General Orders, 23 January 1778
General Orders
Head-Quarters V. Forge Friday Jany 23rd 1778.
Parole: Ganges—Countersigns: Groton Goshen.
The General Officers and Officers commanding Brigades will meet tomorrow morning at ten ôClock at Genl Sullivan’s quarters for the purpose mention’d in general orders 20th instant.
Serjeant Howe is appointed Provost-Marshal P.T. vice Captain Snag who has resigned.1
The Brigadiers and officers commanding Brigades are immediately to make returns of the Deficiency of Bayonets in their respective brigades to the Adjutant General.
As several Farmers have complain’d that notwithstanding the Certificates granted by the Commissary General of Forage, of their having furnish’d the quotas of Forage assign’d them further demands have been made upon them so as to deprive them of what was reserved for the use of their own Families—The General strictly forbids such unjust proceedings and desires that more respect may be paid to the Forage Master General’s Certificate for the future.
At a General Court-Martial whereof Coll Clark was President Jany 20th Lt Coll Linley & Major Bailey tried for non attendance on the grand-parade in proper time;2 the former when Field Officer and the latter when Brigade Major of the day, found guilty of the Charge exhibited against them, being a breach of Article 5th Section 18th of the Articles of War and sentenced to be publickly reprimanded in General orders. The General approves the sentence and is surprized that he is under the disagreeable necessity of reprimanding officers for a breach of duty so well known and which ought to be performed with the greatest punctuality; And as exact discipline and the strictest obedience to orders is the soul of an Army and foundation of success, whilst the contrary may be productive of the most fatal consequences, He flatters himself that every officer in future (as in honor and duty bound) will be emulous to pay the strictest attention to orders and prove exemplary to the soldiery.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Henry Snagg had been appointed provost marshal on 15 Feb. 1777 (see the general orders of that date).
2. Eleazer Lindsley (1737–1794) served in 1776 as major and then as lieutenant colonel of the Eastern Regiment of Morris County, N.J., militia. In January 1777 he was appointed lieutenant colonel of Col. Oliver Spencer’s Additional Continental Regiment, and he resigned in May 1779. Hodijah Baylies (1756–1843) of Taunton, Mass., served from February 1777 as a first lieutenant in Col. Henry Jackson’s Additonal Continental Regiment, and in November of that year he was appointed major and aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, whose daughter Elizabeth he married in 1784. Baylies was captured at Charleston, S.C., in May 1780 and was exchanged in November of that year; in May 1782 he was appointed an extra aide-de-camp to GW, and he served in that capacity until the end of the war.