British Camp near Monmouth Court-house.

Their Movement toward Sandy Hook.

Lee ordered to attack the British.

To

Dickinson, menaced their left. Washington foresaw the increased strength the enemy would gain by reaching the heights of Middletown, which were about three miles in advance. prevent them obtaining that advantage, he determined to attack their rear the moment they should attempt to move. For this purpose he ordered General Lee to make the necessary disposition, and to keep his troops in readiness to move at the shortest notice. Sir Henry Clinton, perceiving that an immediate action was inevitable, made preparations accordingly. The night of the 27th was one of great anxiety to both parties.

The 28th of June, 1778, a day memorable in the annals of the Revolution, was the Christian Sabbath. The sky was cloudless over the plains of Monmouth when the mening dawned, and the sun came up with all the fervor of the summer solstice. It was e sultriest day of the year; not a zephyr moved the leaves; nature smiled in her beautiful garments of flowers and foliage, and the birds carolled with delight, in the fullness of love and harmony. Man alone was the discordant note in the universal melody. He alone, the proud "lord of creation," claiming for his race the sole mundane possession of the Divine image, disturbed the chaste worship of the hour, which ascended audibly from the groves, the streams, the meadows, and the woodlands. On that calm Sabbath morning, in the midst of paradisal beauty, twenty thousand men girded on the implements of hellish war to maim and destroy each other-to sully the green grass and fragrant flowers with human blood!

June 28.

At about one o'clock in the morning, Lee sent an order to General Dickinson to detach several hundred men as near the British lines as possible, as a corps of observation. Colonel Morgan was also directed to approach near enough to attack them on their first movement. Orders were likewise given to the other divisions of the advanced forces to make immediate preparations to march; and, before daylight, Colonel Grayson,' with his regiment, leading the brigades of Scott and Varnum, was in the saddle, and moving slowly in the direction of Monmouth court-house.

General Knyphausen, with the first division of the British troops, among which was the chief body of the Hessians, and the Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalists, moved forward at daybreak. Sir Henry Clinton, with the other division, consisting of the flower of his army, did not follow until eight o'clock. Dickinson observed the earliest movement, and sent an express to Lee, and to the commander-in-chief, the moment Knyphausen began his march. Washington immediately put the army in motion, and sent orders to General Lee to press forward and attack the enemy, unless there should be very powerful reasons to the contrary. This discretionary clause in the orders eventuated in trouble. Lee advanced immediately with the brigades of Wayne and Maxwell, and sent an order to Grayson to press forward and attack the pickets of the enemy as speedily as possible, while he himself pushed forward to overtake and support him. Grayson, with the two brigades, had passed the Freehold meeting-house, two miles and a half from Monmouth, when he received the order. Lee's aid, who bore it, gave it as his opinion that he had better halt, for he had learned on the way that the main body of the British were moving to attack the AmeriThis information was erroneous, but it caused Grayson to tarry. General Dickinson, who was posted on a height on the eastern side of a morass, near s in the plan, received the same intelligence, and communicated it to Lee, through the aid, on his return. Lee conformed to the reports, and, after posting two regiments of militia upon a hill southeast

cans.

1 William Grayson was a native of Prince William county, in Virginia. He was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with Sir William Howe respecting prisoners, while the army was at Valley Forge. In the battle of Monmouth he commanded a regiment in the advanced corps, and behaved with valor. At the close of the war he returned to his native state, and was elected a representative in Congress in 1784. In 1788 he was a member of the Virginia Convention, called for the purpose of considering the Constitution of the United States. With Patrick Henry he opposed the ratification of that instrument. He was appointed one of the first senators from Virginia in 1789, with Richard Henry Lee. He died at Dumfries, while on his way to Congress, on the 12th of March, 1790.

2 It was composed of the thirty-fourth and fifth brigades of British, two battalions of British grenadiers, the Hessian grenadiers, a battalion of light infantry, the Guards, and the sixteenth regiment of light dragoons.

Approach of the American advanced Corps.

Conflicting Intelligence.

Preparation for Battle.

Plan of the Action.

of the meeting-house, to secure a particular road, he pushed forward, with his staff, across the morass, at a narrow causeway near the parsonage (indicated by an oblong upon the

was asserted that the enemy had moved off with precipitation, leaving only a covering party behind; at another, that the whole army was filing off to the right and left to attack the Americans. While he was endeavoring to obtain reliable information on which to predicate orders, La Fayette arrived at the head of the main body of the

advanced corps.

