His courage was of
the sort that shuts its eyes to the consequences and goes straight
ahead, in the path of duty and rectitude.
Soon after the massacre at Fort William Henry, General Webb was relieved
of his command and succeeded by General Lyman, an old soldier under
whom Putnam had already served. Even old soldiers make mistakes, as will
now be shown. Having despatched one hundred and fifty men into the
forests adjacent to Fort Edward, to cut timber for strengthening the
fortification, General Lyman sent along a company of regulars to protect
them against possible attacks by Indians. This was a prudent measure;
but the commander had not counted upon the wary nature of the foe. He
should have sent out the Rangers, who knew the Indians and their ways
and would have provided protection, without a doubt. But there chanced
to be a Ranger on duty as a sentinel, and early one morning, before the
sun was up, his attention was attracted to a flight of wonderful birds
silently winging their way across the sky. Suddenly, one of those
"birds" came with great force against the limb of a tree right over his
head, where it stuck, and then the sentry saw that those winged
messengers were Indian arrows! He lost no time in giving the alarm and
the working party began retreating toward the fort.
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