History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 35

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

ment been executed that the officers and men of General Poor's brigade, which lay near the right of the British position, knew nothing of their departure. Washington was greatly surprised and somewhat chagrined to find that the British had eluded him, but he knew that it was useless to attempt any further movement against them, for it was perfectly certain that they would reach the "heights of Middletown " before they could be overtaken, and in that almost impregnable position they could not be attacked with any hope of success. No idea of pursuit was there- fore entertained, though orders were given to Morgan to press forward and annoy the British rear, if opportunity should offer, and the Jersey brigade was detailed for the same duty ; but neither of these corps were able to accomplish anything of importance. A scouting-party, which had been sent out on the 29th to observe Clinton's movements, returned to Englishtown in the evening of the 30th, reporting that " the enemy have continued their march very pre- cipitately. The roads are strewn with knap- sacks, firelocks and other implements of war. . To-day they are at Sandy Hook, from whence it is expected they will remove to New York." Clinton's forces, on reaching Sandy Hook Bay, found there the fleet of Admiral Howe, who, having sailed from Delaware Bay for the purpose, took the wearied and defeated troops of the British army on board his ships and transported them to New York.1

to suppose that they had left about midnight, for it would be hard to believe that the Americans were all so soundly asleep at the early hour of ten as to make it possible for the British to escape undiscovered, as they did. Doubtless Sir Henry hurried his departure for the very reason that there was but an hour of moonlight left, which was barely sufficient to light his troops over the rough and difficult ground which they had to pass to reach the Middletown road. Having reached that point, the most difficult and dangerous part of the movement was accomplished. for they then had before them a tolerably good road and an unoh- structed way to rejoin Knyphausen's corps.

1 Following is a British account (from the Annual Regis- ter, London, 1778) of Clinton's arrival and embarkation at Sandy Hook Bay :

"In the mean time the British army arrived at the High- lands of Navesink, in the neighbourhood of Sandy Hook, on the last day of June, at which latter place the fleet from the Delaware under Lord Howe, after being detained in that river by calms. had most fortunately arrived on the pre-

In the account of the battle of Monmouth given by Sir Henry Clinton, in his official re- port, he states that General Knyphausen, with the corps having charge of the trains, moved out on the road to Middletown at daybreak ; that the rear division of Cornwallis, accompa- nied by Sir Henry in person, having remained some hours longer on the high grounds in the vicinity of the court-house, also marched away on the Middletown road, and he then proceeds :

"The rear-guard having descended from the heights above Freehold into a plain, about three miles in length and about one mile in breadth, several columns of the enemy appeared like- wise, descending into the plain, and about ten o'clock they began cannonading our rear. In- telligence was at this instant brought to me that the enemy were discovered, marching in force on both our flanks. I was convinced that our baggage was their object; but it being at this juncture engaged in defiles which continued for some miles, no means occurred of parrying the blow but attacking the corps which har- assed our rear, and pressing it so hard as to oblige the detachments to return from our flanks to its assistance. I had good informa- tion that Washington was up with his whole army, estimated at about twenty thousand; but as I knew there were two defiles between him

ceding day. It had happened in the preceding winter that the peninsula of Sandy Hook had been cut off from the continent, and converted into an absolute island, by a violent breach of the sea,-a circumstance then of little moment, but which now might have been attended with the most fatal consequences. By the happy arrival of the fleet at the instant when its assistance was so critically necessary, the ability of the noble commander and the extraordinary efforts of the seamen, this impediment was speedily removed, a bridge of boats being completed with such expedition that the whole army was passed over this new channel on the 5th of July, and were afterwards con- veyed with ease to New York, neither army nor navy yet knowing the circumstances or danger and ruin in which they had so nearly been involved," the last remark hav- ing reference to the fact that the French fleet under D'I'staing had arrived on the American coast (as Howe learned on the day after his arrival at New York), and if it had appeared at Sandy Hook before the embarkation, it would probably have been extremely disastrous to the Brit- ish army. The French fleet, consisting of twelve heavy ships, and having on board a land force of eleven thousand men, did appear at the Hook on the 11th of July, but their opportunity was gone, and the British safe in New York.

