General Orders, 9 November 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Totowa Thursday November 9th 1780
Parole Lancaster Countersigns M: B.
Watchword Wolfe.
[Officers] For the Day Tomorrow[:] Brigadier General Wayne[,] Lieutenant Colonel commandant Sherman [,] Lieutenant Colonel Fernald[,] Major Tudor[,] Brigade Major Smith
The General court martial whereof Colonel Bailey is president, to assemble tomorrow morning, 9 ô clock at the Widow Godwin’s1 for the trial of such persons as shall come before them—All persons concerned to attend.2
Major Oliver Inspector to the 1st Massachusetts’ Brigade, having obtained leave of absence, Captain Sewall of the 12th Massachusetts regiment is appointed to do that duty in his Absence.3
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Phebe Godwin (d. 1788), widow of Abraham Godwin (d. 1777), operated a tavern near camp (see , 274–76).
2. For the establishment of this court-martial, see the general orders for 14 Oct.; see also General Orders, 27 October.
3. Henry Sewall subsequently became Maj. Gen. William Heath’s aide-de-camp in early 1781. For the diary Sewall kept during his Revolutionary War service, see the weekly issues of Maine Farmer (Augusta), 29 June–30 Nov. 1872.
Sewall wrote in his diary entry for 9 Nov. 1780: “I was appointed by General Orders to do the duties of Brigade Major in the absence of Major Oliver. Mustered the Brigade for October in that capacity” (Maine Farmer [Augusta], 12 Oct. 1872). In his diary entry for 2 Jan. 1781, Sewall, then at West Point, wrote that “the new establishment or reform took place through the line. Confusion enough! Relinquished my Brigade majority” (Maine Farmer [Augusta], 12 Oct. 1872; see also General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780).