Rufus Putnam | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byJames Sharples (Independence National Historical Park) | |
| Born | (1738-04-09)April 9, 1738 Sutton, Massachusetts |
| Died | May 4, 1824(1824-05-04) (aged 86) Marietta, Ohio |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | .svg) British America United States |
| Service | Massachusetts Colonial Militia Continental Army United States Army |
| Years of service | 1757–1760 1775–1783, 1792–1793 |
| Rank |  Brigadier-General |
| Battles / wars | French and Indian War American Revolutionary War Northwest Indian War |
| Spouse(s) | Persis Rice |
| Signature |  |
Rufus Putnam (April 9, 1738 – May 4, 1824) was an American military officer who fought during theFrench and Indian War and theAmerican Revolutionary War. As an organizer of theOhio Company of Associates, he was instrumental in the initial colonization by the United States of former Native American, English, and French lands in theNorthwest Territory in present-day Ohio following the war.
Ultimately attaining the rank ofbrigadier general during theOhio campaign of 1792–1793, he became known as "Father of the Northwest Territory".[1][2][3]
Putnam was born inSutton, Massachusetts to Elisha Putnam and Susanna Fuller Putnam.[4] Rufus's father ElishaPutnem[clarify] died when Rufus was 6 or 7, and Rufus temporarily lived with his paternal grandfather inRhode Island. Elisha Putnam andIsrael Putnam, who became a renownedgeneral during theRevolutionary War, were cousins.Ann Putnam, accuser of theSalem witch trials, was a first cousin once removed. After Rufus Putnam's mother married John Sadler, Rufus lived with his mother and stepfather in Sutton, where the family ran aninn.[5][6]
Putnam served in variousProvincial Massachusettsregiments from 1757 to 1760, during theFrench and Indian War. During the war, Putnam saw action in theGreat Lakes region, and nearLake Champlain.[7][8]
After the war, Putnam relocated toNew Braintree,Massachusetts. There, he worked as amillwright from 1761 to 1768.[9]
While Putnam worked as a millwright, he devoted his free time to self-education, studyinggeography,mathematics, andsurveying.
In 1769, Putnam became afarmer andsurveyor. Rufus Putnam, along with his cousinIsrael Putnam and two others, traveled in 1773 to survey near present-dayPensacola,Florida. There, Putnam surveyed and chartered lands along theMississippi River, which the Crown was going to grant toveterans of the French and Indian War in lieu of payment for their service.[10]
After theBattle of Lexington and Concord, Putnam enlisted the same day, on April 19, 1775, in one of Massachusett's first revolutionary regiments. Putnam later was commissioned in theContinental Army as alieutenant colonel, under the command ofDavid Brewer. Brewer's regiment first engaged with theBritish Army inRoxbury, Massachusetts. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord and theBattle of Bunker Hill, the Americans laid siege against the British in Boston. The long siege lasted for many months with neither side able to make any progress. At the urging ofWilliam Heath, Putnam used his experience working with British military engineers during the French and Indian war to build fortifications inRoxbury and other locations that were critical to the siege. After his initial success, he borrowed from Heath the bookAttack and Defense of Fortified Places, byJohn Müller that showed him additional techniques for building defensive fortifications. Using Muller's ideas, Putnam devised a system for fortifyingDorchester Heights, overlookingBoston Harbor. Despite the frozen ground in early March, 1776, Putnam's plan of using timbers andfascines allowed the colonial troops to put up the defenses overnight allowing for the subsequent emplacement of artillery, brought fromFort Ticonderoga byHenry Knox weeks earlier, the next day. Putnam's success in establishing a fort in a matter of just hours took the British by surprise and left them in an untenable position, resulting in their evacuation of Boston by sea in the following weeks.[11][12][13][2][14][15]
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General Washington appointed Putnam to be theChief of Engineers of the Works ofNew York. He was soon promoted to engineer with the rank ofcolonel where he directed the building of fortifications which secured victories at Sewall's Point, Providence, Newport, Long Island, andWest Point.[2] In December, 1776, when theContinental Congress rejected his proposition to establish a national corps of engineers, Putnam resigned his commission. His resignation was short-lived and he eventually joined theContinental Army and served underMajor GeneralHoratio Gates. Putnam commanded two regiments in thebattle of Saratoga. He continued to work on critical fortifications, includingFort Putnam atWest Point in 1778. In 1779 Putnam served under Major GeneralAnthony Wayne in theCorps of Light Infantry following the capture ofStony Point, commanding the 4th Regiment. Putnam's remaining military career was less eventful. In January 1783 he was commissioned asbrigadier general.[16]
After the war was over, Putnam returned toRutland, Massachusetts. In 1780 he had bought a farm confiscated from a Loyalist, and he settled there. He returned to working as a surveyor, inspecting lands inMaine (then part of Massachusetts). Putnam was a strong advocate of granting lands to veterans of the Revolution.[17] He was one of the authors of the army's Newburgh Petition, which was submitted to Congress requesting land disbursements. There was pent-up land hunger among younger men in New England, where topography and long settlement restricted buying land.
