Pratt, William, fl. 1779-1783 [Testimony and observations of Lieutenant Pratt]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.02597 Author/Creator: Pratt, William, fl. 1779-1783 Place Written: s.l. Type: Manuscript document Date: circa September 1783 Pagination: 8 p. : docket ; 33.2 x 21cm. Order a Copy
Lieutenant William Pratt's testimony for the trial of Lieutenant Wheaton. Accuses Wheaton of shirking his duty and of arresting him without due cause. According to Pratt, despite being the commanding officer, Wheaton had tried to pass command to Pratt, and had Pratt arrested when he refused. Other charges include "Issuing an order totally unmilitary & ordering Lieut [Greenman?] in arrest for disobedience of it; compelling a soldier who was under his command last winter to give him two pair of boots & one pair of shoes, without compensation; pedling [sic] out goods to the soldiers of the Garrison (when he had the command) at a very extravagant rate; purchasing of the soldiers of the Garrison their ballances [sic] due from the state much beneath their value, & paying them in old clouthing [sic] at an unreasonable & extortionary price; purchasing rum & procuring a man to retail it to the soldiers for him; [fraudulently] withholding (under various trifling pretences ) of money from several soldiers of the Regiment, which was put into his hands to be deliver'd to them & illiberal treatment to the man who came to demand it."
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