CHAPTER XXV
THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT FIGHT
THE morning of Sunday, June 28, 1778, dawned clear and warm. Not a cloudcould be seen in the sky, and the air was motionless, save in occasionalplaces where it quivered under the burning heat of the summer sun. Byeight o'clock the thermometer already had indicated ninety-six degrees,and before the day was done it had risen considerably above a hundred.
The British forces had now arrived within ten or twelve miles of theHeights of Middletown, and if once they should succeed in gaining thatposition, all attempts on the part of the Americans to attack them wouldbe worse than useless, for it was now as well known by Washington as itwas by Clinton that British vessels were lying at anchor off Sandy Hook,ready and waiting to receive the advancing army and its stores on board,and transport all in safety to New York.
Clinton, as we already know, still believed that the Americans wereseeking only to capture his stores and train of baggage wagons, and,therefore, wisely had placed them in the care of General Knyphausen andthe Hessian soldiers, in advance of the place of danger, as he supposed,and also of the place where the brave leader himself took his stand withhis men. All of the British grenadiers, light infantry, and chasseurs ofthe line were encamped in the strong position that Clinton had selectedin the parting of the road which led from Monmouth Court House toMiddletown, the right wing extending about a mile and a half beyond thecourt house itself, while the left lay stretched for three miles alongthe road from Allentown. Thick woods afforded strong protection to theflanks, while a swamp extended toward the rear and the left, and woodsalso covered their front. The British general had chosen his placewisely, and there he waited until that eventful Sunday morning.
General Washington was well aware of all that was going on, and haddetermined to attack the British the moment they moved from the positionthey then occupied. Late on Saturday night, the commander had givenorders for General Maxwell to send out parties of observation, who wereto watch the British and report instantly any signs they might discoverof an attempt to retreat during the night, and to keep up a constantcommunication with himself. General orders had also been given Lee to beprepared to attack Clinton's forces the moment they should depart fromtheir camping-place.
General Lee's treachery or incompetency, or both, are well known to-day,and the only cause of surprise is that General Washington should havegiven him such discretionary orders. The great commander must have beenfully aware of Lee's true feelings, for already he had suffered muchfrom his jealousy and his traitorous designs; but perhaps the rest ofthe army did not know what Washington himself well knew, and on the eveof battle he chose the lesser of the two evils, and thought he wouldsuffer less by permitting Lee to continue to act, than he would from themisunderstanding and confusion that might arise if he dealt with the manat that time as he justly deserved. At all events, his orders weresomewhat general, and the fact that he had not given specific commandsis all that remains to-day to be quoted in favor of the guilty Lee.
It was about five o'clock in the morning when a messenger arrived inWashington's camp from General Dickinson--who, with the New Jerseymilitia, was nearest the enemy's lines--with the information that thefront of the British line had begun its march toward the Heights ofMiddletown. Instantly Washington's army was put in motion, and one ofhis aids was sent in all haste to inform General Lee of the movement ofthe British, and to urge him forward to attack them at once unless somevery strong obstacle should be found, and to assure him that the mainbody of the American army would be rushed forward to his support.
I am very certain that if my readers could somehow have been privilegedto witness the march of Washington's soldiers, they would not have beengreatly impressed by the sight. Many of them were without uniforms, andtheir flushed and streaming faces under the burning heat, while theybore an expression of determination, after all would not have been veryprepossessing in their appearance. Numbers of the Continentals hadeither cast aside their coats or rolled them up and strapped them acrosstheir backs, so that entire ranks appeared to be marching to battle intheir shirt-sleeves. However, although their personal bearing was notmade more forceful by the absence of coats, their personal comfort wasdecidedly improved; and, as we shall soon see, their work in the battlewas not hindered by their lack of bright colored uniforms.
Meanwhile, the advanced corps under General Lee had moved fromEnglishtown, and was now advancing toward the British. The redcoats werealso in motion, and the left wing had marched more than a mile beyondMonmouth Court House when it discovered that the American columns hadout-flanked it on the north. Lee's forces had marched along the mainroad, successfully crossing the deep ravines and causeways. They hadhalted frequently to receive reports from the scouts and the men inadvance as to the movements of the British, but these reports apparentlywere somewhat contradictory and created some confusion among theAmerican ranks.
One of these halts had been made near the "new church," which was socalled to distinguish it from the smaller structure, which until 1752had stood upon the same site. This "new church" was of wood, its sidescovered with shingles, and painted white. There such famous preachers asWhitefield, the missionary Brainerd, Tennent, and others had given theirmessages of peace, but it can be safely asserted that in all its longhistory the "old" church or the "new" had never seen such a "service" asthat which was held there on that Sunday morning in June, 1778. Beforethe day was done bullet marks and the effect of cannon shot wereapparent on its walls, and while the roof and even the steeple were saidto have been covered with people on that day, who had assembled to watchthe battle, probably no other congregation in all our land had ever beengathered by such summons, or had taken their seats on the roof of thebuilding instead of in the accustomed place within the walls.
Young General Lafayette, who had command of Lee's right, soon passed theCourt House, and was advancing upon the other end of the British line onthe south at the same time when the left wing was folding aboutCornwallis on the north; and General Wayne, who was in command of theAmerican centre, was also pressing strongly forward. Apparently, allthings were favoring the rugged Continentals, and had it not been forLee's cowardice or treachery, or both, they would have won the battlethere and then, before Washington could come with the aid of hisadvancing troops.
