Chapter 7: June 1778, The Battle of Monmouth

Selby and his comrades were glad that the winter was over, and everyone was still rejoicing over the news that the French had decided to form an alliance with them against the British. Even so, they were all tired of Valley Forge and their impatience was building as rapidly as the summer heat.

2 General Sir Henry Clinton had taken over command of the British Army, and he was busily evacuating that force from Philadelphia. Observing his preparations and movements and spoiling for an opportunity to test his newly trained soldiers against the enemy, General George Washington summoned his subordinates for a council of war.

3 “We should wait for the French to arrive,” General Charles Lee advised. “If we fail to harass and engage the enemy now, the public will conclude that we don’t have the will or the courage to face them,” General Anthony Wayne disagreed. “It would be criminal recklessness to risk any action at the present time!” Lee exploded.

4 “We will follow and harass the enemy,” Washington announced. “We will not, however, risk a general action with them unless circumstances render our success a certainty.”

5 Nevertheless, in spite of his decision to move forward, the Commander-in-Chief equivocated about which one of his generals to place in command of his advance force against Clinton. Lee was his senior general, but Washington was worried about his publicly expressed distaste for the course of action on which he had settled. However, when General Lee learned that Washington intended to place Lafayette at the helm of the force, professional jealousy overcame any scruples he had against the operation.

6 “Seeing your determination to pursue this course, I now see the whole operation in a different light,” Lee explained to Washington. “I would, of course, be honored to lead these soldiers,” he told him.

7 Late the next morning, General Lee and his troops marched out of Valley Forge in pursuit of the British forces which had just crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey. Washington, along with Selby’s unit and most of the rest of the Army, followed a short while later.

8 For Clinton, however, the progress was slow. His men were carrying heavy packs and hauling even heavier artillery pieces across country, and the summer heat was oppressive. His men were already exhausted. So, he stopped near Monmouth Courthouse and decided to rest for a day.

9 Seeing an opportunity at last, Washington summoned his generals to another council. “When General Clinton resumes his march, his columns will be spread out and vulnerable,” he told them. “His advance guard will be separated from his rear guard, and we will attack,” he explained. “General Lee will initiate the attack, and we will follow and support him,” Washington concluded.

10 Early the next morning, the British resumed their march toward Sandy Hook. General Washington immediately dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Meade to order Lee to begin the attack. At the same time, he commenced preparations for the rest of the Army to join Lee’s soldiers on the battlefield.

11 Colonel John Patton’s 2^nd North Carolina Regiment marched alongside the Commander-in-Chief. Selby thought the General looked splendid and serene atop his proud white horse.

12 The heat, however, was withering. “Feels like we’re walkin in an oven,” one of the soldiers grumbled. Even so, the men followed their determined and confident General forward toward the impending battle.

13 It was now about noon, and Selby had noticed a change in the General’s demeanor. He had a concerned look on his face. “We should be getting close,” he said without looking at anyone in particular. “Where are the sounds of battle?” he seemed to ask himself. He leaned forward on his horse, and then galloped a short distance ahead of the marching troops.

14 Selby could see that Washington was talking with two soldiers who had emerged from a clump of trees. Within minutes, General Lee and his staff came into view just as the boys from North Carolina caught up with their Commander-in-Chief.

15 “Sir, what is the meaning of all of this!” Selby heard Washington demand of Lee. “Why this disorder, confusion and retreat?” he pressed. “Sir?” Lee stammered. “Damn you, man, what are you about here?” Washington shouted. “The attack failed,” Lee stammered. “We are in retreat,” he almost whispered. “Those soldiers told me that they fired a single volley before falling back in confusion,” Washington said with obvious disgust. Lee was speechless.

16 “Sir, you are relieved of command!” the Commander-in-Chief snarled. “General Greene, you will assume command of these soldiers and form them into lines behind that ravine,” Washington ordered. Then he turned and rode forward into the retreating American Army.