Putnam was an original member of theSociety of the Cincinnati,[18] and one of the principal benefactors of theLeicester Academy in Leicester, Massachusetts, and served on its board of trustees.[19][20]
Putnam's advocacy for land grants led him, with partners, to establish theOhio Company of Associates for the purchase and settlement of Western lands.[21][22] He established the Company inBoston on March 3, 1786, together withBenjamin Tupper,Samuel Holden Parsons, andManasseh Cutler.[2] Its primary purpose was to settle theNorthwest Territory, roughly the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, which was ceded to the US by Great Britain under theTreaty of Paris (1783).[23]
After passage of the Northwest Ordinance to organize the territory, the Company bought about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) of land north of theOhio River, between the present day sites ofMarietta, Ohio, andHuntington, West Virginia. Cutler had tried to purchase all the land between the Ohio andScioto rivers, but the western half was optioned by theScioto Company. It later failed without having purchased any of the land.
Putnam’s 1788 mapping of theMarietta Earthworks was described as “the genesis of the science of archaeology in the United States” by archaeologistHenry Clyde Shetrone and is one of the first detailed European descriptions ofNorth American earthworks.[24][25]
In 1788 Putnam led a group of Revolutionary veterans to settle the land in what became Ohio.[1] Thesepioneers arrived at the confluence of theOhio andMuskingum rivers on April 7, 1788, where they establishedMarietta, Ohio, as the first European-American permanent United States settlement in the Northwest Territory. Putnam was appointed to serve as one of threejudges of the Northwest Territory afterSamuel Holden Parsons died.[26][27]
The territory had been historically occupied byNative American tribes, and more were driven west by colonial encroachment before the Revolution. As they had not ceded any land, they came into conflict with the arriving pioneers. They organized a coalition of tribes to try to expel the Americans from their territory.
From 1792 to 1793, Putnam served as abrigadier general inAnthony Wayne'sOhio campaign against these Native American tribes, includingShawnee,Lenape andSeneca, who were ultimately defeated. In 1796, Putnam was appointed by the President as the firstSurveyor General of the United States, a position he held until 1803. As Ohio residents organized to write a constitution and be admitted as a state, in 1802 Putnam was elected aWashington county delegate to theOhio Constitutional Convention.[28][29]
He was appointed as a Trustee ofOhio University, where he served for two decades, from 1804 to 1824.[29] It was constructed on public lands, under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.[30] Long participating in the Masons, a fraternal organization that expanded in the early nineteenth century, in 1808 Putnam was elected the firstGrand Master of theGrand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Ohio.[31]
Established at work, in April 1761 Putnam married Elizabeth Ayers, the daughter of William Ayers,esquire of the Second Precinct ofBrookfield (nowNorth Brookfield),Massachusetts. Elizabeth died in 1762, possibly in childbirth.[32]
On January 10, 1765, Putnam married again, to Persis Rice (1737–1820), the daughter of Zebulon Rice and Abigail Forbush Rice ofWestborough, Massachusetts.[33][32]
Putnam died on May 4, 1824. He was buried atMound Cemetery inMarietta, Ohio.[34]
Rufus Putnam is depicted on acommemorative stamp issued on July 13, 1937, by the U.S. Post Office which commemorated the 150th anniversary of the North West Ordinance of 1787. The engraving on the stamp depicts a map of the United States at the time with the North West Territory between the figures of Putnam (right) andManasseh Cutler.[35]
Putnam's home in Marietta has been designated aNational Historic Landmark in his honor. His home in Rutland, Massachusetts (theGeneral Rufus Putnam House) is on the National Register of Historic Homes and is currently being operated as a B&B. The town of Putnam, Ohio (now a part ofZanesville, Ohio) was named for him.Fort Putnam (built by Rufus Putnam) is part of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. One of his grandsons,Catharinus Putnam Buckingham, served as a brigadier general in theUnion Army during theAmerican Civil War.
Texts on Wikisource:| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by ColonelRichard Gridley | Chief Engineer of theContinental Army April – December 1776 | Succeeded by Major-GeneralLouis Duportail |
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| Preceded by | Judge of theNorthwest Territory March 1790 – December, 1796 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by new office | Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory 1797–1803 | Succeeded by |
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