Some slight minor engagements had already occurred, though not one ofthem was of much importance; but now General Wayne discovered that mostof the British forces before him had descended from the high ground theyhad occupied and were advancing along the same route, over the plains ofMonmouth, which the Hessians had followed when they departed earlier inthe morning.
Instantly the impetuous Wayne sent a messenger to General Lee requestingpermission for his own "troops to be pressed on." No such permission wasgiven, however, until it was discovered that a band of eight or ninehundred of the redcoats had halted, and, turning about, appeared to beinviting an attack. General Wayne was then ordered to take about fourhundred men and advance.
Despite the smallness of the number, Wayne eagerly obeyed, when theQueen's light dragoons were sent back by Clinton to check the movement.
So excited was the little band of Americans that they instantly formed,and drove the horsemen back upon a body of foot soldiers who had beensent to their aid. A much larger body of troops were soon discovered tobe moving upon General Wayne's right, but he immediately opened fireupon them with the two pieces of artillery he possessed, sent back forreinforcements, and gallantly prepared for the battle.
During this time General Lee apparently was trying to cut off the forcewith which Wayne was engaged by making a detour and falling upon theline of Clinton's march between the rear of the main body and thatdetachment.
This action of Lee's, together with those which three of the others ofthe divisions of the American forces were making at the same time, ledClinton to suppose that his baggage train was what the Americans werestriving to gain. As we already know, this, all the time, had been hisunderstanding o
f the purpose of Washington, and now the action andmovements of the various bodies of troops strengthened his suspicion.
The first thing the British commander did was to send the Queen's lightdragoons against Wayne. Then he sent a detachment from the men inadvance to strengthen his own right, and next he arranged for the mainbody, of which Lord Cornwallis was in command, to form on the plain andprepare to attack General Lee and the various divisions which were underhim at the time.
General Wayne and his brave men were now fighting desperately, and toall appearances success was about to crown his efforts, when he wasdumfounded by an order he received from Lee to make only a feignedattack, and not to press too hard against the redcoats in front of him.
Wayne did not know what to make of the order. He was chagrined and angryto receive such a word at a time when all things seemed to favor hisdetermined band. It is said that he made use of some very forcefullanguage, and even expressed his opinion of his superior officer in novery complimentary terms; but he was too good a soldier not to obey;and, although he could not understand what Lee meant by giving him suchdirections at such a time, he held back his men, hoping all the timethat Lee himself would come up and grasp the victory which almost seemedto be in his hand.
General Lee had been watching the movements of the British, andperceived what Clinton was trying to do by the actions to which wealready have referred. Instead of meeting them boldly, and permittinghis soldiers, who were all now eager for the battle, to advance, he atonce prepared to withdraw them from the field.
Young Lafayette had just discovered a body of British cavalry advancingtoward Lee's right, and, quickly riding up to his commander, he beggedfor permission to advance and gain their rear, and so cut them off fromthe main body.
"Sir," replied Lee, "you do not know British soldiers. We cannot standagainst them. We shall certainly be driven back at first, and we must becautious."
"It may be so, general," said Lafayette quietly, "but British soldiershave been beaten, and they may be again. At any rate I am disposed tomake the trial."
Reluctantly Lee yielded, so far as to permit the brave young marquis towheel his column by the right and make an attempt to gain the left ofthe British, but at the same time he ordered three regiments to bewithdrawn from Wayne's command, thereby weakening him for reasons whichneither Wayne nor any one of his men ever understood.
General Lee then rode off to reconnoitre, as he afterwards declared, andto his astonishment discovered another large body of British soldiersmarching back on the Middletown road toward the Court House. If therewas one thing more than another which Lee apparently disliked at thattime, it was the sight and presence of men clad in scarlet coats, and heinstantly gave orders for the several corps in his division to retreat,or to make a "retrograde movement," as he afterwards explained it.
His friends claimed for him, and, indeed, Lee afterwards claimed forhimself, that he had only ordered the right to fall back, and hadcommanded the left, under Scott and Maxwell, to advance, and his orderwas misunderstood; and that when Maxwell's men perceived the retreat oftheir comrades on the left, they thought all was ended and they mustsave themselves. But, at all events, proof of the truthfulness of hisstatement was wanting, and all his men were soon retreating toward the"new meeting-house," on the roof and steeple of which were assembled thepeople of the congregation.
Few of the men beside Lee himself knew why the retreat was made. Thesoldiers were angry and were giving vent to their feelings in termswhich had not been carefully selected. General Wayne's men were the onlyones who had even fired a shot, and the anger of Wayne himself wassteadily increasing. Every soldier felt as if he were being robbed ofsuccess, which by right belonged to him and to his country.
Between the "meeting-house" and the parsonage, General Washington, allunaware of Lee's disgraceful actions and the retreat of the advanceddivision, met a fifer, who appeared to be in great haste to leave theregion.
Reining in his horse, the great commander ordered the fleeing man tohalt, and then said sternly:--
"Who are you? Do you belong to the army? Why are you running in thisfashion?"
"I am a soldier," replied the trembling man, "but all the Continentalsare running, too."
"It isn't true! It can't be true! I'll have you whipped if you dare tomention such a thing to another living man!" cried the astonishedcommander.
Nevertheless, he put the spurs to his horse, and in a few minutesdiscovered two or three other men, who apparently were in as greathaste to depart as the fifer had been.
Instantly the trembling men halted at his sharp command, and again theexcited general demanded an explanation of their actions.