74 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



When they returned the third time to the onset, Colonel 

 Small found himself almost alone in front of the patriots, 

 his soldiers having been shot down around him. At that 

 moment he saw several Americans levelling their pieces, 

 apparently at him, and knowing that they were marksmen, 

 he already considered himself a dead man ; but at that in- 

 stant his old friend Putnam rushed forward, and with his 

 sword knocked upward the American guns, exclaiming at 

 the same time : u My dear fellows, for God's sake do n't 

 shoot that man, I love him as I do my own brother ! " 

 Major Small bowed and waived his sword in acknowledg- 

 ment ; and the day after the battle, he obtained a flag, and 

 went over to the American lines to thank his generous 

 friend for saving his life. When Major Small was stand- 

 ing in London to be painted for his picture, he related this 

 occurrence to Colonel Trumbull, who, in presence of the 

 painting, related it to me The late Colonel Ches- 

 ter, of Wethersfield, commanded on that day a volunteer 

 company of young men drawn from his own town and the 

 vicinity. They were among the troops that manned the 

 lines of rail-fences and hay stretching from the redoubt to 

 the Mystic River. A large and powerful man stood by the 

 side of a pale-faced youth of slender figure, when, within 

 the hearing of Captain Chester, the athletic soldier said to 

 his comrade : " Man, you had better retire before the fight 

 begins ; you will faint away when the bullets begin to whiz 

 around your head." The pale-faced man replied : " I don't 

 know but I shall, as I never heard one ; but I will stay 

 and see." Colonel Chester, from whom I received the 

 story, told me that he observed the pale man doing his 

 duty in firing and loading with cool deliberation ; but the 

 boastful man of muscle and bone, but without moral cour- 

 age, was missing, and was afterwards found alive, unharmed, 

 as he was secreted under a hay-cock. 



Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton. 

 ... . After the fall of General Mercer, and the brief 



