General Orders, 26 July 1776
General Orders
Head Quarters, New York, July 26th 1776.
Parole Cambridge.Countersign Darby.
The General Court Martial to sit to morrow for the tryal of Ensign Bryant now under Arrest for “sending some Soldiers to take away old Iron, and other Materials, from the Ships now fitting for public use.”1
A Guard at Harrison’s Brewery to be mounted consisting of one Sub:, one Serjt, one Corporal, and twenty-four Privates, every evening, and Sentries to be posted at proper distances from the Air Furnace along the Shore, ’till they come opposite to Col. Baldwins quarters.2
General Greene being particularly engaged at present, passes signed by Lieut: Blodget, are to be allowed sufficient to enable persons to cross the ferries.3
Complaints have been made that some of the Soldiers ill treat the Country People, who come to Market; The General most possitively forbids such behaviour, and hopes the officers will exert themselves to prevent it: Good Policy as well as Justice, demands that they should have all possible encouragement as the health of the Soldiers much depends upon supplies of Vegetables; Those who have been guilty of such practices, will do well to consider what will be our Situation, at this season, if we drive off the Country people, and break up the Market—The healthy will soon be sick, and the sick must perish for want of necessaries: No favour will be shewn to any offenders hereafter.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
Under this date includes several general orders not found anywhere in the Varick transcript. See notes 1, 3, and 4.
1. 193, adds: “The Q. M General to take the Rigging Stores & other Articles belonging to the Vessels to be safely secured in some Ware house or Store & any Officer or Soldier who shall hereafter be found medling improperly with any part of them may depend upon being punish’d with severity.” See also 81:170.
William Heath wrote to GW about this case on 25 July: “The Bearer Lieut. Colo. [John] Jacobs of Colo. Baileys Regiment Complains that one Ensign Seth Bryant belonging to said regiment, and now Employed in the works, was yesterday afternoon, by order of my Lord Stirling put under Guard in a Common Guard House where He Still remains (on Suspicion of Embezzelment) A Procedure so Extraordinary Constrains me to represent the matter to your Excellency as your Excellency is Senseable that in all Service, and in Special, by the Rules & Regulations by which this army is to be Governed, ‘whenever any Officer or Soldier shall Commit a Crime deserving punishment he Shall if an Officer, be put in arrest; if a non-Commission’d officer or Soldier be Imprisoned.’ whether He be Guilty or not I Cannot tell the Judgment of a General Court-martial is to Determine, But as he wears a Continental Commission His being Confin’d Under Guard, must give Umbrage to every Gentleman who Sustains a Commission in the Army” (ALS, DLC:GW). The accused officer was not Seth Bryant but rather Job Bryant, who served as a corporal in Col. John Thomas’s Massachusetts regiment before becoming an ensign in Col. John Bailey’s 23d Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776. For Bryant’s acquittal, see General Orders, 31 July.
2. A foundry was located near Harrison’s brewery on the Hudson shore a short distance north of the city.
3. 193, includes the order: “Agreeable to the Order of the 22d Instant it is now settled that such Regiments as choose to lessen their allowance of Meat & receive Money instead thereof to be laid out by the Quarter Masters in Vegetables do it upon the following Regulation—instead of One pound & a half of Meat each Soldier to draw One Pound & one penny Lawful Money of New England to be allow’d for difference to be paid to the Colonels Order & laid out by the Q. Master for the purchase of Vegetables—Two Days notice to be given to the Commissary General.” See also 81:170.
4. 194, includes the order: “The Person who supplies the Camp with Beer has represented that he must stop his Business if his Barrels are not return’d. The General therefore Orders that the Colonels of the several Regiments do strictly charge the Q Master to take Care of these Barrels & prevent their being Cut for Tubs as heretofore. An Account will be kept with every Regiment & the deficient Barrels Charg’d to such Regiment or the Q Master if he does not attend to it. The Commissary General will deliver Pork Barrels to any Regiment who will apply to him to be Cut up into Tubs.” See also 81:171.