21 the most exposed and important outpost of the army. * And the very important action was fought, and the victory achieved, under the command of Putnam, the 27th of May, at Chelsea. On the 13th May, all the troops at Cambridge marched under the command of Putnam to Charlestown, and defied the enemy under the very muzzles of their guns. Lieut.- Col. Huntington ■writes to Gov. Trumbull from Cambridge, 27th April: “ Gen. Ward being at Roxbury, Gen. Putnam is commander-in-chief at this place.” Now, how is it conceivable, that the author, after narrating these three striking cases of Putnam’s command over all the troops, and after this overwhelming evidence of the complete coalescence of these troops, should a few days after, when Putnam appears again with the army at Bunker Hill, turn to the right about face, like lightning, and deny that he could possibly command, because it was an army of allies ? • Col. I'utnum’k Ix-tter. The organization of the army at Cambridge, just before the battle, was as follows: Two full regiments, under Stark and Reid, and another small one under Sargent, from New Hampshire, and one full regiment from Connecticut under Lieut.-Col. Storrs, immediately after the battle of Lexington, about two months before that of Bunker Hill, came to Cambridge, and voluntarily united themselves with the army under Major-Gen. Ward. All these troops previous to the battle, as we stated in our history of it, in the very words, we believe, of Gov. Brooks (Maj. Brooks, of Ward’s army), were regularly organized and consolidated, and the routine and operations of a regular army were performed by them precisely as though they had been all of one province. The following extracts from Gen. Ward’s orderly book will put this beyond dispute: — April 22, he orders Col. Stark to inarch to Chelsea with three hundred men. May 2, he orders Maj. M‘Clary, of the same regiment, to keep a vigilant look-out as far as Winter Hill. June 6, Lieut.-Col. Storrs is officer of the main guard. June 7, Maj. Durkee officer of the picquet guard. Similar appointments of the
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