CHARLES F. PUTNAM, MASTER, USN
Charles Putnam '73
Charles Flint Putnam was admitted to the Naval Academy from Freeport, Illinois on June 22, 1869 at age 14 years 6 months.
Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1873 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.
Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.
Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1873 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.
Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.
Loss
Charles was lost on or after January 10, 1882 while a member of the U.S. Arctic Expedition.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Charles' father Holden was a saddler in 1850 in Montpelier, Vermont. He became a colonel who died at the Battle of Lookout Mountain in 1863.
In 1865, Charles' mother Leonora married Augustus Boyden, a Chicago banker and county treasurer. While Charles was in the Navy, he granted an allotment of $125/month for her. In 1885 having no other means of support, Leonora requested a pension of $50 from Charles's death. The government awarded her $30/month. When her husband Augustus died in 1888, Leonora was visiting her daughter Jennie (Mrs. Gibson) in Birmingham, Connecticut.
From Wikipedia:
Born in Freeport, Illinois, Putnam entered the Naval Academy at the age of 14. Upon his request at graduation in 1873, he was ordered to the Far East in USS Kearsarge, serving in that vessel with the Asiatic Squadron until 1875. Master Putnam was stationed at San Francisco, California in 1876 and was attached to schoolship USS Jamestown in 1877–78.
In 1879 he joined the Coast Survey steamer Hassler in the North Pacific. Putnam volunteered in 1881 for service in USS Rodgers, fitted out to search for the USS Jeannette, which had been lost in the Arctic on an expedition to reach the North Pole. When Rodgers burned at St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, 30 November 1881, Putnam took supplies to the survivors on dog sledges. On his return to his depot at Cape Serdze, he missed his way in a blinding snow storm 10 January 1882, drifted out to sea on an ice-floe and was never heard from again.
He was survived by his mother.
Charles has a memory marker in Illinois.
Photographs
Charles' classmates erected a large, ornate plaque in his honor in Memorial Hall. It includes a depiction, in bronze relief, of him on an ice floe with a sled and three dogs. It reads in part, "this tablet is erected… in loving remembrance and as a memorial of his heroic sacrifice."
Namesake
USS Putnam (DD 287) was named for Charles, as was USS Putnam (DD 757), which was sponsored by Mrs. Doana Putnam Wheeler.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
July 1870
January 1874
January 1875
January 1876
July 1877
July 1878
January 1879
January 1880
July 1881
January 1882
January 1883
Charles is the only member of the Class of 1873 in Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
