General Orders, 15 June 1781
General Orders
[New Windsor] Friday June 15th 1781
Parole Countersigns ——
It is with singular pleasure the Commander in Chief congratulates the army on the success of our arms under Major General Greene in South Carolina.1
On the 10th May Lord Rawdon who commanded the post of Camden was compelled to evacuate it with great precipitation & marks of distress after destroying the stores and several Buildings and leaving three officers and fifty eight men who were too badly wounded to be removed.
On the 11th the strong post of Orangeburgh surrendered to General Sumpter upon his making preparations to invest it, a Colonel with several other officers and upwards of eighty men were made prisoners—on the 12th the Garrison of Fort Mott consisting of one Captain three Lieutenants three Ensigns, one Serjeant Major, one serjeant eight Corporals two Drummers and fifers and one hundred and sixty-five privates surrendered prisoners of War to Brigadier General Marion who had carried his approaches to the foot of the Abbatis. and on the 15th Fort Granby was surrendered by Capitulation to Lieutenant Colonel Lee the troops composing the Garrison consisted of one Lieutenant Colonel two Majors, Six Captains, six Lieutenants, three Ensigns one Surgeon two Serjeant Majors, seventeen Serjeants nine Corporals and three hundred and five privates who were all made prisoners. Considerable Quantities of stores and provisions were also captured at the several Posts.
The General has the further pleasure of informing the army that the Posts of Augusta and Ninety six were invested by General Pickins and must in all probability have fallen before this time as General Greene had also march’d his Army to assist in the reduction of them.2
These brilliant repeated successes which reflect so much glory on the Southern army will be attended with the most important consequences to those States and are a happy presage of our being able speedily to expel the Enemy from every part of the Continent, with proper exertions.
David Cobb Esqr. Lieutenant Colonel of the 9th Massachusetts regiment is appointed Aid de Camp to the Commander in Chief and is to be respected and obeyed accordingly.3
No men to be transferred to the Corps of Invalids untill further orders.4
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s letter to GW on 16 May, and an enclosure, provided this information (see also the entry for 14 June in , 3:380–81).
2. Brig. Gen. Andrew Pickens led a siege against the Loyalist post at Fort Cornwallis, now Augusta, Ga., that resulted in a surrender on 5 June and over 300 prisoners (see Greene to Samuel Huntington, 9 June, in , 8:363). A siege of the Loyalist stronghold at Ninety Six District, S.C., was lifted on 19 June, but the enemy subsequently evacuated the post (see Pickens to Greene, 10 July, in , 8:518–19; see also Greene to GW, 9 June, n.1).
3. Lt. Col. David Cobb had written GW from Boston on 7 May: “Your Letter of the 21st Ulto, I receiv’d, and cou’d wish to have immediately obey’d its summons; but the necessity of my private affairs still obliges me (tho’ painfull) to request your Excellency’s patience ’till the first of next Month; Your Excellency may depend on it, that nothing shall detain me ’till then, but what is of the utmost importance to my future wellfare” (ALS, DLC:GW). GW’s letter to Cobb dated 21 April has not been found. An allusion to Cobb becoming GW’s aide-de-camp appeared in The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser (Boston) for 8 March 1781 under the heading Boston, same date: “From a friend at camp we learn, that David Cobb, Esq; Lieutenant Colonel in Colonel Henry Jackson’s regiment, is appointed Aid-de-Camp to his Excellency the Commander in Chief, and no doubt will do honor to the happy few who daily attend him.”
4. GW wanted “the weakliest Men” for the West Point garrison (entry for 16 June in : 3:381; see also General Orders, 17 June, and n.1 to that document). For this decision, see Documents V and VI with The Wethersfield Conference and Aftermath, 14 May–16 June, editorial note.