George Washington Papers

General Orders, 7 May 1777

General Orders

Head-Quarters, Morristown, May 7th 1777.

Parole: Newtown.Countersign: Boundbrook.

His Excellency the Commander in Chief, upon considering the report of the Court of inquiry, held on the conduct of Capt: Bond and Lieut: Brackinridge, both of the 4th New-Jersey Regt, respecting a charge brought against them by a certain Dennis McCarthy, thinks the accusation frivolous, and groundless; And that both those Gentlemen are to be considered as good officers, and friends to their Country.1

Nathan Rice and Everard Meade Esqrs. are appointed Aides-de-Camp to the Honorable Major Genl Lincoln, and are to be obeyed and respected as such.2

The following proceedings of a General Court Martial, held at Boundbrook, on May 2nd Inst: whereof Col. McClennahan was President, are approved of by his Excellency the Commander in Chief.

Thomas Wood of the 8th Pennsyl: Regt to receive 50 lashes.

Capt: Ransom of Wyoming accused of “Being drunk on his post”—The Court think he is Not Guilty of the charge.

Michael Lynch of the 10th Pennsyla Regt to receive 100 lashes.

Lieut: Parrot of the 8th Virginia Regt to be discharged from the service, and his pay stop’d from the time he left his detachment, until he did duty in his regiment again.3

Dennis Ford of the 10th Pennsyl: Regt to receive 100 lashes.

Leonard Buck of the 5th Pennsyl: Regt to receive 25 lashes.

Levi Bateman of the 10th Pennsyl: Regt to suffer Death.

Thomas Greaton of the 10th Virginia Regt to receive 100 lashes.

Michael Gorman of the 10th Pennsyl: Regt not to be punished.

Capt: Hite of the 8th Virginia Regt to be reprimanded by the commanding Officer of the regiment, in presence of Lieut. Culp and other officers of the regiment.4

Lieut: Beeler of the 8th Pennsyl: Regt Not guilty.5

James Davis of the 11th Virginia Regt Not guilty.

Griffiths Ford, no Evidence, therefore discharged.

James McDonald, Corporal in the 5th Pennsyl: Regt to be reduced to the ranks, and receive 100 lashes.

Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

1William Bond served as a captain in Col. Ephraim Martin’s regiment of New Jersey militia levies from July to November 1776, and on 28 Nov. 1776 he was named a captain in the 4th New Jersey Regiment. Resigning his Continental commission in December 1777, Bond in October 1778 became lieutenant colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Sussex County militia, and in May 1780 he led a detachment of ten men in a successful ambush of a party of British Indian recruits in Northampton County, Pa. (see N.J. Archives description begins Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey. 42 vols. Newark and Trenton, 1880–1949. description ends , 2d ser., 4:406). Samuel Brackenridge, who was appointed second lieutenant of Bond’s company in December 1776, resigned his commission in November 1777. Dennis McCarty of Sussex County was a private in Bond’s company.

2Nathan Rice (1754–1834) of Sturbridge, Mass., who had been adjutant of Col. John Greaton’s Massachusetts regiment during 1775 and Greaton’s 24th Continental Regiment during 1776, remained an aide-de-camp to Lincoln with the rank of major until 1 Jan. 1781 when Rice became major of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. Rice served in that capacity until June 1783. He was lieutenant colonel of the 14th U.S. Infantry Regiment from 1799 to 1800. Everard Meade (1748–1802) of Amelia County, Va., who had been appointed a captain in the 2d Virginia Regiment in March 1776, also served Lincoln as an aide-de-camp with the rank of major until 1781 when Meade was named lieutenant colonel commandant of the 2d Virginia State Legion. Meade held that rank until 1783. He was a member of the Virginia house of delegates between 1780 and 1783 and of the state senate from 1794 to 1798.

3Jacob Parrott was appointed an ensign in the 8th Virginia Regiment in March 1776, and he was promoted to second lieutenant in March 1777.

4Among the officers known to be in the 8th Virginia Regiment at this time the only one named Hite was Lt. Matthias Hite (c.1750–1823). Appointed a first lieutenant in the regiment in January 1776, Matthias Hite was promoted to captain on 10 Aug. 1777, and he resigned his commission in May 1778. Daniel Culp, a merchant from Berkeley County, Va., became a first lieutenant in the 8th Virginia Regiment in February 1776. He resigned his commission on 20 May 1777.

5James Beeler, Jr., was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment on 14 Sept. 1776 (see JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 5:759).

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