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                               By order of the Commander in Chief

                                              Wm. Donnison Adj. General
          
                      Att. H: Sewall, D. A. Genl.

__________________________________________________________

   General Orders, Head-quarters, Boston, December 20. 1794.

          The Commander in Chief has been anxious to carry into 

effect, with promptness and decision, the late act of the Federal Legislature, for detaching from the Militia of this Commonwealth, eleven thousand eight hundred and eighty-five men, being this State's quota of eighty thousand men, apportioned on the several States in the Union :- And although he has very little doubt, but his Orders to that effect have been complied with, so far as relates to detaching the men & forming them into Corps; yet he cannot account for the delay which has taken place in making the Returns.

        The promptitude and readiness to action, with which the 

Militia of Massachusetts has ever been distinguished, leads him to think, that had the Detachment from this State been

                                                                                   called