Herbert Putnam

PUTNAM, HERBERT ), American librarian, was born in New York city on Sept. 20, 1861. He graduated from Harvard college in 1883 and thereafter studied law at Columbia university, being admitted to the bar in 1886. His calling, however, proved to be that of librarian. He was librarian of the Minneapolis Athenaeum in 1884-87, of the Minneapolis Public library in 1887-91 and, after a few years spent in the prac tice of law, of the Boston Public library in 1895-99. Thence he was called in 1899 to the librarianship of the Library of Congress, in Washington. He was president of the American Library asso ciation in 1898 and 1904 and wrote on library science.

PUTNAM, ISRAEL

(1718-179o), American soldier, was born in Salem Village (now Danvers), Mass. on Jan. 7, 1718, and in 1740 removed to a farm in the vicinity of Pomfret, Conn. He was active in the French and Indian War, rising to the rank of major in 1758. News of the fighting at Lexington and Concord reached him while he was ploughing on his farm; he instantly left the plough in the furrow and hastened to Cambridge; and he was later made second brigadier of the Connecticut forces. He was with the force, commanded by Col. William Prescott, which on the night of June 16, 1775, fortified Breed's Hill, and on the next day he took a conspicuous part in resisting the British attack (see BUNKER HILL). After the evacuation of Boston he was in command of New York city till Washington's arrival (April 13, 1776), and then was put in general charge of the city's fortifi cations. Immediately before the battle of Long Island he suc ceeded Gen. John Sullivan in command of the troops on Brooklyn Heights, and in the battle of Long Island (of Aug. 27) he was in

immediate command of the American side. In the retreat from New York city he took part in the battle of Harlem Heights (Sept. 16). In May, 1777, he took command of the Hudson high lands at Peekskill, which with Forts Montgomery and Clinton he abandoned in October, being out-manoeuvred by the British. After a few months' recruiting service in Connecticut he returned to the main army at White Plains. In the winter of 1778-79 he commanded the troops quartered near Redding, Conn. In May, 1779, he took command of the right wing on the west side of the Hudson. An attack of paralysis in Dec. 1779 terminated his active service in the war. He spent his last years on his farm in Brooklyn, Conn., where he died May 29, 179o. A bronze equestrian statue by Karl Gerhardt, over a sarcophagus, was erected at Brooklyn, Conn., by the State in 1888, and there is another statue (1874) in Bushnell park, Hartford, by J. Q. A. Ward.

Putnam was a brave, intrepid and very industrious soldier rather than a great general. His bluff heartiness has made him one of the popular heroes in American history.

See W. F. Livingston, Israel Putnam, Pioneer, Ranger and Major General (19oI) in the "American Men of Energy" series; I. N. Tarbox, Life of Israel Putnam (Boston, 1876) ; and Essay on the Life of the Honorable Major-General Israel Putnam (Hartford, 1788; enlarged ed., Boston, 1818), by David Humphreys, for a time Putnam's aide-de-camp.