This Day in History: January 1

As this day begins the new year The General orders a gill of spirits to be Served to each non-commission'd Officer and soldier; And to avoid the irregular and partial distribution of this Article (which has been a good deal complaind of) he expressly orders that no Spirits shall issue to any part of the Troops in future but in Consequence of general or special orders from Head Quarters. A deviation from this rule will be at the risque and peril of the Issuing Commissary. [More]

As regular readers know, I use this feature to bring us a daily entry from the Founding Era/Revolutionary War period as a way of illustrating the efforts and sacrifices made by those who bequeathed to us a Republic. I focused last year on 1777. This year we will look at 1778.