General Orders, 19 November 1779
General Orders
Head-Quarters Moore’s House [West Point]
friday Novr 19th 1779.
Parole North-Carolina. C. Signs Newburn Nantz.
The baggage of the Pennsylvania division to be embarked tomorrow morning as early as possible, on account of the tide and sent to New-Windsor, from thence it is to proceed to Morristown by the route pointed out by the Qr Mr General.1
The troops of the Pennsylvania division to march tomorrow morning as soon as their baggage is embarked.
Major General St Clair will be furnished with a route.
Upon the arrival of the troops destined to quarter in Jersey, at the ground upon which they are to hut, the space alloted for each brigade will be pointed out by the Quarter Master General who will furnish a plan of the intended dimensions of the soldiers huts; in the construction of which it is expected, that a minute attention will be paid to the plan—As conveniency, health, and every good consequence will result from a perfect uniformity in the camp, the Commander in Chief takes this previous opportunity of assuring, that any hut not exactly conformable to the plan, or the least out of line, shall be pulled down and built again agreeable to the model and in its’ proper place: The commanding officers of brigades will pay a strict attention to this order.2
After Orders.
At a Brigade General Court Martial whereof Lieutt Coll Harney was President, held at Constitution Island the 18th instant—Wiley Borough and Peter Burges of the 1st North Carolina regiment were tried for “Assaulting the house of Mr Uriah McKeel,3 firing several shots through it wounding Thomas Brown and robbing him, likewise plundering the house of several articles of wearing apparel, fowls, butter, cheese &c.”—also Reason Rickets and William Mullen for “Being accessary to the same robbery and for perjury.”
The Court are of opinion that they are guilty of the charges exhibited against them and sentence Wiley Borough to receive one hundred lashes only, on account of his candid confession; They do also sentence Peter Burges, William Mullen, and Reason Rickets (two thirds of the Court agreeing thereto) to suffer death.
His Excellency the Commander in Chief confirms the sentences, but on the recommendation of the Court is pleas’d to pardon Burges and Mullen and orders Rickets to be executed tomorrow at such place as Col. Clark shall direct & Borough to receive his stripes at the same time & place.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
Col. Otho Holland Williams’s orderly book entry for this date includes an additional general order: “150 Men from the Maryland line properly Officer’d to parade at sunrise tomorrow at the forage landing without their Arms and furnish’d with one Days provision” (orderly book, 12 Oct.–24 Dec. 1779, DLC: Peter Force Collection).
2. For the exchange leading to these winter encampment instructions, see GW to Greene, and Greene to GW, both 17 November.
3. Uriah McKeel (b. 1750) lived at Philipstown, New York.
4. Pvt. Elijah Fisher, then with the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard, wrote in his journal for 21 Nov.: “There was three men to be hung for Robing and one Whipt for Mr. King’s [Mckeel’s] house. Two of them had there repreave, the other two hung. They belonged to the Carolinia troops and five others Whipt” (Fishers’s Journal, 13).
Wiley (Willey, Willie) Burrow (Burrough; born c.1754) enlisted for the war as a private in the 1st North Carolina Regiment in 1777. He was taken prisoner at Charleston, S.C., and remained confined “about 15 Months” until paroled at Jamestown, Va. (DNA, RG 15, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900). Burrow worked as a farmer after the war.
Peter Burges enlisted as a private in the 4th North Carolina Regiment in January 1777. Soldiers in this understrength regiment were distributed among the 1st, 2d, and 3d North Carolina regiments after 29 May 1778. Burges deserted in February 1780.
Reason Rickets (1750–1779) enlisted as a private in the 9th North Carolina Regiment in January 1777. Apparently transferred to the 1st North Carolina Regiment in a subsequent consolidation of understrength organizations, the service records for Rickets noted: “Hanged 21 Novr 1779” (DNA, RG 93, Compiled Revolutionary War Military Service Records, 1775–1783, 9th North Carolina).
William Mullen enlisted as a corporal in the 10th North Carolina Regiment in August 1777 but became a private in June 1778. He apparently transferred to the 1st North Carolina Regiment in a subsequent consolidation of understrength organizations.