afterwards attained, evinced the judiciousness of this selection. After the battle of Monmouth, Putnam was posted, for the winter, at Reading in Connecticut, that he might protect the country adjoining to the Sound, and the garrison at West Point. While he was on a visit to one of his outposts governor Tryon advanced upon him with 1500 men. Putnam had with him but 150 men and two field-pieces, with which he kept the enemy at bay some time. At length, seeing the enemy preparing to charge, he ordered his men to retire to a swamp, while he plunged down a precipice so steep as to have artificial steps, nearly one hundred in number, for the use of foot passengers. The enemy's dragoons stopped short, afraid to venture, although within a sword's length of him. While they went round the brow of the hill to gain the valley, he raised a force sufficiently strong to pursue Tryon on his retreat. In the campaign of 1779, he commanded the Maryland line, stationed near West Point. In the autumn of this year, the American army retired into winter quarters, at Morristown, and Putnam accompanied his family into Connecticut for a few weeks. At the commencement of his journey from thence to Morristown, while on the road between Pomfret and Hartford, he was seized with an extraordinary numbness of his right hand and foot, which crept gradually upon him, until his right side became, in a considerable degree, paralyzed. This severe affliction produced a transient depression of his mind; but he conquered his dejection, and resumed his naturally cheerful temper. He was still able to walk and ride moderately, and the faculties of his mind were unimpaired. In this situation he lived to see his country enjoying that independence of which he had been so able a champion, and died at Brookline, in Connecticut, May 29th 1790, aged seventy-two years.
STEPHEN DECATUR.
Stephen Decatur, a celebrated American naval officer, was born January
5, 1779, on the eastern shore of Maryland, whither his parents had
retired while the British were in Philadelphia. He entered the American
navy in March, 1798, and was soon promoted to the rank of first lieutenant.
While at Syracuse, attached to the squadron of commodore Preble,
he was first informed of the fate of the American frigate Philadelphia,
which, in pursuing a Tripolitan corsair, ran on a rock about four and a half
miles from Tripoli, and was taken by the Tripolitans, and towed into the
harbor. Lieutenant Decatur conceived the project of attempting her recapture
or destruction. He selected, for this purpose, a ketch, and
manned her with 70 volunteers. February 16, 1804, at 7 o'clock at
night, he entered the harbor of Tripoli, boarded the frigate, though she
had all her guns mounted and charged, and was lying within half-gun
shot of the bashaw's castle and of his principal battery. Two Tripolitan
cruisers were lying within two cables' length, on the starboard quarter
and several gun-boats within half-gun-shot on the starboard bow, and all
the batteries upon the shore were opened upon the assailants. Decatur
set fire to the frigate, and continued alongside until her destruction was
certain. For this exploit, the American congress voted him thanks and a
sword, and the president immediately sent him a captaincy. The next
spring, it being resolved to make an attack upon Tripoli, commodore Preble
