General Orders, 16 February 1780
General Orders
Head-Quarters Morristown Wednesday Feby 16th [1780]
Parole Union— C. Signs Virtue Wisdom.
The officers of the day report that many arms are brought upon the grand parade so rusty, dirty and otherwise out of order as to be unfit for service—The General therefore directs that the officers of the day in future will report in writing to the officer commanding the division, the regiment and company to which such arms belong that proper notice may be taken of the negligent officers.
When it rains or snows, the camp guards may be excused from assembling on the grand parade but they are to be visited as usual at their respective posts by the officers of the day.
Where huts have been built on the declivity of hills and are sunk into the ground, particular care is to be taken to have the snow removed and trenches dug round to carry off the water, without which the soldiers will sleep amidst continual damps and their health will consequently be injured; this must be done immediately.
The Colonels and Commanding officers of all corps of Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry and of the regimented Artificers in the departments of the Quarter Master General and Commissary General of Military Stores which were not apportioned on the several States as part of their quota by the resolution of Congress the 16th of September 17761—are forthwith to make the most precise and exact returns to the Adjutant General of the number of non commissioned officers & privates in their corps, designating in a particular manner how many belong to each State; What proportion of these are inlisted for the war, and the different terms of service of the residue digested in monthly columns: The General expects the most pointed and immediate attention to this order.2
Frequent delays and neglects have lately happened, to the hindrance of public and essential business, particularly by members of the General Court Martial; The Adjutant General has therefore positive orders to bring the first officer to strict account who shall presume to shew contempt to the court or disrespect to general orders.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
Adj. Gen. Alexander Scammell’s orderly book entry for this date includes the following additional general orders: “The Maryland Division relieves the main Guard Tomorrow” (orderly book, 17 Oct. 1779–22 March 1780, DNA: RG 93, Orderly Books, 1775–1783, vol. 33).
On this date, GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman wrote from headquarters to Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene: “His Excellency having just returned from riding is dressing. I have not yet shewn him your letter, because I know there is not a dollar in the military Chest, and therefore that it is out of his power to comply with your request—We may really be said to be hard run” (DNA:PCC, item 173). The letter with Greene’s request has not been found.
GW’s expenses for this date included £197.17.6 “To expences when going to meet Mrs Washington & going to Phila for the Chariot as ⅌ bill on file” (household account book, 11 April 1776–21 Nov. 1780, DLC:GW, ser. 5). This was an accounting for Maj. Caleb Gibbs’s expenses in traveling to meet Martha Washington in late December 1779 and early January 1780.
The bill, dated this date at Morristown, is in Gibbs’s writing and signed by him. Gibbs listed $112 spent from 28 Dec. to 2 Jan. at Princeton, N.J., and at the Black Horse Tavern “when on a Journey to meet Mrs Washington.” From 30 Jan. to 12 Feb., he spent $429 at ten different locations “when to Phila. to Bring Mrs Washington’s Chariot with 2 servants & 4 horses” (DLC:GW).
1. See 5:762–63.
2. This order was prompted by GW’s receipt of Congress’s resolution of 9 Feb. specifying the quota of troops to be provided by each state for the next campaign (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 10 Feb., and n.1 to that document).