General Orders, 4 August 1776
General Orders
Head Quarters, New York, August 4th 1776
Parole: WestonCountersign: Yarmouth.
Passes signed by the Quarter Master-General, or his Assistant Mr Hughes for persons in that department to cross the Ferries to be admitted as sufficient.
Thomas Herbert of Capt. Wyllys’s Company,1 Col. Sergents Regiment, tried by a regimental Court Martial and convicted of “Theft” was sentenced to receive Thirty-nine Lashes; but having appealed to a General Court Martial whereof Col. Webb was president the sentence of the Regimental Court was revised and the prisoner acquitted—The General approves the acquital, and orders him to be discharged.
Daniel McGuire of Capt: Scotts Company, Colo. Sergeants Regiment—Samuel Weaver of Capt: Farringtons Company, same Regiment; both tried by the same Court Martial and convicted McGuire, of Desertion and inlisting into another Company taking a second bounty, sentenced to receive Thirty-nine Lashes: Weaver of Desertion only, sentenced to receive Thirty Lashes.
William McIlvaine of Capt. Wyllys’s Company, & the above regiment tried by the same Court Martial, and convicted of Desertion and sentenced to receive Thirty Lashes.
William Diggs of Capt. Woods Company, Col. Baldwins Regiment, tried by the same Court Martial, and convicted of Desertion; sentenced to receive Twenty Lashes.2
The General approves each of the above Sentences, and orders them to be put in execution, at the usual time and place.
The Court Martial to sit to morrow, for the tryal of Lieut: Hobby of Col. McDougall’s Regiment, now under Arrest for “Misconduct in leaving the Vessels under his care, on the East River on Friday Evening”—Witnesses to attend.3
All persons are strictly forbid medling with the flat bottomed Boats, without leave from General Putnam, or unless sent on some special service; and those parties who have any of them are to be careful in returning them safely—The Guards at the wharves to attend to this order.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. John Wiley (d. 1805) served briefly as a captain in Col. Richard Gridley’s regiment of Massachusetts artillery during the spring of 1775 and became a captain in Col. Paul Dudley Sargent’s 16th Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776. A year later Wiley was assigned as a captain in the 8th Massachusetts Regiment. He was promoted to major on 15 Dec. 1779 and retired from the army in January 1781.
2. Diggs was “sentenc’d to receive 30 Lashes” ( 204). John Wood (1740–1809) joined Col. Samuel Gerrish’s Massachusetts regiment as a captain in May 1775 and continued as a captain in Col. Loammi Baldwin’s 26th Continental Regiment from January to December 1776. Wood became a captain in Col. Jeduthan Baldwin’s artillery officer regiment in September 1777 and served in that capacity until the next September when he left the army.
3. Caleb Hobby, who had been a second lieutenant in the 3d Regiment of Westchester County Militia before becoming a lieutenant in the 1st New York Regiment in February 1776, was acquitted of this charge on 21 Aug. (see General Orders, 19, 20, 21 Aug.). Hobby apparently continued serving with the 1st New York Regiment until November 1776.