PUTNAM, Rufus, American Revolution ary soldier: b. Sutton, Mass., 9 April 1738; d. Marietta, Ohio, 1 May 1824. He was ap prenticed in 1754 to a millwright, but acquired some knowledge of surveying and later found employment in that profession. In March 1757 he enlisted as a private for service in the French and Indian War, and re-enlisted yearly until 1761, being made ensign in 1760. His story of the campaigns in which he served may be read in the which he kept throughout • He was a kamter successively at New Braintree, Mass, (1761), Broolcfield, Mass. (1765) and Rutland, Mass. (1780). In 1773 he went to Florida as one of an investigating committee appointed to examine lands granted by the Crown to Colonial soldiers and officers who had fought in provincial regiments during the French and Indian War. Putnam was made deputy-surveyor of Florida by the governor of the province and accompanied the expedition up the Mississippi to the Yazoo, up the Yasoo to Haines' Bluff, back to. the Big Black and thence in return down the Mississippi. He.
and directed the construction of the Continental lines of defense at Roxbury and for the excellence of his work was detailed by Washington as acting chief engineer of the army. On 11 Aug. 1776 he was appointed by Congress chief engineer of the army, with colonel's rank; but preferring service in the field, he resigned in December and took com mand of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment. With the northern army in 1777 he did con spicuous service, particularly at Stillwater, where he headed the 4th and 5th regiments of Nixon's brigade. On 7 Jan. 1783 he was pro moted brigadier-general He was for several years a member of the Massachusetts legisla ture and during Shays' rebellion (q.v.) (1786 87) was a very efficient aide on the staff of
Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. In March 1787 he was chosen (with Gen. S. H. Parsons and Rev. Manasseh Cutler) a director of the Ohio com pany, organized (1 March 1786) with a capi tal of $1,000,000 in public securities, to be ex pended in the purchase of land in the North west Territory. In July a contract was made with Congress for one and a half million of acres and soon afterward an ordinance, famil iarly known as the °Ordinance of 1787," was passed, providing for the government of the Territory. On 7 April 1788 Putnam, meanwhile made superintendent of the company, landed with a party of emigrants at the mouth of the Muskingum and on the present site of Mar ietta commenced the first organized settlement in the Northwest Territory. He concluded in 1792 at Vincennes a treaty with eight tribes of the Wabash Indians and in 1793 resigned his commission in the army. He was one of the judges of the United States court in the Terri tory 1790-96, and from 1796 until his removal J by efferson for political reasons in 1803 was surveyor-general of the United States. He was the founder of the first Bible society west of the Alleghanies (1812), a sturdy Federalist in politics and with the exception of Lafayette the last survivor of the general officers of the Continental army. Consult his edited, with sketch by Dawes (1886). Put nam's papers, including the manuscripr tJour nal' and correspondence with Fisher Ames, Trumbull, Washington and others are pre served at Marietta in the library of the col lege there; they were edited by Rowena Buell (1904) under the title (The Memoirs of Rufus Putnam and Certain Official Papers and Cor respondence.)