Posted on 04/19/2009 8:59:44 AM PDT by Pharmboy
On April 15th, 1775, Major General Thomas Gage decided to send a column of seven hundred troops (two hundred over the magic number that the Concord Congress had set) to Concord under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith and his second, Major John Pitcairn. Gage had no intention of tolerating anything approaching a repetition of the action at Fort William and Mary. Learning that the depot in Concord held a growing store of gunpowder and arms, he sent these soldiers twenty miles from Boston to seize the military supplies. On the evening of the 18th, Dr. Joeseph Warren, President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, sent Paul Revere and other messengers to Lexington to warn patriots there.
When Colonel Smith moved into the countryside to collect these arms and munitions gathered by the patriot militia, hostilities erupted at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Soon afterward, militia contingents from places throughout New England took up positions outside Boston, putting the city under siege.
Paul Revere did not make it to his destination when sent to warn his countrymen that the British were coming. Captured and briefly detained, he was forced to walk home as the Redcoats retained his horse for His Majesty's service when they detained him.
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LEXINGTON
Commanding the British troops was Major John Pitcairn (left) who marched his soldiers all night, arriving at Lexington at dawn. There he found a line of minute men drawn up on the village green commanded by Captain John Parker. The British halted and the Major shouted, "Disperse, ye rebels, disperse!"
(Excerpt) Read more at americanrevwar.homestead.com ...
Henry Putnam?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=medford+militia+henry+putnam&rlz=1W1ADBF_en&aq=f&oq=
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=medford+militia+henry+putnam&rlz=1W1ADBF_en&aq=f&oq=
http://www.archive.org/stream/medfordinrevolut00wild/medfordinrevolut00wild_djvu.txt
Putnam, Eleazar. Private, Lexington alarm; 2d Lieut., 1776; served
3 mos. guarding troops of convention, 1778; loaned money for bounty
paid to men enlisting for Canada and N. Y., 1776. Came to Medford
from Charlestown with wife Mary, 1765 ; owned covenant in Cam-
bridge Precinct Church (Menotomy), Nov. 24, 1765; born in Danvers,
June 5, 1738; son of Henry, mentioned below; died in Medford, Nov.
20, 1804. Family tradition says that one of his sons served as drum-
mer for the Medford company, April 19, 1775, to March 17, 1776.
Owned land on High street, Medford.
Putnam, Henry. Killed at Menotomy on retreat of British, April 19, 1775.
Served as lieutenant at capture of Louisburg, 1758. Born at Danvers,
Mass., Aug. 14, 1712; came to Medford from Charlestown, 1765, with
wife Hannah ; she died in Newburyport.
Putnam, Roger. Served 1 mo. at lines at Boston, 1776; loaned money
to pay bounty to men going to Canada, July, 1776, and to N. Y.,
Sept., 1776. Son of Henry and Hannah Putnam ; taxed first in Med-
ford, 1776; married Sarah Brothers, daughter of Mary, wife of Thomas
Richardson (family came from Reading, 1763), Oct. 13, 1774; died
Oct. 27, 1794.
Very interesting, and very cool.
Close but no cigar - I guess this is not the famous ISRAEL Putnam.
Israel was some sort of cousin. The 17th and 18th c. Putnams were madly prolific, ten children in a family, with only fifteen names to go around ;) I read somewhere that there were over 84 Putnams in the various militias that marched to battle that day.
Israel was older, but he was also born in Danvers/Salem, and ended up in the same general region.
Oops, sorry. Looked at wrong Putnam; Israel was younger than your Henry then.
CONCORD BRIDGE Part II is just around the corner!
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