Having satisfied himself that no important force of the enemy was upon either flank, Lee determined to march on. His whole command now amounted to about four thousand troops, exclusive of Morgan's corps and the Jersey militia. The broken country was heavily wooded to the verge of the plain of Monmouth. Under cover of the forest, Lee pressed forward until near the open fields, when he formed a portion of his line for action, and, with Wayne and others, rode forward to reconnoiter. From observations and intelligence, he concluded that the column of the British army which he saw deploying on the left were only a covering party of about two thousand men; and entertaining hopes that he might succeed in cutting them off from the main army, he maneuvered accordingly. Wayne was detached, with seven hundred men and two pieces of artillery, to attack the covering party in the rear; not, however, with sufficient vigor to cause them to retreat to the main body. Meanwhile Lee, with a stronger force, endeavored, by a short road leading to the left, to gain the front of the party. Small detachments were concealed in the woods, at different points on the enemy's flanks, to annoy them.

At about nine o'clock in the morning, just as Wayne was prepared to make a descent upon the enemy, a party of American light horse, advancing on the right, observed the Queen's Dragoons upon an eminence in the edge of a wood, parading as if they intended to

1 EXPLANATION OF THE PLAN.-a a, position occupied by the British army the night before the battle. b, British detachment moving toward Monmouth. c c, British batteries. d d, Colonel Oswald's American batteries. e, American troops formed near the court-house. f, first position taken by General Lee in his retreat. g, attack of a party of the British in the woods. h h, positions taken by General Lee. i, a British detachment. k, last position of the retreating troops on the west side of the marsh. m, army formed by General Washington after he met Lee retreating. n, British detachment. o, American battery. p. place of the principal action near the parsonage. r, first position of the British after the action. s, second position. t, place where the British passed the night after the battle. 1, the spot where Washington met Lee retreating. 2, a hedgerow. 3, the Freehold meeting-house, yet standing. A, Maxwell's brigade; B, Wayne's; C, Varnum's; D, Scott's. E and F, Jackson's and Grayson's regiments. G, Carr's house. H, I, and J, the brigades of Maxwell and Scott, with the regiments of Grayson and Jackson, marching to the attack. K and L, Greene and Varnum. M, Lord Stirling. N, La Fayette; and O, Greene, with Washington. Lee's march toward Monmouth court-house, the present village of Freehold, was north of the old road to Englishtown. The present road from Freehold to the meeting-house varies from the old one in some places, and is very nearly on a line with Lee's retreat.

Oswald's Artillery.

Wayne checked by Lee.

The British attacked by Wayne. Strange Conduct of Lee. make an attack. Lee ordered his light horse to allow the dragoons to approach as near as could be done with safety, and then to retreat to where Wayne was posted, and let him receive them. The maneuver was partially successful; the dragoons followed the retreating light horse, until fired upon by a party under Colonel Butler, ambushed in the edge of a wood, when they wheeled, and galloped off toward the main column. Wayne ordered Colonel Oswald to bring his two pieces of artillery to bear upon them, and then pushed forward himself, with his whole force, to charge the enemy with bayonets. Colonel Oswald' crossed a morass, planted his guns on a small eminence (d), and opened a cannonade at the same time. Wayne was prosecuting his attack with vigor, and with every prospect of full success, when he received an order from Lee to make only a feigned attack, and not push on too precipitately, as that would subvert his plan of cutting off the covering party. Wayne was disappointed, chagrined, irritated; he felt that his commander had plucked the palm of sure victory from his hand; but, like a true soldier, he instantly obeyed, and withheld his troops, hoping that Lee would himself recover what his untimely order had lost. In this, too, the brave Wayne was disappointed; for only a portion of the troops on the right, under Lee, issued out of the wood in small detachments, about a mile below the courthouse, and within cannon-shot of the royal forces. At that instant Sir Henry Clinton was informed that the Americans were marching in force on both his flanks, with the evident design of capturing his baggage, then making a line of several miles in the direction of Middletown. To avert the blow, he changed the front of his army by facing about, and prepared to attack Wayne with so much vigor, that the Americans on his flanks would be obliged to fly to the succor of that officer. This movement was speedily made by Clinton, and a large body of cavalry soon approached cautiously toward the right of Lee's troops. La Fayette perceiving this, and believing it to be a good opportunity to gain the rear of the division of the enemy marching against them, rode quickly up to Lee, and asked permission to make the attempt. "Sir," replied Lee, "you do not know British soldiers; we can not stand against them; we shall certainly be driven back at first, and we must be cautious.” La Fayette replied, "It may be so, general; but British soldiers have been beaten, and they may be again; at any rate, I am disposed to make the trial." Lee so far complied 1 This first attack occurred in the vicinity of Brier Hill, about three fourths of a mile east of the courthouse.

