Instructions to Brigadier General Preudhomme de Borre, 20 May 1777
Instructions to Brigadier General Preudhomme de Borre
[Morristown, 20 May 1777]
Sir
The Congress having been pleased to appoint you to the rank of Brigadier General in the Armies of the United States of America, the following Regiments, in a division to be commanded by Major General Sullivan, are to compose your Brigade; vizt: the German Battalion, so called, under the Command of Baron D’Arendt, and the 2nd price’s, 4th Hall’s,1 6th Williams’s, from the State of Maryland.
The Regiments are at present in an unassembled and detached Situation, and cannot be immediately collected, without exposing some of the Posts. They will, however, be drawn together as soon as possible, but in the mean time, as it is necessary you should be acquainted with the State and condition of your Brigade; it will not be amiss to visit such parts of it as are upon the lines, thereby acquiring some knowledge of the Country.
You will forthwith repair to Princeton, and join Major General Sullivan. Given at Head Quarters Morris Town this 20th day of May 1777.
G. Washington
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Josias Carvil Hall (1746–1814), a physician and planter who had been named a member of the Harford County committee of observation in 1775 and had been promoted to major of one of the county’s militia regiments on 1 Jan. 1776, served as colonel of a regiment of Maryland “flying camp” troops from June to December 1776, when he was appointed colonel of the 4th Maryland Regiment. Although Hall was wounded at the Battle of Germantown on 4 Oct. 1777, he remained colonel of the 4th Maryland Regiment until it was dissolved soon after being decimated at the Battle of Camden in August 1780. During the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, Hall was a brigadier general of Maryland militia, and during the Quasi-War with France from 1799 to 1800, he was a lieutenant colonel of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment.