soon enabled him to practice the art of surveying with great accuracy and deserved credit. Mr. Putnam was a practical, matter-of-fact man, in whatever branch he engaged. First a mill-wright, then a soldier, next a surveyor, and finally an engineer; the principles of all which he acquired from a very few books, with but little in- struction, and intent, close study of the subject before him. When a soldier, he stored his mind with military maxims, and a strict observance of discipline, which enabled him in after life to win the approbation of his superiors, and the love and good will of his equals, as well as of all under his charge.
In April, 1761, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Ayers, daughter of William Ayers, Esq., of Brookfield, an exten- sive landholder, and one of the first families in the place. In November following his wife died in childbed, leaving to the sorrowing father a little son, which God in his providence saw fit also to remove the following year. Nevertheless he bore these privations without murmuring against his Maker, and was enabled to ascribe righteousness to the Lord.
In January, 1765, he was again married to Miss Persis
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Rice, daughter of Zebulon Rice, of Westborough, Massachu- setts, with whom he lived in great harmony and happiness more than fifty-five years, and raised a numerous family of children. After this marriage he settled in the north parish of Brookfield, on a small farm of fifty acres, where his family resided during the war, until the year 1780, when he pur- chased a large farm and capacious dwelling-house in the town of Rutland. It was one of those confiscated estates belonging to the Tories, who had deserted their country and joined in league with the enemy for the subjugation of the Whigs. However we may now consider the justice of the policy pursued by our forefathers in those turbulent days, there is no doubt they considered it strictly honest and right to devote to the use of the country, the property of those who had thus unnaturally deserted the land which gave them birth; and turned their hands, like parricides, against their own fathers and brothers. Many enormities were then prac- ticed by the Whigs as well as the Tories, under the excitement of party feelings, which time, and a more cool consideration of right and wrong, leads us to condemn.
In the year 1772, Gen. Lyman, one of the Provincial officers, returned from England, where he had been detained several years, in soliciting the British government for a grant of land to the colonial officers and soldiers, who had served in the late war against France. Soon after this, a meeting of the adventurers was notified to be held at Hart- ford, Connecticut, the same year. At this meeting the general informed them that an order was passed by the king in council, authorizing the governor of West Florida to grant lands in that province in the same proportion and manner as given to his majesty's regular troops. Soon after the war was closed, in the year 1763, three new gov- ernments, or provinces, were established in their newly acquired American possessions, called by the names of
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Quebec, East Florida and West Florida; and an order was passed by the king and council, giving to the British troops engaged in the war, grants of land in these provinces; and the governors were ordered to make the donations in the following proportions, of any unoccupied tracts, viz .: To a person of the rank of a field officer, five thousand acres; to a captain, three thousand acres; to a subaltern or staff officer, two thousand acres; to a non-commissioned officer, two hundred acres; and to a private man, fifty acres. The same was also granted to the officers and men in the navy; but nothing was said of any grant to the Provincial officers and soldiers, many of whom had served during the whole war, and were as justly entitled to the benefit as the regular troops. But the crown seems always to have felt a coldness and want of regard for the interests of the colonists; treating them much more like menials and aliens than real subjects and children of the realm. One reason of this might have been their great distance from home, and the consideration of their dissenting and Puritan principles, no way in accordance with the established religion of the king- dom. It was with reluctance that the promise was made to Gen. Lyman, or they would not have been so long in grant- ing it, and even then he brought no written document to substantiate the grant; but his word was so far credited that the meeting resolved to explore the lands, and appointed a committee for that purpose, of which Mr. Putnam was one.