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and the corps at which I meant to strike, I General Knyphausen, who had advanced to Nut Swamp, near Middletown." judged that he could not have passed them with a greater force than what Lord Cornwallis' The American loss in the battle of June 28th was, (according to the original report of Gen- eral Washington) eight officers and sixty-one non-commissioned officers and privates killed, eighteen officers and one hundred and forty-two non-commissioned officers and privates wounded, -total, two hundred and twenty-nine killed and wounded. The missing were five sergeants and one hundred and twenty-six privates,-total division was well able to engage. The enemy's cavalry, commanded, it is said, by M. La Fay- ette, having approached within our reach, they were charged with great spirit by the Queen's light dragoons. They did not wait the shock, but fell back in confusion upon their own in- fantry. Thinking it possible that the event might draw to a general action, I sent for a brigade of British and the Seventeenth Light | killed, wounded and missing, three hundred and Dragoons, from Lieutenant-General Knyphaus- sixty ; but many of the missing, having dropped out on account of the excessive fatigue and heat of the day, afterwards reported for duty. The British had taken about fifteen prisoners (among them being Colonel Ramsey), but had left them all behind on parole. en's division, and having directed them on the march to take a position effectually covering our right flank, of which I was most jealous, I made a disposition of attack upon the plam ; but before I could advance, the enemy fell back and took a strong position on the heights above Sir Henry Clinton reported four officers and one hundred and eighty-four enlisted men of his command killed and missing, and sixteen officers and one hundred and fifty-four privates wounded,-total, three hundred and fifty-eight. But Marshall remarks that this account, so far as respects the British killed, cannot be correct,1 as four officers and two hundred and forty-five privates were buried on the field by the Ameri- cans. This is the report of the burial-parties to the commander-in-chief ; and some few were afterwards found and buried. The British also buried some of their own dead, and they took many of their wounded with them, though nearly fifty of the latter were left by them at the court-house in the night after the battle. "Fifty-nine of their soldiers perished by the heat, without receiving a wound ; they lay under the trees and by rivulets, whither they had crawled for shade and water." Early in the morning after the battle, General Poor's brigade of the American army advanced to Monmouth Court-House, in which they found five wounded British officers and more than forty Freehold Court-House. . .. The British gren- adiers, with their left to the village of Free- hold, began the attack with so much spirit that the enemy gave way immediately. The second line of the enemy, on the hill east of the west ravine, stood the attack with great obstinacy, but were likewise completely routed. They then took a third position, with a marshy hol- low in front, over which it would have been scarcely possible to have attacked them. How- ever, part of the second line made a movement to the front, occupied some ground on the en- emy's left flank, and the light infantry and Queen's Rangers turned their left. By this time our men were so overpowered by fatigue that I could press the affair no farther, especially as I was confident that the end was gained for which the attack had been made. I ordered the light infantry to join me; but a strong de- tachment of the enemy [Wayne] having pos- sessed themselves of a post which would have annoyed them in their retreat, the Thirty-third Regiment made a movement toward the enemy, which, with a similar one made by the First Grenadiers, immediately dispersed them. I 1 " It is evident that a great error was made in the re- port of Sir Henry Clinton to the Government, from which this statement is copied, as four officers and two hundred and forty-five privates were buried by the Americans, be- sides those who had been buried by the enemy."-General Washington to the President of Congress, July 1st, and Joseph Clarke's diary, June 28th. took the position from whence the enemy had been first driven after they had quitted the plain; and having reposed till ten at night, to avoid the excessive heat of the day, I took ad- vantage of the moonlight to rejoin Lieutenant-

