USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 4
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on the right broken, with soil rather thin and gravelly. About one hundred rods below the forks, they marked a tree, for the commencement of the location. On the 5th, they returned down the creek to the Mississippi. The town of Gibsonport now stands on this creek, which is known by the name of Bayou Pierre, and is in the midst of a rich, cotton growing country. The same day they ascended the river to Grand gulf, to the residence of Thomas James, an Indian trader. The following day he engaged a Choctaw Indian to accompany them as a guide, and also to notify the Indians they might meet in the woods, who they were. Three miles above Mr. James' station, was the mouth of the La Four- chetto, or Big Black river. At this point two of the committee, with the Indian guide, left the boat, and proceeded across the country to the Walnut hills, while the others in the boat pro- ceeded on to that place by water. The distance from Big Black, was estimated to be fifty-five and a half miles, and the boat reached there on the 8th of May. On the way up passed several high, handsome bottoms, as well as some that were flooded in high water. Here they met the party by land, who reported that their route was over a flat country, with some cypress swamps, and cane brakes so thick that it was ' impossible to explore any distance from the path. On this camping ground is now located the commercial and thriving town of Vicksburg, the second for population and business in the state, and will probably soon be the first. On the 9th, they proceeded on to the mouth of the Yazoo river, the same two gentlemen going by land as on the 6th, for the pur- pose of exploring the high grounds on this river, distance seventeen and a half miles. On the 10th, the boat ascended the Yazoo river nine miles to a high land, said to have been formerly a French post, where they met their companions, who had traversed the woods, at a fine spring, issuing from under the rocks.
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By calculation Mr. Putnam ascertained that they were now north of the provincial line of West Florida, which was further confirmed by the angry looks of several Indians, who had met them there, and disapproved of their visit; this induced them to return without further examination. The Yazoo, he says, is about twenty-five perches wide, a dead stream, abounding in alligators. The Mississippi in floods, backs high up this river. They descended that day six miles, and encamped. It was intended by Mr. Lyman . and Col. Israel Putnam, to have gone by the Chickasaw path from Yazoo, across the country, to Big Black river, but their Indian guide refused to pilot them. From the 11th to the 13th, they explored the lands on the left bank, or south side of the Yazoo, and on the latter day Col. Putnam, Mr. Ly- man and M. Putnam set out by land, to explore more care- fully the ridge of high land stretching from the old French post to Walnut Hills. They traveled as near the hills as possible, on account of the cane brakes, discovered several small streams issuing from the high grounds, and found the soil very rich. "In the afternoon they were taken up by a mighty cane brake. Here Col. Putnam climbed a tree, and saw high land about one hundred rods distant, which we were two hours in gaining, on account of the difficulty of getting through the cane." At this place, Mr. Putnam mounted a tree, and had a fine prospect of the country. The lands from the north-east round to the south, appeared hilly, but not mountainous or very broken. They descended part way down the hill, and encamped by a fine spring. This mount of vision must have been in the north-west por- tion of what is now Warren county, fifteen or twenty miles north of Vicksburg, in the midst of the present rich cotton plantations. On the 14th, they came, by a zigzag course, through the flat lands to their boat, which had descended to within one mile of the Walnut hills. This region was
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much injured by ponds, cypress swamps and overflowings of the river. The cane was chiefly confined to the uplands. On the 15th, Mr. Putnam and Lyman ascended to the top of the hills, where the former climbed two trees, and found the country still rising toward the north, and toward the east and south-east, soil rich, and covered with cane on the highest ridges, which extended over on to Big Black. Some miles above the mouth, near the foot of the hills, are some cypress swamps and dead water, but no brooks or running streams .. Having completed the exploration in that quar- ter, they dropped down the river, landing several times to examine the bottom lands. They had intended to send a part of the committee by land, across the bend of the Mis- sissippi above the mouth of Big Black, but were told it was impassable by reason of ponds and swamps. On the 16th of May they returned down the river to Mr. James' station, who spoke the Indian language, and through him their guide in- formed them, that on the Yazoo, he met two of his chiefs, Chickasaws, who were opposed to the whites exploring any of the country above the Big Black, and that was the reason why he had refused to pilot them from the Yazoo to that river. The following day, Col. Putnam, Mr. Lyman, and Mr. Putnam commenced a further survey of the lands on the Big Black, in reference to a location. They found this stream from six to eight rods wide, and ascended it twenty- five miles, with the boat, to a rocky rapid, over which the water falls about a foot, and is a good mill seat. They saw much fine land on and near the creek, with several springs of water; on the left bank, it was hilly, but rich land.
