General Orders, 3 September 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Tean Neck [N.J.] Sunday September 3d 1780
Morning Orders 6 ô Clock September 3d
Parole Hellespont Countersigns Hall; Ham.
Watchword, Order.
[Officers] For the day tomorrow[:] Brigadier General Nixon[,]Colonel M. Jackson[,] Lieutenant Colonel Sumner[,] Brigade Major Moore. For Guard[:] Major Knapp.
A Captain of the day to be appointed in each division part of whose duty it shall be to visit the camp guard of the division to which he belongs; The old and new Captains of the day will attend the Grand parade at Guard mounting where the former will deliver written reports of the Camp Guards of their division to the officers of the day which are to be digested in the General report to the Commander in Chief, duplicates of which they will deliver to their respective Commanders of Divisions; The subalterns will do the same to the Commandants of the Brigades to which they belong—The Officers of the Day will visit the Camp Guards by day and direct the Captains of the day to visit them by night.
The men drafted from the line into the Corps of Sappers and Miners are to draw pay in the regiments from whence they were drafted up to the 1st of last August; after that period in the corps aforesaid.2
The Honorable the Congress have been pleased to adopt the following Order in the Proceedings of the Court Martial in the trial of Doctor William shippen Director General.
In Congress August 18th 1780
Congress resumed the Consideration of the proceedings of the Court martial on the trial of Doctor William Shippen Director General and thereupon passed the following order.
The Court Martial having Acquitted the said, Doctor William Shippen—Ordered that he be discharged from Arrest.3
At a Division General Court martial whereof Colonel M. Jackson was President August 27th Lieutenant David Peterson was tried on the following Charges.
1st Disobedience of Orders when on the Lines near King street in going without the Guards and Patrols and staying ’till an unseasonable hour in the night in Contempt of orders delivered him.
2nd Unofficerlike behavior when with a small scout sent to make discovery of the enemy in suffering them to break into the house of Mr John Barker4 and taking provisions from him contrary to orders.
3d Disposing of a number of Horses which he took at the same time without their being condemned by the Civil or Military Authority contrary to any rule or orders on the Lines.
The Court find the 1st and 3d charges supported and find him Guilty of a breach of part of the 5 Article 2d Section and the 5th Article of the 18th Section of the Articles of war and sentence him to be dismissed the service.5
The Commander in Chief approves the Sentence and orders it to be carried into Execution.
After Orders.
Major Hamilton is appointed for Guard tomorrow vice Major Knapp absent on command.
At seven ô clock tomorrow morning the General will beat—the Assemble at half past eight and the Army will march precisely at Nine—the Baggage will begin to file off in the order prescribed at half past seven—the Van guard composed of the new Camp and Quarter Guards to be formed at seven ô clock in the field opposite the orderly office near Headquarters under the command of the new officers of the day—The rear Guard composed of the old Camp and Quarter Guards to be formed on the Grandparade, at nine ô clock under the command of the old officers of the day.6
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Lt. Col. Henry Dearborn wrote “we have a very heavy rain” in his journal entry for this date (, 202; see also General Orders, 2 Sept., and n.6 below).
2. For the establishment of this corps, see General Orders, 22 July.
3. Charges that William Shippen, Jr., had maladministered the medical department began in June 1779 and resulted in his arrest in January 1780. Shippen’s court-martial started that March and lasted until 27 June (see GW to John Morgan, 24 June 1779; Samuel Huntington to GW, 27 Nov. 1779; and Morgan to GW, 27 Dec. 1779; see also General Orders, 13 March 1780, and n.1 to that document).
4. This name also has been recorded as “John Barkin” (, 221).
5. The fifth article of the second section of the articles of war reads: “Any officer or soldier who shall strike his superior officer, or draw, or shall lift up any weapon, or offer any violence against him, being in the execution of his office, on any pretence whatsoever, or shall disobey any lawful command of his superior officer, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall, according to the nature of his offence, be inflicted upon him by the sentence of a court-martial” (, 5:790). For the fifth article of the eighteenth section of the articles of war, see General Orders, 29 Aug., n.6.
6. Col. Israel Angell wrote in his diary entry for this date: “An Exceeding Rainey Morning, which Prevented the Army from marching Agreable to the Orders of yesterday. … Cleard off this Afternoon plesant. Orders Came again for us to march tomorrow morning” (, 111).
Dearborn wrote in his journal entry for 4 Sept.: “the Army march’d at 9 oclock A.M. cross’d Hacken Sack River & incamp’d about 8 miles to the westward of our late incampment” (, 202).