General Orders, 21 May 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Morristown Sunday May 21st 1780
Parole Petersburgh Countersigns O.G.
[Officers] Of the Day Tomorrow[:] Colonel Jackson[,] Lieutenant Colonel Sill[,]1 Brigade Major Stark’s Brigade
[Officers] For Manœuvring Tomorrow[:] Colonel Craig[,] Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Weissenfels[,] Major C. Stewart and Talbot[,] Adjutants 1 Pennsa & Stark’s brigades
Colours as before;2 The Battalions to be form’d at Six o clock tomorrow A.M. Major Church to attend the Formation.
The Pennsylvania and Connecticutt divisions and Hand’s Brigade give the Morristown Guards and Fatigue the ensuing week.
A General Court martial of the Line to sit tomorrow morning nine o clock at a hut lately occupied by Major Winder3 for the Trial of such Persons as shall come before them: Colonel Gansevoort to Preside: Lieutenant Colonel Willet, and Major James Moore a Captain and one Sub[altern], from the Pennsylvania division; Two Captains and a Sub. from the Connecticut division;4 a Captain and a Sub. from Hand’s brigade; one Captain and one Sub., from Clinton’s; and one Sub. from Stark’s to attend as Members.
To prevent in future an inconvenience and irregularity which the General is informed have frequently happened of late in sending part of the Morristown Guard to their Brigades who did not come properly supplied with provision in order to obtain Certificates from their Commissaries of their having provision due them that they might be furnish’d in Town; The Brigade Majors are previous to their men’s going to the Grand parade to examine the State of their Provision and if they are not supplied they are to send the necessary Certificates from the Brigade Commissaries by the Adjutants of the Day; who will deliver them to the Officers of the Guards in which the Men are and which will be a Voucher for the Commissary in Town for charging the respective brigades with the Issues made in Consequence.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
On this date, Capt. William Reily of the 4th Maryland Regiment wrote GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison from the hospital at Pluckemin, N.J., “to Remove the well men of this and Baskin Ridge Hospitals to Camp. nine Deserted last nigh⟨t⟩ and Said the[y] would follow the Devision, the reason the[y] gave for going of[f] was that if the [y] was sent to Camp the[y] would not be Alow’d to Join their Regiments this Campaign. I have Sent after them this morning to have them Stop’d and Confind. I thought it would be proper his Excellency Should be made ⟨acqu⟩ainted with this Circumstance before I would m⟨arch⟩ the remainder to Camp, as I am much ⟨mutilated⟩ the Whole will go of[f] in the Same manner. there is barrack room Enough here for them if the[y] Could be Supplied with provisions” (DLC:GW).
Harrison replied to Reily on the same date from headquarters at Morristown: “I have received your Favor of to day & presented it to His Excellency, the Commander in Chief. The General hopes the Men who have deserted will be recovered. You may continue the parties at pluckimin & Baskeridge Hospitals till further Orders. The Commissaries at these places must furnish them with provisions” (DLC:GW).
William Reily (Reiley; c.1752–1824) of Baltimore County, Md., began as a lieutenant in the Maryland militia and served with the same rank in a battalion of the flying camp in the last half of 1776. Commissioned a lieutenant in the 4th Maryland Regiment that December, Reily rose to captain in October 1777, and transferred to the 1st Maryland Regiment in January 1781. He left the army in August 1783. A death notice in the Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.) for 9 July 1824 touted his participation in fifteen southern battles, notably Cowpens, Camden, Guilford Courthouse, and Yorktown.
1. French and Indian War veteran David Fithian Sill (1733–1813), of Lyme, Conn., participated as a lieutenant in the Lexington Alarm and subsequently served as a captain in the 6th Connecticut Regiment and the 10th Continental Infantry. Promoted to major in the 1st Connecticut Regiment in January 1777, Sill became its lieutenant colonel in March 1778.
3. Maj. Levin Winder had gone south with the Maryland division (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 6 April, n.2).
4. For an additional general order directing “Two Orderly Sergeants from the Connecticut Division to Attend the Court,” see , 357; see also , 323.