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

wounded private soldiers of Clinton's army, who had been left there in the retreat of the previous night, because of a lack of transporta- tion to take them along with the column.1 Many of the American wounded were placed in the old building, and the Episcopal Church, in the village, and the old Tennent Church, near the battle-ground, were also filled with them, and they remained after the departure of the army, while such of the sick and slightly wounded as could bear removal were sent to the hospitals at Princeton. It has often been said that Washington had his headquarters in the court-house after the battle; but this is evidently a mistake, as the building was filled to its full capacity by the wounded. It is not shown that the commander-in-chief came to the court-house at all, and it is very unlikely that he did so, as the army moved to English- town in the afternoon of the 29th. The fact that his orders of the 29th were dated " Free- hold" has by some been regarded as proof that he was located at the village, when, in fact, its signification is just the reverse. All his orders and dispatches from the battle-field were simi- larly dated ; while, had he occupied the village, they doubtless would have been dated " Mon- mouth Court-House," by which name the little cluster of a dozen houses was then known, The name " Freehold," as used by Washington, applied to the township, just as " Hopewell," at the head of other orders and dispatches of his, applied to the township of that name. General Knox, who, as chief of artillery, was a member of Washington's staff, wrote his wife on the 29th, dating the letter " near Monmouth Court- House," which (even if there were no other evidence to that effect) goes to show that the village was then generally known by that name. Colonel John Laurens wrote a letter to his father, dated " Headquarters, Englishtown, 30th June, 1778," in which he said : " My Dear

Father, I was exceedingly chagrined that pub- lick business prevented my writing to you from the field of battle when the General sent his dis- patches to Congress." This is a strong indica- tion that Washington's dispatches of the 30th of June were written on, and sent from, the field. There was no reason why Washington should, but every reason why he should not, consume any part of the few hours that elapsed before the time of the army's marching for Englishtown, in moving his headquarters in exactly the opposite direction. Every hour of the forenoon of the 29th must have been neces- sary for him to perfect his plans and issue his orders for the marching of the army in the afternoon ; and it seems very unlikely that, under those circumstances, he would move his headquarters from the field to the court-house, and then move back over the same ground in the afternoon,-thus making five miles of extra travel in the excessive heat of that time. There is no reason to believe otherwise than that his headquarters of the 29th were at a point on or very near the battle-field,-whence he issued the following general order of the day :

"HEADQUARTERS, FREEHOLD, " MONMOUTH COUNTY, " June 29th, 1778. " Parole-Monckton; C.Signs-Bonner, Dickinson. "The commander-in-chief congratulates the Army on the victory obtained over the arms of His Brit- annie Majesty, and thanks most sincerely the gallant officers and men who distinguished themselves upon | this occasion, and such others as, by their good order and coolness, gave the happiest presage of what might have been expected had they come to action.

"General Dickinson and the militia of this State are also thanked for their nobleness in opposing the enemy on their march from Philadelphia, and for the aid which they have given in embarrassing and im- peding their motions so as to allow the Continental troops to come up with them.

" A Party, consisting of two hundred men, to parade immediately to bury the slain of both armies : General Woodford's brigade is to cover this Party. The officers of the American Army are to be buried with military honours, due to men who have nobly fought and died in the cause of Liberty and their country.

"Doctor Cochran will direct what is to be done with the wounded and sick. He is to apply to the Quartermaster and Adjutant-General for necessary assistance. The several detachments (except those

1 The following entry is found in the before-mentioned diary of Andrew Bell, Sir Henry Clinton's private secre- tary :

" Sunday, June 28th .- . . . About fifty of our wounded were obliged to be left at Freehold for want of wagons, and all the Rebels wounded giving their paroles as prisoners."

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under Colonel Morgan) are to join their respective Brigades immediately, and the lines are to be formed agreeable to the order of the 22d instant. The army is to march from the left; the second line in front, the cavalry in the rear; the march to begin at five o'clock this afternoon.

following day, for the trial of Major-General Charles Lee.