17 Selby could hear the musket and artillery fire getting nearer to their position, but they hadn’t had time to get all of their men into position. Then he noticed men coming from the direction of the fighting and forming up into a line behind a hedgerow just in front of their own position.

18 The men in the hedgerow opened fire on the advancing Redcoats and gave General Greene’s men time to get into place. Then they fell back across the ravine and joined the rest of the Army.

19 The British surged forward, and Selby and his comrades opened fire. The Redcoats wavered and fell back and tried again, but the American lines held. There was an intense and prolonged exchange of artillery fire. Men were dropping like flies on both sides from the intense heat, and then the sun was setting.

20 Both armies bivouacked on the battlefield that night. “We will attack them in the morning!” Selby heard Washington say to General Greene. Selby could see the flickering flames of the British campfires and wondered what the morrow would bring.

21 In the morning, however, the enemy was gone. They had slipped away during the night. “I finally have an army that will fight,” Washington thought as he rode through the abandoned camp. Things may not have unfolded as he had planned, but his men had responded quickly to his commands and stood their ground.

22 For his part, Clinton was stunned by the performance of the American Army. This was not the sloppy, cowardly and unprofessional army that he had expected to face.

Chapter 6: Winter 1777-1778, Valley Forge

Congress wanted the army to keep fighting, but Washington insisted on a winter encampment. Nevertheless, as a concession to the politicians, he looked for a place that would keep them close to the British in Philadelphia. He chose a densely wooded place near the Schuylkill River known as Valley Forge.

2 Martin was still beating out the cadence as his regiment marched into the area in the middle of December. Lieutenant Colonel Harney could hear Martin’s drum even when his own company’s drummers had fallen silent. “I like that drummer’s enthusiasm,” he told one of his privates as they too approached the place where they would camp.

3 The first order of business upon their arrival there was to provide adequate shelter for the troops from the cold and wet of a Pennsylvania winter. As a consequence, everyone was immediately transformed into carpenters and construction laborers.

4 Even Martin temporarily set aside his fife and drum and took up the axe and saw. In fact, when all was said and done, Martin was sure that he had cut down more trees than any other man in his unit.

5 To be sure, the cabins that sprang up along the avenues of the camp were crude and drafty, but they would keep out some of the wind, snow and rain that everyone knew was on the way. “Fill in every one of those cracks,” Selby ordered one of his men who had begun chinking between the logs of the cabin he would share with Colonel John Patton and Major Hardy Murphy.

6 “You may not want to seal it up too tight!” the major shouted from the cabin next door. “I’m afraid no one here knows how to build a chimney that will draw properly,” he explained. The remarks would prove prophetic. Their very first fire in their new cabin almost smoked them out of their cozy little home away from home.

7 Also, in the midst of the hard work and slim rations, there was a little good news for Selby. There was a knock on his cabin door, and he opened the door to find an out of breath lieutenant waiting on the other side.

8 “General Washington wishes to inform you that your brother, Lieutenant Jenethan Harney, has been released by the enemy as part of an exchange of prisoners,” the young man managed to spit out. “Thank you and thank General Washington!” Selby replied with a big smile.

9 “That’s good news,” Colonel Patton said as he slapped Selby on the back. “Now, if we could just get something good to eat, we could be really happy,” Major Murphy added.

10 “A little meat sure would be nice,” Martin grumbled in another cabin a short distance from Selby’s. “I know that I’m tired of firecake!” Sergeant Bullock agreed. “I’d give my left nut for a pair of shoes and a decent blanket!” Private Robert Dennis added through chattering teeth. He would be dead by March. Indeed, the American Army seemed to be short of almost everything that winter.

11 Their suffering, however, was not limited to the dearth of supplies. Frostbite and sickness plagued almost every cabin in the encampment. Washington tried to improve the lot of his soldiers, but his efforts often went unrewarded. He knew that it would be very hard to maintain the morale of his army in the face of such deprivation and illness. The foreboding grey sky that stood over the camp like a dome didn’t help matters either.

