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The British and Provincial Conquest of Cuba: Havana
As they approached the coast of Cuba there was a storm, and the ship, carrying Putnam's fortunes and five hundred men, was driven on rocks about thirty miles from Havana and totally lost, but owing to Yankee skill every man was saved on rafts constructed of the spars and other timbers of the vessel lashed together by harpoon lines, of which there was a good stock aboard. It was one of the most remarkable escapes in the records of shipwreck, and not only were the Connecticut men saved from the rage of the sea, but they were not, when cast away on a hostile shore, molested by the Spaniards. The whole force of the provincial troops joined Lord Albemarle's army in good form, reporting in fine health and zealous for service.
This arrival put heart in the British and discouraged the Spaniards. The work of the siege was carried on with renewed vigor, and on the 13th of August the city surrendered, and the news was most welcome to the exhausted English, while the American troops had been stricken by sickness and were dying at a dreadful rate, a single month's exposure having resulted in a deplorable condition of the men, many of whom were already gone, killed in the trenches or passing away in the insufficient hospitals. Of the fate of the gallant provincials, we read in Trumbull's "History of Connecticut," that "New England, by her zeal in this enterprise, sustained a very considerable loss of men. Scarcely any of the private soldiers, and but few of the officers, ever returned. Such as were not killed in the service were generally swept away by the great mortality which prevailed in the fleet and army." Trumbull says of the immense enterprise carried out with such hardship, so costly and triumphant and so easily squandered with facile imbecility: Lord Albemarle was appointed to command the operations by land. His lordship had been trained to war from his youth, under the command of Admiral Pocock, who had before commanded with such success in the East Indies. The object of the expedition was the Havana. In this centred the whole trade and navigation of the Spanish West Indies. The fleet sailed from Portsmouth on the 5th of March. This was to be reinforced by a squadron from Martinique, under the command of Sir James Douglass. On the twenty-seventh of May two fleets formed a junction at Cape Nichola, the northwest point of Hispaniola. The fleet consisted of thirty-seven ships of war, with nearly an hundred and fifty transports. The land force on board was about ten thousand men. Four thousand regular troops from New York were ordered to join them at the Havana. A considerable number of provincials enlisted under their own officers and served in this arduous enterprise. The whole land force, when collected, would amount to about fifteen or sixteen thousand men.
The admiral was not insensible how much the success of the expedition depended on despatch, that it might be carried into execution before the coming on of the hurricane months. Therefore, instead of keeping the common track of the galleons to the north of Cuba which was much the safest, though far the most tedious passage, he determined to pursue his course from east to west, through the Straits of Bahama. This is a narrow passage, about seven hundred miles in length. It is bounded on the right and left with so many shoals and sands that the navigation is dangerous for single ships. Yet such were the cautions and admirable dispositions of the admiral that he carried this fleet of nearly two hundred sail safely through this perilous passage. On the 5th of June, Havana, the object of this long voyage, and of so many anxious hopes and fears, presented itself to the view of the fleet and army. On the seventeenth the troops were landed, and for more than two months every exertion of courage, every art of war, with the most invincible patience and perseverance, under almost insuperable difficulties, were unitedly employed by officers and soldiers, by the fleet and army, for the reduction of this important island. The fortresses were strong by nature and art. The enemy made a gallant and noble defense. The climate was burning, and the want of water great and almost insufferably distressing. Never were British valor and resolution put to a severer trial. Some of the soldiers dropped down dead, under the pressure of heat, thirst and fatigue. Before the middle of July the army, in this unwholesome and burning region, and under the rigor of such extraordinary services, was reduced to half its original numbers. Five thousand soldiers and three thousand seamen were ill at one time. The hearts of the most sanguine sunk within them while they saw this fine army wasting by disease, and they could not but tremble for that noble fleet which had so long been exposed along the open shore and must, in all human probability, suffer inevitable ruin should the hurricane season come on before the reduction of the place. As the season advanced the prospect grew more and more unfavorable. But when the troops were on the point of total despondency the arrival of troops from North America revived their drooping spirits, gave fresh vigor to their operations, and was of the most signal service.
Such was the zeal of the New Englanders in his majesty's service, that not only many of them enlisted with a particular view to the reduction of the Havana: but such of them as had assisted in the conquest of Martinique, and by reason of sickness had set off in three ships for their native country for their recovery, soon finding their health restored, ordered the ships about, and steering directly for Havana, shared in the dangers and honors of that glorious enterprise.
In Hollister's "History of Connecticut" we read of the conduct of Putnam in the shipwreck scene, and the fate of the heroes: