General Orders, 1 June 1781
General Orders
Head Quarters New Windsor Friday June 1st 1781.
Parole Countersigns ——
Commanding officers of regiments and brigades are desired to pay particular attention to prevent the soldiers from injuring their hutts when they quit them, and to warn the inhabitants in the vicinity not to meddle with or destroy them.
The six companies of Colonel Van Schaick’s regiment at West Point to be ready to move as soon as the Quarter master General has provided Vessels.
The Regimental Quarter Master to apply to the Quarter master general to know when the vessels will be ready and at what place.1
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. John Singer Dexter, assistant to the adjutant general, kept an orderly book that presents these paragraphs as “After Orders” (DLC: Peter Force Collection).
GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman wrote Q.M. Gen. Timothy Pickering from headquarters on this date: “You will be pleased immediately to give orders to have Vessels prepared for the transportation of the six Companies of Colo. Van schaicks Regt and Colo. Hazens Regt to Albany—Colo. Van schaicks will embark first—His Quarter Master will wait upon you to know when the Vessels will be ready” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 26018; the letter is docketed: “Recd & acted upon same Day”). Threats to the New York frontier prompted the dispatch of these troops (see Philip Schuyler’s two letters to GW, 21 May, and James Clinton to GW, 30 May, and n.1).