THE SANDS OF MONMOUTH
For a week we hung on the flank of the enemy, waiting for an
opportunity to strike, as we saw the immense train form on the right
bank of the Delaware and take up its cumbersome march across the
Jersey plains.
With it marched the whole force of the British army of seventeen
thousand men, who did their duty so well that we longed for an opening
in vain.
All through those blazing hot days of June we marched through the
sands of Jersey, ankle deep as we trudged along, and it seemed as if
the time for a trial of strength would never come. All to the east and
south of us the great train of their wagons crawled along through the
heat and the dust, and the sun glinted and gleamed on the points of
the bayonets as the mass of their troops marched on.
Slowly they crawled through the dusty roads of Jersey, and slowly they
were crawling beyond the reach of our arms into the haven of safety.
At last, on the 27th of the month, they reached the heights of
Monmouth, within a day's march of their journey's end, while we lay
five miles away at Englishtown, swearing low and earnestly at our
luck.
That night there came news to the camp that put new life in the men,
and made them forget the heat and the toil of the march; the news that
the great General had decided to risk a throw in the morning, and that
our regiment was to be with the advance.
And so, when Lee rode up to take command, we gave him a cheer, for
though we disliked and distrusted the man, yet his coming meant a
fight in the morning.
Then there was a great stir in the camp; the men saw to their muskets,
and the signs everywhere told of their eager preparations for the
deadly struggle in the morning, while the cheery laugh and the
snatches of song spoke well for the spirits of the men after the long,
toilsome march of the day.
The sun comes up out of the ocean early in Jersey, but even before its
rays had cleared the pine tops our camp was stirring with life, the
men preparing for the advance.
But there seemed to be a fatality about it all; a hand, as it were,
covered us and held us back, paralyzing the spirit of the men. Delay
followed delay, and when at last the regiments took up the line of
march, ours was held back until almost the last. The New Jersey
volunteers had the post of honour, as they longed to revenge their
ruined homesteads and devastated farms, and then our turn came.
We marched out of Englishtown into the dreary country beyond. On every
side sand dunes, former barriers of the ocean, raised their crests,
covered with a straggling forest of stunted pines and scrub trees,
which, in the passes in the hills, came down to the road, disputing
the passageway, while in the shallow valleys lay the open fields and
marshes. A dreary country withal, but where a small body of troops
could hold the passes in the hills against many hundreds and make good
their defence.
We passed through the defile in the first range of hills, crossed the
low valley, and then, after passing through the second defile, we had
only to cross the one before us to be on the heights overlooking the
enemy's position at Freehold.
As we approached this last pass in the hills we were surprised to see
a steady stream of our troops coming back in disorder through the gap.
The men were retreating doggedly in broken ranks, and turning, as they
trudged along, to look back, as if with half a mind to return.
As they came streaming past our advance I called to a sergeant, an old
backwoodsman whose courage I knew, and asked him of the battle and why
he was not fighting.
"Fight?" he cried indignantly, "why, damn it, Lieutenant, they will
not let us fight. They ordered us to retreat before a musket was
fired."
At that moment Captain Mercer, an aide of the staff of General Lee,
rode up to Colonel Ramsay, who was near me.
He delivered an order rapidly, and then I heard Ramsay's voice ring
out angrily. "Retreat?" he cried. "By whose order?"
"By the order of General Lee."
"But," he protested hotly, "we have not seen the enemy yet."
Mercer shrugged his shoulders. "I only carry the order," he said.
The stream of fugitives grew rapidly, becoming more disorderly,
showing at every step the spread of the panic and the rout, as Colonel
Ramsay stopped the advance and gave the order to retreat.
Slowly and reluctantly we obeyed, and as we retired through the second
pass in the hills we saw the British gain the opposite ridge and
advance with cheers on the disorderly flying mass in the sandy valley
behind.
Every moment the press of the fugitives grew greater, and though we
still maintained our formation and marched as on parade the retreat
had turned into a rout. On every side and in our rear the broken
ranks of the army poured past, demoralised and in despair, and ever
nearer came the musketry and the cheers of the advancing English.
"They will catch us before we get through the gap," said Dick, looking
at the pass in front of us.
"Then we will fight anyhow," I replied, "and General Lee can go to the
devil."
Whereupon our spirits began to pick up, and the men retreated more
slowly than ever, glancing over their shoulders to see how near the
head of the British column was.
At last we came to the foot of the first pass, with its hills heavily
covered with scrub pines. Behind us stretched the fields of broken
troops, and we could see the red line of the British as they debouched
upon the plain and drove the patriots before them.
It was a wild scene of confusion and disorder, of demoralised retreat
and rout; and then something happened.
There was a stir in the pass in our front, a clatter of hoofs, and
there appeared before us the General with his staff. He towered there
with his great figure, a veritable god of war and of wrath.
For a moment his eye swept the field, and his face flushed crimson
with indignation and anger, as he saw the best troops of his army
flying like sheep before the enemy. There was a storm in the air, and
then, as Lee rode up, it broke.
We heard his excited "Sir, sir!" and the General's angry tones, and
then dismissing him contemptuously, he called to Hamilton to ask if
there was a regiment which could stop the advance.
