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The Ste arns' orderly-book, from which I have before quoted, contains
an interesting statement of the composition of the garrison and the orders
issued on the occasion:
Sept. 25, 8 p. m. After-orders: One captain, one subaltern, three sergeants and
fifty rank and file to be turned out immediately with arms and blankets. The captain will
wait on Colonel Wade for orders.
2 A. M., Sept. 26.
The following disposition of the troops to take place immediately, and officers
commanding regiments and corps will be careful to have their men completed with arms
and ammunition, and everything in the most perfect order for immediate action. Officers
commanding regiments will take, with their own regiments, those regiments that are
divided by the field officers of the same, agreeably to seniority.
Positions:
Colonel Ward's (Wade's ?) regiment at Fort Arnold.1
Colonel Bartlet's at Fort Putnam.
Colonel Murray to send one hundred men to Fort Willis (Wyllys) and the regiment
to Fort Webb.
Colonel Rand's regiment to be divided equally between Redoubts Nos. 1 and 2.
Colonel Thayer's at Nos. 3 and 4.
All the draughted artificers to join their respective regiments immediately. Major
Bauman will have everything in his department in order for immediate action.
The next day Washington wrote:
Sir,—Under the present situation of affairs, I think it necessary that the respective
works at West Point and its dependencies be supplied with provisions and water. You
will therefore be pleased to have a proper quantity distributed to each of them, without
any loss of time.
I am Sir,
Your most obedt. servt.,
Head Quarters, G. Washington.
26 Sept. 1780. Colonel Wade.
2 On Lafayette's visit to the United States in 1824, he met Colonel Wade, and recalling their Revolutionary
experiences, he said: " When General Washington first heard of the defection of Arnold, he asked
'Who has the immediate command?' (of west Point.) "Learning it was you, he said, 'He is a true man ;
I am satisfied.'"
3 This letter is quoted by Sparks ( Writings of Washington, vii., pp. 212-213) but has never before appeared in
facsimile. For permission to use it, and the Lamb letter opposite, I am indebted to Mr. F. H. Wade,
through Mr. Stuart C. Wade, of New York.
1 All these were three months' militia, raised by drafts from various State regiments, and formed into provisional
organizations. The commanders and organizations appear thus in the Massachusetts and New Hampshire
records:
New Hampshire:
Col. Thomas Bartlet (at West Point).
Col. Moses Nichols (on the east bank of the Hudson).
Massachusetts:
Col. Seth Murray (the Hampshire County regiment to which Lieutenant Solomon Allen
belonged).
Col. John Rand—a regiment of Worcester county.
Col. Ebenezer Thayer—a Suffolk county regiment.
Nichols' regiment had 420 men,
Bartlet's 525
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