The battle of Monmouth was one of the most severely contested of the conflicts of the Revolution, and its result has always been re- garded as a victory for the American arms. That it was so considered by Washington is shown by the general order in which he " con- gratulates the army on their victory obtained

" A Sergeant, Corporal and twelve men from i General Maxwell's brigade to parade immediately to guard the sick to Princetown Hospitals. Doctor Conik will give directions to the guards. Colonel Martin is appointed to superintend collecting the sick and wounded on the army route between Coryell's and Mon- over His Britannic Majesty." This view is mouth, and send them to Princetown Hospitals. He will call immediately at the Order office for further orders. sustained by the fact that the British stole away in the darkness, leaving Washington master of "It is with peculiar pleasure, in addition to the above, that the commander-in-chief can inform General Knox and the officers of the Artillery that the Enemy have done them the justice to acknowl- edge that no Artillery could have been better served than ours." the field. Lossing remarks 2 that the result might have been a complete rout of the British, and not improbably a surrender of their whole force, if Washington had brought into the battle the corps of riflemen under the redoubtable Morgan. " For hours the latter was at Rich- mond's [Shumar's] 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 sue, and, like a hound in the leash, panting to be

On the night of the 29th, and through the day of the 30th, the headquarters were at Englishtown, where, at seven o'clock P.M., thanksgiving services were held for the vic- tory of Monmouth, on which occasion it was and fro he strode, uncertain what course to pur- ordered : "The men to wash themselves this afternoon (30th), and appear as clean and decent away to action. Why he was not allowed to as possible." At this place also it was ordered

participate in the conflict we have no means of that at evening parade the soldiers' packs should ; determining. It appears probable that had he be searched for articles which (according to fallen upon the British rear with his fresh troops, at the close of the day, Sir Henry Clin- ton and his army might have shared the fate of the British at Saratoga."

complaints made at headquarters) had been stolen from places where the owners had con- cealed them to save them from the British army. If any such articles were found in the packs, the offenders were to be "brought to condign punishment." 1 .It was also ordered

The American army under Washington at Monmouth consisted of sixteen weak brigades of infantry, which, together with the artillery that the whole army, except Maxwell's brigade, and cavalry forces at his disposal, amounted to should move on the following morning at two about thirteen thousand men,-a numerical o'clock,-everything to be made ready the night before ; General Maxwell to apply at head- quarters for special orders for the movement of his brigade.

strength somewhat greater than that of the British army, which was further weakened by desertions in its passage through New Jersey. " It is stated," says De Peyster, " that Clinton July 1st, from the general headquarters at Spottswood, the order was issued for the army to march at one o'clock next morning,-the " general " to beat at half-past twelve. Also at lost from one thousand to two thousand men by desertion between Philadelphia and Sandy Hook. Of these, six hundred returned to wives, sweethearts and other connections with whom same time the order was issued for a general alliances had been formed during the winter of court-martial to sit at New Brunswick on the 1778-79 in the City of Brotherly-and in this case, Sisterly-Love." . And many of the de-

1 And the soldiers were notified in the order that "the detestable crime of marauding will henceforward be pun- ished with instant death."

2 Field Book of the Revolution, vol. ii. p. 364.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

serters remained in New Jersey, where some of their descendants are still living.

As among the most prominent and well- known names of Monmouth County officers (including also some of private soldiers) who served in the army of Washington at the battle of Monmouth, the following were mentioned in a discourse by the Rev. Mr. Cobb, pastor of the Tennent Church : Anderson, Applegate, Baird, Bennett, Bowne, Buckalew, Carr, Covenhoven, Cowart, Craig, Denise, Dey, Disbrow, Emley, English, Fisher, David, Jonathan, Samuel and William Forman, Garrison, Gordon, Hankinson, Herbert, Haviland, Hendrickson, Imlay, Jobes, Johnstone, Walter and William Kerr, Joseph Knox, Robert and William Laird, Lloyd, Long- street, Magee, Morris, Mount, Newell, Ogborn, Parker, Perrine, Polhemus, Quackenbush, Ray, Reed, Rhea, Rue, Schenck, Scudder, Smock, Stillwell, Story, Sutphin, Taylor, Thompson, Throckmorton, Underwood, Vancleaf, Van Mater, Van Pelt, Voorhes, Wilson, Wood, Woolley, Wyckoff. These names, he said, are still remembered in the county with filial pride. There were also a considerable number of In- dians serving (principally with Morgan's rifle corps) with the forces of Washington, and " more than seven hundred black Americans fought side by side with the white."

