battle of Monmouth

battle of Monmouth in the American Revolution, fought June 28, 1778, near the village of Monmouth Courthouse (now Freehold, N.J.). Gen. George Washington chose this location to attack the British troops, who were retreating from Philadelphia to New York City. Gen. Charles Lee launched the assault but without warning ordered a retreat. The British, under Sir Henry Clinton, immediately counterattacked, and only the arrival of Washington and Baron von Steuben prevented an American rout. Steuben re-formed Lee's disordered troops and led them back to battle, but the British forces escaped during the night. Lee was later court-martialed and suspended from command for disobeying orders. The legend of Molly Pitcher grew from this battle.

Bibliography: See W. S. Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth (1927, repr. 1970).

Monmouth, Battle of (1778).By the spring of 1778, George Washington's ambition to make the Continental army a force proficient in linear European tactics seemed—thanks largely to the efforts of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben—to be near realization. When Henry Clinton, the British commander in chief, abandoned Philadelphia and marched for New York City, Washington decided to force a battle in the open field. On 28 June 1778, he ordered a 5,000‐man advance force under his second in command, Charles Lee, to attack the British rear guard.

Lee found Clinton's force near Monmouth in the hills of northern New Jersey, about twenty miles from Sandy Hook where the Royal Navy waited to transport the army to New York. Clinton's 2,000‐man rear guard initiated a piecemeal engagement into which he eventually fed 6,000 men of his 10,000‐man army. As the clear summer day wore on in heat that may have reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the Americans proved their mettle in open battle. Yet, it was easier to train the soldiers how to fight than to find competent general officers to lead them. In blazing heat and broken terrain, Lee lost touch with the flow of the battle. When Washington arrived with the 6,000‐man main army and found many American soldiers retreating, he severely reprimanded Lee, who was later court‐martialed and removed from the army.

Washington's frustration was understandable. For the first—and what would turn out to be the only—time during the war, he thought he had the enemy at a disadvantage in a fight his army stood a chance of winning. He stabilized the American position, but Clinton won the larger contest. On the night of the 28th, the British army slipped away from the battlefield, and guarding its 1,500–wagon supply train, reached Sandy Hook on the 30th. Monmouth, the longest continuous battle of the war, settled nothing, but displayed the growing ability and professionalism of the Continental army.
[See also Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course.]

Bibliography

Christopher Ward , The War of the Revolution, 1952.
Samuel S. Smith , The Battle of Monmouth, 1964.

Harold E. Selesky

Monmouth, Battle of the lengthiest uninterrupted battle of the Revolutionary War which showcased the increasing skills of the Continental army more than it did anything to settle the outcome of the war. As British Gen. Henry Clinton marched his troops from Philadelphia to New York City in late June, his rear guard was attacked by Gen. Charles Lee's troops on June 28, 1778, in northern New Jersey, just 20 miles from Sandy Hook, whence the Royal Navy would ferry its army cohorts to New York City. Scorching summer heat and poor field generalship weakened the Revolutionaries' attack, until George Washington arrived with the main army and fortified the position. Under night's cover, however, the British absconded and reached Sandy Hook two days later.