The Battle of Monmouth, fought on 28 June 1778 in New Jersey1, was tactically inconclusive but a strategic success for the Americans2. Washington attacked the British column as it withdrew from Philadelphia to New York; an early American retreat under Charles Lee nearly wrecked the attack, until Washington rode up and rallied the line. His troops then held their ground against British regulars in fierce heat, proof of how far the Continental Army had come since Valley Forge.
The winter at Valley Forge had remade the Continental Army. At Monmouth, in appalling summer heat, Washington's men showed what that training was worth, standing toe to toe with British regulars and refusing to break.
Part of The greatest battles of the American Revolution · Before: The Battle of Saratoga · Next: The Battle of Kings Mountain · Key figures: Baron von Steuben, The Marquis de Lafayette
The British leave Philadelphia
In 1778, with France now in the war, the British under Sir Henry Clinton abandoned Philadelphia and marched across New Jersey toward New York3. Washington, his army newly drilled by Baron von Steuben at Valley Forge4, moved to strike the long, strung-out column.
Lee's bungled attack
Washington sent an advance force under Charles Lee to hit the British rear guard1. Lee's attack was poorly handled and fell apart, and his troops began retreating in confusion with the British turning on them, threatening to turn the day into a disaster.
Washington rallies the line
Riding forward, Washington met the retreat, confronted Lee in an exchange later remembered as furious (modern historians think it was less dramatic), and personally rallied the troops on new ground. His presence steadied the line just as the British came on, and the battle was saved.
Standing in the heat
Through a brutally hot day, in which men on both sides collapsed from the heat1, the reformed American line held against repeated British attacks and traded artillery fire. By nightfall the Americans held the field; Clinton's army slipped away in the dark to continue its march1.
Why Monmouth mattered
Monmouth settled nothing on the map, but it proved the point that mattered: the Continental Army could now stand in open battle against the best British regulars and not break. Charles Lee was court-martialled for his conduct.3 It was the last large set-piece battle between the main armies in the north, as the war's focus shifted south toward Kings Mountain and the Carolinas.
