Orderly Book, 21 September 1758
Orderly Book
[21 September 1758]
Camp at Reas Town Thursday Septr 21st 1758
G. O.
Parole Cork
B. O.1
Each Regimt to mount its own Qr Guard.2
1 C[apt.] 2 S[ubalterns] 3 S[gts.] 1 C[orporal] & 50 Rank & file, to Mount it. as a Picquet to be composed by detachmts in proportion to the Strength of the 2 Regimts an Officer of each Company of both Regimts to see their rolls call’d every morning at Reveille beating.
A Return of each Regimt signed by the Commanding Officer to be given in every morning Precisly at 10 O’Clock, this order to be punctually Complied with.
The Qr mastr of each Regimt tomorrow morning to have Houses of Office’s errected at proper places & any who will be discovered easing themselves any where else shall be severely punished, They are also to see the whole Incampmt sweept very clean & constantly kept so, after tonight no Horses will be suffered to be picquited within the breast Work.
D, DLC:GW.
1. GW’s brigade orders (B. O.), which immediately follow Forbes’s general order (G. O.) naming the parole for the day, were directed to the Virginia troops newly arrived at Raystown. These included eight companies of Col. William Byrd’s 2d Virginia Regiment and four of GW’s 1st Virginia Regiment. Two companies of artificers in the 2d Virginia Regiment and six companies of GW’s regiment (see Adam Stephen to GW, 9 Sept. 1758, n.3) were with Bouquet at Loyalhanna. On 16 Sept. a return of GW’s four companies at Fort Cumberland, commanded by captains Thomas Waggener, John McNeill, Henry Woodward, and Robert McKenzie, reported a total of 295 soldiers, of whom 155 were fit for duty and 100 were “On Comm[an]d” (DLC:GW). Besides the 4 captains and 295 soldiers, there were in the four companies 4 lieutenants, 4 ensigns, 13 sergeants, and 7 drummers, as well as four staff men: a chaplain, an adjutant, a quartermaster, and a surgeon. The return of the men of Byrd’s regiment of the same date (ibid.) reports that out of a total of 657 soldiers 367 were present and fit for duty. The eight companies were commanded by Colonel Byrd, Lt. Col. George Mercer, Maj. William Peachey, and captains Thomas Cocke, Hancock Eustace, Thomas Fleming, John Rootes, and Samuel Meredith. Eleven of the fit soldiers and 13 of the total were from either Capt. John Field’s or John Posey’s company of artificers, both of which were with Adam Stephen at Loyalhanna.
2. The quarter guard was supposed to be stationed eighty paces in front of the center of each regiment’s encampment.