If any of the militia maraud, send them up to me, with a guard. They
must not be suffered to violate civil and military law. The
legislature is the proper authority to enable them to make reprisals.
For whatever disorders they commit in front of your lines, will be
placed by the enemy to your account.
In all doubtful questions which may arise on my orders as to the
limits or legality of plunder in your front, _I authorize you to be
the sole judge._ In the exercise of this trust, it is my wish you
should lean to the honour of our arms.
A surgeon is directed to attend your party; when he arrives, please to
advise me of it, that I may be relieved from all anxiety about you and
your corps. If you are not supplied with rum before a quantity of it
arrives here, we shall not forget you. If your horsemen are mounted
and appointed, as well as your horse-guides, they will receive the
same pay. If the oxen at Mr. Hunter's are not in working order, put
them in the care of your forage-master till they are.
If you can get the articles taken from the inhabitants in the late
expedition restored, let the militia off for that offence. When you
get things in train, I flatter myself you will not have any fixture
trouble with them. But the officers of the regular troops must be
rigorously dealt with, according to our martial law.
As you and the commissary will be in the rear of the whole, the
nine-months men, worse shod than the other troops, may serve till I
have more leisure to complete your corps.
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