The story of the battle of Monmouth could never be regarded as anything like complete if omitting a mention of the brave woman to whom the Continental soldiers gave the sobri- quet of " Molly Pitcher," from the name of the vessel in which she carried water from spring or rivulet to quench the thirst of her husband (an artilleryman) and his comrades on the field. For more than a century the name of " Molly Pitcher, the Heroine of Monmouth," has been almost as familiar as the name of the battle-field on which she did the deeds that have been told and retold in history, and the memory of which has now been perpetuated on the bronzes of the battle monument at Freehold.

"She was," says Lossing, "a sturdy young camp-follower, only twenty-two years of age, and in devotion to her husband, who was a can- nonier, she illustrated the character of her coun- trywomen of the Emerald Isle. In the action,

while her husband was managing one of the field-pieces, she constantly brought him water from a spring near by. A shot from the enemy killed him at his post, and the officer in com- mand, having no one competent to fill his place, ordered the piece to be withdrawn. Molly saw her husband fall as she came from the spring, and also heard the order. She dropped her bucket, seized the rammer, and vowed that she would fill the place of her husband at the gun, and avenge his death. She performed the duty with a skill and courage which attracted the at- tention of all who saw her. On the following morning, covered with dirt and blood, General Greene presented her to General Washington, who, admiring her bravery, conferred upon her the position of sergeant. By his recommenda- tion, her name was placed upon the list of half- pay officers for life. She left the army soon after the battle of Monmouth, and died near Fort Montgomery, among the Hudson High- lands. She usually went by the name of ' Cap- tain Molly.' The venerable widow of General Hamilton, who died in 1854, told me she had often seen Captain Molly. She described her as a stout, red-haired, freckled-faced young Irish woman, with a handsome, piercing eye. The French officers, charmed by the story of her bravery, made her many presents. She would sometimes pass along the French lines with her cocked hat, and get it almost filled with crowns."

The same writer visited the region in the Highlands where he says the heroine ended her days, and there found some old residents who " remembered the famous Irish woman called Captain Molly, the wife of a cannonier who worked a field-piece at the battle of Mon- mouth, on the death of her husband. She generally dressed in the petticoats of her sex, with an artilleryman's coat over. She was in Fort Clinton with her husband when it was attacked in 1777. When the Americans re- treated from the fort, as the enemy scaled the ramparts, her husband dropped his match and fled. Molly caught it up, touched off the piece and then scampered off. It was the last gun the Americans fired in the fort. Mrs. Rose remembered her as 'Dirty Kate,' living be-

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tween Fort Montgomery and Buttermilk Falls at the close of the war, where she died a hor- rible death from syphilitic disease. Washington had honored her with a lieutenant's commission for her bravery on the field of Monmouth, nearly nine months after the battle, when reviewing its events."

But another account of Molly Pitcher-re- cently written at Carlisle, Pa .- differs very ma- terially from that given by Lossing, in reference to the later years and death of Captain Molly. It is as follows :

" Few localities in the country more abound in memories of great historic events than the picturesque little town of Carlisle. It was here that the famous Molly Pitcher made her home during the last years of her life, and here her granddaughter, Mrs. Polly McLeister, a widow about seventy-five years of age, now lives. In the Carlisle cemetery there is a grave, at the head of which stands a heavy slab of marble, pure white, solid and substantial, like the character of her whose-resting place it marks, and it bears the following inscription :

MOLLIE MCCAULEY, RENOWNED IN HISTORY AS THE HEROINE OF MONMOUTH, DIED JANUARY, 1833, AGED 79 YEARS, ERECTED BY THE CITIZENS OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, JULY 4, 1876.'"

The Carlisle account further states that Molly was a daughter of John Hanna, of Allentown, and wife of John Mahan, the cannonier who was killed at Monmouth. The inference is that the name McCauley came to her by a second mar- riage. It is not proposed to attempt to decide here which of the foregoing accounts is the cor- rect one of the last years and death of Molly Pitcher, the female cannonier of Monmouth.

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 35

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 974

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974