“History Cambridge is partnering with the City of Cambridge on events related to Cambridge’s 250th anniversary. Information is at cambridgema.gov/mass250initiative.
The former Putnam School, now an apartment building for seniors, sits at Sciarappa and Otis streets in East Cambridge, a stone plaque embedded in its foundation wall: “Site of Fort Putnam Erected by the American Forces December 1775 During the Siege of Boston.”
The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution seems a good time to revisit the story of Fort Putnam and its role in driving British troops out of Boston.
Eight hundred British soldiers crossed the Charles River from Boston on April 18, 1775, to what was then known as Lechmere’s Point – now near Second and Otis streets – an island of high ground surrounded by salt marsh and containing a single farmhouse owned by members of the Lechmere family. The soldiers made their way quietly along the edge of the farm, then across an embankment, until they left the marsh and reached dry ground near what is now Somerville’s Union Square. From there they traced a route now marked by Somerville Avenue, Elm Street, Beech Street and Massachusetts Avenue, headed to Concord to capture a store of gunpowder held by the revolutionaries. The story of the battles that occurred over the next few days at Lexington and Concord is well told elsewhere.
Two days later, Israel Putnam, a veteran of the French and Indian War, learned of the British attack. He left his farm and comfortable life in northeastern Connecticut and rode his horse 100 miles to Cambridge Common, offering his services as a military leader. Serving under Gen. Artemas Ward, Putnam was instrumental in planning and executing the June 17 Battle of Bunker Hill, one of the early exchanges of the war. The British won the battle, taking control of Charlestown, but lost more than 1,000 men (approximately 200 dead and 800 wounded), twice the casualties suffered by the Americans.
Only three days earlier, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, had voted to create an army and named George Washington, another veteran of the French and Indian War, as its commander-in-chief. Washington arrived in Cambridge on July 2, 1775, to take charge of the troops that had assembled on the Cambridge Common and were under the command of Putnam and Ward. The Americans, fearing attacks on Cambridge after the Bunker Hill engagement, had begun to build defensive fortifications on all of the hills of Cambridge and Somerville. The fledgling Continental Army, supplemented by reinforcements from the southern colonies, included some 16,000 men but lacked the artillery pieces, gunpowder and ammunition necessary for engaging its opponent. American forces in Cambridge and British forces in Boston established a tense standoff that lasted through the summer and into the fall.
British soldiers tried a raid Nov. 9, 1775, to acquire livestock for food for their troops. Four hundred of them landed in boats at high tide at Lechmere’s Point – but were met by Revolutionary forces from Cambridge who crossed the marsh in knee-deep water to the high ground of the farmstead and fired on the soldiers with their rifles and muskets. The British retreated with possibly one cow or possibly 10, depending who is telling the tale. Soon thereafter, Washington ordered the construction of an elevated earthen path, known as a causeway, through the East Cambridge marsh and the completion of a fort at Lechmere’s Point.
American troops under the command of Putnam started by building the causeway, which gave them faster access to Lechmere’s Point. To shield the movement of soldiers traveling back and forth, the troops erected a covered passageway from the causeway to the high ground of the Point. Then, on the morning of Dec. 17, a detachment of 300 men began work on the fort itself. The ditch diggers were bombarded by shells from a British naval ship stationed only a half-mile away and from a battery on mainland Boston; realizing their vulnerable position, Putnam’s troops decided to build a stronger fort than originally planned.
The frozen ground was difficult to hack through, and the work went slowly. On Dec. 18, Washington came to inspect the progress at Lechmere’s Point. The fortifications soon stretched from what is now the intersection of Third and Thorndike streets to Sciarappa and Otis streets, the highest ground in East Cambridge. There was a clear view to Boston from there, and by Dec. 26 the troops had built a platform for a 13-inch brass mortar captured from a British ship that would be used to lob shells toward Boston.
Washington’s army didn’t include many officers experienced in directing the construction of forts. At Lechmere’s Point, the task was left to a man named Jeduthan Baldwin, who had practical knowledge but no official commission as a military engineer. On Jan. 21, Baldwin wrote to John Adams “I have had the principal direction and over Sight, Since the 17th of June in laying out and raising the works in Cambridge Cobble Hill, and at Lechmer Point all which I have done without having an Establishment [i.e. commission] equal to the Service.” Baldwin’s rank and pay were later upgraded by the Continental Congress at Washington’s recommendation.
The works at Lechmere’s Point, the most elaborate of the fortifications built in Cambridge, were not completed until the end of February 1776. Earthen berms as thick as 17 feet protected the trenches from bombardment. Putnam’s men placed four large cannons at the site – two 18-pounders and two 24-pounders – retrieved from Fort Ticonderoga in New York. Throughout the fall and winter of 1775-1776, Washington had been eager to launch an attack on Boston, and the artillery emplacements in East Cambridge were critical to his plans.
“We have under many difficulties, on account of hard frozen ground, completed our work on Lechmere’s Point. We have got some heavy pieces of ordnance placed there, two platforms fixed for mortars, and everything for any offensive operation,” Washington wrote Feb. 26.
Though gunpowder had been in short supply, Washington’s troops at last began to bombard British positions in Boston on March 2 with cannon and mortar fire from Lechmere’s Point and other positions around the city. This continued for several nights, and was soon joined by fire from Dorchester Heights, which overlooked the harbor and the British naval fleet more directly.
The two armies, British and American, prepared for the possibility of more bloody battles around Boston, but these were not to happen: On March 10, 1776, perhaps realizing that his position was indefensible, British commander William Howe began preparations for the evacuation of his forces; on March 17 – the day now celebrated in Boston as Evacuation Day – 120 ships and 11,000 people sailed out of the harbor headed for Nova Scotia.
The remainder of the Revolutionary War took place outside New England. The East Cambridge redoubt, soon referred to as Fort Putnam, was not needed again. Over time, the fortifications at Lechmere’s Point, built mostly of earth and wooden timbers, were largely forgotten. The Lechmere Point Corp., established to develop East Cambridge real estate in 1808, hired local surveyor Peter Tufts to lay out a neat grid of streets. Tufts platted Otis Street right through the middle of the old fort. Though lot sales lagged during the War of 1812, houses, churches and schools were eventually built on much of the Fort Putnam site. A visitor to the fortifications in 1822 “saw with regret the hill disappearing and the old bastions used for workshops,” according to one report. In 1825 the city built a school on the lot now occupied by the Putnam School apartments.
Attempts to preserve the remnants of Fort Putnam failed to gain traction in the 1800s. In April 1870, a local newspaper reported on a meeting of the city’s board of alderman: “On the petition of Henry Child, and others in relation to Fort Putnam, the Committee reported [that it would be] inexpedient to take any action for its preservation.”
Occasionally, what are thought to be materials from the fort are found in backyards or basements, but otherwise, little remains of the fort in East Cambridge – just a few historical markers to commemorate the neighborhood’s important early role in the Revolutionary War.
Michael Kuchta is a volunteer and board member with History Cambridge.
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Michael Kuchta is a volunteer and board member with History Cambridge.
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