thrown into your hands. Whether British or American mercy, fortitude and patience are most prominent; whether our virtuous, citizens, whom the hand of tyranny has forced into arms to defend their wives, their children, and their property, or the mercenary instruments of lawless domination, avarice and revenge, best deserve the appellation of Rebels, and the punishment of that cord which your affected clemency has forborne to inflict; whether the authority under which I act is usurped, or founded upon the genuine principles of liberty, were altogether foreign to the subject. I purposely avoided all political disquisition; nor shall I now avail myself of those advantages which the sacred cause of, my Country, of liberty and human nature, give me over you, much less shall I stoop to retort and invective. But the intelligence you say you have received from our Army requires a reply. I have taken time, Sir, to make a strict inquiry, and find it has not the least foundation in truth. Not only your officers and soldiers have been treated with a tenderness due to fellow-citizens and brethren, but even those execrable parricides, whose counsels and aid have deluged their Country with blood, have been protected from the fury of a justly enraged people. Far from compelling or permitting their assistance, I am embarrassed with the numbers who crowd to our camp, animated with the purest principles of virtue and love of their Country. You advise me to give free operation to truth, to punish misrepresentation and falsehood. If experience stamps value upon counsel, yours must have a weight which few can claim. You best can tell how far the convulsion which has brought such ruin on both Countries, and shaken the mighty Empire of Britain to its foundation, maybe traced to these malignant causes.

You affect, Sir, to despise all rank not derived from the same source with your own. I cannot conceive one more honourable, than an that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people—the purest source and original fountain of all power. Far from making it a plea for cruelty, a mind of true magnanimity and enlarged ideas would comprehend and respect it.

What may have been the Ministerial views which have precipitated the present crisis, Lexington, Concord and Charlestown can best declare. May that God to whom you then appealed, judge between America and you. Under his providence, those who influence the councils of America, and all the other inhabitants of the United Colonies, at the hazard of their lives are determined to hand down to posterity those just and invaluable privileges which they received from their ancestors.

I shall now, Sir, close my correspondence with you, perhaps forever. If your officers, our prisoners, receive a treatment from me different from what I wished to show them, they and you will remember the occasion of it.

I am, Sir, your very humble servant,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

General Gage.

GENERAL ORDERS.

Head. Quarters, Cambridge, August 5, 1775.

For the establishment of order and to prevent disputes between Officers, as well as for fixing a regular and proper distribution of the Commissions of the Continental Army, part of which are already arrived from the Congress, and the rest hourly expected, it is ordered that a meeting of the Field-Officers of each Brigade be held to-morrow morning, at eight o’clock, as near as may be to the centre of the encampment of each Brigade, who are to choose by ballot one out of their body to represent them in forming a Court, for the adjustment and final settlement of—

First. The rank of the Regiments of the Continental Army, and numbering of each Regiment accordingly. As all differences and distinctions are now to be laid aside, the Regiments of the several Provinces that form the Continental Army are to be considered no longer in a separate and distinct point of view, but as parts of the whole Army of the United Provinces.

Secondly. The rank of all the Field-Officers of all the Regiments forming the Continental Army.

Thirdly. The rank of all the Captains, Subalterns and Staff-Officers, And as doubts may arise which cannot be determined by the six Field-Officers so chosen by ballot, they are hereby directed to choose by ballot one Brigadier-General, who will preside as Moderator of the Court, for finally settling the rank of all the corps and all the commissioned officers that compose the Army of the United Colonies. This Court being duly constituted and appointed, are to sit on Monday morning next, at Deacon Jones’s, in Cambridge.

The Church to be cleared to-morrow, and the Rev. Mr. Doyles will perform divine service therein at ten o’clock.

Head-Quarters, Cambridge, August 7, 1775

Captain Kilton, of Col. Patterson’s Regiment, tried by a General Court-Martial for “neglect of duty,” is found guilty of a breach of the forty-ninth article of the Rules and Regulations for the Massachusetts Army. They therefore sentence him to receive a severe reprimand from the commanding officer, at the head of the Regiment.

Application having been made for Sutlers to supply the different Regiments with necessaries, the Commander-in-Chief bas no objection to each Colonel appointing one for his particular Regiment, provided the publick is not to be taxed with any expense by the appointment; and provided also, that each Colonel doth become answerable for the conduct of the Sutler so appointed; and taking care that he conform strictly to all orders given for the regulation of the Army, and that he does not in. any instance attempt to impose upon the soldiers in the price of their goods. No officer, directly or indirectly, is to become a Sutler.

It is in an especial manner recommended. to the commanding officer of each Regiment to see that a store of shoes and shirts are laid in for the men as those are at all times necessary. The General also recommends it to the Colonels to provide Indian boots or leggings for their men, instead of stockings, as they are not only warmer, and wear longer, but, by getting them of a colour, contribute to uniformity in dress, especially as the General has hopes of prevailing with the Continental Congress to give each man. a hunting-shirt,

For the future no Return is to be delivered to the Adujtant-General that is not signed by the commanding officer of the Regiment or Corps, specified by the Return; and it is expected that the commanding officers of Regiments do not receive any Return from their Adjutants, unless he at the same time presents the said commanding officer with a particular Return, signed by the respective Captains of Companies in the Regiment he commands.

Head-Quarter, Cambridge. August 8, 1775.

As the number of absent sick, by the last returns, is astonishingly great, it is ordered that the name of each roan, absent, under that pretence, be given in by the commanding officer of each Regiment, and signed by him, setting forth the town which each particular soldier is gone to, that the Committee thereof may be applied to, to inspect into the nature of their complaints, and make report of those who are fit for duty.

It has been intimated to the General that some of officers, under pretence of giving furloughs to men recovering from sickness, send them to work upon their farms, for their own private emolument, at the same time that the publick is taxed with their pay, if not with their provisions. These insinuations being but obliquely made, the General is unwilling to believe that any officer can be so lost to all sense of honour, as to defraud the publick in so scandalous a manner, and therefore does not at present pay any further regard to the insinuation than to declare, that he will show no favour to any officer who shall be found guilty of such iniquitous practices, but will do his utmost endeavours to bring them to exemplary punishment, and the disgrace due to such malconduct.

The following is the ration of provisions allowed by the Continental Congress unto each soldier, viz:

One pound of fresh beef, or three-quarters of a pound of pork, or one pound of salt fish, per diem.

One pound of bread or flour, per diem.

Three pints of peas or beans, per week, or vegetables equivalent, at five shillings per bushel for peas or beans.

One pint of milk per man, per diem, when to be had.