General Orders, 9 June 1776
General Orders
Head Quarters, New-York, June 9th 1776.
Parole Amboy.Countersign Brunswick.
It is strongly recommended, to the officers of the different regiments, to practice the Salute with the Fusee,1 and to fall upon a method of being uniform therein; so as that all may acquire one and the same mode: And The General desires, that when the line is turned out at any encampment, all the officers keep their arms advanced, and salute only by taking off their hats, until they have attained a more correct method of saluting with their arms.
A Guard of one Serjeant, one Corporal, and ten Men, to mount to morrow morning, at Murray’s Magazine—Mr Norward will give directions for placing the Sentries &c.2
Lieut. Jacob Zanck of Col. Hands Regiment, tried at the General Court Martial whereof Col. Nixon is President for “Insulting and abusing Lieut. Zeigler, Adjutant of said regiment, and for behaving in an infamous, scandalous manner, unbecoming the officer and gentlemen”—The Court are of opinion that the prisoner is guilty of publickly insulting Lieut. Zeigler on the regimental parade; and adjudge that Lieut. Zanck, ask pardon of Lieut. Zeigler, in presence of the officers of the Battalion, and be reprimanded by the Commanding officer of the regiment—The General approves of the above sentence.3
Giles Burrow, of Capt. Barns’s Company, Col. Nixon’s regiment,4 tried at the above Court Martial for “Desertion and forging a Discharge from the Continental Service”—is found guilty of the same, and sentenced to receive Thirty-nine Lashes on his bare back.
John Monney of Capt. Stenrods Company Col. McDougall Regt5 tried at the General Court for “Desertion,” is found guilty but unfairness had been used in inlisting the prisoner, and his being very ignorant, judge him to be confined seven days on bread and water.6
Gustus Seely of Capt. Hull’s Company Col. Webb’s regiment, tried at the above Court Martial for “being drunk and disobedience of orders and insulting7 Mr Webb A:D:C: to General Putnam,” is found guilty and sentenced to be whipped Thirty Lashes on his bare back.
The General approves of the above sentence[s] and orders them to be put in execution at the usual time and place.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Officers were armed with a lighter form of musket commonly called a fusil or fusee.
2. Richard Norwood was commissary of military stores for the colony of New York.
3. Jacob Zanck of Lancaster County, who was commissioned a lieutenant in one of the Pennsylvania rifle companies that were raised in June 1775, resigned from the army before 14 Aug. 1776 (see Edward Hand to GW, that date, DNA:PCC, item 152). David Ziegler (1748–1811) served as adjutant for Col. William Thompson’s Pennsylvania rifle regiment during 1775 and continued in that capacity when the unit was designated the 1st Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776. Although Ziegler was assigned as a lieutenant to the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment effective 1 Jan. 1777, he was “incapable of doing Field duty” as the result of a wound that he received at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and on 29 July 1777 Congress appointed him a captain in the Invalid Corps (, 8:585). Ziegler remained in that corps until the end of the war, when he secured a commission on the peace establishment as a captain in the 1st U.S. Infantry.
4. Thomas Barnes (1752–1821) served as a captain in Col. John Mansfield’s Massachusetts regiment during 1775, in Col. John Nixon’s 4th Continental Regiment during 1776, and in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment from January 1777 to March 1779 when he was promoted to major. Barnes was cashiered on 7 Nov. 1780 for “overstaying his furlough” (see General Orders, that date).
5. Col. William Henshaw’s and Capt. Abraham Dodge’s orderly books both give the defendant’s name as “John Murray” (“Henshaw’s Orderly Book,” 150; Dodge, “Orderly Book,” 223). Cornelius Steenrod (Steinrod; died c.1805) of Westchester County informed the New York committee of safety on 27 April 1776 that he could “enlist a complete company of men for Continental Service in fourteen days.” The committee accepted his offer, and on 21 May the provincial congress ordered him and his company to “continue to be a part of Colonel McDougal’s regiment” (, 1:422, 455). Steenrod apparently left the Continental service in November 1776.
6. According to Henshaw’s and Dodge’s orderly books, the prisoner was sentenced to be confined for five days (“Henshaw’s Orderly Book,” 150; Dodge, “Orderly Book,” 223).
7. Henshaw’s orderly book reads “Insulting & Striking,” and Dodge’s orderly book contains similar wording (“Henshaw’s Orderly Book,” 150; Dodge, “Orderly Book,” 223).