12 Then, in late February, a ray of sunshine in the likeness of a former Prussian Army officer appeared in camp. His name was Friedrich von Steuben, and he was just what the American Army needed. Although he spoke only a few words of English, he quickly set about the task of instructing the soldiers and their officers in the martial arts as practiced by professional armies in Europe.

13 At first, he introduced the drill to only a few men. Nevertheless, by the time that spring arrived, the entire camp was learning about his techniques and had already begun to employ many of them on a daily basis.

14 Martin noticed the Baron busily training a small group of musicians one day and was mesmerized by the spectacle before him. Von Steuben was waving his arms and marching around the men while shouting commands in French and German, along with an occasional expletive in English. Martin understood some of the German words that he had heard as a child in his parent’s home, and he certainly understood the expletives.

15 Von Steuben spotted Martin standing to the side listening to what was being said and asked him if he understood German. “Yah,” Martin answered without thinking. “I have tried to explain to my drummers and fifers the importance of our music in conveying signals and orders to the other soldiers,” Martin told him in broken German. The Baron was ecstatic.

16 He marched over to Martin and pulled him into the circle of troops and included him in his instruction about the various signals. “The General is used to alert the soldiers that it is time to strike their tents and prepare to march,” he told them. He went on to explain the use of The Assembly, The March, The Reveille and The Tattoo. “Did you get all that?” he asked Martin in German. “Yah,” Martin replied with a smile. “Good!” the Baron exclaimed in English as he patted Martin’s shoulder.

17 “Imagine how much better our army will be when all of our soldiers are able to recognize the signals!” Selby told Colonel Patton, who was standing next to him watching the Baron train the men. “Yes, I believe that the enemy is going to be surprised the next time we meet on the battlefield,” the Colonel agreed.

18 The Commander-in-Chief was also pleased with the results of the training that the Baron had instituted. “Now I can face them with a real army,” Washington thought to himself as he observed from a distance. In fact, many of the soldiers who had survived the hardships of the winter began to allow themselves to imagine that this army, their army, might actually defeat the British when the fighting resumed.

Chapter 5: September-November 1777, Brandywine and Germantown

Drum Major and Fifer Martin Luther Miller was a mixture of excitement and nervousness as the Ninth North Carolina Regiment marched out to join General Washington’s army in Pennsylvania. He beat the march out on his drum as the soldiers moved through the fields, woods and small hamlets of Virginia. Whenever they passed through a city or village of any size, Martin would shift to his fife and add a little color to the music to impress the locals and inspire a little pride in his comrades.

2 It was late summer in the South when they had started, but Martin was a little apprehensive about those notoriously cold winters in the North. Still, there would be time enough to think about those things in the months ahead. “Why spoil such a beautiful day with such dreariness?” Martin thought as he soaked in the sunshine beating down on his face.

3 A few months earlier, another North Carolina regiment had set out for the North. Selby Harney had joined the Second Regiment as a major and had marched north with his unit in May. They too had passed through Virginia but had taken a more circuitous route than their brethren. They stopped in Alexandria to be inoculated against the dreaded scourge of Smallpox, and then continued on to join the Continental Army in New Jersey.

4 Upon their arrival, they found their fellow soldiers to be in relatively good spirits. They were still basking in the glow of the American victories at Trenton and Princeton. The enemy, however, was on the move again and seemed intent on capturing Philadelphia.

5 Nevertheless, while Congress and the Commander-in-Chief were preoccupied with what General Howe was trying to do, Selby could only think about his brother languishing on a British prison ship. “Those people have Jenethan!” he thought.

6 In the meantime, the Continental Army had arrived at Brandywine Creek and was busily making preparations to prevent the British from crossing it. “As the road to Philadelphia crosses the Brandywine there, I believe that the enemy will most likely attempt to cross at Chadd’s Ford,” Washington told his subordinates.

