Wednesday, June 26 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, June 29, 2019 (5:00pm)

Led by: Mark Edward Lender & Garry Wheeler Stone

HQ: East Windsor, New Jersey

Tour Registration: $495.00

The year 1778 was a pivotal turning point in British strategy as London revised its effort to crush the American rebellion. The British decided to abandon Philadelphia, which they had occupied since September 1777, and de-emphasize the war in the northern colonies. Instead the British would redeploy much of its army to other parts of the empire and to the American South, where they hoped the local Loyalist population would rally to support the redcoats. First, however, the British needed to get their army from Philadelphia to New York. The Royal Navy lacked the shipping to transport all of Lt. Gen. Henry Clinton’s troops, animals, and equipment as well as throngs of fearful Tories—so on 18 June Clinton and some 20,000 British, Hessian, and loyalist troops, along with many civilians, prepared to march across New Jersey to New York City. Emerging from Valley Forge, George Washington’s Continental Army gave chase, and on 28 June the rival forces clashed on a blistering hot day at Monmouth Court House (now Freehold) in central New Jersey. The Battle of Monmouth was the longest single day of combat of the war—an engagement with profound political implications for the patriot cause and for General Washington personally.   [Read more…]