General Orders, 28 June 1777
General Orders
Head-Quarters, Middle-Brook, June 28th 1777.
Parole: Lancaster.Countersigns: London.
Ludlow.
The several regiments are to send for their tents, and pitch them where they are now posted.
Orderly serjeants to attend at Head-Quarters as usual.
All Chaplains are to perform divine service to morrow, and on every succeeding Sunday, with their respective brigades and regiments, where the situation will possibly admit of it: And the commanding officers of corps are to see that they attend; themselves, with officers of all ranks, setting the example. The Commander in Chief expects an exact compliance with this order, and that it be observed in future as an invariable rule of practice—And every neglect will be considered not only a breach of orders, but a disregard to decency, virtue and religion.1
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Also on this date, GW directed his new adjutant general, Timothy Pickering, to write Commissary Gen. Joseph Trumbull about the state of provisions in the Continental army: “His Excellency the Commander in Chief observes with extreme concern and regret that almost every expedition he forms is either frustrated, or greatly impeded, by the want of a regular supply of provisions, particularly bread. But besides this mischief, another is daily growing in the camp: The bread made of the flour delivered the men is of the most unwholesome kind, and from thence diseases are continually increasing. For these reasons his Excellency most earnestly desires the commissary general ever to have in readiness a competency of provisions, & especially of hard bread, for every emergency that may arise, & that the health of the troops may be preserved” (Ct: Joseph Trumbull Papers).