of his division, whom he addressed with warmth, and in a language disapproving his retreat. He immediately ordered two regiments to form on ground favourable to check the advancing enemy. He asked General Lee, will you command on this ground? Consenting, he was ordered to arrange the remainder of his division and to take measures to stop the advance of the British. Your or ders," Lee replied, "shall be obeyed, and I will

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not be the first to leave the field." The Commander in Chief returned to the main body and formed it for action. The divison of Lee now bravely sustained a severe confliet with the van of the British, and when forced from the ground, Lee brought his troops off in order, and formed them in the rear of English Town.

The check the enemy received, enabled Geral Washington to form the left wing and second line of the army on an eminence. Lord Sterling, who commanded this wing, planted a battery of cannon and played with effect upon the British column, which had passed the morass and was pressing on to charge the Americans. At the same time a body of infantry was brought into action. The advance of the enemy was by these measures stopped.

General Green who on this day commanded the right wing of the American army, had left the direct road near English Town and moved upon the right, as a security to this flank of the army, and had rather passed the ground on which the action began. Learning the situation of General

Washington, he brought up his division, and took an advantageous position on the right.

The enemy now attempted to turn the left flank of the Americans, but were repulsed by parties of infantry. They then assailed the right wing, and here too they failed. General Green had posted. a body of troops with artillery on commanding ground in his front, which severely galled the enemy. At this period General Wayne advanced with a strong corps of infantry, and in a close and well directed fire attacked them in front. They gave way, and fell behind the ravine to the ground on which the Commander in Chief met General Lee in the morning. On this ground the British formed in a strong position. Both flanks were covered by woods and morasses, and their front could be attacked only through a narrow pass.

General Washington, even under these circumstances, determined to renew the engagement. In pursuance of this resolution, he ordered Brigadier Poor to gain the right flank of the British, and Brigadier Woodford their left. The artillery was directed to play upon them in front. Before these orders could be effectually carried into execution, the day was fully spent. The General therefore determined to defer the morning. He ordered the troops to retain their respective positions, and to lay on their arms. The General in the course of day had shunned no danger, and he slept in his cloak amidst his soldiers on the field of battle.

attack until the next

At midnight, the British moved off their ground

with such silence, that General Poor although very near did not perceive it. General Washington knew that the British army would reach high and unassailable ground before he could come up with them, and therefore discontinued the pursuit. He dispatched small parties of light troops to protect the country from depredation and to encourage desertion. The main body of his army he marched to cover the important passes in the high lands on the Hudson.

General Washington was satisfied with the behaviour of his army on this day. In his official communication to Congress he mentioned that after the troops had recovered from the surprise of the unexpected retreat of the morning, their conduct could not have been surpassed. General Wayne was noticed with great commendation, and the artillery corps was said to have highly distinguished itself.

In the battle of Monmouth, eight officers and sixty-one privates of the Americans were killed; and about one hundred and sixty wounded. Among the killed were Lieutenant Colonel Bonner of Pennsylvania and Major Dickiuson of Virginia, officers of merit, whose fall was much lamented. The Americans buried about three hundred of the British, who had been found on the field; although Sir Henry Clinton, in his official letter, stated his loss in killed and missing at four officers and one hundred and eighty-four privates, and his wounded at sixteen officers and one hundred and fifty-four privates. Among the slain was the Honourable Colonel Monckton, an

officer of celebrity. The day had been excessively hot, and numbers, both British and Americans were found among the dead without wounds, who had fallen victims to the heat.

The Americans made about an hundred prisoners; and nearly a thousand privates, mostly Germans, deserted the British standard, on the march through New Jersey.

Congress highly approved of the conduct of the Commander in Chief in bringing on the action of the 28th, and was gratified with its issue. In a resolution, which passed that body unanimously, their thanks were given to General Washington for the activity with which he moved from the camp at Valley Forge, in pursuit of the enemy; for his distinguished exertions in forming the line of battle; and for his great good conduct in the action." He was requested" to signify the thanks of Congress to the officers and men under his command, who distinguished themselves by their conduct and valour in the battle."

Although the Commander in Chief disapproved of the retreat, yet could the proud spirit of General Lee have patiently borne what he considered as a reprimand on the field of battle, it is probable that an explanation mutually satisfactory might have taken place. General Washington continued him in command on the day of action, after his retreat, and discovered no disposition to take public notice of it. But the irritable and lofty spirit of Lee urged him to write the next day two offensive letters to General Washington, in which, assuming the language of a superior,

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he demanded satisfaction for the insult offered him on the field of battle. On deliberation, the Commander in Chief informed him that he should have an opportunity to justify himself to the army, to America and the world, or of convincing them, that he had been guilty of breach of orders and misconduct before the enemy." General Lee, expressing his desire for a court martial in preference to a court of inquiry, was arrested upon the following charges,

1. For disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy on the 28th of June agreeably to repeated instructions.

2. For misbehaviour before the enemy on the same day, by making an unnecessary, disorderly and shameful retreat.

3. For disrespect to the Commander in Chief, in two letters.

The high colouring of the second charge was in consequence of complaints entered by Generals Wayne and Scott, against General Lee, which on investigation appeared to have been founded in their misapprehending his movements. Lord Sterling presided at the court, which found him guilty of all the charges, but softened the language of the second, and found him gnilty of misbehavior, by making an unnecessary, and in some few instances a disorderly retreat. The court sentenced him to be suspended from his command for one year.

Congress, with some hesitation, almost unanimously approved the sentence.

The suspension of General Lee was highly satis