ey
were sure to be renewed in the spring, a call was sent out for colonial
troops. Appointed to command the Connecticut troops raised for this
service, Putnam took a prominent part in suppressing the uprising, going
out in the Bradstreet expedition. At Fort Ontario he met many old
friends, including Sir William Johnson and his band, also the Indian
chief who had captured him at Fort Ann in 1758, and who was now fighting
on the side of the English with as much zeal as he had previously served
the French.

On his return from this wearisome campaign, Colonel Putnam again settled
down to the chosen occupation of his youth and the solace of his latter
years, on the farm. Having given ten of the best years of his life to
soldiering, he felt that he was entitled now to the rewards of peace.
But alas! within five months of his arrival home he lost two of his dear
ones by death: his daughter Elizabeth, only seventeen years of age, who
died in the winter of 1764-'65, and his beloved wife, Hannah, who passed
away in the April following. Of the ten children born to Israel and
Hannah Putnam in the twenty-six years of their happy married life, seven
were living at the time of the mother's death, the youngest only three
months old, and bearing the name of Peter Schuyler, in honor of the New
Jersey colonel who had befriended his father when a captive in Canada.

CHAPTER X

TAVERN-KEEPER AND ORACLE

No one could call in question Israel Putnam's loyalty, yet the year
following his last campaign in behalf of King George, he might have been
found opposing the Government and riding from town to town, for the
purpose of inciting men to make armed resistance to the iniquitous
"Stamp Act," which had been passed and made a law early in 1765. While
James Otis, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry were eloquently declaiming
against it, Putnam was for putting words into action, and as one of the
"Sons of Liberty" was active in urging his countrymen to make a stand
for freedom.

Though prevented by an accident from taking part in the proceedings by
which the "stamp-master" for Connecticut was compelled to resign his
position and disavow the office to which he was appointed, yet Putnam
was foremost in bringing this condition of affairs about. It seems that
one Mr. Ingersoll was appointed stamp-master by the Crown, and, on being
requested to resign from such an obnoxious office by the Sons of
Liberty, he returned an evasive answer. Consequen