General Orders, 6 July 1775
General Orders
Head Quarters, Cambridge, July 6th 1775.
Parole, Cumberland.C. sign, Derby.
A General Court Martial is ordered to sit to morrow at 10 oClock A:M: for the Trial of John Semsy,1 John Batcheler, and William Crostin all of Col. Gridley’s Regiment, charged with “Desertion and Theft.” At the same time, they are to hear and determine, the Case of Edward Dunley2 a Stroller, accused of “Theft”—Notice to be given to the Prisoners to day.
Captain Leonard of Col. Woodbridges Regiment and the remainder of his Company, are ordered to join the Guard at Water town.3
The Cloathing provided by the Massachusetts Committee of Supplies, for those Men of their Government, who lost their Cloaths in the late Action on Bunkers-hill, to be distributed to the most needy and necessitous Men of each Regimt & an Account to be kept thereof by the commanding Officer of each regiment.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW; copy, in Joseph Reed’s writing, MWA; copy, in Thomas Mifflin’s writing, DNA: RG 93, Orderly Books, 1775–83.
1. The name of this soldier is given as “John Seymour” in the Reed copy and as “John Semore” in the Mifflin copy.
2. In the Reed copy the name “Edward” is struck out, and the name “Thomas” is inserted above it.
3. Capt. Noadiah Leonard (1737–1790) served in Col. Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge’s Massachusetts regiment until the end of 1775. For the guard at Watertown, see General Orders, 4 July 1775.
4. On 19 June, two days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, Artemas Ward’s secretary Joseph Ward informed the Massachusetts provincial congress “that, in the late action, many of the soldiers lost their blankets and clothes; they are now in a very suffering condition on that account, and must, in order to fit them for duty, be immediately supplied, especially with blankets; and many that were not in the action are destitute of blankets.” The provincial congress responded on the same day by ordering the committee of supplies to furnish clothes and blankets to “those destitute soldiers . . . who shall produce from the colonel of the regiment they belong to, certificates of their having lost such clothes and blankets in the late engagement.” The order was extended on 3 July to include noncommissioned officers as well as private soldiers (, 355, n.1, 358, 444).