Monmouth, NJ
Stories
5 first-person accounts from the Revolutionary era.
Historical Voices
Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher)
The Water Carrier of Monmouth
I followed the army because my husband went, and a wife who could work was needed as much as a soldier who could fire. That is not how the stories tell it — they make it sound as though I wandered ont...
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
The Drillmaster and the Proving Ground
When I arrived at Valley Forge in February of 1778, I found an army that possessed bravery in abundance and discipline almost not at all. The soldiers were willing to fight — that was never in questio...
Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher)
Water, Then Powder
The story of Molly Pitcher is both true and not true. That is the difficulty of it. A woman — probably Mary Ludwig Hays, possibly others — carried water to artillery crews at Monmouth and then, when a...
Modern Voices
The Proving Ground: Monmouth Battlefield Today
The fields at Monmouth look much as they did in 1778. This is both the park's strength and its challenge. Unlike many Revolutionary War sites, which have been absorbed by suburban development or overl...
The Heat You Can Still Feel
If you want to understand Monmouth, come in late June. Come on a hot day. Walk the battlefield when the temperature is in the nineties and the humidity makes your clothes stick to your skin. Then imag...