The Night Before Monmouth: The Valley Forge Army Faces Its Test RoadyGoat
1778On the night of June 27, 1778, the Continental Army bedded down in the New Jersey heat on the eve of the Battle of Monmouth. It was the same army that had nearly disintegrated at Valley Forge the winter before, then been rebuilt through months of relentless drill under the Prussian volunteer Baron von Steuben, who taught it to maneuver and use the bayonet like a European army. As Sir Henry Clinton's British column retreated from Philadelphia toward New York across New Jersey, trailing a baggage train miles long, George Washington shadowed it all day and pushed his advance force up close to strike the British rear in the morning. The battle fought the next day, June 28, was one of the largest of the war, and it was punished by extreme heat, with soldiers on both sides dropping dead of heatstroke without a wound. After a ragged start, the retrained Continentals stood their ground against British regulars and held the field, proof that the brutal winter at Valley Forge had forged exactly what they needed. (Source: American Battlefield Trust; Monmouth Battlefield State Park.)
