23 in the morning by an equal number in their places. The still more important preparation of gunpowder was anxiously attempted, though nearly in vain. During the turmoil of the day of battle, Putnam called on the Committee of Safety to receipt for eighteen barrels of powder from Connecticut. He went on to Breed’s Hill the night before the battle, and assisted in laying out the intrenchments. * He likewise took his small soldiers’ tent on to the ground, and Capt. Trevett says it was erected. This shows a “ foregone conclusion,” that he was to be indissolubly connected with the expedition, and all its consequences. But, what was still more in the spirit of the man, he prepared for himself a relay of horses for the battle ; and nothing more difficult: even Col. Prescott could not find one for Maj. Brooks to ride to Cambridge, though he endeavored to press one from the artillery. Putnam was the only officer mounted in the battle, unless Maj. Durkee was part of the time, as one of the documents relates. Durkee had been his intimate associate in the previous war, as he was through that of the Revolution. By daylight on the morning of the battle, Putnam sent to Gen. Ward for a horse, and procured another himself; he seemed to consider this as important as Richard did, when he exclaims, “ My kingdom for a horse.” He went to Breed’s Hill the night before the battle; and this he did under the express agreement with Gen. Ward that he was to do so, and to have the direction and superintendence of the whole expedition. For the minute detail of Putnam’s conduct relative to the battle and connection with it, we refer to our history and notes. The well-known, honorable, and intelligent Col. Putnam, son of the general, who observes he was with the army at the time of the battle, and afterwards an officer under his father till near the close of the war, and during his whole life frequently conversed on the subject of the battle with his father and all others, wrote a memoir, which he communicated to the Monu * Frothingham says there was another anonymous general there. No other army general was there; and, if a militia one was, though of no importance, we should have heard of it, from some one oi the mass of witnesses who were present.
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