On the 10th of December he left home on the mission to Florida, passing through Brookline, Connecticut, to accom- pany Col. Israel Putnam, who was another of the exploring committee. They took shipping at Norwich, and arrived at New York on the 20th of the month. The 10th of January, 1773, they sailed from the city on board the sloop Missis- sippi, chartered by the associates of The Military Company
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of Adventurers, as the company was styled. The exploring committee consisted of Col. Israel Putnam, Capt. Enos, Mr. Thaddeus Lyman and Rufus Putnam, accompanied by Dan- iel Putnam, a son of the colonel, and a hired man. On the 30th of January they arrived at Cape Nichola Mole, a port in the north-west part of the island of Hispaniola. The harbor is an open bay, exposed to the north winds. The town contained about three hundred houses, situated in a mountainous portion of the island, with no plantations near it. He gives no particulars of the voyage, from the effects of sea sickness. Leaving the port, they sailed to Montego bay, on the north side of Jamaica; and the 9th took their departure for the bay of Pensacola, steering a westerly course. On the 11th Mr. Putnam took an observa- tion of the latitude, and found it to be 19ยบ 10' north. On the 12th, at night, they narrowly escaped shipwreck, by run- ning on to a low sandy island, called the Grand Command- ers. On the 18th, doubled Cape Antonio, the west end of Cuba, and steered north-west. From the 21st to the 25th, the weather was very stormy, and on the latter day extremely cold for this climate ; and when he returned to New England, found that this day was called "the cold Tuesday," showing the extensive range of this great depression of temperature. On the 28th they had soundings at forty-five fathoms, and soon after the first land made was their desired port, which was rather extraordinary after such tempestuous weather. On the 1st of March they entered the bay of Pensacola, and anchored at some distance from the town, the water being very shoal, and landed from their boat. Gov. Chester and his council treated them very kindly, but no order for granting lands to the Provincials had yet arrived. This was a discouraging circumstance, but the hope that it might yet arrive, and a proposal being made of granting lands to the company on terms already within the governor's power,
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induced the committee to decide on proceeding to reconnoi- ter the country on the Mississippi, and make such surveys as they thought proper. For this purpose Mr. Putnam was commissioned by Gov. Chester, as a deputy surveyor of the province of West Florida, which commission is now in the possession of his son. The town of Pensacola, he says, contained about one hundred and fifty houses; and the country around, when viewed from the top of the state- house, is covered with a pitch pine forest. The surface of the earth is a white sand, and a few miles back bears a scanty supply of scrubby oaks, walnut and sassafras.
On the 18th of March they left the bay of Pensacola, and steered for the mouth of the Mississippi. As they approached the father of American rivers, the broad surface of turbid, clay-colored, fresh water, floating for many leagues on the top of the salt water, led them to think they were running on to a sandy beach. However, they soon discovered their mistake, and continued their course into the clay-colored water. The surface was fresh for several feet down, but on sinking the bucket beyond a certain depth it brought up salt water. On the 20th of March, at five o'clock, P. M., the sloop anchored just off the mouth of the river, with the block-house, on Mud island, bearing north-west. In the night a gale from the north drove the sloop from her anchorage, and she did not regain her position under twenty-four hours. Soon after a Spanish schooner anchored near them, and sent her boat on board asking for provisions. They stated that forty days ago, they were lying at anchor near where the sloop now lay, when a north wind drove them to sea as far as the bay of Campeche, and they had not been able to regain their lost ground until now. On this he remarks, "How different our fortune ! In the passage from Cape St. Antonio to Pensacola, in crossing the same bay, we had to conflict with storms and contrary winds for
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five days, lying at the mercy of the currents to carry us we knew not whither; yet Providence conducted us directly to our desired port!" Thus acknowledging the kindness of that God in whom he trusted all the days of his life.
On the. 22d of March they entered the Mississippi river, and proceeded up about ten miles from the mud bank at the mouth of the ship channel, called the French Balize. On the bar they found twelve feet of water. Here they were wind-bound for several days, and Mr. Putnam occupied the time in surveying the delta at the mouth, with the several outlets. As it will be very interesting to compare this survey with the present condition of the delta, and see the encroach- ment it has made on the gulf in the period of seventy-three years, which is doubtless very great, a plan of that survey is annexed, copied from the one made by Mr. Putnam, and preserved among his manuscripts relating to that explora- tion. There is also a plan of the Mississippi, as high up as they ascended, taken by measurement of each day's progress, and the meanders of the river. His well known accuracy in surveys of this kind, would make his old sketches a valuable acquisition to science, to show the changes that have taken place in this ever wandering stream.