Ramsay sprang forward.
"My regiment is ready, General."
"If you stop them ten minutes until I form, you will save the army."
"I will stop them or fall," cried Ramsay, and, turning to us, he gave
the order to "About face," and then crying that the General relied on
us to save the army, he led us in the charge.
Not a moment too soon, for, as the press of the fugitives was brushed
aside by our advance, mingling in the midst of the disorderly mass,
came the red line of the British, cheering and victorious.
But suddenly the flying mass disappeared, and in their place came the
yell of the Maryland Line, the long array of their bayonets bent to
the charge, with all the fury and weight of their onset.
For a moment the red line hesitated; then an officer, who looked
strangely familiar, sprang forward, shouting:
"They are nothing but dogs of rebels; charge and break them."
The red line answered with a cheer, for their fighting blood was up,
and they dashed forward to meet us.
Then came such a clash of steel as is seldom heard, as the King's
Grenadiers and the Maryland Line met in the shock of the charge. For a
moment so close was the press that we could not wield our arms, and
men fell, spitted on each other's bayonets.
Then came a deadly struggle, as men fought desperately, hand to hand,
and the lines swayed backward and forward as the weight of the numbers
told. The ground was lost and gained, struggled for and won over and
over, while the dead lay in heaps under our feet.
It was in the midst of this deadly struggle, when I was fighting sword
in hand amid the press of bayonets for my very life, that I saw
Ramsay, who was near, cheering on his men, come face to face with the
officer who led the charge of the Grenadiers. Then, in that storm
centre, around which the roar of battle raged, there was a flash of
steel and the swords crossed. But in the fury of the battle duels are
short and fierce, and I saw Ramsay, who was already covered with
wounds, falter for a moment, as the other lunged, and then he was down
among the slain.
Our line hesitated as Ramsay fell, and the English pressed on with a
cheer. But I sprang forward, shouting to the men to save their
Colonel, and they, answering my call, forced the English back, until I
stood by Ramsay's body. But only for a moment; before we could raise
Ramsay gently up and bear him off the field, there came another charge
of the Grenadiers that forced us off our feet and hurled us backward,
fighting desperately, leaving the body of our Colonel in the hands of
the enemy. But in the _mêlée_ I found my sword crossing that of the
officer who had fought with Ramsay, and instantly I attacked him
fiercely, for I was burning to avenge Ramsay's fall. But he, with ease
and coolness, parried all my thrusts and played with me as if I were
but a child. Then, as I was growing desperate, he called to me, "Nay,
lad, go try your sword on some one else and leave an old Scot alone. I
would not hurt you for the world."
I started and let the point of my sword fall, for it was the voice of
the old Tory, whom I had not before recognised in the confusion of the
fight. This slight hesitation almost led to my capture, for I had been
fighting in advance of our line, and now I found myself in the midst
of the English troops. So, saluting the old Tory hastily, I regained
our lines.
Then, fighting foot by foot and inch, by inch, we contested their
advance, as the weight of numbers bore us backward up the hill into
the pines. But every minute gained meant the salvation of the army.
Ah, it was hot work there, ankle deep in the sand, with the broiling
sun above us, while the smoke and the dust of the conflict filled our
throats and eyes; but we staggered on and fought blindly, desperately,
amid the din and the carnage.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes--ah, there it is at last, and the roar of
the opening battle broke out to the right and left of us, as the
re-formed regiments went into the fight.
Then to our left came the high piercing yell of our brothers of the
Line, and we knew that the British were falling back before them. The
Grenadiers struggled on for a moment longer, but the force of their
charge was spent, and the fire of the new regiments forced them back
in turn.
But it was only for awhile, for they re-formed, and, under the
leadership of the gallant Monkton, hurled themselves upon us once
again.
Monkton fell, and their lines shrivelled up under our fire. Then, as
it was near the setting of the sun, Washington, glancing over the
field, saw that the time had come and ordered the advance.
Our whole line sprang forward, and, though we had borne the brunt, the
toil, and heat of the day, not a man faltered. As the long line swept
forward the British slowly retreated before us. We drove them across
the plain and through the second pass, where night overtook us and
stopped our pursuit.
But then, when the fever of the battle left us, a great fatigue
seized hold of our limbs, the men sank to the earth as they stood,
and slept from very exhaustion.
But we were soon to be aroused.
Through the darkness came the sound of a horse's hoofs, and a voice,
asking for Ramsay's regiment. I sprang up, answering, and saw
approaching a body of horsemen. The foremost rider seemed an immense
figure, as he advanced in the darkness; but I, who had seen him often
before, knew him to be the great General.
I immediately gave the alarm, and the men sprang to their feet and
presented arms.
And then, there under the pines, by the light of the stars, the
General rode down our line, and, coming to the centre, we felt his
glance fall over our ranks.
"Men of Maryland," spoke Washington, and his voice rang clear through
the pines, "once before at Long Island you saved the army, and to-day,
for a second time, you have done so by your courage and tenacity. I
thank you in the name of the army and the nation; I thank you for
myself."
A wild yell that broke from the Line was his answer. We forgot our
fatigue and our wounds in the pride of the moment.