General Orders, 18 September 1777
General Orders
Head Quarters, at Reading Furnace [Pa.]1 Septr 18th 1777.
Parole: Perseverance.Countersigns: Prudence. Safety.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
Gen. Peter Muhlenberg’s orderly book contains the following general orders for this date signed by Adj. Gen. Timothy Pickering: “The Rolls are to be called this evening & Officers and Men strictly charg’d not to stir from their Quarters, where their Corps are encamp’d, that they may be ready to march at a moments warning, Severe Punishment will be the Demerit of Offenders against this Order” ( 34:470).
1. Lt. James McMichael of Greene’s division says in his diary entry for this date: “We marched from the Yellow Springs at 4 A.M.; passed Warwick Furnace and encamped at Reading Furnace” ( 151). Timothy Pickering says in his journal that on 17 Sept., “Part of the army marched to Reading Furnace, where they were joined by the rest the next day” (, 1:161). Reading Furnace was on French Creek a few miles west of Warwick Furnace.
GW’s expenses for this date included £7.10 “Cash paid at Reading Furnace to Mr Olds” (household account book, 11 April 1776–21 Nov. 1780, DLC:GW, ser. 5, vol. 28). A loose account in the Society Collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania lists expenses “To James Old Iron Master for Sundries Taken ⟨mutilated⟩ at Reading Furnace on the 18 & 19th days of Sep⟨tember⟩,” including animal fodder and pasturage, horses, cattle, and sheep, and “three Hand Screws & Six Buckets.”