General Orders, 8 September 1776
General Orders
Head Quarters, New York, sept: 8th 1776.
Parole: GraysonCountersign: Tilghman
Alexander McIntire of Capt. Newall’s Company,1 James Butler of Capt: Dalley’s Company2 and John Knowlon of Capt. Maxwell’s Company, all of Col. Prescotts Regiment tried by a Court Martial, whereof Col. Malcom was President, and acquitted of “plundering a Celler belonging to a Citizen of New-York”—each ordered to be discharged, and join their regiments.
Ames Reed Corporal in Capt. Vancleavers Company,3 Regiment late Col. Johnson’s, tried by the same Court Martial, and convicted of “Speaking disrespectfully and villifying the Commander in Chief”—sentenced to receive Thirty-nine Lashes, at different days successivly, thirteen each day, and reduced to the ranks.
John Lillie of Col. Knox’s Regt of Artillery, Capt. Hamilton’s Company, convicted by the same Court Martial of “Abusing Adjt Henly, and striking him”—ordered to receive Thirty-nine lashes in the same manner.
The General approves the above sentences and orders them to be put in execution at the usual time & place.
The General directs, that in future, in case of any Soldier detected in plundering, the Brigadier General, or Colonel, or commanding Officer of the regiment immediately call a Court Martial, and have the offenders tried and punished without delay.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW; Df, in Joseph Reed’s writing, DNA: RG 93, Orderly Books, vol. 15. The two passwords in the draft are not in Reed’s writing.
1. Jonathan Nowell (1747–1821) of York, District of Maine, served as a captain in Col. James Scammans’s Massachusetts regiment before becoming a captain in Col. William Prescott’s 7th Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776.
2. No captain of this name served under Prescott. Butler apparently belonged to Capt. Samuel Darby’s company.
3. Benjamin Van Cleve (Van Cleaf; 1740-1817) of Maidenhead, N.J., who previously had been a first lieutenant in the Hunterdon County militia, became a captain in Col. Philip Johnson’s regiment of New Jersey militia levies in June 1776 and served until December. Colonel Johnson had been killed in the Battle of Long Island on 27 August. Van Cleve was promoted to major in the Hunterdon County militia on 15 Mar. 1777, and the following fall he commanded a temporary guard of one hundred men at the public stores at Trenton. Van Cleve resigned his commission on 13 Nov. 1777 to serve in the state assembly, to which he was elected frequently until 1805.