On the 20th, they returned again to Mr. James', and there found Capt. George, a Chickasaw chief, waiting to see them. He showed them his commission from Gov. Chester, in which he is called Mingo Oumee, or Snake head. He informed them, that at a congress of his people, it had been decided
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that no whites should settle on the Yazoo, but that they might do so on the Big Black, but not higher up the Missis- sippi. The Chickasaws have their towns on the Yazoo, and the Choctaws east of them. On the 21st they left the Indian traders' post, on their return down the river, and on the 24th of May reached the Natchez, where Mr. Putnam again took the latitude, and found it as before, to be 31 deg. and 15 min. N., and by an observation at sunsetting, found the variation of the needle to be 5 deg. and 30 min. E. Here they were told that the country on the heads of the Homo- chitto, now in Franklin county, Mississippi, were hilly, much broken, and badly watered; therefore they did not explore that region, as formerly intended.
On the 2d of June, arrived at Manchac, being delayed by explorations of the country at various points on the left bank of the river. A description of the region examined, is given by Mr. Putnam with minuteness. The climate in winter is so temperate, that cattle need no fodder, but live abroad all the season in the woods, and yet the summer heat is by no means great. The intervals or bottoms he describes as very rich, but subject to be overflowed, and in- terspersed with ponds and cypress swamps, which will be difficult to drain. That the uplands back of the bottoms, are rich, but broken, and from several views taken from the tops of trees, continue so for several miles into the country. The soil rather thin, but rich, based on clay; the under- growth cane. The timber hickory, and oaks of various kinds ; while on the bottoms he found locust, willow, cotton- wood, copalm?, ash, mulberry, the royal magnolia, or high laurel, with cypress in abundance. As to the streams of water, he saw but few small ones, and none suitable for mills ; and the only mill-seat he saw or heard of, was on the Big Black. The feathered race consists of some turkeys, plenty of ducks, and in winter, geese and wood pigeons (columba 4
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migratoria.) The wild game were deer and bears chiefly. Reptiles not abundant, and those he saw, harmless. Fish of various kinds were plenty in the rivers, the chief of which were catfish and sheep's-head. Alligators swarmed in the Mississippi, and were found in all the streams they visited. On the 3d of June they met the sloop, which brought them out three leagues below Manchac, and were detained until the 9th, by Mr. Ladle, the supercargo, in taking in lading.
On the 12th, came to, at four miles above New Orleans, and remained until the 28th, repairing the vessel. On Thurs- day, the 1st of July, at 4 P. M., they passed the Balize, and sailed for Pensacola, but on account of head winds, did not arrive there until the morning of the 5th.
On the 6th, the committee waited on the governor, who informed them that he had received letters from England by way of Jamaica, since their absence, but nothing further re- lating to a grant of lands to the Provincials. The following day they presented a petition to Gov. Chester and council, with a plan of the townships they proposed to locate; but so many objections were made to it, that the decision of the matter was laid over to the 9th. In the meantime, the sur- veyor-general requested Mr. Putnam to make out a new draft of the proposed townships. On that day the council presented the committee with their decision as to the lands, which limited the time of their taking actual possession, to the 1st of March, 1774. They appealed to the governor for an extension of the time, but without success. On the 11th, they left the town of Pensacola, and fell down to Rose island, from which place, on advice from Mr. Jones, one of the council, Col. Putnam and Mr. Lyman went up to town, to engage Mr. Livingston, the secretary, to make one more effort in council, for lengthening the time, but the result is not recorded.
