General Orders, 15 July 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Pracaness Saturday July 15th 1780
Parole Countersigns
Watchword.
[Officers] Of the Day Tomorrow[:] Colonel Angell[,] Lieutenant Colonel North[,] Brigade Major Bradford
After Orders
Captain Thomas Campbell of the 4 Pennsylvania Regiment appeared before the Court martial whereof Colonel Butler is President1 charged with unofficerlike behavior in taking a number of Men belonging to the 6th Pennsylvania regiment and refusing to give them up when Demanded.
It appearing to the Court that the only Cause of this Trial was to determine the Property in the Men said to belong to the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment; as a dispute had happened respecting it the Court thought it best to recommend to the Parties to have three officers chosen not belonging either to the 4th or 6th Pennsylvania Regiments and leave it to them to determine to which Regiment the Men belong—It being agreed to by the Parties the Court recommend a releasement of Captain Campbel from his Arrest.
The Commander in Chief approves of the Mode recommended by the Court & Capt. Campbel is released from Arrest.2
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
On this date GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison wrote John Laurance, judge advocate general of the army: “The General wishes You to dine with him to day. He wants, besides having your company, to speak to You before orderly time in the afternoon upon some business of consequence.
“The case of Capn Campbell which has just come to hand has been submitted to His Excellency & will be put in orders as recommended” (NHi: John Laurance Papers).
GW’s expenses for this date included £37.10 “To cash pd two Taylor[s] for making four suits of summer Cloaths for the Generals servants” (Revolutionary War Journal of Household Expenses, 1776–1780, DLC:GW, ser. 5).
1. For the appointment of this court, see General Orders, 9 July.
2. Thomas Campbell (1750–1815) joined the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment as a lieutenant in January 1777 and was wounded at Germantown on 4 Oct. of that year. Promoted to captain lieutenant in April 1779, he became a captain in January 1781 and left the army in January 1783. Between 1807 and 1809, he represented York and Adams counties in the Pennsylvania senate.