File:Camp-fires of the revolution - or, The war of independence (1850) (14580018869).jpg

Identifier: campfiresofrevol01wats (find matches)
Title: Camp-fires of the revolution : or, The war of independence
Year: 1850 (1850s)
Authors: Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay), 1831-1869
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, Lindsay and Blakiston
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ing his gun to his shoulder,and taking a somewhat deliberate aim, he pulled thetrigger; but, from some reason or other, the dischargedid not follow. Hold! hold ! exclaimed Putnam.*I do hold, was the reply. The gun holds itscharge a great deal better than I intended it should;immediately priming his musket for a second trial. You are not priming that gun for me ? asked Put-nam, anxiously. That depends entirely upon cir-cumstances. I warn you, once more, not to passthose lines. But I am your general, continuedPutnam. I deny it, unless you give the counter-sign. Here the general was at fault. He strove torecall the important word; but all was in vain. Boy, said he, do you not know me ? I am GeneralPutnam. A British officer, more like. If you arePutnam, as you say, why dont you give me thecountersign ? So sure as I m my mothers son, if youattempt to pass the lines, I 11 make cold-meat of you.I m a sentinel. I know my duty; though there aresome people in the world, who are marvellously in-
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GENERAL PUTNAM AND THE SENTINEL. AT GERMANTOWN. 149 clined to question it. At this, Putnam, finding thatfurther parley would be useless, desisted; and theboy, deliberately shouldering his musket, began, witha great deal of assumed haughtiness, to pace theground as before. Here was the redoubtable General Putnam, thehero of a hundred battles, kept at bay by a striplingof seventeen! This scene, in my humble judgment,would have been a fine subject for a painters pencil.Putnam, finding that the boy was in earnest — for hehad had alarming proof of it — durst not,* for his life,proceed a step further. He waited until Stewart wasrelieved; when the other sentinel, finding he was, intruth, General Putnam, allowed him to pass withoutgiving the countersign. But the generals feelingswere terribly excited. He knew, in his inmost soul,that the boy had done nothing but his duty; still, hefelt that he had been most egregiously insulted.Had Stewart permitted him to pass without givingthe countersi

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