General Orders, 9 May 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Morristown Tuesday May 9th 1780
Parole Rariton Countersigns K. P.
[Officers] Of the Day Tomorrow[:] Colonel Livingston[,] Lieutenant Colonel Smith[,] Brigade Major Clinton’s Brigade
The Jersey Brigade to be held in readiness to move with their baggage on the shortest notice.1
Robert Powers and Samuel Bell soldiers of the 10th Pennsylvania regiment also Jacob Justice and Thomas Brown of the 7th now under sentence of death for plundering the house of Mr Cornelius Bogart near Peramus; on a representation from their officers that they had previous to the commission of the above crime behaved like good soldiers, and on the earnest intercession of Mr Bogart in their behalf: His Excellency the Commander in Chief is pleased to pardon them.2
At a Division general court martial whereof Lieutenant Colonel Murray was president Joseph Infelt and John Earhart soldiers in the 10th Pennsylvania regiment were tried for “attempting to desert to the Enemy.”
The Court were clearly of opinion that they are Guilty of the Charges exhibited against them being a breach of the 1st Article 6th Section of the Articles of War and Sentence them [(]more than two thirds of the Court agreeing thereto) to suffer Death.3
The Commander in Chief confirms the Sentence.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Brig. Gen. William Maxwell’s New Jersey brigade moved to the advanced lines in the vicinity of Elizabeth and Springfield, N.J., likely on 11 May (see General Orders, and the postscript to GW to Jedediah Huntington, both 10 May; see also Maxwell to GW, 15 May, DLC:GW).
2. GW had approved the death sentences of these soldiers in the general orders for 13 March.
Cornelius Bogert (Bogart) may have been the man who lived in “old Hackensack” and was among a list of “disaffected Persons” whose apprehension was sought in July 1777 (William Livingston to Samuel Hayes, 10 July 1777, in , 2:15–17). New Jersey officials apparently held him as a prisoner until he was exchanged for men under British confinement (see Livingston to Elias Boudinot, 29 Aug. 1777, in , 2:48–50; see also , 122–24).
3. For this article of war, see General Orders, 1 May, n.2.
Joseph Infelt (Imfelt) served as a private in the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment and was listed in Lt. Col. Samuel Hay’s company muster roll for April 1780 as “prisoner Camp” (, 5th ser., 3:540). A subsequent muster roll noted Infelt as “deserted July 80” (DNA: RG 93, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, 10th Pennsylvania Regiment).
John Earhart enlisted as a private in the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment in June 1777 and was listed in Lt. Col. Samuel Hay’s company muster roll for April 1780 as “Prisoner in Guard house” (, 5th ser., 3:540). Spared a death sentence for desertion by GW’s pardon in late May 1780, Earhart apparently returned to his regiment and served at least into August of that year.
4. GW pardoned Infelt and Earhart in his proclamation issued on 26 May 1780 (DLC:GW).