This remarkable exploit was not only
the most important event of the year, but, like the battle of Monmouth
of the year previous, almost the only action worthy of note. It had the
effect, probably, of causing the British to withdraw their troops from
along the Sound, where they were engaged in ravaging the seaboard places
of Connecticut; but the post was again taken by the enemy, who, like the
Americans, did not find it worth the while to hold it.
The most important members of Putnam's military family, his son Daniel
and Major Humphreys, accompanied him home on leave of absence, in
November, whence, early in December, the General set out on his return
to the army, which was to winter at Morristown. Soon after leaving
Brooklyn, and while on the road to Hartford, he "felt an unusual torpor
slowly pervading his right hand and foot. This heaviness crept gradually
on until it had deprived him of the use of his limbs on that side, in a
considerable degree, before he reached the house of his friend Colonel
Wadsworth"--the gentleman to whom he had written the letter of the
eleventh of May previous.
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