Owing to head winds, they did not sail until the 15th of
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July. The latitude as observed that day was 29 deg. 11 min. N. From thence to the 22d, he kept a regular journal of the progress of the voyage, giving the daily latitude, currents, &c., with the tact of an old navigator. On that day, he was so prostrated by sea-sickness, that the observations are omitted until the 6th of August, when they arrived at New York. From thence he returned down the sound to Nor- wich, and from thence by land, to his home in Brookfield, having been absent over eight months.
As to the result of this exploration, he says, "So favorable was the report of the committee, as to the quality of the land, climate, &c., and moderate terms on which the gov- ernor and council had engaged to grant them, that at a meeting of the military land company in the fall of 1773, at Hartford, they resolved to prosecute the settlement; and during that autumn, winter, and spring following, several hundred families embarked from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other places, for the purpose of settling on the lands we had explored. But they were sadly disappointed. On the 6th of October of that year, Gov. Chester received an order from the king in council, prohibiting him from grant- ing any more lands, either on family rights, or on purchase, until the king's pleasure be further signified to him. Thus the land office was shut before the emigrants arrived, and indeed I believe before any of them sailed, and never opened afterward ." The poor Provincials were greatly disappointed, but were permitted to occupy any vacant land they could find. The emigrants of 1774 arrived generally so late in the season, that many of them sickened and died in this new climate, and the war which soon followed, put a stop to any further attempts to prosecute the settlement Thus early had that spirit of roaming and change of place infected the New Englanders, which appears to be natu- ral to their Saxon blood, descending from their Puritan
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forefathers, who wandered early in the seventeenth century from their native land to find a new home in North America.
Mr. Putnam received only eighty dollars for all his ex- penses and loss of time in this trip to the Mississippi.
The annexed plan is an interesting relic of this affair, and shows the boundaries and forms of the townships located for the company, which was drawn by Mr. Putnam, and ap- pended to the report of the committee. In his orders from Elias Dunford, Esq., the surveyor-general of West Florida, preserved amongst his papers, minute directions are given as to his manner of conducting the survey, requiring notices of important places on the river for landings, wharves, towns, &c. The townships were in no case to exceed in width one third of their length, so that their base on the water courses should not occupy an over proportion of their banks, which accounts for their unusual shape. They were nineteen in number, and intended to contain about twenty thousand acres each, making the whole grant from Gov. Chester amount to three hundred and eighty thousand acres. The cost to the company was no more than the fees claimed by the officers of the government, amounting to five pounds sterling, or eighteen dollars, twenty cents, for every thousand acres.
In the Boston Weekly News-Letter, of December 4th, 1772, there is published a full account of the meeting of the Company of Military Adventurers, held at Hartford in No- vember, with the origin of the company, their previous doings, and the names of all the various committees. In the preamble to this meeting, it is stated that Gen. Phinehas Lyman was chosen as their agent to solicit the Court of Great Britain for a grant of land, in 1763, and that he had been detained at that court for nine years, to the great expense of the company in obtaining the grant. This was a fair specimen of the manner in which the mother country
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dealt with her colonies; and even then the pretended gift was a delusion, as they promised Gen. Lyman that the order to Gov. Chester, authorizing the grant, should be sent out so as to reach him by the time he arrived at Boston.
Several letters are preserved amongst Gen. Putnam's pa- pers, from the adventurers who went out to West Florida. Amongst them one from Capt. Michael Martyn, on the river Amite, August 17, 1774. He had settled forty-five miles up that stream. His family had been sick, but he was pleased with the country. Gen. Lyman, with several other families, had moved on to the Big Black river, in the surveyed terri- tory, and one man was about erecting a mill at the little falls on that stream; but that the prospect of making money by shipping lumber to New Orleans was blasted by the Spaniards forbidding that trade.
In the year 1802, the survivors of that company, about one hundred in number, re-organized themselves, and peti- tioned Congress for a confirmation of their old grant, but it does not appear that anything was done for them ; and thus ended this famous land adventure, which at the time caused a good deal of excitement in New England.
