A Universal History of the United States of America

scription in England, the result of whose observations will enable the company to prosecute the work under more fovorable auspices and will also furnish important data for the information of congress when ever they may be required to legislate on this intcresting subject.

We give our readers an account of two remarkable anecdotes which took place during the American Revolution.

General Putnam's adventure.

General Putnam, who had been stationed with a respectable force at Reading, in Connecticut, then on a visit to his out-post, at Horse Neck, was attacked by Governor Tryon, with one thousand five hundred men. Putnam had only a picket of one hundred and fifty men, and two field pieces, without horses or drag-ropes. He however placed his cannon on the high ground near the meeting-house, and continued to pour in upon the advancing foe, until the enemy's horse appeared upon a charge. The general now hastily ordered his men to retreat to a neighbouring swamp, inaccessible to horse, while he himself, put spurs to his steed, and plunged down the precipice at the church.

This is so steep, as to have artificial stairs, composed of nearly one hundred stone steps, for the accommodation of worshippers ascending to the sanctuary. On the arrival of the dragoons at the brow of the hill, they paused, thinking it too dangerous to follow the steps of the adventurous hero. Before any could go round the hill and descend, Putnam had escaped, uninjured by the many balls which were fired at him in his descent; but one touched him, and that only passed through his hat. He proceeded to Stamford, where, having strengthened his picket with some militia, he boldly faced about and pursued governor Tryon on his return.

Notwithstanding the known bravery, good conduct, and excellent character of general Putnam, in the spring of 1818, an account of the battle of Bunker's Hill was published in the Port Folio, animadverting on his con

duct in the affair, with much severity. The author was major general Henry Dearborn, and his statements were viewed with amazement. They were answered by colonel Daniel Putnam, the son of the general, and triumphantly refuted by a mass of able documents and certificates faom distinguished gentlemen who were in that tremendous conflict. Why this attack was made on the posthumous fame of an officer of such celebrity, does not appear. At the time the impression went abroad, that general Dearborn wished to raise his own fame, which was at a low ebb, on the ruins of another. But they are both at rest with their fathers. Peace to their ashes.

Colonel John White's adventure.

While the siege of Savannah was pending, one of the most extraordinary enterprises ever related in history, one, indeed, which nothing, but the respectability of the testimony, could have prevented our considering as marvellous, occurred. It was an enterprise conceived and executed by colonel John White of the Georgia line. A captain French, of Delancey's first battalion, was posted with one hundred men, British regulars, on the Ogeechee river, about twenty-five miles from Savannah. There lay also at the same place five armed vessels, the largest mounting fourteen guns, and having on board altogether forty-one men. Colonel White, with captain Etholm, three soldiers, and his own servant, approached this post, on the evening of the 30th of September, kindled a number of fires, arranging them in the manner of a large camp, and summoned French to surrender, he and his comrades in the mean time riding about in various directions, and giving orders in a loud voice, as if performing the duties of the staff, to a large army. French, not doubting the reality of what he saw, and anxious to spare the effusion of blood, which a contest with a force so superior would produce, surrendered the whole detachment, together with the crews of the five vessels, amounting in all to one hundred and forty-one men, and one hundred and thirty stands of arms!

Colonel White had still, however, a very difficult game

to play; it was necessary to keep up the delusion of captain French, until the prisoners should be secured; and with this view, he pretended that the animosity of his troops was so ungovernable, that a little stratagem would be necessary to save the prisoners from their fury, and that he should therefore commit them to the care of three guides, with orders to conduct them to a place of safety. With many thanks for the colonel's humanity, French accepted the proposition, and marched off at a quick pace, under the direction of three guides, fearful, at every step, that the rage of White's troops would burst upon them in defiance of his humane attempts to restrain them. White, as soon as they were out of sight, employed himself in collecting the militia of the neighbourhood, with whom he overtook his prisoners, and they were conducted in safety for twenty-five miles, to an American fort.

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