But noon had
now arrived, the British frigates and floating batteries were by this
time not only raining shot like hail upon and around the redoubt, but
sending a scathing fire across the Neck, under cover of which
barge-loads of soldiers were landing on the peninsula preparatory to an
advance.
Noon came, but not the reenforcements which had been promised by General
Ward, so General Putnam "seized the opportunity of hastening to
Cambridge, whence he returned without delay. He had to pass a galling
enfilading fire of round, bar, and chain shot, which thundered across
the Neck from a frigate in the Charles River, and two floating batteries
hauled close to the shore," wrote one who had conversed with
eye-witnesses of this scene. The neck, or narrow passage-way between the
Charles and Mystic Rivers, was only about one hundred and thirty yards
across and exposed to that terrible cannonade; yet over it flew the
reckless rider, coat off, in shirt-sleeves, an old white hat on his
head; back and forth he rode, fearless and unscathed. The great painter
Trumbull, who produced the celebrated picture of the Battle of Bunker
Hill, which has excited the admiration of thousands, represented General
Putnam conspicuously placed in that scene, but arrayed in an immaculate
uniform, with ruffles and frills, and such like accessories which "Old
Put" would have spurned.
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