Partial account of Samuel H. Parsons' version of the misdeeds of Lieutenants Peterson and Henly : A.D., [S.l.], 1780

Partial account of Samuel H. Parsons' version of the misdeeds of Lieutenants Peterson and Henly : A.D., [S.l.], 1780

[S.l.] 1780

2 p. ; 21 cm. (4to)

MSS L1988.190.236b

In an unidentified hand, possibly Parsons or his scribe|"... [S]ometime during the month of March 1780 somebody informed me there was a nu8mber opf officers of my detachment a going to have a sleigh ride, that Lieut Peterson and a number more, was going. I immediately went to visit the Guards & gave them orders. I came to Capt. Smiths quarters where I found Lt. Peterson ..." and ordered him not to "ride without the guards."|"I had not been there a few minutes before Lt. Peterson & Lieut. Henly came to the guard in a sleighy. I spoke to Lt. Peterson & desired him not to go any further, by any means,"|Later Parsons "consented that he might go as far as the patroles and return with the & not on any pretence whatever."|At head of p. [2]: Brigad[e] orders; then text begins midsentence: stay a moment after the patroles .... [O]ne of the guards ... informed me that he had wounded a Lt. Henly ... & was afraid he should be hang.d for it."|Also further evidence that Peterson had gone farther and without guards.|Apparently intended as testimony for a court martial -- see James C. Neagles. Summer Soldiers (1986), p. 221, which mentions a Lt. David Peterson who was court martialed for "disobedience to orders ... without the guard and patrols at unreasonable hours of the night in contempt of orders delivered him ...."|David Petersen of Massachusetts was tried by court martial on Aug. 27, 1780, and dismissed from the army -- Fitzgerald. Writings of George Washington, vol. 19, p. 497-98.

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