1From George Washington to Colonel Fisher Gay, 4 September 1776 (Washington Papers)
Whether you do not get the General Orders, with that regularity which is to be wished or whether (which is hard to suppose) you do not attend to them, I will not undertake to determine; But it is a melancholy truth, that Returns, essentially necessary for the Commanding Officer to govern himself by, & which might be made in an hour after they are Calld for where care and Order are Observed,...