December 1863 and Adjutant in March 1864, he was captured at the Battle of Cedar Creek near Middletown, Virginia, and was held for a short time at the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia before being transferred to Danville where he was held until March 1865 when he was returned to the Union forces as part of a prisoner exchange. He attained the rank of major of volunteers. Years later, following the 1911 marking of the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, in 1912 George H. Putnam published an account of his experiences titled "A Prisoner of War in Virginia - An Experience in Virginia Prisons During the Last Winter of the War." At the war's end, Major Putnam joined his father's publishing business, "G. Putnam Broadway." He was also appointed deputy collector of internal revenue. On his father's death in 1872, George H. Putnam took over the business with his brothers John Bishop and Irving, renaming it G. P. Putnam's Sons. He was made president of the firm, a position he held for the next fifty-two years. In 1884 he hired 26-year-old Theodore Roosevelt as a special partner; Roosevelt would write several works published by Putnam. Like his father, Putnam was active in numerous civic, social, and business causes. He served on the executive committees of the Civil-Service Reform Association, the Free-Trade League and the Reform Club, and was a founding member of the City Club of New York. He also aggressively continued with his father's work on copyright protection for authors. In 1887, he helped organize the American Publishers' Copyright League that led a successful campaign resulting in the 1891 passage of an international copyright protection law. He retired in 1924, formally turning the presidency of G. P. Putnam's Sons over to Palmer C. Putnam. He died in 1930, aged 85. Wives and children Putnam was first married to Rebecca Kettel Shepard who died of typhoid fever in 1895. They had five daughters: Dorothy Lesley, Ellen, Ethel Frothingham, Bertha Haven and Corinna Haven. Bertha went on to become a noted medieval historian, and Corinna became the wife of Joseph Lindon Smith, painter of Egyptian archaeological discoveries. Putnam married his second wife, the classical scholar Emily James Smith in 1899. A son of this marriage was wind power pioneer Palmer Cosslett Putnam. Writings Putnam also wrote articles in scholarly and historical publications. Children's books The Artificial Mother