General Orders, 29 May 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Morristown Monday May 29th 1780
Parole Mexico Countersigns Mars; W.
[Officers] Of the Day Tomorrow[:] Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Sherman[,] Major Chapman[,]1 Brigade Major 1st Connecticut brigade
Colonel Meigs is appointed President of the General Court Martial vice Colonel Ganzevoort and Lieutenant Colonel Sumner vice Lieutenant Colonel Willet;2 a Captain from Hand’s Brigade and a Sub. from the 2d Pennsylvania vice a Captain and Sub. from Clinton’s.
The Court martial whereof Colonel Meigs is President to assemble at Lieutenant Colonel Willet’s Hut.3
General Orders will be issued at Colonel Cortlandt’s.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
On this date, Dr. James Thacher wrote in his journal: “Four battalions of our troops were paraded for review by the committee of Congress, in the presence of General Washington; they were duly honored with the military salute” (, 197). Sgt. Ebenezer Parkman, Jr., who served with the artificers, wrote in his diary for this date: “The Troops paraded again to Salute his Excellency” (MWA: Parkman Family Papers).
1. Albert Chapman (1748–1819) of Fairfield, Conn., served as a sergeant in the Lexington alarm of April 1775, and joined the 5th Connecticut Regiment as a lieutenant that May. In April 1776, he became a captain in a Connecticut state regiment. Starting in January 1777, Chapman held the same rank in the 7th Connecticut Regiment. He became major of the 5th Connecticut Regiment in 1778 and left the army in January 1781.
2. For the previous assignment of Col. Peter Gansevoort and Lt. Col. Marinus Willett to the court-martial, see General Orders, 21 May.
3. Another orderly book adds “in the New York Line to Morrow Morning at 9 OClock” (, 366).
4. Another orderly book gives the following additional general order: “The Regimental Surgeons are Requested to Send Lists of Such Mediciens as the[y] may want to Supply their Chests to the Apothecaries Stores at Veal town where they will be furnished as far as the Stores will Admit. A perticular Return of All publick Instruments and their Condition is to be made as soon as possible to the Surgeon Genl Army” (, 366).