7 “What about the fords above and below that one?” General Greene asked. “We must, of course, be prepared to meet the threat wherever it arises,” was the answer. Then the Commander-in-Chief turned to General Francis Nash and said, “The North Carolina Brigade will be able to spring into action and meet any unforeseen contingencies.”

8 Martin was busy tutoring his young drummers and fifers while the officers plotted their strategy. “We must take our lead from the officers,” he told them. “Don’t take your eyes off of them!” he continued. “And listen to me – not the cannons and muskets. When the battle begins, it will be our duty to communicate to the troops through our music what their commanders expect them to do,” Martin continued.

9 “Tom, if you and John can’t pay attention today, what must I expect from you then!” he scolded two young men whispering together at the edge of the small group of musicians. “Sorry, Martin,” they both offered at the same time. “Let’s just do our duty and not disappoint anyone,” Martin smiled.

10 On the morning of September 11, the British opened fire on the defenders of Chadd’s Ford. The two sides exchanged musket and artillery fire for several hours without much effect. “I knew they would hit us there,” Washington thought to himself. Finally, as the futility of the exchange became more apparent to both sides, the artillery and musket fire dwindled to almost nothing.

11 Just then, a message arrived from General Sullivan. “A large column of enemy soldiers was seen marching north along the Valley Road,” it read. This was followed by yet another sighting of British troops on the same road. “Is this another feint?” Washington wondered to himself.

12 Major Harney entered the General’s headquarters and approached the table where the Commander-in-Chief was studying a crude map that had been hastily spread over its surface. Washington looked up and spoke first. “You will convey to Lord Stirling that I want him to move a few regiments here to the north of his current position,” he said as he pointed to the map. “And tell General Nash to ready his troops to move in the same direction at my command,” he ordered. Selby shook his head and quickly set off on his mission, forgetting that he had wanted to talk to the General about his brother.

13 In the meantime, a man named Thomas Cheney rode up to Washington’s headquarters, dismounted and demanded to see the Commander-in-Chief. “The General is busy right now!” the incredulous sentry declared. “I don’t care how busy he is. I’ve got to see him,” the man insisted. “Follow me,” the sentry finally relented.

14 As Cheney was ushered into Washington’s presence, he pushed past the sentry and removed his hat. “General, the Redcoats are on this side of the Brandywine and are approaching your army from the north!” the man exclaimed. The sentry saw a look of pure astonishment on the General’s normally placid face.

15 “Convey to General Sullivan my earnest desire that he redirect the attention of his regiments to meet this threat!” Washington ordered one of his aides. “You,” he pointed at another aide. “Inform Lord Stirling and the other reserves that they must also move forward to meet this challenge,” he commanded.

16 Fortunately for the Americans, it was late in the day when the attack from the north commenced, and the British forces under Cornwallis were exhausted by their sixteen-mile march to surprise their foes. The battle was intense, and the British were relentless. While advancing and attacking the Americans on their right flank and rear, they simultaneously pushed across Chadd’s Ford. Nevertheless, most of the American soldiers refused to panic, and Washington was able to rally his army to retreat with some semblance of order.

17 Martin’s drummers and fifers never stopped playing either. The drums continued to provide the music for the march as the Americans withdrew from the battle. Sure, they wavered a time or two, but they had never fallen altogether silent. “I like that sound,” Selby told Lieutenant Colonel John Patten as they marched along. “It is somehow very reassuring to me.”

18 The American Army bivouacked at Chester that evening. The following day they marched to Reading Furnace to replenish their stores of ammunition. Having done that, they marched out to face the enemy again.

19 The two armies met again near Warren Tavern and prepared for another major battle. God, however, had other ideas. The heavens opened up and quickly drenched both armies.

20 “Now that is a proper rain,” Martin told Tom. At the same instant, about one hundred feet away, Major Harney was reporting his own news about the deluge to General Nash. “The men’s cartridge boxes are soaked, and their ammunition is ruined!” he told the general. “Carry that report to General Washington,” Nash ordered. Selby hurried off through the rain to Washington’s headquarters and repeated what he had just told Nash.