EOswald

* Eleazer Oswald was a native of Massachusetts, and was among the earliest of the active patriots of the Revolution. He exhibited great bravery at the siege of Quebec, at the close of 1775, where he commanded the forlorn hope after Arnold was wounded. In 1777 he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in Lamb's regiment of artillery, and soon afterward distinguished himself, with Arnold, at Compo, at the head of recruits raised in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was with Putnam when Forts Clinton and Montgomery were taken in 1777, and anxiously entreated his general to allow him to go to the relief of the forts, where his friend Lamb commanded the artillery. For his bravery at the battle of Monmouth, he was highly commended by Generals Knox and Lee. Being outranked soon after this engagement, he resigned his commission and left the service. He entered into the printing and publishing business at Philadelphia, was appointed public printer, and was a resident there at the time of Arnold's defection. Upon constitutional questions he was an opponent of General Hamilton, and in 1789 challenged that gentleman to fight a duel. Their friends adjusted the matter, and the meeting was prevented. In 1793, being in England on business, he went to the Continent, joined the French army, commanded a regiment of artillery, and was at the battle of Mons, or Jemappe. He fell a victim to the yellow fever which desolated New York in 1795, and was buried in St. Paul's church-yard on the 2d of October of that year. -See Leake's Life and Times of General Lamb.

3 The conduct of Lee throughout the day was very strange, and gives a coloring of truth to the conjecture that the thorn of envy was still rankling in his bosom, and that he preferred seeing the Americans disgraced by a defeat, rather than Washington honored by a victory. La Fayette, who had watched with the eye of ardent affection the progress and termination of the conspiracy against Washington a few months previously, in which the name of Lee was prominent as his proposed successor, was properly suspicious. Soon after his application to Lee for permission to attempt to gain the enemy's rear, one of Washington's aids arrived for information; and La Fayette took the occasion to inform his excellency, through the aid, that his presence upon the ground was of the utmost importance. He felt convinced that Lee's movements were governed either by cowardice or treachery, and he was anxious to have Washington controlling the movements of the day.

Lee's Orders misunderstood.

Retreat of two Brigades.

A general Retreat ordered by Lee.

General Maxwell.

as to order the marquis to wheel his column by his right, and gain and attack the enemy's left. At the same time, he weakened Wayne's detachment on the left, by ordering the regiments of Wesson, Stewart, and Livingston to the support of the right. He then rode toward Oswald's battery to reconnoiter. At that moment, to his great astonishment, as he said, Lee saw a large portion of the British army marching back on the Middle

Jemes Wason

town road toward the court-house. Apparently disconcerted, he immediately ordered his right to fall back. The brigades of Scott and Maxwell,' on the left, were already moving forward and approaching the right of the royal forces, who were pressing steadily on in solid phalanx toward the position occupied by Lee, with the apparent design of gaining Wayne's rear and attacking the American right at the same moment. General Scott had left the wood, crossed a morass, and was forming for action on the plain, and Maxwell was preparing to do the same, when Lee ordered the former to re-enter the wood, arrange his column there, and wait for further directions. Perceiving the retrograde movement on the right, and perhaps mistaking the spirit of Lee's order, Scott recrossed the morass, and retreated through the woods toward the Freehold meeting-house, followed by Maxwell. As soon as intelligence of this movement reached Lee, he sent an order to La Fayette to fall back to the court-house. The marquis obeyed, but with reluctance. As he approached the courthouse, he learned, with surprise and deep mortification, that a general retreat had begun on the right, under the immediate command of Lee, and he was obliged to follow. The British pursued them as far as the court-house, where they halted, while the Americans pressed onward across the morass above Carr's house (G) to the broken eminences called the heights of Freehold, where they also halted. The heat was intense, and both parties suffered terribly from thirst and fatigue. In many places they sunk ankle-deep in the loose, sandy soil. Their rest was of short duration. The royal troops pressed forward; and Lee, instead of making a bold stand in his advantageous position, resumed his retreat toward the Freehold meeting-house. A panic seized the Republican troops, and over the broken country they fled precipitately and in great confusion, a large portion of them pressing toward the causeway over a broad morass,' where many perished; while others, overpowered by the heat, fell upon the earth, and were trampled to death in the sand by those pressing on behind them. In the first retreat, a desultory cannonade had been kept up by both parties; but now nothing was heard but a few musket-shots and the loud shouts of the pursuing enemy. While these maneuvers in the vicinity of Monmouth court-house were occurring, Washington, with the reserve, was pressing forward to the support of Lee. When the latter

1 William Maxwell was a native of New Jersey. He joined the army at the commencement of the war. In 1776 he was appointed colonel, and raised a battalion of infantry in New Jersey. He was with General Schuyler on Lake Champlain, and in October, 1776, was appointed a brigadier in the Continental army.

