General Orders, 11 July 1779
General Orders
Head-Quarters New-Windsor Sabbath July 11th 1779.
Parole Cambray—C. Signs Columbus. Colbert.
Lieutenant Colonel Grosvenor of the Connecticutt line is appointed Sub-Inspector & is to be accordingly obeyed & respected.
The following formation of the Connecticutt line for the present Campaign is to take place immediately.
| 4th | } Regts { | to form one battalion and | C. | S. | S. | D.& F. | R.& F.1 |
| 8th | furnish for the L. Infantry | 2. | 4. | 6. | 4. | 64. | |
| 6th— | forms one battalion & furnishes— | 1. | 2. | 3. | 2. | 59. | |
| 3rd— | forms one battalion & furnishes— | 1. | 2. | 3. | 2. | 41. | |
| 1st— | forms one battalion & furnishes— | 1. | 2. | 3. | 2. | 41. | |
| 5th | } Regts { | form one battalion | |||||
| 2nd | and furnish— | 2. | 4. | 6. | 4. | 62. | |
| 7th | forms one battn & furnishes | 1. | 2. | 3. | 2. | 41. |
Major General Heath with the two Connecticutt brigades being under marching orders,2 Nixon’s brigade will for the present be under the command of Majr General McDougall.
The Members for the General Court Martial whereof Colonel Jackson was appointed President to be taken from General McDougall’s division and convene at the time mentioned in yesterday’s orders.3
At a Brigade General Court Martial held the 7th of July 79—in the 1st Maryland Brigade, Lieutenant Colo. Howard President, a certain John Springer was tried for, “Being a Spy and seducing soldiers to inlist in the british Army”—acquitted of the 1st charge, found guilty of the 2nd being a breach of the 4th Article of the 6th Section of the Articles of War4 and sentenced to receive one hundred lashes and be kept in confinement until he can be employ’d in some department of the Army or Navy where he could not have an opportunity of deserting.
The General thinks the offence would have justified a much severer sentence, but that so atrocious an offender may not escape with impunity, he directs it may take place, and that the Prisoner after receiving his stripes be returned to the Provost there to be kept well secured, ’till further orders.5
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. The headings of this table, from left to right, stand for corporals, sergeants, subalterns, drums and fifes, rank and file.
2. See GW to William Heath, 10 July (first and second letters) and this date; see also Heath to GW, this date (first and second letters).
3. See General Orders, 10 July, and notes 1 and 2 to that document.
4. The fourth article of the sixth section of the articles of war reads: “Whatsoever officer or soldier shall be convicted of having advised or persuaded any other officer or soldier to desert the service of the United States, shall suffer such punishment as shall be inflicted upon him by the sentence of a court-martial” ( 5:793).
5. John Springer, Jr., who had deserted from Col. Moses Hazen’s 2d Canadian Regiment on 12 July 1777 and evidently entered the British service, escaped from custody and was recaptured by authorities in Bergen County, N.J., who held him until GW could have him sent under guard to Philadelphia (see GW to William Washington, to Abraham Ackerman, and to the Continental Congress Marine Committee, all 9 Oct. 1779 and DLC:GW).