Located in the city's Bushnell Park, the statue was designed by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward and honors Israel Putnam, a military officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

Israel Putnam was a military officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

[1] In his will he allocated US$5,000 to his father and two other men for the purposes of erecting a monument in honor of Putnam in Hartford's Bushnell Park.

[1] His father added an additional $5,000 of his own money and, in either 1872 or 1873,[3] the trustees chose to commission sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward to design a statue of Putnam.

[3] Putnam is dressed in his military garb from the Revolutionary War, including a frock coat and cravat, and is depicted in midstride.

), while the front of the pedestal reads "ISRAEL PUTNAM" and the back bears the inscription "PRESENTED / BY THE HONOURABLE / JOSEPH PRATT ALLYN / MDCCCLXXIII".

[7] The Bushnell Park Foundation, which oversees the park and administers the statue, observe that "[i]n Ward’s rendering of Putnam taking a step forward, he is no longer a static figure but a candid portrayal of a fleeting moment as the general strides forth", which lends "a more natural, spontaneous character and heightened the realism of his sculpture".