The revolutionary storm, which had been gathering for several years, burst upon the colonies, the second year after his return from this expedition. Ever active to the service of his native country, he joined the army in the capacity of a lieutenant-colonel, in the regiment of Col. David Brewer. His regiment was stationed at Roxbury, in Gen. Thomas' division of the army, soon after the affair at Lexington.
In a short time after the battle of Bunker hill, the general and field officers of the Roxbury division, met in council on the best course to pursue, in their present defenseless situa- tion, exposed at any time to the attack of the enemy without any better protection than a board fence. It was decided
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that lines should be thrown up for the defense of the town. When this was determined, the difficulty arose where to find a man capable of directing the works in a military manner. Engineers were rare amongst a people who had never car- ried on a war but under the direction of mother Britain, who filled such posts with her own sons. At length it was men- tioned to the general by some of Col. Putnam's friends, that in the late war against Canada, he had seen some service in this line ; but on being solicited by the commander to under- take the work, he frankly told him that he had never read a word on that branch of science, and all his knowledge was acquired by working under British engineers. The general would take no denial, and Col. Putnam reluctantly set about tracing out lines in front of Roxbury, toward Boston, and various places in the vicinity, especially at Sewel's Point. It so happened that he was occupied at the latter post, when Gen. Washington and Gen. Lee, first came over to examine the situation of the troops, and state of the defenses on that side of Charles' river. The plan of the works met the entire approbation of Gen. Washington, and Lee spoke in high terms of that on Sewel's Point, when compared with those at Cambridge, which animated and encouraged him to per- severe in his efforts. All the defenses at Roxbury, Dorches- ter and Brooklyne, were of his construction, and especially the fort on Cobble Hill.
In the course of this campaign, at the request of Gen. Washington, he surveyed and delineated a map of the courses, distances, and relative situation of the enemy's works in Boston and Charleston, with the American defenses in Cambridge, Roxbury, &c., which must have been of great importance to him in arranging his plans for an attack on the former place. In December, he accompanied Gen. Lee to Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, and at the latter place planned a battery that commanded the harbor ; also,
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a work on an elevation at Howland's ferry, which secured the communication of the island with the main land. In the new organization of the army, made in the fall of 1775, he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel in the twenty-second regiment, commanded by Col. Samuel Wyllis. He, however, did not actually join that regiment, but was continued in the engineer department.
In the winter of 1776, Gen. Washington was deeply en- gaged in planning an attack on the British army in Boston, by crossing the troops on the ice, or else to draw them out from their stronghold, by erecting works on Dorchester neck, that would not only annoy the town, but destroy their ship- ping in the harbor. In constructing the latter work, Col. Putnam, with his usual modesty, and constant reliance on an overruling Power, in directing the affairs of man, thus speaks : " As soon as the ice was thought to be sufficiently strong for the army to pass over, a council of general offi- cers was convened on the subject. What their particular opinions were I never knew, but the brigadiers were directed to consult their field officers, and they to feel the temper of the captains and subalterns. While this was doing I was invited to dine at head-quarters; and while at dinner, Gen. Washington invited me to tarry after the company had de- parted. When we were alone he entered into a free con- versation on the subject of storming the city of Boston. That it was much better to draw the enemy out to Dorches- ter, than to attack him in Boston, no one doubted ; for if we could maintain ourselves on that neck of land, our command of the town and harbor would be such as would probably compel them to leave the place. But the cold weather, which had made a bridge of ice for our passage into Boston, had also frozen the earth to a great depth, especially in the open country, like the hills on Dorchester neck, so that it was impossible to make a lodgment there in the usual way, (that
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is, by excavating the earth.) However, the general directed me to consider the matter, and if I could think of any way by which it could be done, to make a report to him immediately."
