This young lady
was received by the family with affection, presented to General and Mrs.
Washington, and afterward provided with a pass through the lines and
sent to her father, accompanied by a letter of which (as she wittily
said to a friend) "the bad orthography was amply compensated for by the
magnanimity of the man who wrote it." Here is the letter: "Ginrale
Putnam's compliments to Major Moncrieffe, has made him a present of a
fine daughter, if he don't lick [like] her he must send her back again,
and he will provide her with a good twig [Whig] husband."
General Putnam's humor, like his generosity, was never-failing; but, as
"Josh Billings" once remarked of himself, "he was a bad speller" to the
end of his life. But he could spell _f-i-g-h-t_ as well as anybody; and
what is more, he could forgive his enemies, not only after the fight was
over, but while it was going on--as witness his generous actions on many
occasions.
Though kept busy as a bee from morning to night, yet General Putnam
found life in New York irksome, and was glad enough when ordered by
Washington over to Long Island, to command at Brooklyn Heights and to
supersede Sullivan, who had superseded Greene, then sick with fever, who
had planned and erected the fortifications on the island.
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