It was subsequently named Fort
Putnam, either after Old Put himself, or his cousin Rufus Putnam, whose
great natural talents as an engineer were subsequently availed of here,
as they had been before Boston, at Dorchester Heights.
About mid-February, Putnam wrote to Washington, who had been constantly
and urgently pressing him to complete the work without delay, that "the
batteries near the water, and the fort to cover them, are laid out. The
latter is, within walls, 600 yards around, 21 feet base, 14 feet high,
the talus two inches to the foot. This I fear is too large to be
completed by the time expected." Even his placid disposition was by this
time slightly ruffled at the scarcely veiled distrust of his
capabilities by his chief, who had veered about with the wind blowing
from New York, and seemed to trust him no longer. His letter begins
stiffly: "The state of affairs now at this post, you will please to
observe, is as follows," and after this business has been stated, he
goes on to give some of the reasons for delay. One of his regiments was
at White Plains, "under inoculation with the smallpox.
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