After the battle at Trenton, he was engaged in harassing the enemy; and during the winter and spring of 1777 was stationed near the enemy's lines at Elizabethtown. In the autumn of that year he was engaged in the battles at the Brandywine and Germantown, and during the succeeding winter he was with the suffering army at Valley Forge. He was active in pursuit of Clinton across New Jersey the following summer, and sustained an important part in the battle at Monmouth. After that engagement, he was left, with Morgan, to annoy the enemy's rear in their retreat toward Sandy Hook. He was again near Elizabethtown during the winter and spring of 1780, and in June was engaged in the action at Springfield. In August he resigned his commission and quitted the service. He was highly esteemed by Washington, who, on transmitting his resignation to Congress, said, after speaking of his merits as an officer, "I believe him to be an honest man, a warm friend to his country, and firmly attached to its interests." 2 This causeway, alluded to before, was near the parsonage, which is still standing, though greatly decayed, and known as "Tennent's House." The morass, which was then a deep quagmire, and thickly covered with bushes, is now mostly fine meadow land, coursed by a clear streamlet, spanned by a small bridge where the highway between Freehold and Englishtown, by way of the meeting-house, crosses.

Forward Movement of the Division under Washington.

Meeting of Washington and Lee.

Harsh Words between them.

made the discovery that a large covering party was in the rear of the royal army, and formed his plan to cut them off, he sent a messenger to the commander-in-chief, assuring him that success must follow. On the reception of this intelligence, Washington ordered the right wing, under General Greene, to march to the right," by the new church," or Freehold meeting-house, to prevent the turning of that flank by the enemy, and to " fall into the Monmouth road a small distance in the rear of the court-house," while he prepared to follow, with the left wing, directly in Lee's rear, to support him. Το facilitate the march of the men, and to contribute to their comfort on that sultry morning, they were ordered to disencumber themselves of their packs and blankets. Many laid aside their coats, and, thus relieved, prepared for battle.

While the chief was making this disposition near the Freehold meeting-house, a countryman, mounted on a fleet horse, came in hot haste from the direction of the contending forces. He brought the astounding intelligence that the Continental troops were retreating, with the enemy in close pursuit. The commander-in-chief could not credit the report, for he had heard only a few cannon-peals in the direction of the court-house, and he did not conceive it possible that Lee would retreat without first giving battle. He spurred forward, and, when about half way between the meeting-house and the morass, he met the head of the first retreating column. He was greatly alarmed on finding the advanced corps falling back upon the main army without notice, thereby endangering the order of the whole. Giving a hasty order to the commander of the first retreating division to halt upon an eminence, Washington, with his staff, pushed across the causeway to the rear of the flying column, where he met Lee (1) at the head of the second division of the retreating forces. The commander-in-chief was fearfully aroused by the conduct of that officer, and, as he rode up to Lee, he exclaimed, in words of bitter anger and tone of withering rebuke, "Sir, I desire to know what is the reason, and whence arises this disorder and confusion!" Stung, not so much by these words as by the manner of Washington, Lee retorted harshly, and a few angry words passed between them. It was no time to dispute, for the enemy was within fifteen minutes' march of them. Wheeling his horse, Washington hastened to Ramsay and Stewart, in the rear, rallied a large portion of their regiments, and ordered Oswald, with his two pieces of cannon, to take post upon an

1 This view is from the green, outside of the church-yard, near the school-house. The church is situated a short distance from the road leading from Freehold to Englishtown, and about midway between those places. It was erected in 1752, on the site of a former one, which was much smaller; hence it was called the new church.* It is of wood, shingled, and painted white; at present a very dingy color. For a century and a half, God has been worshiped on that spot. There Whitefield, Brainerd, the Tennents, and Woodhull preached and prayed. It has been asserted that bullet-marks, made during the battle in 1778, are visible upon the church. Such is not the fact, for it is a mile and a half distant from the parsonage, where the hottest of the battle occurred. At the church, and upon its roof and steeple, many were gathered in anxious suspense to witness the battle. A spent cannon-ball came bounding toward the church during the action, struck a man who sat upon a small grave-stone, and so wounded him that he died within an hour. He was carried into the church, and placed in the first pew on the right of the middle door, where he expired. Traces of his blood were upon the floor for nearly fifty years. The stone on which he sat is still there, not far from the grave of Colonel Monkton. Its top was broken by the ball, and for more than seventy years the fracture was left untouched. Lately some vandal hand has broken a "relic" from it, and quite destroyed the moss-covered wound it first received. The obelisk seen on the right of the picture is over the grave of the Reverend Robert Roy. The other ornamental monument is over that of the Reverend Mr. Woodhull.

* See Washington's letter to the president of Congress, July 1, 1778.