As to lack of capacity, and being
responsible for the loss of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, the court of
inquiry, which sat in the spring of 1778, entirely vindicated him,
holding that they fell, "not from any fault, misconduct, or negligence
of the commanding officers, but solely through the want of an adequate
force under their command to maintain and defend them."
Who was responsible for the lack of that "adequate force" none knew
better than the Commander-in-Chief, who had withdrawn Old Put's veterans
on six different occasions and compelled him to clothe the skeleton
ranks with raw militia, so that it ill became him to write (in his
letter to Livingston): "Proper measures are taking to carry on the
inquiry into the loss of Fort Montgomery, agreeable to the direction of
Congress, and it is more than probable, from what I have heard, that the
issue of that inquiry will afford just grounds for the removal of
General Putnam."
But the "issue of that inquiry" was in favor of Putnam, who demanded not
only a court of inquiry, but a trial by court-martial, "so that my
character might stand in a clearer light in the world.
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