General Orders, 4 July 1781
General Orders
Head Quarters Near Dobb’s ferry [N.Y.]
Wednesday July 4th 17811
Parole Independence. Countersigns America: Glorious.
[Officers] For the day Tomorrow[:] Major General Lincoln[,] Lieutenant Colonel Fernald[,] Major Knapp[,] Inspector—2d Connecticut brigade.
The Commander in Chief wishes the Army to be persuaded that he is extremely pleased with the regularity and order with which the late movement was performed—He does not recollect to have seen a march where discipline was more strictly observed it afforded him the highest satisfaction never to have seen a straggler from the line of March, and he doubts not they would have exhibited the strongest proofs of patriotism and Bravery had not the Enemy withdrawn themselves at their Approach.2
The General positively orders that any Cattle or horses that may have been brought off from near the Enemy’s lines by volunteers or any other persons (except properly taken in action) shall be restored to the owners of whatever political Character they are—if the owners names are not known the Cattle to be delivered to the Commissary and the Horses to the Quarter master—to be accounted for—It is Irksome to mention and even painful for the General to Reflect how disgraceful and derogatory it would be to the reputation of an Army who are the Assertors of Freedom as well as of the Rights of Humanity and of individuals should they ever be guilty of plundering in the minutest article.
The Quarter Master General will take particular care that no houses on the other side of the Wood and stream of Water on the left of the encampment are taken up for the officers of the American Army: all on that side are to be appropriated to the officers of the French Army.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
Q.M. Gen. Timothy Pickering wrote in his journal entry for this date: “The army marched up on the east side of Sawmill River, and formed an encampment on the first hills eastward of it, the road from Dobbs’s Ferry (from which we were distant about two miles and a half) to White Plains running between the front and rear lines” (, 1:293; see also Rochambeau to GW, 3 July, n.4).
GW established his headquarters at the home of Joseph Appleby, referred to as “Appleby Place,” located at a crossroad convenient to Dobbs Ferry and White Plains, N.Y. (, 226; see also , 507).
John Singer Dexter, assistant to the adjutant general, kept an orderly book with another general order for this date: “Was Lost yesterday a Mare belonging to an Officer of the Legion of Lauzun carrying a Linnen Portmanteau and very large Valice. In which is a Sky blue Cloak with a broad silver laced cape—the Mare is a Chesnut brown with a white face and white fore Legs—Whoever has found her will be kind enough to report to the Adjutant Genl” (DLC: Peter Force Collection).
1. Lt. Jeremiah Greenman, then a prisoner at Gravesend, N.Y., recorded in his diary entry for this date that officers had gathered to commemorate Independence Day with patriotic toasts and “Jolletry & Mirth under a Flagg which had the Figure of his Excellency Genl. Washington on it” (, 212).
2. For recent marches and the attack on British posts on northern Manhattan Island, see General Orders, 1 and 3 July, and GW to Benjamin Lincoln, 1 July, source note.