General Orders, 12 September 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Steenrapia Tuesday Septemr 12. 1780
Parole Harford Countersigns Humber, Hope.
Watchword Be punctual
[Officers] For the day Tomorrow[:] Brigadier General Patterson[,] Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Weissenfells[,] Lieutenant Colonel Holdridge[,] Major Winslow[,] Brigade Major Rice
A Court of enquiry is ordered to set tomorrow morning nine ô clock in the president’s Markee at the request of Colonel Angell to examine into his conduct in the action at Springfield and report their opinion thereon—Colonel Nixon is appointed president—Lieutenant Colonels DeHart and Vose—Majors Reid and Grier Members—All Witnesses and Persons concerned are desired to attend.1
The General court Martial whereof Colonel Greaton is president is dissolved2 and another ordered to assemble tomorrow morning nine ô clock at the president’s Markee for the trial of Major Murnan and such others as shall be brought before the court All persons concerned to attend. Colonel Dayton to preside—Members Lieutenant Colonel Badlam Major Leavensworth and a Captain from each brigade except the Jersey and Stark’s.3
Brigade returns of the Serjeants drums and fifes and rank and file of the New York Connecticutt Massachusetts and New Hampshire lines and of Angell’s regiment who are enlisted for the war to be transmitted to the orderly office tomorrow at eleven ô clock.
David Hall a soldier in Colonel Stewart’s battalion of light infantry convicted at a General court martial whereof colonel Cortlandt is president of “plundering an inhabitant of money and plate” and being condemned to death is to be executed at half past four ô clock this afternoon.
Fifty men properly officered from each brigade in the army to attend the execution.4
It has been much the General’s desire to prevent enormities of this kind which are as repugnant to the principles of the cause in which we are engaged as oppressive to the inhabitants and subversive of that order and discipline which must Characterize every well regulated army.
The General again exhorts officers of every rank to pay the closest attention to the conduct of their men and to use the utmost precaution to prevent the soldiers from rambling and committing such outrages, the subject of daily complaint and representation to him; it is highly incumbent on them to do this to prevent the consequences which will follow as he is determined to shew no favor to Soldiers who are convicted of these pernicious and disgraceful offences.
Part of the Effects of the late Brigadier General Poor among which are several suits of Cloaths, a genteel small sword, sash, Epauletts, and many other articles will be vendued at Lieutenant Colonel Dearborn’s Marquee in the New Hampshire brigade tomorrow morning ten ô clock.5
After Orders
The army will parade tomorrow morning eight ô clock by brigades on their respective brigade parades—The General wishes the line to be as full as possible—The new Guards will remain in the Line ’till the review is over—The Light corps will parade at ten ô clock.6
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. The Providence Gazette for 11 Oct. printed a letter from Maj. Simeon Thayer “To the PUBLIC” dated 2 Oct. that announced how the court “unanimously applauded” Col. Israel Angell “for his conduct” at the battle of Springfield (see also , 116–18, and General Orders, 18 Sept.).
2. For this court-martial’s authorization, see General Orders, 10 August.
3. Col. Henry Jackson replaced Col. Elias Dayton as president of this court-martial, which acquitted Major Murnan (see General Orders, 14 and 21 Sept.).
4. In his journal entry for this date, Dr. James Thacher noted the convicted man’s “fortitude at the gallows” (, 213).
David Hall (d. 1780) enlisted as a private in the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment in May 1777.
5. For Brig. Gen. Enoch Poor’s death and funeral, see General Orders, 9 Sept. 1780, and n.2 to that document.
6. Angell wrote in his diary entry for this date: “a Number of Savages of the Onido [Oneida] Nation Came to head Quarters this Day. there was hardest thunder this Evening I ever knew” (, 116; see also Rochambeau to GW, 31 Aug.). Pvt. Elijah Fisher of the 11th Massachusetts Regiment wrote in his journal entry for this date that GW and some of the Indians “went through the whole army and when they Come to the Park of artillery they seluted them with thirteen cannon and when they passed a brigade they presented there arms to them” (, 16). Writing in his diary entry for 13 Sept., Thacher described the “Six Indian chiefs” that accompanied GW “as the most disgusting and contemptible of the human race” who “could not refrain from the indulgence of their appetites for rum on this occasion, and some of them fell from their horses on their return to headquarters. This tribe of Indians is friendly to America, and it is good policy to show them some attention, and give them an idea of the strength of our army” (, 213–14).
Lt. Enos Reeves wrote an unidentified friend from Steenrapie on 13 Sept. describing “the motley crew mounted on horseback, with His Excellency Genl Washington at their head” during the review. “They came on the Right, were saluted by the Drums, colors and the officers in rotation, pass’d down to the front line to the Left; then review’d the Light Infantry, on their return reviewed the second Line, from that to the Park of Artillery.
“I must inform you that this same Motley Crew, that we have received with such pomp, is no less than a number of Indian Chiefs of the Stockbridge, Oneida and several other Nations, of whom a Colonel Lewis [Joseph Louis Cook] is the principal. He has been of infinite service since this War commenced, and has brought several chiefs of different Nations to see the French at Rhode Island, where they were a novelty and treated with the utmost civility. They were taken through all our Army & saluted at the Park with thirteen pieces of ordanance, which they received with a hideous Yell, but was much pleased with it. They are entertained by His Excellency at his own Table” (Reeves, “Letter-Books,” 20:302–3; see also Rochambeau to GW, 31 Aug.).