General Orders, 27 May 1776
General Orders
Head Quarters, New York, May 27th 1776.
Parole Killingly.Countersign Pomfret.
Nathaniel Stanley, of the 1st Company of Colonel Wyllys’s Regiment, tried by a late General Court Martial, whereof Col. Ritzema was president for “absenting himself from, and refusing to join said company, after he had received a months pay and blanket money”—The Court find the prisoner guilty of a breach of the 8th Article of the Continental Rules and Regulations, and do sentence him to be whipped Thirty-nine Lashes on his naked back, and be confined seven days upon bread and water.
John Brown, of Capt. Scotts Company in Col. Wyllys’s regiment,1 tried by the above Court Martial for “Desertion”—The Court find the prisoner guilty of the Charge, and sentence him to be whipped Twenty Lashes on his bare back, for said offence.
The General approves the above sentences, and orders the execution of them, to morrow morning at guard mounting.
Capt. Harwood is not to take any other men more than his own company, at present, from Col. Learneds Regiment, to serve on board the whaling boats &ca—except by the consent of Lieut. Colonel Shephard; whose Consent, the General imagined Capt. Harwood had obtained, when he gave him the order this morning.2
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Ezekiel Scott of Farmington, Conn., served as a captain in the 2d Connecticut Regiment under Col. Samuel Wyllys in 1775 and in Wyllys’s 22d Continental Regiment throughout 1776. Although a resident of Connecticut, Scott apparently became a major of the New York levies in 1781 (see Scott to GW, 14 Dec. 1792 and its enclosures, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
2. William Shepard (1737–1817) of Westfield, Mass., a veteran of the French and Indian War, was lieutenant colonel of Col. Timothy Danielson’s Massachusetts regiment during 1775 and of Col. Ebenezer Learned’s 3d Continental Regiment from 1 Jan. to 2 Oct. 1776 when he was promoted to colonel of the 3d Continental Regiment. Because Colonel Learned left the army on 4 May 1776, Shepard at this time was acting as commander of the regiment and led it in the Battle of Long Island where he was wounded. Shepard became colonel of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment on 1 Jan. 1777 and remained in the army until he resigned his commission on 28 Nov. 1782 after failing to obtain further promotion. Congress’s appointment of Shepard as a brigadier general six days later came too late to stop his resignation. Shepard subsequently became a major general in the Berkshire County militia, and in 1786 he defended the Springfield arsenal against Daniel Shays and his supporters.