Flight From Monmouth

More about Flight From Monmouth

The image depicts a historic scene that took place in my hometown: the British evacuation from New Jersey after the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. That summer, learning of Clinton's plan to abandon Philadelphia and march overland to the New Jersey coast (from whence they would be ferried back to Manhattan), General Washington resolved to ambush the Redcoats along their line of march and deal a crushing blow that might end the war. The resultant collision near Freehold Courthouse was among the fiercest of the war. Lines of infantry exchanged murderous volleys and were savaged by cannon fire. American cavalrymen charged the British lines like a battering ram, cutting down dozens of infantry with each effort to break the British line. Washington led the final gallop himself, heedless of the musketballs that always missed the charmed commander. Both armies did their worst but were too well matched and too weighed down by the hellish hundred degree weather to land the killing blow. In the aftermath, the British resumed their evacuation, marching on to Middletown, my hometown, along narrow, winding roads shaded by canopies of thick tree tops. They crossed the covered bridge and marched past the whitewashed church and white cottages bedecked with ivy along the King's Highway--historical sites that still grace the old town center. A constellation of roadside historical markers traces the progression of their campsites as the two armies raced for the Navesink Highlands. I passed at least two every morning on my way to school on the south side of town. From the crest of those heights you can still look down on the site where the Red Coats made their improvised water crossing to Sandy Hook on a bridge of boats strung together across the estuary between the barrier island and the mainland--almost exactly where the modern steel and concrete bridge does so today.