He then describes the events which he calls providential, and may evidently be referred to him who created, as well as rules the destiny of man, but which thoughtless and blind mortals attribute to the freaks of chance. "I left head- quarters in company with another gentleman, and on the way came by those of Gen. Heath. I had no thought of calling until I came against his door, when I said, let us call on Gen. Heath, to which the gentleman agreed. I had no other motive than to pay my respects to the general. While there I cast my eye on a book which lay on the table, lettered on the back Muller's Field Engineer. Immediately I requested the general to lend it to me. He denied me. I repeated my request. He again refused, saying, he never lent his books. I then told him that he must recollect, that he was one, who at Roxbury, in a manner compelled me to undertake a business on which, at the time, I confessed I had never read a word, and that he must let me have the book. After a few more excuses on his part, and pressing on mine, I obtained the loan of it."
He arrived at his quarters about dark, but was so much engaged in receiving reports of the progress of the works until a late hour, that he did not examine Muller until morning. On looking over the contents of the book, he came to the word chandelier. This was a new phrase to him, but on turning to the page where the article was described, and reading it carefully over, he was soon ready to report a plan for making a lodgment on Dorchester heights. In a few minutes after he had decided on the fea- sibility of the plan, Col. Gridly, who had planned the works at Cambridge, and Col. Knox of the artillery, who
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had been directed to consult with Col. Putnam on this diffi- cult subject, entered his room and acquiesced in his plan. The report was approved by Gen. Washington, and prepa- rations immediately made to carry it into operation. The chandeliers were made of stout timbers, ten feet long, into which were framed posts, five feet high and five feet apart, placed on the ground in parallel lines, and the open spaces fitted in with bundles of fascines, strongly picketed together; thus forming a movable parapet of wood, instead of earth, as heretofore done. The men were immediately set to work in the adjacent apple orchard and woodlands, cutting and bundling up the fascines, and carrying them with the chan- deliers on to the ground selected for the work on the night of the 4th of March, and on the morning of the 5th, the British troops were astonished to see a formidable battery, erected by their industrious Yankee foes in one night, where the evening before no appearance of such a defense was to be seen. The ground was so deeply frozen that the intrench- ing tools made no more impression on it than on a solid rock, and their old mode of excavating trenches, and throw- ing up parapets of earth, was utterly at a nonplus.
The providential visit of Col. Putnam at Gen. Heath's quarters, was both the remote and immediate cause of the sudden withdrawal of the British troops from Boston. On the first sight of this barrier, mounted with artillery and frowning defiance, Gen. Howe decided on landing troops and carrying it by storm, and would have probably been another Bunker hill adventure or something worse. The ice broke way soon after, and his boats being dispersed by a gale of wind, when the troops had embarked, he gave up the design, and sent word to Gen. Washington that he would leave the town with his army unharmed,'if he would not molest the shipping while the men and stores were remov- ing. The evacuation of the place, and the relief of the
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inhabitants from British thraldom and abuse, being all that Washington sought, the terms were complied with, and this desirable object accomplished without bloodshed.
On the last day of March, 1776, he was ordered by Gen. Washington to proceed to New York, by way of Providence, Rhode Island, to aid Gov. Cook with his advice and assistance, in constructing works for the defense of that town. While on this tour of duty, he again visited New- port, and made additional defenses there. On the 6th of April he had an interview with Washington, at Providence, who felt a deep interest in his welfare, not only for his suc- cessful efforts on Dorchester hights, but also for the integ- rity, uprightness, and straightforward patriotism of the man; and not only during the war, but during his whole life, treated him with marked respect and friendship. He reached New York about the 20th of April, and was imme- diately authorized as chief engineer, to lay out and oversee the works of defense during that campaign at New York, Long Island, and their dependencies, with Fort Washington, Fort Lee, Kingsbridge, &c., the larger portion of which appears in the plan of New York island, attached to Mar- shall's Life of Washington. This was a service of great fatigue, as it occupied all his time from daylight in the morning until night, and sometimes all night.
On the 10th of July, Gen. Washington, in a letter to Con- gress, notices the services of Col. Putnam : "Gen. Mercer is now in the Jerseys, for the purpose of receiving and ordering the militia coming for the flying camp, and I have sent over our chief engineer to view the ground in the neighborhood of Amboy, and to lay out some necessary works for the encampment, and such as may be proper at the different passes in Bergen Neck and other places."
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