General Orders, 28 December 1780
General Orders
[New Windsor] Thursday December 28th 1780
Parole. Countersigns —
At a General court martial whereof Lieutenant Colonel Forrest was President held by order of the Honorable the Board of War in Philadelphia the 6th of December 1780.
Mr Thomas Dewees Barrack master1 was tried on the following charges vizt:
1st “Neglect of duty.”
2d “For a partial distribution of wood.”
3d “For undertaking an office he was not qualified to hold having never taken the Oath of Allegiance to the United States or any particular State.”
4th “For not taking the Oath of Office before he acted according to a resolution of Congress of the 15th of July last.”2
5th [“]For selling public wood to the prejudice of the service.”
The Court after having maturely considered the Evidence both for and against the Prisoner do acquit him of the first second and third Charges but find him Guilty of the two last charges and considering the extensive and pernicious nature of the last charge do sentence him under the Resolution of Congress of the 22d of August 1780 passed particularly for the purpose of punishing delinquents in the Quarter masters—Commissary’s and Cloathier’s departments to be Cashiered and rendered incapable of holding any future office in the Service of the United States of America and that his crime of selling public Wood and his Sentence be published three times in each of the English and German Newspapers in order to prevent in future the commission of Such crimes for Fear of this or the like Infamy attending them.3
The Commander in Chief Approves the Sentence and Orders it to take place.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Thomas Dewees (c.1738–1781) had been the jailer for Philadelphia prior to becoming barrack master.
2. See , 17:634.
3. For the congressional resolution adopted on 22 Aug., see Samuel Huntington to GW, 24 Aug., n.3; see also , 17:756–57, and the general orders for 6 September.
4. Dewees sought to have the publication of his sentence in newspapers set aside (see his letter to GW, 20 Feb. 1781, DLC:GW).