General Orders, 13 February 1778
General Orders
Head-Quarters V. Forge Friday Feby 13th 1778.
Parole: Elk—Countersigns: Ervine Elbridge.
After orders Feby 13th
Lieutt Ebenezer Smith of Coll Wigglesworth’s Regiment is appointed to do the duty of Pay-Master in the Regiment ’till the return of Thomas Smart Pay-Master of the same.1
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
A German officer who was in camp at Valley Forge on this date seeking (unsuccessfully) a meeting with GW noted that “At 10 o’clock General Green and General Ween [Wayne], 3 Colonels, 6 Lieut. Colonels, 16 Captains, 32 Subalterns, 32 Sergeants, 32 Corporals, 16 Drummers and Fifers, and 1200 men crossed the Schwlkill, but it was not known, in camp, where they were going” (, 18; for Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s foraging expedition, see GW to Greene, 12 Feb., n.2).
1. Ebenezer Smith (1746–1816) of Berkshire, Mass., served as an ensign and then as a second lieutenant in the 6th Continental Regiment during 1776, and in January 1777 he was appointed a first lieutenant in the 13th Massachusetts Regiment. Smith was promoted to captain in April 1779, transferring to the 6th Massachusetts Regiment in January 1781 and the 2d Massachusetts Regiment in January 1783. Thomas Smart of Danvers, Mass., who had served as a second lieutenant and adjutant in Col. Edward Wigglesworth’s Massachusetts militia regiment in 1776, was appointed a first lieutenant in Wigglesworth’s newly formed 13th Massachusetts Regiment in January 1777; he also served as the regimental paymaster. Smart was commissioned a captain in June 1779 and resigned in February 1781 shortly after transferring to the 3d Massachusetts Regiment.