559. ARMY OFFICERS, Accountability of.—
Whereas it is apprehended that
sufficient care and attention hath not been
always had by officers to the cleanliness, to
the health and to the comfort of the soldiers
entrusted to their command, Be it therefore
enacted, that so long as any troops from this
Commonwealth [Virginia] shall be in any service
to the northward thereof, it shall and May
be lawful for our delegates in Congress, and
they are hereby required from time to time
to enquire into the state and condition of the
troops, and the conduct of the officers commanding;
and where any troops, raised in this
Commonwealth, are upon duty within the same,
or anywhere to the southward, there the
Governor and Council are required to make
similar enquiry by such ways or means as shall
be in their power: and whensoever it shall be
found that any officer, appointed by this Commonwealth,
shall have been guilty of negligence,
or want of fatherly care, of the soldiers
under his command, they are hereby respectively
required to report to this Assembly
the whole truth of the case, who hereby reserve
to themselves a power of removing such
officer; and whenever they shall find that such
troops shall have suffered through the negligence
or inattention of any officer of Conti
nental appointment, they are, in like manner,
to make report thereof to this Assembly, whose
duty it will be to represent the same to Congress:
and they are further respectively required,
from time to time, to procure and lay
before this Assembly exact returns of the
numbers and conditions of such of their troops.—
Army Bill.
Ford ed., ii, 115.
(1776)
