The house which Old Put
occupied that winter, as headquarters, was on Umpawaug Hill and is still
pointed out, while at a little distance stands the one-time residence of
Joel Barlow, the Revolutionary poet, who, with Major Humphreys, Putnam's
aide-de-camp and later his biographer, enlivened the camp that winter.
From the summit of Gallows Hill, where General Putnam hung a spy, and
had a deserter shot to death, one may see the sites of the original
camps, the only visible remains of which are rude piles of stones, the
ruins of the "chimney-backs."
In or near the camp preserved within the park, General Israel Putnam
once performed a deed which some have called his greatest act. "Greatest
if measured by results, and most typical of him. Who is not thrilled
with the poem of Sheridan's ride--turning a panic-stricken army, and
snatching victory from defeat; and here, near a century before, Putnam
rode after a deserting army and brought them back to victory ... a
victory over themselves."
These remarks refer to the defection of the Connecticut troops, that
winter, who, half starved and half frozen in their narrow quarters,
"badly fed, badly clothed, and worse paid," resolved to march to
Hartford, lay their grievances before the General Assembly, and demand
redress at the point of the bayonet.
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