Historians have long considered the Battle of Monmouth one of the most complicated engagements of the American Revolution. Fought on Sunday, June 28, 1778, Monmouth was critical to the success of the Revolution. It also marked a decisive turning point in the military career of George Washington. Without the victory at Monmouth Courthouse, Washington's critics might well have marshaled the political strength to replace him as the American commander-in-chief. Authors Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone argue that in political terms, the Battle of Monmouth constituted a pivotal moment in the War for Independence. Viewing the political and military aspects of the campaign as inextricably entwined, this book offers a fresh perspective on Washington’s role in it. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources—many never before used, including archaeological evidence—Lender and Stone disentangle the true story of Monmouth and provide the most complete and accurate account of the battle, including both American and British perspectives. In the course of their account it becomes evident that criticism of Washington’s performance in command was considerably broader and deeper than previously acknowledged. In light of long-standing practical and ideological questions about his vision for the Continental Army and his ability to win the war, the outcome at Monmouth—a hard-fought tactical draw—was politically insufficient for Washington. Lender and Stone show how the general’s partisans, determined that the battle for public opinion would be won in his favor, engineered a propaganda victory for their chief that involved the spectacular court-martial of Major General Charles Lee, the second-ranking officer of the Continental Army. Replete with poignant anecdotes, folkloric incidents, and stories of heroism and combat brutality; filled with behind-the-scenes action and intrigue; and teeming with characters from all walks of life, Fatal Sunday gives us the definitive view of the fateful Battle of Monmouth.

This book tells the history of Monmouth County, NJ during the Revolutionary War.

Michael S. Adelberg brings to life the struggles within Monmouth County, a place that New Jersey governor William Livingston called "the theatre of spoil and destruction." Like much of New Jersey during the American Revolution, Monmouth County was contested territory in between the great armies. As the Battles of Trenton, Princeton and Bound Brook raged nearby, the people of Monmouth County fought their own internal revolution; Loyalist partisans led insurrections and raids that laid waste to entire neighborhoods. In 1778, General George Washington rallied his Continental army and fought the British within Monmouth's borders, barely holding the field. Monmouth Countians joined the fight and then spent the following weeks caring for the wounded and burying the dead. The remaining war years brought more hardships, as they grappled with a local civil war charged with racial, religious and economic undercurrents - a local civil war that continued long after the Battle of Yorktown supposedly ended hostilities.

Winner of the 2016 New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Authors Award for the Edited Works Category Battles were fought in many colonies during the American Revolution, but New Jersey was home to more sustained and intense fighting over a longer period of time. The nine essays in The American Revolution in New Jersey, depict the many challenges New Jersey residents faced at the intersection of the front lines and the home front. Unlike other colonies, New Jersey had significant economic power in part because of its location between the major ports of New York and Philadelphia. New people and new ideas arriving in the colony fostered tensions between Loyalists and Patriots that were at the core of the Revolution. Enlightenment thinking shaped the minds of New Jersey’s settlers as they began to question the meaning of freedom in the colony. Yeoman farmers demanded ownership of the land they worked on and members of the growing Quaker denomination decried the evils of slavery and spearheaded the abolitionist movement in the state. When larger portions of New Jersey were occupied by British forces early in the war, the unity of the state was crippled, pitting neighbor against neighbor for seven years. The essays in this collection identify and explore the interconnections between the events on the battlefield and the daily lives of ordinary colonists during the Revolution. Using a wide historical lens, the contributors to The American Revolution in New Jersey capture the decades before and after the conflict as they interpret the causes of the war and the consequences of New Jersey’s reaction to the Revolution.

On June 10, 1779, a Loyalist raiding party landed on the shore of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and advanced unnoticed on the town of Tinton Falls. It captured five leading Patriots and plundered many others. Homes and barns were burned to the ground; stores were looted and livestock driven off. The local militia scattered. That afternoon, as the raiders loaded their barges, a reinforced militia engaged the Loyalists in a battle that climaxed with vicious hand-to-hand combat. Historian Michael Adelberg brings the Tinton Falls raid to life, re-creating the day in the voices of ten narrators based on real people--a child of a Revolutionary leader, a Loyalist officer, a militiaman, a pacifist, a businesswoman and many others--each of whom experienced the day very differently.

Presents an analysis of the Battle of Monmouth and the entire campaign along with information on the commanders, personnel, organization, training, and weapons for both armies along with a look at the battle within the context of the American Revolution and the civil war between the Tories and Whigs in New Jersey.

Many of the critical events and dreadful realities of the intense warfare in New Jersey during the American Revolution have been forgotten, neglected, or lost to history. Sites in the Garden State where patriots fought and died remain unmarked, shrouded in mystery, clouded in mythology, or concealed by obscure accounts and dull statistics. Many places in the "Crossroads of the Revolution" state have entirely disappeared, while others languish unnoticed or have been built over by town development and local highways. Many of the Garden State residents who commute every day over heavily trafficked streets are completely unaware of the fierce struggles that occurred along their route during America's most important war. In "Revolutionary New Jersey" New Jersey-based author Robert Mayers has rediscovered and revived the history of previously forsaken locations by exploring them in person. He then enhances his observations from on-site visits with fresh research from original documents, often discovered in obscure British, Hessian and French records. The reader is subsequently transported to the battlefields and encampments in three theaters of the conflict in New Jersey- "The War in the Countryside," "The War at the Shore" and "New Jersey Campgrounds"-by describing Revolutionary events which occurred in more than 100 present-day towns. This narrative escorts readers back in time to feel, see, and hear the action that occurred over 200 years ago in familiar settings. It is hoped that all readers of Bob Mayers's newest book will acquire a new respect for the Revolutionary War events that took place locally (and in some instances in their own backyards). It is through this awareness that local sites might be maintained, and the glorious memory of those individuals who fought for our freedom preserved for the future.

This remarkably comprehensive anthology brings new life to the rich and turbulent late 18th-century period in New Jersey. Originally conceived for the state's 225th Anniversary of the Revolution Celebration Commission.

This remarkable book is nothing less than an alphabetical listing of nearly the entire adult male (and some of the female) population of Monmouth County during the American Revolution--some 6,000 Monmouth Countians between 1776 and 1783. For roughly half of the persons listed, we find one or two identifying pieces of information, such as militia service, date of death, signer of a petition, conviction of a misdemeanor, occupation, and so on. But in an equal number of cases we are presented with enough information to trace the allegiance or comings and goings of a Monmouth County resident over a number of years (e.g., Abiel Aiken: militia volunteer, 1776; signer of petition, 1777; coroner, 1778; justice of the peace, 1780-83; leased horses to Continental Army, 1781; and so on).