"To
crown the glorious scene," he says, "there intervened one truly
ludicrous, which was Old Put mounted on the large mortar, which was
fixed in its bed for the occasion, with a bottle of rum in his hand,
standing parson to christen, while godfather Mifflin, the
quartermaster-general, gave it the name of Congress!"
Old Put never lost a chance for fun and frolic, though he was as stern a
disciplinarian as Washington himself, who, however, must have been
greatly shocked at this horse-play in which his favorite General took
part. But the rank and file were delighted; and it was the possession of
just such qualities, of hilarious good-humor combined with sturdy
common-sense, that made Old Put a universal favorite. For dignity he
cared nothing at all; for discipline he was a "stickler"; and, as the
men hated the one as much as they disliked the other, yet loved and
admired their rough-and-ready General intensely, Putnam proved the
coherent factor in the combination that held the army together. At
another "truly ludicrous" scene, somewhat later, in which Putnam was one
of the participants, the dignified Commander-in-Chief is said to have
laughed until his sides ached.
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