General Orders, 1 July 1781
General Orders
Head Quarters Peekskill Sunday July 1st 1781
Parole Kendall. Countersigns Lancaster Monmouth
[Officers] For the day Tomorrow[:] Brigadier General Patterson[,] Lieutenant Colonel Reid[,] Major Throop. Inspector—3d Massachusetts brigade
The Quarter Master General will order the Billhooks and Hatchets to be sent to King’s ferry to the orders of Major Darby who will apply to Head Quarters for instructions.
Colonel Scammell will move with the Light Troops towards the mouth of Croton river to afford Major Darby any assistance that may be necessary in procuring Fascines.1
After Orders
The Army will march tomorrow morning by the right at the hour appointed in the after orders of yesterday2—The General will beat at two ô clock—the Assemblé at half past two—the March to commence3 at three in the following order—The Advanced Guard—pioneers—one field piece 6 pounder—General Parsons’s Division followed by a field piece 6 pounder—the spare ammunition of General Parsons’s division.
General Lincoln’s division preceded by one of the field pieces attach’d to it and followed by the other—the spare ammunition of General Lincoln’s Division.
General Howe’s division:
The Brigade commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Reid preceded by one field piece 6 pounder—the corps of Sappers and miners—one light twelve pounder.
The Brigade commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Smith followed by a field piece 6 pounder.
Spare ammunition of General Howe’s division.
Rear Guard.4
The advanced guard will consist of one sub. two serjeants two Corporals two Drums and fifes and twenty seven privates from each brigade and a Captain from each division; it will parade at half past two ô clock on the great road in front of the Left of the first Connecticut Brigade and be commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Reid.
The present camp guards of the Army with the Addition of a Captain from each Division will form the Rear Guard and parade at three ô clock on the great road at Commissary Irwin’s Quarters under the Command of Lieutenant Colonel Sherman.
The Battalions composing the line as well as the Advance and Rear guards will be careful to secure their flanks agreeably to the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Army (Chap. 14)5 the Officers of the Day and those commanding Battalions and Platoons will be answerable that no man quits his Platoon on any pretence.
The Quarter Master General will furnish the Route.
Brigadier General Glover is Appointed Brigadier General for the day tomorrow vice General Patterson indisposed.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW; copy (after orders only), DLC:GW.
In his journal entry for this date, French war commissary Claude Blanchard described his encounter with GW at a meal: “I found the table served as at the first time with about the same number of guests. I was alongside of General Washington and another general named Lord Stirling (he claimed to be an English lord). General Washington seemed, for a moment, to be somewhat absent, at other times he joined in the conversation and appeared to be interested in it. There was a clergyman at this dinner who blessed the food and said grace after they had done eating and had brought on the wine. I was told that General Washington said grace when there was no clergyman at table, as fathers of a family do in America. The first time that I dined with him there was no clergyman and I did not perceive that he made this prayer; yet I remember that, on taking his place at table, he made a gesture and said a word which I took for a piece of politeness, and which perhaps was a religious action. In this case, his prayer must have been short; the clergyman made use of more forms.
“We remained a pretty long time at table. They drank twelve or fifteen healths with Madeira wine. In the course of the meal beer was served and grum, rum mixed with water” (, 118–19; see also the source note with the general orders for 29 June).
1. For the roles of Maj. Samuel Darby and Col. Alexander Scammell in the planned operations against British posts on northern Manhattan Island, see GW to Benjamin Lincoln, this date, and the source note to that document.
GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman wrote Charles Stewart, commissary general of issues, on this date: “Be pleased to send down a H[ogs]h[ea]d of Rum immediately to the advanced troops under the command of Colo. scammell—The Waggon is to proceed to the New Bridge where Colo. scammell will be this Afternoon. If he is not there when the Waggon arrives, let the Rum be delivered to the officer on Guard” (MH: Stewart Papers).
2. The appointed hour was 3:00 A.M. (see General Orders, 30 June).
3. The copy has “precisely” following this word.
4. GW penned marching orders in an undated document that begins: “Order of March for the Right Column of the American Troops who are to move by the Right.” The right column, commanded by Scammell, was composed of his light infantry and a corps under the command of Col. Elisha Sheldon that consisted of the “York Levies” and Sheldon’s mounted and dismounted dragoons. GW added: “N.B. This is the order of March during Night. in the day the Cavalry will preceed the Infant⟨ry⟩.”
The heading “For the left Column—Marching by the Right on the Sawmill river Road” was followed by a description of the division under Maj. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons: “1st Van Guard[;] 2 a field piece[;] 3 first Con[necticu]t Brigade[;] 4 Secd Cont Brigade[;] 5. a field piece.” GW then described Lincoln’s division: “6 a field piece[;] 7 first Masst Brigade[;] 8 Second [Massachusetts Brigade;] 9 a field piece.” The corps of sappers and miners came tenth in the order of march followed by Maj. Gen. Robert Howe’s command: “11. Field piece[;] 12 New Hamp[shir]e Brig[ad]e[;] 13. third Mas[sachuset]ts [Brigade;] 14. Twelve pounder.” Then came “15. Intrenchg Tools—Bat Horses, Canteens &ca” and “16. Rear Guard. The spare Ammunition of each division is to be in the rear of the division it belongs to” (AD, NHyF).
5. The pertinent instructions from the fourteenth chapter of the Continental army’s military manual read: “The advanced guard, besides its patroles in front, must have a flank guard, composed of a file from each platoon, and commanded by an officer, or non-commissioned officer, to march at the distance of one hundred paces on the flank, and keep up with the head of the advanced guard.
“If it be necessary to have a flank guard on each side, a file must be sent from the other flank of each platoon to compose it: and as this service is fatiguing, the men should be relieved every hour. The like flank guards are to be detached from each battalion in the column” (, 67–74, quotes on 69–70).