ISRAEL PUTNAM 287 We next find Putnam in charge of a Connecticut regiment, in a novel field of warfare, on the coast of Cuba, in Lord Albemarle's attack upon Havana, in 1762. He was in considerable danger in a storm, when the transport in which he em- barked with his men was wrecked on a reef of the island ; a landing was effected by rafts, and a fortified camp established on the shore. He was again fortunate in escapingihe dangers of a climate so fatal to his countrymen. On^ his return home, he was engaged in service against the Indians, with the title of colonel. The war being now over, he retired to his farm, which he continued to cultivate till he was again called into the field by the stirring summons of Lexington. In the preliminary scenes of the war, he fairly represented the feeling of the mass of his countryrrien, as it was excited by the successive acts of parliamentary aggression. As a soldier of the old French war, he had learned the weakness of British officers in America, and the strength of a hardy, patriotic peasantry. " If," he said, " it required six years for the combined forces of England and her colo- nies to conquer such a feeble colony as Canada, it would, at least, take a very long time for England alone to overcome her own widely extended colonies, which were much stronger." Another anecdote is characteristic of the blunt farmer. Being once asked whether he did not seriously believe " that a well-appointed British army of five thousand veterans could march through the whole continent of America," he replied, "no doubt, if they behaved civilly, and paid well for everything they wanted ; but if they should attempt it in a hostile manner, though the American men were out of the question, the women, with their ladles and broomsticks, would knock them all on the head before they had got half way through." The news of Lexington the war message transmitted from hand to hand till village repeated it to village, the sea to the backwoods, " found the farmer of Pomfret, two days after the conflict, like Cincinnatus, literally at the plough." He unyoked his team and hastened in his rude dress to the camp. Summoning the forces of Connecticut, he was placed at their head, with the rank of Major- General, and stood ready at Cambridge for the bloody day of Bunker's Hill. He was in service in May, in the spirited affair checking the British supplies from Noddle's Island, in Boston Harbor, and resolutely counselled the occupation of the heights of Charlestown. When the company of Prescott went forth on the night of June 1 6th, to their gallant work, he was with them, taking no active com- mand, but assisting where opportunity served. He was seen in different parts of the field, but his chief exertions appear to have been expended upon the attempted fortification of Bunker's Hill, where he met the futigives in the retreat, and con- ducted "such of them as would obey him," says Bancroft, to the night's encamp- ment at Prospect Hill. Putnam's was one of the first Congressional appointments, ten days before the battle, when the rank of Major-General was conferred upon him. He con- tinued to serve at the siege of Boston, and when the theatre of operations was changed by the departure of the British to New York, was placed by Washing- ton, in 1776, in command in that city until his own arrival. He employed him-
