General Orders, 29 April 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Morristown Saturday April 29th 1780
Parole Havannah Countersigns Harlaem, Kent.
[Officers] Of the Day Tomorrow[:] Colonel Cortlandt[,]1 Lieutenant Colonel Mentges[,] Brigade Major Hand’s Brigade
At the General Court martial whereof Brigadier General Hand was president2 Captain Alexander Mitchel of the first New Jersey Regiment was tried for “Ungentlemanlike behavior in stabbing Lieutenant Burroughs of the same regiment with a hanger3 and for repeating the Blow in a cowardly and scandalous manner whereby his life was endangered.”
The Court are of opinion that although the Facts of Captain Mitchel’s stabbing Lieutenant Burroughs with a hanger and having repeated the Blow are proved yet considering the provocation he received from Lieutenant Burroughs they are of opinion that Captain Mitchel’s conduct was not Unofficerlike Ungentlemanlike Cowardly or Scandalous and They do therefore acquit Captain Mitchel of those Charges.4
The Commander in Chief is sorry to find himself obliged to disapprove the Sentence; He does not consider the provocation sufficient to justify the attempt upon the life of Lieutenant Burroughs while unprepared to defend himself; Other less exceptionable modes of satisfaction might and ought to have been adopted by Captain Mitchel. He is released from Arrest.
Lord Stirling’s Division to relieve the Main Guard and picquet at Morristown Tomorrow. The Division commanded by General Clinton on Monday5—The Pennsylvania Division Tuesday General Clinton’s Division to relieve the small detached Guards of the Pennsylvania Division tomorrow—The Pennsylvania Division to relieve those from Lord Stirling’s Monday afternoon; and Lord Stirling’s those from Clinton’s Division Tuesday afternoon.6
Varick transcript, DLC:GW, ser. 3, subseries G, letter book 5; Varick transcript, DLC:GW, ser. 3, subseries G, letter book 4.
1. The general orders are referring to Col. Philip Van Cortlandt.
2. For GW’s authorization of this court-martial, see General Orders, 13 March; see also General Orders, 14 March, source note, and 10 April.
3. A hanger is a kind of sword.
4. A muster roll compiled at Mendham, N.J., on 4 March 1780 reported Lt. Eden Burrowes as “Sick near camp” (DNA: RG 93, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, 1st New Jersey Regiment). The roll for April reported Burrowes as “Sick Present” (DNA: RG 93, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, 1st New Jersey Regiment).
5. The following Monday was 1 May.
6. In the general orders for 1 May, GW postponed for one day the relief of the small detached guards.