Battle of Monmouth

Background

Saratoga brought France into the war, and the Franco-American alliance of February 1778 pushed Britain onto the defensive. Sir Henry Clinton, Howe's successor, was ordered to send 8,000 men to the West Indies and Florida and to concentrate the rest at New York. On 15 June his army began crossing the Delaware out of Philadelphia, with loyalists, stores and a baggage train of some 1,500 wagons, for a march of about 90 miles. It moved in short stages through a heat wave in which temperatures often passed 90°F, sniped at by Maxwell's Continentals and Dickinson's New Jersey militia. At Allentown Clinton chose to make for Sandy Hook, where the navy could ferry him to New York. On 26 June he halted at Monmouth Court House to rest his men on good defensive ground, perhaps hoping to draw Washington into the battle he wanted.

Washington had reasons of his own to fight. After the defeats of 1777 he faced critics in Congress and the army, and he needed a success in the field. His councils of war on 17 and 24 June urged caution, Charles Lee most of all, who thought a defeat would do irreparable harm. Wayne, Lafayette and Greene pressed for a stronger blow at the British rear, and Washington sent forward picked men under Scott and then Wayne. The advanced force went first to Lafayette, who outran his supplies, and then to Lee, who had at first declined it as too small for his rank. By 27 June Lee's vanguard of about 4,500 was at Englishtown, six miles from the British, with Washington's main body four miles behind. Washington met Lee's officers that afternoon but gave no detailed plan; Lee took it that he had discretion how to attack.

The armies

Clinton's army numbered about 17,660 combatants, marching in two divisions. Knyphausen's second division, over 7,500 fighting men, led the baggage train off towards Middletown before dawn on 28 June and took no part. The battle fell to Cornwallis's first division, some 10,000 strong and the best of the army: the Guards, British and Hessian grenadiers, light infantry, the 42nd Highlanders and the line brigades, with a regiment of dragoons and the loyalist Queen's Rangers.

Washington had about 12,300 Continentals: Lee's vanguard of roughly 4,500, mostly ad hoc battalions of picked men who had never served together, and a main body of just over 7,800 under Greene and Stirling, with most of the guns. Dickinson's 1,200 or more militia worked the British flanks. Morgan's 800 light troops, two miles south, never joined the battle because of a misunderstood order. Since March Steuben had drilled the army at Valley Forge to a single standard, and half its men had joined since January. How much the drill mattered is argued: units kept their order in the retreat, but Lender and Stone find the evidence for its effect inconclusive and note the Americans' weak staff work and lack of cavalry. The artillery, which Washington praised highly, was the American strength. The heat, perhaps reaching 100°F, was an enemy to both sides.

The battle

Advance to contact, 4–10.30 a.m. Knyphausen moved off at 4 a.m. and Cornwallis's division from 5 a.m.; the last British troops left Monmouth Court House by 9.15, covered by a rearguard of light infantry, dragoons and Rangers, 1,550–2,000 men. The first shots came about 8 a.m., between Rangers and Dickinson's militia near the bridge over the Spotswood Middle Brook, one of three ravines edged with marshy morasses that cut the field; guns could cross them only at the bridges. Lee lost an hour there amid conflicting reports. At about 9.30 he sent Wayne, with some 550 men and four guns, to pin the rearguard east of the court house while he led the rest of the vanguard round its left. Wayne beat off a dragoon charge.

Counterattack and retreat, 10.30 a.m.–12.45 p.m. Clinton turned Cornwallis's division about, the Guards on the right and the grenadiers on the left with guns between them and the line brigades behind. Lee's plan fell apart: Scott and Maxwell, out of touch and fearing encirclement, pulled back without orders, and part of Lafayette's force fell back after failing to silence British guns. With only 2,500 men under his hand, Lee ordered a retreat to a line from Craig's house to Ker's house, then back over the bridge towards Perrine's Hill. It cost only about a dozen casualties and most units kept their order, but Lee failed to tell Washington.

