"We send you," the committee wrote, "one hundred and twenty-five sheep
as a present from the inhabitants of Brooklyn, hoping thereby you will
stand more firm (if possible) in the glorious cause in which you are
embarked." And Israel Putnam, always the man for the emergency, always
ready to mount and away at a moment's notice, rode all the way to
Boston, driving that flock of sheep before him! When arrived there he
was not received as the farmer, the tavern-keeper, the drover, but as
the famous military man, hero of many battles, an American of renown. He
was the guest of Dr. Joseph Warren, the patriot who was killed at Bunker
Hill; but people of all classes and conditions united to do honor to
"the celebrated Colonel Putnam," one of the "greatest military
characters of the age," and "so well known throughout North America that
no words are necessary to inform the public any further concerning him
than that his generosity led him to Boston, to cherish his oppressed
brethren and support them by every means in his power." The newspapers
alluded to him as "the old hero, Putnam"; and yet he was only
fifty-four at the time, at the period of life in which a man should be
able to do his best work.
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