Washington rode his hobby-horse full-tilt at the unfortunate Putnam and
threw him to the ground. With one hand, as it were, he wrote him to keep
an eye on the movements of the enemy and be fully prepared to meet them;
but with the other he signed an order for the weakening of his force.
The consequences came when Burgoyne, having descended from Canada and
invaded northern New York, Putnam found himself between two fires, that
of the former and that of Sir Henry Clinton, who finally set out on the
long-meditated trip up the Hudson in order to cooperate with the
southward-marching army.
Putnam had learned of the successive moves on the military chess-board
as Burgoyne progressed in his triumphal march. First, of the fall of
Ticonderoga, in June; then of Fort Edward; finally, of the glorious
victory achieved by his former comrade in the Indian wars and at Bunker
Hill, the redoubtable General Stark, at Bennington. He was called upon
to furnish reenforcements not only to Washington, unfortunate in his
defense of Philadelphia, but to Schuyler and Gates in the north.
The post of danger, as usual, Old Put occupied in the Highlands, and he
was delighted; only repining that whenever he was nearly ready to do
something, away went his troops on some wild-goose mission, of which he
knew neither the end or aim.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182