Monmouth walk

As Nikki said, i'll post a little about the battle of monmouth. Maybe i should condense things a bit...maybe the post was a tad long last time! Although this may still end up long! haha. How about a quick intro.

The Battle of Monmouth occured June 28th, 1778. The previous fall the British occupied Philadelphia. Right after that France joined the war on the side of the Continentals. The British were worried they wouldn't have enough troops to hold\supply Philladelphia as well as New York and defend against French attacks in the Caribbean. Also, capturing the rebel capital didn't stifle support for the war and collapse the Continental government like the Brish had hoped. So, General Clinton, the new British over-all commander, decided to consolidate his forces by abandoning Philladelphia and moving back to New York as his main base. He used up all trasport space with loyalists from Philladelphia and shipped them to NY via the Delaware River. He took his army across the Delaware and marched torwards Sandy Hook. Once there he would use the Royal Navy to take him across Raritan Bay to NY. Washington was aware of this and broke camp at Valley Forge. He marched North and crossed the Delaware in present day New Hope. He shadowed the Britsh army for several days but then they met at Monmouth Couthouse.

So i don't make this ridiculously long i'll only describe events around where nikki and I walked. the visitor center is at the bottom left of the picture. That is where we parked and where we started our walk. This is Combs Hill and prety much overlooks the whole battlefield. During the battle General Knox positioned cannons here firing constantly into the British line directly in front. [Quick note on how cannons were used. In close they used cannons like big shotguns firing cans full of lead balls. this was called grapeshot. In this case they were probably firing iron balls. They wouldn't explode like you see in the movies. Instead they bounced like a stone on water. You would fire into the dirt in front of the target and the ball would skip into the lines. In this position the colonists were able to bounce balls all up through the British line...nasty]

Nikki and i walked down the hill to the foot bridge over the swampy creek below. This creek effectively blocked the British from pushing Knox off Combs Hill. We continued walking in a relatively straight line along the British position with a recreated rail fence on our right. A hundred yards to our left was the colonists position. This area was the site of most of the more violent clashes of the day with the British and colonists pushing at each other several times in the day. the British position was a hedgrow/fence line. The colonists had an Orchard, rail fence and barn along their line. As we walk this area my mind always drifts and i start imagining the sounds, sights and events that occured in this seemingly ordinary field. Nikki and i continued to where the trail meets the Freehold Road. There was a road in the same place during the battle. Just across the road is another rail fence where the British line continued. Today it is a field but at the time it was woods. There was fierce fighting here as well.

The purpose of this part of the battle was to buy time for Washington's main army (noted as the large arrow) to turn around, go over Spotswood-Middlebrook Creek (marked by aqua colored line.) and take a good defensive position on Perrine Hill not seen on the map. My mind races whenever i see this swampy creek because i have read accounts of British and Colonists trying to cross the muck, loosing shoes, weapons, being killed oe wounded. It's crazy to think of such violence occuring here!

Well, back to our walk. When we got to the road we made a sharp left, continued a short distance then turned right and went along the Continental line. We then went back up to the visitor center.

Eventually Washington finished placing his Army on Perrine hill and the Colonial units on this side of the bridge withdrew to join Washington. The British then placed several cannon and Washington and Clinton shelled each other for a good part of the day. This turned out to be the longest artillery duel of the whole war.

I think Nikki mentioned patched war damage on Tennet Church. This is probably when the damage occured. The church was several hundred yards behind Washington's position.

I'll probably give more history after Nikki and I get back from the Battle of Monmouth reenactment in June. No complaing if it's long!! =)