On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in White Plains, New York, Gen. George Washington issued General Orders that:
Rolls are to be called three times every day, and the General begs the officers to exert themselves, to keep their men from straggling away from the Camp—Officers and men would do well to reflect that their safety, their lives, and the liberty of their Country may depend on their being at hand, in case of an Alarm—Any Man who is found half a mile from the Camp, not on Command, will be punished very severly.
All the officers who have assisted in the Works to meet at Col. Putnam’s Quarters, just above Head-Quarters, at 3 O’Clock this afternoon, in order to lay out a number of works. The Engineers are to proportion the entrenching tools at this place, among the several Grand Divisions, and after to day to apply to each General commanding such division, for such numbers of men, as may be wanted for the several works, who are to begin to work at 9 O’clock in the morning, and continue working till four in the afternoon.
The Continental Army then began preparing earthworks on the high ground west of the Bronx River along the Purdy, Hatfield, Merrit and Chatterton Hills and protecting the roads to Connecticut and Dobbs Ferry in anticipation of attack from the British.
Sources differ as to whether Washington’s headquarters in White Plains at this time was at the Jacob Purdy House or the Elijah Miller House, but both houses remain standing today and are occasionally opened to the public.
Sources: “General Orders, 24 October 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0014. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 7, 21 October 1776–5 January 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997, pp. 21–22.]; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_White_Plains; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington%27s_Headquarters_during_the_Revolutionary_War; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Purdy_House; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Miller_House
