Read Ebook: The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution Vol. 2 (of 2) or Illustrations by Pen And Pencil of the History Biography Scenery Relics and Traditions of the War for Independence by Lossing Benson John

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ould they still persist in refusing obedience, they were menaced with all the extremes of war. Packages of these manifestoes, with one printed on vellum, and signed by Clinton, Carlisle, and Eden, were made up to be sent to Congress and the several states by a flag. Congress declared that the agents employed to distribute them were not entitled to the protection of a flag, and recommended the states to seize and imprison them, Congress also published a manifesto, which, after charging commissioners with mean attempts to bribe members of its body and other persons, with deceit and servility of adulation, they concluded by solemnly declaring, "If our enemies presume to execute their threats, or persist in their present career vengeance as shall deter others from like conduct.

We appeal to that God who searcheth the hearts of men for the rectitude of our intentions; and in his holy presence declare, that, as we are not moved by any light and hasty suggestions of anger or revenge, so, through every possible change of fortune, we will adhere to this our determination."

"No single art engaged his manly mind, In every scene his active genius shined. Nature in him, in honor to our age,

Behold, at Briton's utmost shifts Comes Johnstone, loaded with like gifts, To venture through the Whiggish tribe, To cuddle, wheedle, coax, and bribe; And call, to aid his desp'rate mission, His petticoated politician: "Firm to his purpose, vigilant and bold, Detesting traitors, and despising gold, He scorn'd all bribes from Britain's hostile throne, For all his country's wrongs were thrice his own."

"While Venus, join'd to act the farce, Strolls forth embassadress of Mars. In vain he strives; for while he lingers, These mastiffs bite his off ring fingers; Nor buys for George and realms infernal One spaniel but the mongrel Arnold."

The weather was intensely hot, which circumstance, in connection with a heavy storm that commenced about nine in the morning, made it impossible to resume the march without injury to the troops.

Early on the morning of the 27th, La Fayette, with the advanced forces, proceeded to Englishtown, a hamlet about five miles westward of Monmouth court-house. Sir Henry Clinton was advised of the movements of the Americans, and, properly apprehending an attack upon his flanks and rear, changed the disposition of his line. He placed the baggage train in front, and his best troops, consisting of the grenadiers, light infantry, and chasseurs of the line, in the rear. The baggage of the whole army was placed under the charge of General Knyphausen. With his army thus arranged, Clinton encamped in a strong position near Monmouth court-house, secured on nearly all sides by woods and marshy grounds. His line extended, on the right, about a mile and a half beyond the court-house to the parting of the roads leading to Shrewsbury and Middletown, and on the left, along the road from Monmouth to Allentown, about three miles.

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. To 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 morning dawned, and the sun came up with all the fervor of the summer solstice. It was the 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!

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 stream toward the left of the plan, and joined Dickinson upon the height.

There conflicting intelligence was brought to him. At one moment it 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

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.

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

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. To 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.

"I will," eagerly exclaimed Lee. "Then," said Washington, "I expect you to check the enemy immediately."

Back to the main army Washington now hurried, and with wondrous expedition formed their confused ranks into battle order on the eminences on the western side of the morass. Lord Stirling was placed in command of the left wing; while General Greene, on receiving intelligence of Lee's retreat, had marched back, and now took an advantageous position on the right of Stirling.

General Lee displayed all his skill and courage in obedience to the chief's order to "check the enemy." A warm cannonade had commenced between the American and British artillery on the right of Stewart and Ramsay when Washington recrossed the morass to form the main army, while the royal light horse charged furiously upon the right of Lee's division. At that moment Hamilton rode up to Lee, and exclaimed, "I will stay with you, my dear general, and die with you. Let us all die rather than retreat." But the enemy pressed so closely upon them with an overwhelming force, that the Americans were obliged

"First: Disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy on the 28th of June, agreeably to repeated instructions.

Secondly: Misbehavior before the enemy on the same day, by making an unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat.

to give way. As they emerged from the woods, the belligerents seemed completely intermingled.

body of infantry, skillful in the use of the bayonet, charging simultaneously upon the Americans, broke their ranks. Lee immediately ordered Varnum and Livingston, together with the artillery, to retreat across the morass, while Colonel Ogden, with his men drawn up in a wood near the causeway, gallantly covered the whole as they crossed. Lee was the last to leave the field, and brought off Ogden's corps, the rear of the retreating troops, in admirable order. Instantly forming them in line upon the slope on the western side of the morass, he rode to Washington, and said, "Sir, here are my troops; how is it your pleasure that I should dispose of them?" The poor fellows had thus far borne the whole brunt of the battles and retreats of the day; Washington, therefore, ordered him to arrange them in the rear of Englishtown, while he prepared to engage the enemy himself with the fresh troops of the second and main division of the army.

The action now became general. The second line of the main army was speedily formed in the wood which covered the eminence on the western side of the morass; the left commanded by Lord Stirling, the right by General Greene, and the center by Washington himself. Wayne, with an advanced corps, was stationed upon an eminence, in an orchard, a few rods south of the parsonage, while a park of artillery was placed in battery on Comb's Hill, beyond a marsh, on his right. This battery commanded the height on which the enemy was stationed, and did great service. The British, finding themselves warmly opposed in front, attempted to turn the American left flank, but were repulsed. They also moved toward the American right, but, being enfiladed by a severe cannonade from a battery under Knox, upon a commanding piece of ground occupied by General Greene, they fell back. Wayne, in the mean time, kept up a

Over his body the warriors fought desperately, hand to hand, until the Americans secured it, and carried it to their rear. Hotly the conflict raged, not only at the center of the enemy's line, but at various other points. Wayne finally repulsed the grenadiers; and the whole British army soon gave way, and fell back to the heights above Carr's house , occupied by General Lee in the morning. It was a strong position, flanked by thick woods and morasses, with only a narrow way of approach on their front.

The army reposed that night upon their arms upon the battle-field, ready to spring upon their prey at the first gleam of light. Wrapped in his cloak, the chief, overpowered with fatigue, slumbered, with his suite, beneath a broad oak, around which many of the slain slept their last sleep. He felt certain of victory when his troops, refreshed, should rise to battle; but the

He early distinguished himself in the French and Indian wars. When the Virginia troops assembled at Williamsburg in 1775, in consequence of the hostile attitude assumed by Lord Dunmore, Woodford was appointed eolonel of the second regiment. Patrick Henry was colonel of the first regiment.

the Elizabeth River, in December, 1775, he was distinguished for his bravery. Congress promoted him to brigadier, and placed him in command of the first Virginia brigade. He was in the battles of Brandywine and Monmouth, and was made a prisoner at Charleston, in South Carolina, during the siege in 1780. He was taken to New York by the British, where he died on the 13th of November of that year, in the forty-sixth year of his age.

In the battle at Great Bridge, on

The battle of Monmouth was one of the most severely contested during the war. Remarkable skill and bravery were displayed on both sides, after the shameful retreat of Lee; and the events of the day were highly creditable to the military genius of both commanders. Victory for the Americans was twice denied them during the day, first by the retreat of Lee in the morning, and, secondly, by the unaccountable detention of Morgan and his brave riflemen at a distance from the field. For hours the latter was at Richmond Mills, three miles below Monmouth court-house, awaiting orders, in an agony of desire to engage in the battle, for he was within sound of its fearful tumult. To and fro he strode, uncertain what course to pursue, and, like a hound in the leash, panting to be away to action. Why he was not allowed to participate in the conflict, we have no means of determining.

It appears probable that, had he fallen upon the British rear, with his fresh troops, at the close of the day, Sir Henry Clinton and his army might have shared the fate of the British at Saratoga.

"He formed his camp with great parade, While evening spreads the world in shade, Then still, like some endanger'd spark, Steals off on tiptoe in the dark; Yet writes his king in boasting tone, How grand he march'd by light of moon! Go on, great general, nor regard The scoffs of every scribbling bard, Who sings how gods, that fearful night, Aided by miracle your night; As once they used in Homer's day, To help weak heroes run away; Tells how the hours, at this sad trial, Went back, as erst on Ahaz' dial, While British Joshua stay'd the moon On Monmouth's plain for Abalon. Heed not their sneers or gibes so arch, Because she set before you march."

the slain were Lieutenant-colonel Bonner, of Pennsylvania, and Major Dickinson, of Virginia. The British left four officers, and two hundred and forty-five non-commissioned officers and privates on the field. They buried some, and took many of their wounded with them. Fifty-nine of their soldiers perished by the heat, without receiving a wound; they laid under trees, and by rivulets, whither they had crawled for shade and water. But why dwell upon the sad and sickening scene of the battle-field with the dead and dying upon it?

We have considered the dreadful events of the day; let us for a moment, before returning to Valley Forge from our long digression, glance at the ground now covered with the results of the peaceful tiller's conquests.

"I'll petition the rebels For a place in their Zion which ne'er shall be shaken. I am sure they'll be clever; it seems their whole study; They hung not young Asgill for old Captain Huddy. And it must be a truth that admits no denying-- If they spare us for murder they'll spare us for lying."

one morning, while conversing with his brother, in Latin, on the state of his soul, he fainted, and seemed to expire. He was laid out, and preparations were made for his funeral. His

We visited the spot where Monckton fell; the place of the causeway across the morass ; and, after taking a general view of the whole ground of conflict, and sketching the picture on page 362, returned to Freehold in time to dine, and take the stage for the station at Jamesburg, on my way home. It had been to me a day of rarest interest and pleasure, notwithstanding the inclement weather; for no battle-field in our country has stronger claims to the reverence of the American heart than that of the plains of Monmouth.

```"My country's standard waved on yonder height;

````Her red-eross banner England there display'd;

```And there the German, who, for foreign fight,

````Had left his own domestic hearth, and made

```War, with its horrors and its blood, a trade,

````Amid the battle stood; and, all the day,

```The bursting bomb, the furious cannonade,

````The bugle's martial notes, the musket's play,

```A pebble stone that on the war-field lay,

````And a wild rose that blossom'd brightly there,

```Were all the relies that I bore away

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