General Orders, 11 April 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Morris Town April 11th 1780
Parole Watch. Countersigns Youngster, Yearling.
[Officers] Of the Day Tomorrow[:] Colonel Ogden, Lieutenant Colonel Commandt Weissenfells, Brigade Major Hand’s Brigade.
A Corporal and four men from the first pennsylvania Brigade are to be sent to the Quarter Master General’s clothing store tomorrow, and are to be relieved every other day by the same brigade untill further orders.1
The Brigade Quarter masters are immediately to make Returns to the Quarter master General of all the public riding Horses saddles and Bridles in the Brigades to which they belong specifying the particular persons name and rank in whose possession they are; also at what time they were received by whose order; and for what particular purpose: These Returns are to be countersigned by the Brigadiers or Officers commanding Brigades.
The attendance of the Brigade Major of the Day for Orders is dispensed with.
The Honorable the Congress having been pleased to pass the following Resolve; all persons concerned are required to take Notice thereof.
In Congress March 22nd 1780
Resolved “That the Office of Commissioner of Clothing accounts established by a Resolve of Congress of the 2nd of March 1779 be discontinued after six months from the date hereof; and that all persons having clothing accounts for the year 1777 and who do not exhibit them to the said commissioner within that period shall not receive any compensation for any Arrearages they may hereafter claim to be due to them.[”]2
Colonel Scammell having returned will resume the duties of his Office.
The Commander in Chief requests Colonel Williams to accept his Thanks for the attention assiduity and propriety with which he has conducted the office in the absence of Colonel Scammell.3
Varick transcript, DLC:GW, ser. 3, subseries G, letter book 5; Varick transcript, DLC:GW, ser. 3, subseries G, letter book 4.
GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison wrote Col. Goose Van Schaick from headquarters at Morristown on this date: “Major McCrackin formerly of your Regiment having represented to His Excellency the Commander in Chief—that hoping he should be able to continue in the service, himself & from a wish to promote it—he was induced in January 1777 to inlist in to your Regiment a Mulatto Man named William Condo, who belonged to him & who had then upwards of Seven Years to serve; and prayed that he might be permitted to have him again—he himself being obliged from the loss of his Arm and ill health to leave the Army & states besides that he had suffered considerably from the incursions of the Enemy—I am directed by His Excellency to inform You that if the Facts with respect to the Man and the Major sufferings by the incursions of the Enemy are as he has represented them—he consents to his having him again” (DLC:GW). When revising the last line of his draft letter, Harrison wrote “and” above the line and then inadvertently neglected to strike out that word.
William Condo (born c.1754), apparently Maj. Joseph McCracken’s indentured servant, enlisted in the 1st New York Regiment as a private in March 1777 and continued with that unit until his discharge in April 1780. His service included duty as McCracken’s waiter. Condo then became a farmer in Pelham, Mass., and enlisted again as a private in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment in April 1781. He remained in the army until the end of the war (see , 3:885).
1. The Varick transcript in letter book 4 does not include this general order.
2. See , 16:275–76; see also “After Orders” in the general orders for this date; , 13:266–68; and General Orders, 12 March 1779, and n.1 to that document.
3. Col. Otho Holland Williams had served as acting adjutant general since later December 1779 while Col. Alexander Scammell was on leave (see General Orders, 25 Dec.).
That brigade majors looked forward to Scammell’s return can be seen in a letter from GW’s aide-de-camp Richard Kidder Meade to Maj. Nicholas Fish, written at Morristown on 23 March: “I recd yr favr of Yesterday I find as I supposed, that necessity was the sole cause of the additional & unusual trouble given the Brigade Majors—The orderly office is undoubtedly the proper place for Issuing Genl Orders & that to be done by the Adjt Genl—but this from the immensity of business on his hands, & having only one assistant rendered it impossible for him or that assistant to attend at all times, & in consequence of it, the present mode of distributing the Orders was thought of. It is to be wished under these circumstances that yourself and the other Gentn in whose behalf you made the representation would cheerfully continue yr aid to Col. Williams until the arrival of Col. Scammell who is dayly expected with both Capt. Gilmer & Capt. Dexter, when the business of his Office will go on in its regular channel” (DLC:GW).
4. The Varick transcript in letter book 4 does not include after orders.
5. George King (1745–1780) served as a judge and justice of the peace in Morris County, New Jersey. He died on 3 July.