ffe, has made him a present of a
fine daughter, if he don't lick [like] her he must send her back again,
and he will provide her with a good twig [Whig] husband."

General Putnam's humor, like his generosity, was never-failing; but, as
"Josh Billings" once remarked of himself, "he was a bad speller" to the
end of his life. But he could spell _f-i-g-h-t_ as well as anybody; and
what is more, he could forgive his enemies, not only after the fight was
over, but while it was going on--as witness his generous actions on many
occasions.

Though kept busy as a bee from morning to night, yet General Putnam
found life in New York irksome, and was glad enough when ordered by
Washington over to Long Island, to command at Brooklyn Heights and to
supersede Sullivan, who had superseded Greene, then sick with fever, who
had planned and erected the fortifications on the island. It was perhaps
this "lightning change" of commanders that was responsible for the
bitter defeat of the Americans in that encounter known as the "Battle of
Long Island." By the third week of August, when this battle took place,
the British were near New York with more than three hundred ships and
thirty thousand troops, including those of Clinton, Cornwallis, and
Howe. The last named was in command, and on the 22d of August he landed
twenty thousand troops, including five thousand hireling Hessians, at
Gravesend Bay, with the intention of flanking the Americans out of their
positions at Flatbush and the Heights and then advancing across the
island to East River and New York.

It was not until two days later that (in the words of a soldier writing
to his wife at that time) "General Putnam was made happy by obtaining
leave to go over--the brave old man was quite miserable at being kept
here," in New York. Only three days after his arrival the battle was
fought, which (in brief) was brought about by the British surprising an
outpost at one of the three passes to the American rear, on the night of
the 26th of August and thus turning the patriots' position. With more
than three times the numerical strength of the Americans, the British
were successful, and the former lost more than a thousand men, most of
them made prisoners, including Generals Sullivan and Stirling.

Washington hurried over reenforcements, until there were nearly ten
thousand men at the Heights; but Putnam soon found it impossible to
conduct its defense against twenty thousand of the enemy, with t