Early American Orderly Books : 1748 - 1817.

            The New York Historical Society holds a unique collection of original orderly books.             

            The orderly books date from the time of the French and Indian War (1755 - 1763), through the American Revolution and to the end of the War of 1812, and include military orderly books from both British and American armies. The bulk of the collection is made up of American orderly books from the revolutionary period. It contains orders of many kinds, including: headquarters, general, brigade, division, regimental, and garrison. Other records can be found in many of the books. A few examples are: provision returns; lists of ammunition given to individual soldiers; several diaries; resolutions of the Continental Congress; descriptions of battles, campaigns, skirmishes, marches, travels, and other events; orders; operations; muster rolls, and even an execution.

British records include: Brigade, Battalion & General Orders from General John Burgoyne at Point au Feu, River Bouquet, Chimney Point, Three Mile Point, Crown Point, Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain (1777 June 7-July 3, including 47th Regiment and the British Grenadiers at Canada and New York); Garrison Orders, Fort Cumberland, Acadia (1759 May 9-August 12, located in province of New Brunswick); General Orders of Thomas Gage, General and Commander in Chief, Headquarters, Boston, originals and typed copies (1774 July 10-Decemberl 9, Gage's headquarters at Massachusetts); General, Garrison, Brigade and Regimental Orders for 2nd Brigade, British Foot Guards (1778 August 7-December 25, at New York); Orders of Admiral George B. Rodney, Royal Navy (1780 March 17-1781 February 12); and Provincial and Regular British Troops at Albany, Fort Edward, Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point (1759 May 22-November 3, Baron Jeffrey Amherst's orders kept by Commissary Wilson).

Organisation

The collection, and the reel guide that accompanies the collection, follow the same chronological order which is determined by the date of the first entry in each book.            

            
Online: A list of the order books is available electronically from the summary of the electronic version published by Ebsco and on Ebsco's Digital Archives website.

The published Reel Guide and Subject Index to the Microfilm Collection of Early American Orderly Books, 1748-1817 accompanies the collection and follows the same chronological sequence as the order books in the reels (HIL-MICGDL E181 .e37 Index). For each title, the collection number and the microfilm reel number appear to the left of the short description of the item. Available as a PDF under the electronic finding aid section.

A microfilm shelf list giving the reel number for the corresponding orderly book numbers has been created by the author of the Loyalist Collection Inventory. The microfilm shelf list is available in print and is shelved with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids. The microfilm shelf list is available as a PDF in the electronic finding aids section.
            

Related Material:

Electronic: See William Howe Orderly Book 1776-1778 from the Clements Library at the University of Michigan.

Note: There are several errors in the Guide: