Battle of Monmouth: Difference between revisions

| casualties2 = 358 (official)<br />Germans: 256 deserted/POW[?]<br />Up to 1,134 (estimated)

| strength2 = 17,660{{efn|The British force numberedis aroundestimated to be 17,660 combatants in total, though only some 10,000 belonged to the first division that was actually involved in the battle. A request for the second division to send a brigade and a regiment of dragoons once battle had been joined was never acted upon.<ref>Lender & Stone 2016 pp. 172, 265, 276–277</ref>}}

| partof = the [[Philadelphia campaign]] in the [[American Revolutionary War]]

| caption = ''Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth''<br />by [[Emanuel Leutze]]

The '''Battle of Monmouth''', also known as the '''Battle of Monmouth Court House''', was fought near Monmouth Court House in modern-day [[Freehold Borough, New Jersey]], on June 28, 1778, during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. It pitted the [[Continental Army]], commanded by General [[George Washington]], against the [[British Army]] in North America, commanded by General Sir [[Henry Clinton (British Army officer, born 1730)|Henry Clinton]].

It was the last battle of the [[Philadelphia campaign]], begun the previous year, during which the British had inflicted two major defeats on Washington and occupied [[Philadelphia]]. Washington had spent the winter at [[Valley Forge]] rebuilding his army and defending his position against political enemies who favored his replacement as commander-in-chief. This included Major General Horatio Gates, whose political alliance with the “Conway Cabal” threatened General Washington’sWashington's status as commander-in-chief. In February 1778, the French-American [[Treaty of Alliance (1778)|Treaty of Alliance]] tilted the strategic balance in favor of the Americans, forcing the British to abandon hopes of a military victory and adopt a defensive strategy. Clinton was ordered to evacuate Philadelphia and consolidate his army. The Continental Army shadowed the British as they marched across New Jersey to Sandy Hook, from where the Royal Navy would ferry them to New York. Washington's senior officers urged varying degrees of caution, but it was politically important for him not to allow the British to withdraw unscathed. Washington detached around a third of his army and sent it ahead under the command of [[Major general|Major General]] [[Charles Lee (general)|Charles Lee]], hoping to land a heavy blow on the British without becoming embroiled in a major engagement.

Lee realized that a knoll in front of his lines would give the British, now deployed from column into line formation, command of the ground and render his position untenable. With no knowledge of the main body's whereabouts and believing he had little choice, Lee decided to fall back farther, across the Spotswood Middle Brook bridge. He believed he would be able to hold the British there from Perrine's Hill until the main body came up in support. With his aides out of action, Lee pressed whomever he could find into service as messengers to organize the withdrawal. It was during this period that he sent the army auditor, [[Major (rank)|Major]] [[John Clark (spy)|John Clark]], to Washington with news of the retreat. But Washington was by now aware, having learned from Lee's troops who had already crossed the ravine.<ref>Lender & Stone 2016 pp. 278–281, 284</ref><ref>Bilby & Jenkins 2010 p. 203</ref>

Washington planned to resume the battle the next day, and at 18:00 he ordered four brigades he had previously sent back to the reserve at Englishtown to return. When they arrived, they took over Stirling's positions on Perrine's Hill, allowing Stirling to advance across the Spotswood Middle Brook and take up new positions near the hedgerow. An hour later, Washington ordered a reinforced brigade commanded by Brigadier General [[Enoch Poor]] to probe Clinton's right flank while Woodford's brigade was to drop down from Combs Hill and probe Clinton's left flank. Their cautious advance was halted by sunset before making contact with the British, and the two armies settled down for the night within {{convert|1|mi|km|spell=on|sp=us|0}} of each other, the closest British troops at Ker's House.<ref>Lander & Stone 2016 pp. 347–349</ref> After Clinton's forces withdrew, American troops began to plunder British corpses in search of valuables, leading to several American soldiers ransacking nearby homes occupied by civilians who had fled there to escape the battle. When news of this reached Washington, he ordered the packs of soldiers suspected of looting to be searched.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nya0ODz-B-cC&dq=the+men+that+was+wounded+in+the+thigh+or+leg,+they++dashed+out+their+brains+with+their+muskets&pg=PT418 | title=The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 | isbn=978-0-19-974092-5 | last1=Middlekauff | first1=Robert | date=9 March 2007 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

While the battle was raging, Knyphausen had led the baggage train to safety. His second division covered by the Hessian [[Jäger (infantry)|Jägers]] under Lieutenant Colonel [[Ludwig von Wurmb|Wurmb]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meiners |first=Jörn |title=THE "UNKNOWN MARBURGER" – ANOTHER PORTRAIT OF JÄGER COLONEL VON WURMB IS FOUND |url=http://www.jsha.org/articles/001-11_JSHA2008.pdf |access-date=March 13, 2024 |website=www.jsha.org}}</ref> endured only light harassment from militia along the way, and eventually set up camp some {{convert|3|mi|km|spell=on|sp=us|0}} from Middletown. With the baggage train secure, Clinton had no intention of resuming the battle. At 23:00, he began withdrawing his troops. The first division slipped away unnoticed by Washington's forward troops and, after an overnight march, linked back up with Knyphausen's second division between 08:00 and 09:00 the next morning.<ref>Lander & Stone 2016 pp. 349–352</ref>

The battle was tactically inconclusive and strategically irrelevant; neither side dealt a heavy blow to the other, and the Continental Army remained in the field while the British Army redeployed to New York, just as both would have if the battle had never been fought.<ref>Lender & Stone 2016 pp. xiii, 382</ref>{{efn|Bilby and Jenkins write that the two armies "fought to a standstill" at Monmouth and characterize a British defeat in terms of the wider strategic situation.<ref>Bilby & Jenkins 2010 pp. 233–234</ref> [[Willard Sterne Randall]] considers the fact that the British left the battlefield to Washington to be "technically the sign of a victory".<ref>Randall 1997 p. 359</ref> Chernow bases his conclusion that the battle ended in "something close to a draw" on conservative estimates of casualties.<ref>Chernow 2010 p. 451</ref> David G. Martin writes that despite retaining the battlefield and suffering fewer casualties, Washington had failed to land a heavy blow on the British and that, from the British viewpoint, Clinton had conducted a successful rearguard action and protected his baggage train. Martin concludes that "the battle is perhaps best called a draw."<ref>Martin 1993 pp. 233–234</ref> Lengel makes the same points in coming to the same conclusion.<ref>Lengel 2005 pp. 304–305</ref>}} Clinton reported 358 total casualties after the battle&nbsp;– 65 killed, 59 died of fatigue, 170 wounded and 64 missing.(Note: Although there are no known listed fatalities of Germans during the retreat a third of the German Auxiliaries were overcome by heat and lay by the roadside; 256 deserted<ref>[{{Cite book |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hessians_and_the_other_German_auxiliaries_of_Great_Britain_in_the_revolutionary_war/17_The_British_Retreat_across_New_Jersey,_January_to_July,_1778 The_Hessians_and_the_other_German_auxiliaries_of_Great_Britain_in_the_revolutionary_war/17_The_British_Retreat_across_New_Jersey,_January_to_July,_1778|title=The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in Edwardthe Jacksonrevolutionary Lowell]war}}</ref> Possibly these 256 deserters were among 440 (German) deserters (among 600 POWS) in Philadelphia July 6, 1778<ref>[(See Boatner :Encyclopedia of the American revolution .p.725)]</ref> Washington counted some 250 British dead, a figure later revised to a little over 300. Using a typical 18th-century wounded-to-killed ratio of no more than four to one and assuming no more than 160 British dead caused by enemy fire, Lender and Stone calculate the number of wounded could have been up to 640. A [[Monmouth County Historical Association]] study estimates total British casualties at 1,134&nbsp;– comprising 304 dead, 770 wounded and 60 prisoners. Washington reported his own casualties to be 370&nbsp;– comprising 69 dead, 161 wounded and 140 missing. Using the same wounded-to-killed ratio and assuming a proportion of the missing were fatalities, Lender and Stone estimate Washington's casualties could have exceeded 500.<ref>Lender & Stone 2016 pp. 366–369</ref><ref>Martin 1993 pp. 232–233</ref>

InClinton reported the successful redeployment, in the face of a superior force, of his post-battle reportarmy to Lord [[George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville|George Germain]], [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]],. ClintonHe claimed he had conducted a successful operation to redeploy his army inexplained the face of a superior force. The counter-attack was, he reported,as a diversion intended to protect the baggage train. andThe wasbattle ended on his own terms, he said, though in private correspondence he conceded that he had also hoped to inflict a decisive defeat on Washington.<ref>Bilby & Jenkins 2010 p. 232</ref> Having marched his army through the heart of enemy territory without the loss of a single wagon, he congratulated his officers on the "long and difficult retreat in the face of a greatly superior army without being tarnished by the smallest affront." While some of his officers showed a grudging respect for the Continental Army, their doubts were rooted not in the battlefield but in the realisation that the entry of France into the conflict had swung the strategic balance against Great Britain.<ref>Lender & Stone 2016 pp. xii, 375–378</ref>

* The battle is mentioned in the song "Stay Alive", in the Broadway show ''[[Hamilton: An American Musical]]'', written by [[Lin-Manuel Miranda]]. The song portrays Lee as a fool who gives conflicting instructions to his troops, resulting in massive casualties until Lafayette is called in. At the end of the song, [[John Laurens]] challenges Lee to a duel.