The Northern Department’s Wagon Masters in 1778

On 21 Aug 1778, Morgan Lewis (1754–1844), deputy quartermaster general of the Northern Department of the Continental Army, wrote out a list of men working under him.

A copy of that document is now in Horatio Gates’s papers. It’s transcribed here as part of a New York State Museum web exhibit called “The People of Colonial Albany Lived Here.”

Lewis listed four men as wagon masters that summer, and Stefan Bielinski provided profiles of three of them:

• Jellis Winne (1732–1804).
• Frans Winne (1734–1797?).
• Samuel Bond.
• Christopher A. Yates (1739–1809).

All three identified men were residents of Albany, New York. They were of middling age, married with children, exempted from military duty. They owned property, held local offices, and could command the respect of their neighbors.

August 1778 was well over two years after Gen. Philip Schuyler sent his wagon master out to recruit teams of horses for Col. Henry Knox. Nonetheless, it would be worth looking at his papers from 1775 to see if he worked with any of these three men. Documents show that Schuyler interacted with other members of the Winne and Yates families after 1778, but of course Albany was a small society and Schuyler had lots of business.

As for Samuel Bond, Gen. George Washington’s general orders for 9 Sept 1778 state that at a court martial on 31 August (or ten days after Lewis made his list):

Samuel Bond Assistant Waggon Master was tried for 1st “Picking a Lock; breaking into a public store and taking from thence rum and Candles” which he appropriated to his own use, found guilty of the charges exhibited against him and sentenced to receive fifty lashes and to return to the Regiment from which he was taken.

The General remits the stripes & orders said Bond to return to the Regiment from which he was taken.

Bond thus appears to have been a regular soldier drafted to manage wagons, and then sent back into the ranks.

Deputy quartermaster general Morgan Lewis went on to become the third elected governor of New York, as shown above.