21 When the rain finally stopped, Washington ordered his troops north again to replace their ruined ammunition. From there, the Continental Army moved into position once again to block the enemy’s path into Philadelphia.

22 The British general, however, out maneuvered Washington once again and marched into the city as September was drawing to a close. Fortunately, the members of the Continental Congress had already fled the city. Even so, it was a psychological blow to the Americans to lose their provisional capital.

23 As a consequence, Washington decided to attack the British forces stationed north of the city in Germantown at the beginning of October. “General Greene’s soldiers will march down the Limekiln road and force the enemy toward the Schuylkill River,” the Commander-in-Chief explained to his subordinates. “I will accompany General Sullivan’s forces down the Main Street and attack the main body of their army,” he continued. “General Armstrong will approach the enemy on the Manawatamy Road, and General Smallwood will attack from the York Road. Lord Stirling’s men, under Generals Maxwell and Nash, will follow as reserves,” he finished.

24 On the night of October 3, the four columns of Continental soldiers moved south toward Germantown. At dawn, Washington ordered the attack to begin.

25 In the meantime, a thick fog had settled over the entire area making it virtually impossible for the Commander-in-Chief and his generals to coordinate their attack. Thus, although the initial attack looked like it was working, the British managed to quickly recover their equilibrium and go on the offensive.

26 General Nash and his men could hear the cannon and musket fire in front of them, but the fog prevented them from seeing what was unfolding there. “I can’t see anything!” Major Harney told the general. Martin and the other musicians were even closer to the officers than usual because of the fog.

27 Then, suddenly, appearing out of the mist before them, some of their comrades emerged. They were obviously fleeing the battle. “What’s happening?” Captain Allen asked one of the soldiers. “Them Redcoats is headed this way!” the soldier exclaimed.

28 Nash turned to Major Witherspoon and ordered him to ready the troops for battle. The officers quickly lined up their men, and the soldiers marched toward the sound of the battle. When they reached the action, the men promptly raised their muskets and began firing into the enemy lines.

29 The British artillery fire was merciless. Martin looked up just in time to see General Nash hit first by a musket ball in his head, and then his horse was hit by a cannonball at about the same time. Selby was showered with blood and gore, but Major James Witherspoon was even more unfortunate – he had been too close to the general when the projectile had hit.

30 Witherspoon was obviously beyond anyone’s help, and Selby immediately redirected his attention toward his commander. “The General has been wounded!” Major Harney shouted. “Help me to move him!”

31 Nash’s face was swollen and distorted from the musket ball, and he was bleeding profusely from the area where his trunk connected to his legs. Nevertheless, Selby and two other soldiers managed to drag the stricken general from the field. Martin watched them in stunned silence for a moment as his regiment continued to fall back from the slowly advancing Redcoats.

32 Finally, the British onslaught stopped, and the Americans retreated from Germantown. They had been defeated, but they had not acted like cowards. They had had the audacity to launch an attack on the greatest army on the face of the earth at that time.

33 Martin felt nothing but pride for the men surrounding him. He raised his fife and began playing a tune that was now familiar to all of them: “The Lexington March” (or what later generations would recognize as “Yankee Doodle”).

34 General Nash died a few days later. After the war, a city in the new State of Tennessee would be named in his honor. Toward the end of November, Major Harney was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in recognition of his cool-headedness and bravery at the Battle of Germantown. Washington and his army, however, were now preoccupied with preparing for the rapidly approaching winter.

35 Now these are the generations of Martin Luther Miller of Germany:

36 Martin and Elizabeth Miller were the parents of Daniel.

37 Daniel Miller married Betsy Fields, and they had Nancy, Thomas and David.

38 After Betsy’s death, he married Mary Streval, and they had children: Martha, William Preston (Press), Frank, Mary, James, Dorsia and Isaac.