Saving a Revolutionary War Orderly Book From Fort Stanwix

The orderly book of the 1st New York Regiment of the Continental Line. National Park Service.

Among the treasures of Fort Stanwix National Monument in New York is an orderly book of the 1st New York Regiment of the Continental Army, kept at the fort when it was called Fort Schuyler. It was donated to the park in the early 2000s, and the Park Service has published a full transcription.

Why armies kept orderly books

On January 1, 1778, General George Washington ordered that every regiment, and every company within it, keep an orderly book, so that no soldier could plead ignorance of orders — "which is no excuse for the Neglect of Orders (but rather an Aggravation)" — and that orders be read and explained to the men.

A Continental regiment of 200 to 500 men was usually split into eight or nine companies of 30 to 50. Each day the major or one of his junior officers collected the day's orders from the regimental adjutant, then dictated them to the company sergeant, who wrote them down; the orders were read aloud to the assembled men. Depending on the sergeant, the entries could be awkward, randomly capitalized and phonetically spelled.

What the book records

The orderly book was the company's official record of military orders, and it served several purposes:

• Discipline. On 14 May 1780 the adjutant was ordered to give the sergeants and corporals written instructions "in Order that no Ignorance may be pleaded by them".
• Reminders. On 16 April 1780 the commanding officer "once more Reminds the Soldiers" of earlier orders against "strolling from the garrison".
• Daily routine. Garrison orders named each day's officers for guard and for fatigue duty.
• News from Congress and headquarters, such as a resolution of 18 August 1779 paying ten dollars a month to soldiers in place of rations not supplied, and rules for officers' resignations issued from Morristown on 25 December 1779.

On 30 June 1780 the garrison was told it would be relieved from the post and would rejoin the main army. Orderly books like this one show how the Continental Army worked, and how its soldiers lived and behaved.

Restoring the book

When the book reached the park, it was in poor shape: half the front cover was missing, leather had come away from the spine, and many pages were dirty, damaged or torn.

The orderly book as it arrived: half the front cover missing, pages chewed at the edges. National Park Service.

It went to the Park Service's paper conservation laboratory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where conservators and specialist contractors restored it. Conservators work bare-handed, having washed carefully, for the dexterity and touch the work demands. They:

1. examined the book and recorded its structure and damage;
2. took it apart into its covers, spine and "gatherings" of pages;
3. cleaned each page under a microscope;
4. mended tears with wheat starch paste and thin, strong handmade tissue, drying the mends flat under weights;
5. reassembled the cleaned pages into their original gatherings and sewed them with linen thread through the old sewing holes, looped around cords;
6. joined new cords and tabs to the original thick paper covers, the way the book was first made.

Cleaning the pages one by one under a microscope. National Park Service.

A mended page. National Park Service.

Sources

• National Park Service, Fort Stanwix National Monument, "The 1st NY Orderly Book"; rewritten in hubnx's own words, with entries quoted from the orderly book. Photographs by the National Park Service.