On the 26th they passed the first plantation, thirty-five miles from the mouth, on the left bank. On the 28th, passed the plantation of Mons. de la Loira, about sixty-five miles above the mouth, which is the largest yet seen, and contained three hundred and twenty acres, French measure, and sixteen negro slaves. This man, while under the French govern- ment, valued his possession at twelve thousand pounds ; but now, under the Spanish rule, was not worth more than one- third of that sum. He was seventy-two years old, and said he was the first man born in Louisiana. He also stated that the river at that place never rose or fell over eight feet, and commonly only five or six feet, but that higher up it was
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different. Mr. Putnam observed that the French inhabitants looked as healthy in this settlement as the people of the northern colonies. On the 30th of March, they passed the English reach, and came to against a high bank, three miles below New Orleans, where they found several English and other vessels, waiting for trade; not being allowed by the Spaniards to lie at, or opposite the town. In coming up he took the courses and estimated the distances, making from the mud bank at the mouth, eighty-five and three-fourth miles to the English reach, and from thence fourteen miles to New Orleans, which, added together, make ninety-nine and three-fourth miles. Thus far, he says, the river was about half a mile wide, with a gentle current. With the wind in a southerly quarter, a vessel could make the passage to Eng- lish reach in a short time. At this point the river was seven hundred and fifteen yards wide, and seventy fathoms deep. On the 8th of April, the captain of the sloop refused to pro- ceed any further up, the river, and the committee embarked in a small bateau; making use of oars, and a sail when the wind was favorable. He still continued, as they proceeded, every day, to take the courses and distances as before. On the 11th, they reached the Acadia settlement, seventy-one miles above New Orleans. It was composed of the inhabit- ants of Nova Scotia, removed to this place by the English in 1754, on the conquest of that country. They passed one day with the Acadians, and were treated hospitably. On the 13th, passed an Indian village of twenty warriors. On the 15th, they passed the river Iberville, so called in the treaty of 1763, at the head of the island of Orleans; and is one hundred, eighteen and a half miles from the town of New Orleans. It is a small outlet of the Mississippi, and was dry at the time of their passage. In high water it fills, and runs eastward, discharging its waters, with the river Amite, into the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, forming the island of
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Orleans. This outlet was subsequently called Bayou Man- chac. On the island side of the outlet was a Spanish garrison, with an officer and ten men. On the English side, called Manchac, was a small village, with good gardens, but no soldiers. A mile and a half above, was a village of Ala- bama Indians, on the left bank. On the 18th they passed Baton Rouge, fourteen miles above Manchac. On the 19th, came to the fort and church of Point Coupee, a French set- tlement, extending about seven leagues on the river, and said to be as old, or older than New Orleans. On the 20th, passed a village of the Tonica Indians, of about forty huts. On the 22d passed the outlet of the Opelousas, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico; at that time it was about forty perches wide, and by Mr. Putnam's measurement, three hundred, fif- teen and a half miles from the balize, or mouth of the river, and ninety-seven and a quarter above the Iberville, or head of the island of Orleans. The mouth of the Red river was then three miles above the outlet of Opelousas, and ap- parently about two hundred yards wide. On the 23d, passed Loftus' Heights, now Fort Adams. The next day, a few miles above the mouth of the Homochitto creek, they coasted a curious bend in the river, of eleven and a half miles, which at the isthmus or neck was only forty-seven yards across ; and by a water level he ascertained the fall in the river to be two and a half feet in that distance. Their average progress against the stream was from twelve to fourteen miles a day. On the 26th, they arrived at Fort Rosalia, at the Natches, and half a mile below, he notes, "is the first gravel stones we have seen on the shores of the river." Fort Rosalia, or rather its ruins, was seated on the margin of an elevated plain or bluff, nearly eighty perches from the river, and was approached by a winding road, not difficult of ascent. It was a regular heptagon, capable of containing four or five hundred men, built by the French in 1714. The English,
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after the peace of 1763, kept a garrison here until about four years before this visit; since which the barracks and out- buildings were burnt by the Indians in a drunken frolic. Here he took the latitude of the place with one of Davis' quadrants, and made the fort to be in latitude 31 deg. 50 min. N., and the variation of the needle 5 deg. E. The lands for several miles adjacent, appeared to be old, worn-out, Indian planting grounds. The buildings were only one trader's hut, near the old fort. How vast the changes since that period ! no appearance of civilized man but one solitary trader's hut, where the large and flourishing town of Natchez now stands. It had formerly been populated with a numerous tribe of In- dians, who more nearly approached the Mexicans in civiliza- tion, at the time of the conquest, than any other tribe in North America, but they were totally exterminated by the French about the year 1729. On the 27th, the party visited a small settlement on Catharine's creek, three miles from the river, and were informed that on Homochitto creek, about twenty miles distant, were a number of settlers.
They had now ascended the river by Mr. Putnam's esti- mate, three hundred and eighty-eight miles, and in all that distance had seen no spring, or creek water, fit to drink. On the 28th they left the Natchez, and on the 3d of May, arrived at the mouth of Bine river, or Stone creek, forty-six and a half miles above. About eight miles below is the Petit gulf, where now is the village of Rodney. The river is bounded for nearly a mile by a solid rock, at an angle of forty-five degrees, and about three hundred feet high. All the valua- ble lands on the Mississippi, below Bine river, having been already located, they here commenced their reconnoissance of the country on the left bank, or east side of the river, for a tract of land suitable for farming. They ascended Stony creek in their boat, seventeen miles to the forks. The lands on the left side were low and subject to the river floods, and
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