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General Orders involving court martials and executions.

https://

founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0195

General Orders, 7 September 1776

General Orders

Head Quarters, New York, sept: 7th 1776.

Parole: Temple.Countersign: Liberty.

John Davis of Capt. Hamilton’s Company of Artillery, tried by a Court Martial whereof Col. Malcom was President, was convicted of “Desertion” and sentenced to receive Thirty-nine lashes.

Levi Webster, of Capt. Hydes Company, Col. Wyllys’s Regt, convicted by the same Court Martial of the same offence, sentenced to the same punishment.

The General approves the sentence, and orders them to be executed, on the regimental parade, at the usual hour in the morning.

A Court Martial, consisting of a Commandant of a brigade, two Colonels, two Lt Cols.—two Majors & six Captains to sit to morrow at Mrs Montagnie’s to try Major Post of Col. Kacklien’s Regt “For Cowardice, in running away from Long-Island when an Alarm was given of the approach of the enemy.[”] The same Court Martial also to try John Spanzenberg Adjutant of the same regiment, for the same offence, and likewise Lieut. Peter Kacklein.1

Benjamin Stone appointed Quarter Master, William Adams appointed Pay Master; Nathaniel Webb Adjutant of Col. Durkee’s Regiment. Daniel Tilden Esqr: to do duty as Captain ’till further orders.2

Richard Sill appointed Pay Master to Col. Tylers Regimt.3

Major Lee is desired to do the duty of Brigade Major in Major Henly’s stead, ’till an appointment is made.

Varick transcript, DLC:GW; Df, in Joseph Reed’s writing, DNA: RG 93, Orderly Books, vol. 15. In the draft the two passwords and the phrase concerning Lt. Peter Kachlein at the end of the fourth paragraph are not in Reed’s writing.

1. Michael Probst was appointed major of Lt. Col. Peter Kachlein’s regiment of Northampton County, Pa., associators on 17 July 1776, and John Spangenberg (c.1748–1824) was named the regiment’s sergeant major on that same date. Peter Kachlein, Jr., a son of Lieutenant Colonel Kachlein, served as a second lieutenant in his father’s regiment. For the verdicts on these defendents, see General Orders, 10 September. Probst became lieutenant colonel of the 3d Regiment of Northampton County militia by May 1777, and Spangenberg served on the frontier in 1781 as quartermaster of the county’s 2d Regiment.

1. These appointments in Col. John Durkee’s 20th Continental Regiment expired on 31 Dec. 1776. Benjamin Stone (d. 1820), of Atkinson, N.H., apparently had been a first lieutenant in Col. John Waldron’s New Hampshire regiment at the siege of Boston during the previous winter. Stone was commissioned a captain in the 3d New Hampshire Regiment in November 1776 and served until May 1779. William Adams, who had been an ensign in the 6th Connecticut Regiment during 1775, was appointed a first lieutenant in the 20th Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776. He became paymaster of the 4th Connecticut Regiment on 1 Jan. 1777 and received commissions as a second lieutenant in July 1777 and a first lieutenant in May 1779. Adams was transferred to the 1st Connecticut Regiment on 1 Jan. 1781, but the following 13 April he was cashiered for failing to join that regiment (see General Orders, that date). Nathaniel Webb (1737–1814) of Windham, Conn., had been adjutant of the 8th Connecticut Regiment before becoming a first lieutenant in the 20th Continental Regiment on 1 Jan. 1776. He was named a captain in the 4th Connecticut Regiment on 1 Jan. 1777 and retired on 1 Jan. 1781. Daniel Tilden (1743–1833) of Lebanon, Conn., who had been a first lieutenant in the 3d Connecticut Regiment during 1775, was a first lieutenant and adjutant in the 20th Continental Regiment from 1 Jan. 1776 until his promotion on this date. Tilden apparently served as a militia officer after 1776.

1. Richard Sill (1755–1790) of Lyme, Conn., previously had been quartermaster of Col. John Tyler’s 10th Continental Regiment. Sill became paymaster of the 8th Connecticut Regiment on 1 Jan. 1777 and a first lieutenant in that regiment in December 1777. Transferred to the 1st Connecticut Regiment on 1 Jan. 1781, Sill was promoted to captain the following April, and in September 1781 he became an aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling. After Stirling’s death in January 1783, Sill returned to his regiment and served until the following June.