General Orders, 30 December 1776
General Orders
Trentown,1 December 30th. 1776.
All the Attillory to be Drawn up on the high Ground over the Bridge two pieces to be posted to Command the pass at the Bridge Upon an alarm, the Troopps are to form on the Ground in the rear of the Artilery to form in three Lines. Stevens & Mercers Brigades in the front Line, Lord Sterling & Formoys Brigades form the Second Line, there to be under Command of General Green, Sergeants, Glovers & St. Clairs Brigades to form the third Line, to be under the Commant of Major General Sullivan the Distance of two Hundred & fifty yards to be left between each Line a Gard to be Posted on each of the Roads leading to the Town from the Country of a Capt and forty Men who are to Keep patroles advanced two Milles with horse for each party General Mercer & Collonel Glovers is Desired to post the Guards. The Asst. QM: General to provide the horses The Officers are desired to Quarter ther Troops as much to gether as possible all the officers to march out the Ground to Dran up in Regular order The General expects to march verry Soon he Desires that officers and soldiers to hold themselves in compleat readiness to advance at a moments warning. The Troop to be Supplyed with ammunition if they are in Want.
General Washington.
The Baggage Waggons to be drawn up in the rear of the artillery and the Distance of 500 Yards.
, 37:537–38. Fitzpatrick says in a note to this document: “The above was found by Dr Carlos E. Godfrey, director of Public Records of New Jersey, in an orderly book of the German battalion, Sept. 17, 1776–June 11, 1777, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.”
1. GW’s headquarters at Trenton from this date to 1 Jan. 1777 apparently was on Queen Street in the large two-story house belonging to John Barnes, a local distiller and Loyalist who had served as high sheriff of Hunterdon County from May 1775 to July 1776. Barnes was appointed major of the 1st Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers in November 1776, and he was wounded fatally during Gen. John Sullivan’s attack on Staten Island in August 1777 (see , 1:143–44).