General Orders, 7 March 1780
General Orders
Head-Quarters Morristown tuesday March 7th 1780.
Parole Parliament— C. Signs Public Physic.
All General and Staff officers of every denomination serving with the Army & all officers of Cavalry are to make, to the Quarter Master General as soon as possible, accurate returns of all public property belonging to his department, particularly Marques, Horseman’s and common tents and of all public horses not in the dragoon and waggon service—All officers east of the river Potowmack are to pay strict obedience to this order.
At the request of Captain Van Dyck a Court of Enquiry is to sit tomorrow at Col. Spencer’s quarters, who is appointed President of the same, to enquire into the conduct of Captn Van-Dyck respecting the death of a Negro man, soldier in Capt. Bernard’s Company, Col. Wylly’s regiment who was killed on the night of the 14th day of January last; Each of the Pennsylvania and Maryland brigades will furnish a Captain who are to sit as members.1
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. The court determined that Capt. Abraham C. Van Dyke’s conduct on the occasion had been “highly ju[s]tifiable” (General Orders, 12 March).
John Barnard (1732–1813) of Hartford, Conn., probably was the sergeant of that name who served in Col. Nathan Whiting’s 3d Regiment of Connecticut militia in 1756 during the French and Indian War. In the Revolution, Bernard served as a lieutenant in Col. Erastus Wolcott’s regiment of Connecticut militia on active service from January 1775 to March 1776 at the siege of Boston. He also served from June to December 1776 as first lieutenant of Col. John Chester’s battalion of Brig. Gen. James Wadsworth’s state brigade that Connecticut sent to reinforce GW’s army at New York. In January 1777, Barnard became a captain in the 3d Connecticut Regiment. He was courtmartialed in November 1780 for submitting a false muster of his son, Grove Barnard (see General Orders, 11 Nov.). He left the army in January 1781.