An Army’s Paperwork: Captain Waterman Clift Settles His Accounts
Pay Order for Captain Clift
Posted on January 4, 2026
An Army’s Paperwork: Captain Waterman Clift Settles His Accounts
In January 1776, a new year was beginning, and so was a new iteration of the Continental Army. The enlistments of men who had signed up to serve at the war’s start had expired, and those who had not reenlisted were returning home. Even then, some officers’ work was not entirely done. Company captains and paymasters had paperwork to finish as they ensured that their men had been paid and that the company’s accounts were settled.
Captain Waterman Clift was one of the officers responsible for their company’s expenses. In May 1775 he joined the 6th Connecticut Regiment. He worked to enlist and outfit men for his company, providing guns and accoutrements impressed from civilians to men who joined the army without any. Clift’s fully outfitted company marched to Boston in June and spent the rest of the year besieging the city.
Clift was discharged on December 18, but he had accounts to settle with his company, and not all of them would balance neatly. The company had lost a deserter, Reuben Stutson. When he left the army abruptly on August 14, Stutson took an advance on his wages with him, along with the gun that had been given to him when he enlisted. The gun had been impressed from a Connecticut civilian who would be expecting to either get it back or be compensated for its loss. The extra wages, possibly a bounty given to Stutson when he enlisted or pay advanced so he could purchase necessities, might have been borrowed from Clift’s own pocket.
Clift turned to the Connecticut government for financial assistance. On January 4, 1776—250 years ago today—the Connecticut Committee of the Pay Table issued this order directing that Clift be paid 7 pounds, 17 shillings, 5 pence from the colony’s treasury as compensation for the lost wages and the gun. Clift used the money to balance the company’s accounts before returning to civilian life, at least for a moment. His break from army life was short; by June he was back in service and on his way to help Washington’s army defend New York.
Learn more about the pay order (object ID MS.7749, property of Robert Nittolo) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31664