Carlos E. Godfrey

The Commander-in-chief's Guard: Revolutionary War Carlos E. Godfrey

The Commander-in-Chief's Guard was a unit of the Continental Army that protected General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. Formed in 1776, the Guard was with Washington in all of his battles and was eventually disbanded in 1783 at the end of the war. The unit was initially created by General Order on 11 March 1776 by selecting four men from each Continental Army regiment present and directed that those chosen should be "sober, intelligent, and reliable men". The strength of the unit was usually 180 men, although this was temporarily increased to 250 during the winter of 1779-80, when the army was encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, in close proximity to the British Army. The book consists primarily of two parts: the first is the history of the Guard; the second, the service records of the men, which includes enlistment information, assignments, rank, etc. Paperback, (1904), 2014, Illus., Biblio., Endnotes, 344 pp.