Washington meets Lee, about 12.45 p.m. From Tennent's Meeting House Washington sent Greene south with Woodford's brigade, about 550 men and four guns, to cover the right, then met stragglers and whole units retreating. He found Lee near the middle morass and demanded the reason for the 'disorder and confusion'. Later stories of Washington swearing and calling Lee a poltroon are, for Lender and Stone, folklore; he was angry, not profane. He ordered Lee to hold the British while the main body formed.

The Point of Woods and the hedgerow, 1–1.30 p.m. Wayne's three battalions, hidden in the Point of Woods, fired into the passing Guards and grenadiers and were chased back to the bridge within ten minutes. Lee, with four guns and two battalions at a hedgerow, fought briefly and was among the last across at 1.30. On the American left, Stirling's guns on Perrine's Hill drove the 42nd and 44th back to an orchard. Monckton's grenadier battalion followed Lee over the bridge into fire from Wayne's reformed men and Stirling's artillery; Monckton was killed and the grenadiers fell back.

The cannonade, about 1.30–3.45 p.m. For two hours the guns duelled across 1,200 yards, Knox's 12 on Perrine's Hill against Clinton's 10; heat felled more men than shot. At about 3.45 Greene's guns on Combs Hill opened on the British left, and Clinton pulled back his artillery and grenadiers.

Late attacks, 4.30–7 p.m. As Clinton withdrew, Cilley's battalion of some 350 men drove the 42nd out of the orchard in good order. At 4.45 Wayne crossed the bridge with 400 Pennsylvanians and caught the 1st Grenadier Battalion withdrawing near the Parsonage; the 33rd Foot came up and threw the Pennsylvanians back, until the Combs Hill guns stopped the British. Probes by Poor and Woodford were halted by sunset. At 11 p.m. Clinton slipped away and rejoined Knyphausen next morning.

Aftermath

Clinton returned 358 casualties: 65 killed, 59 dead of fatigue, 170 wounded and 64 missing. Washington counted some 250 enemy dead, later a little over 300; one local study puts the British loss at 1,134, though Piecuch warns that the higher estimates lean on American sources. Washington reported 370: 69 killed, 161 wounded and 140 missing; Lender and Stone think the true figure may have passed 500. Heat accounted for much of both.

Clinton reached Sandy Hook on 30 June and New York without losing a wagon, and reported a successful retreat. Most historians call the battle a tactical draw that changed little strategically. Its weight was political: Washington presented it as a victory, Congress thanked him for it, and his critics fell silent. Lee, after insolent letters on 30 June, demanded a court-martial and got one. Charged with disobeying orders, an 'unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat' and disrespect, he was convicted on all three, with 'shameful' struck out, and suspended for a year. Lender and Stone judge his conduct in the battle competent.

'Molly Pitcher' is legend built on thin evidence. A surgeon heard of a woman taking her husband's place at a gun; Joseph Plumb Martin's memoir describes a woman serving a piece when a shot passed between her legs. She is usually identified as Mary Ludwig Hays, but Washington's thanks rests on tradition, and Lender and Stone conclude that several women probably helped the gun crews.

Wargaming it

Monmouth is a big, rolling, hot battle that suits a brigade-level game, with battalions as units and turns of 20 to 30 minutes, or a regimental game for the afternoon fight alone. Its shape is unusual: an attacker who becomes the defender, and a British pursuer who becomes the attacker.

The terrain is the key. Three ravines with marshy morasses cut the field, passable by infantry with difficulty and by guns only at the bridges, so every withdrawal funnels onto a few crossings. Perrine's Hill, Combs Hill, the Point of Woods, the hedgerow, the orchard and the Parsonage are the named objectives. Heat should be a real rule: fatigue that grows with every move and charge, and losses from heatstroke that rival those from shot.

The morning is a command-and-control game: Lee with vague orders, subordinates who cannot find him and conflicting intelligence. Giving the American player imperfect messaging recreates Scott and Maxwell's withdrawal. The afternoon is a set-piece: can Clinton break a strong artillery line before the heat ruins his elite battalions? What-ifs abound: Lee attacks an hour earlier; Morgan's 800 read their order correctly and strike the British flank; Knyphausen sends the brigade Clinton asked for; or Washington commits his whole army to Wayne's late attack rather than 400 men.

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