General Orders, 20 August 1777
General Orders
Head Quarters, near Cross-Roads [Pa.] Augt 20th 1777.
Parole: Norway.Countersigns: Norfolk Norwich.
The order, by which Col. Armand’s Corps was annexed to Genl Conways brigade is countermanded.
The Commander in Chief is pleased to approve of the following sentences of a General Court Martial, held the 18th instant, whereof Col. McClenahan was president.
Lieut. Ambrose Crane of Col. Stewarts regiment, charged with “Breaking his former arrest, and going to Philadelphia in company with two officers of Col. Stewarts regt—likewise under arrest, without Colonel Stewart’s knowledge or permission”—pleaded guilty—sentenced to be cashiered.1
Lieut. Benj: Holmes of the 2nd Virginia regiment charged with “behaving in a manner unbecoming an officer and a Gentleman”—The Court unanimously acquitted the prisoner of the charge exhibited against him.2
Jacob Moon, pay Master to the 14th Virginia regiment charged with “Ungentlemanlike behaviour, and defrauding the soldiers out of their pay”—found guilty of ungentlemanlike behaviour, in giving the lie to Ensign Washnam and Ensign Moore; and not guilty of defrauding the soldiers out of their pay—sentenced to be reprimanded by the Colonel in the presence of the officers of the regt he belongs to.3
Such officers as have not yet settled their ration accounts, are notified that Mr Bate is obliged to leave Camp the first September; and that those accounts which are not brought in by that time, cannot be settled on this side Hartford—Quarter Masters who are not acquainted with the form of a Ration Abstract, can have one from Mr Bate.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Ambrose Crane (Crain; b. 1745) of Lancaster County, Pa., who enlisted as a private in Col. Samuel Miles’s Pennsylvania rifle regiment in March 1776, became a quartermaster sergeant in July 1776, and a short time later he was appointed a first lieutenant in the 11th Lancaster County militia regiment. Crane served as a second lieutenant in Col. Walter Stewart’s Pennsylvania state regiment from April 1777 to this date. After his cashiering Crane resumed his service in the Lancaster County militia with the rank of captain.
2. Benjamin Hoomes (Holmes; 1755–1812) of King and Queen County, Va., became an ensign in the 2d Virginia Regiment in September 1775, and he served as regimental quartermaster before being promoted to second lieutenant in May 1776. Hoomes became a first lieutenant in June 1776 and a captain in April 1778, and he resigned his commission in September 1778.
3. Jacob Moon, Jr. (c.1754–1781), had been paymaster of the 14th Virginia Regiment since April 1777. He resigned from that position in August 1778, and he became an ensign in the Bedford County, Va., militia in June 1779. Moon died in 1781 of wounds that he received at the Battle of Guilford Court House. Richard Worsham (1756–1826) of Charlotte County, Va., was commissioned an ensign in the 14th Virginia Regiment in November 1776. He was promoted to second lieutenant in November 1777, and in March 1778 he transferred to the 10th Virginia Regiment with the rank of first lieutenant. Worsham was captured at Charleston, S.C., in May 1780, and he resigned his commission in March 1781. Ensign Moore may be John Moore, who was appointed quartermaster of the 14th Virginia Regiment in May 1777 and retired in September 1778.
4. James Bate of Connecticut served under Joseph Trumbull as deputy commissary general of purchases.