Review of From Valley to Forge to Monmouth: Six Transformative Months of the American Revolution
By: James Holden-Rhodes
Great historians have the mental ability to conjure up a palette of rich colors with which to paint their story. The palette crafted by the best historians are a kaleidoscope that embrace a topic of great importance and interest, a superb sense of time and place, and, most importantly, the human element which always binds the other elements into a seamless whole.
Once again, Jim Stempel has painted a canvas that pulls the reader into an extremely important event in American History -- the Winter of 1777-1778. With superb research and supportive analysis, in From Valley Forge to Monmouth: Six Transformative Months of the American Revolution, Stempel has crafted another stellar work, often delving far deeper into events than previous historical accounts.
1777 had seen one disaster after another for the American cause, the only bright light being the British surrender at Saratoga. St. Clair had surrendered Fort Ticonderoga to the Redcoats, and British forces had landed at Head of Elk in Maryland, then proceeded to defeat the Continentals at the Battle of Brandywine. They then occupied Philadelphia, the American capital, and as the year waned, the British captured Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River.
Now, as the bitter cold of winter set in, what was left of the Continental Army — Approximately 8,000 Continentals and 2,000 militia — had settled upon a barren hill 13 miles west of Philadelphia. The darkness of the winter sky blackened the landscape. Suddenly, in a spectral scene, the night sky changed from black to scarlet then to a canopy of vermilion. Dancing in the heavens the Northern Lights—Aurora Borealis— held the Continentals speechless. One soldier wrote later that, “…the whole visible heavens appeared for some time as if covered with crimson velvet.”
Was the blazing sky above them a sign of impending good fortune, or an omen of approaching doom? No one had the slightest idea.
With this lead-in, Stempel grabs the reader who is not disappointed in what is to follow. The ability to reflect the ordeal of soldiers on the ground through their journals is something that Stempel does with great skill, placing the reader close to the action, whether it be loading a musket for battle, or frying a pumpkin for dinner. His description of what transpired during the bitter winter at Valley Forge brings home the dedication of those who had cast their lot for freedom, and the ultimate price many paid for that dedication. As I read Stempel’s book, my mind kept slipping back to Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy.
More and more I sensed that Stempel, with several strategic strokes of the brush, had painted a brilliant trilogy of his own. His “Army at Dusk” spoke to the initial encampment at Valley Forge, the smokey fires, freezing soldiers, and utter lack of shelter. Then as Nathanael Greene’s efforts to finally provision the Army proved successful; and, as Baron von Steuben instilled a sense of drill and pride in the Continentals, what emerged from Valley Forge the following spring was a Continental Army ready to fight as in Atkinson’s “Dawn.”
Stempel looks to the Continental “Army at Dawn” and examines the human element in great depth, in particular the contrast between the newly trained troops, and the army’s still suspect officer corps, many of whom – like young General Marquis de Lafayette -- were painfully inexperienced. The reader is drawn into several near fatal organizational flaws that almost led to defeat at Monmouth Courthouse, this on the “Day of Battle”.
On a hot and humid June 28, 1778, the army that had straggled into Valley Forge in single file trailing bloody footprints in the snow, now marched out in tactical formations to face the forces of General Sir Henry Clinton at Monmouth. This, of course, reflects the Six Transformative Months The Continental Army experienced while at Valley Forge, and is the essence of Stempel’s book. But now, the question of how well Washington’s commanders understood the plan of attack, and the questionable behavior of General Charles Lee, who was to attack and hold the rearguard elements of the British forces, come into play. Fortunately, Stempel’s account does not disappoint.
What had begun as an opportunity for victory now, for some unknown reason, turned into near disaster. As Washington rode forward with the army’s main body, he found Lee’s troops unaccountably in retreat. Enraged, Washington, galloped forward and relieved Lee of command. Now it would be the battle-tested Continental commanders, Nathanael Greene, “Mad” Anthony Wayne, with Washington himself at the forefront, who would hold the line. And hold they did.
But what had caused the confused American withdrawal in the first place? Since 1778 that question has roiled American soldiers, scholars, and citizens alike, the answers ranging from Lee as having led a professional withdrawal, to Lee as British plant and traitor outright. The dispute would lead to the court martial of General Lee, and one of the country’s undying controversies. Stempel’s logical, detailed, and systematic dismantling of Charles Lee’s command performance at Monmouth is devastating, however, and may well resolve this issue once and for all.
In 1787, when the Founding Fathers hammered out the United States Constitution in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin told an inquiring woman what the gathering had produced, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” Today, as events bring into question the future of the American republic once again, a fresh look at its origins seems certainly in order. For those interested in understanding the enormous sacrifices the birth of that “remarkable experiment” required, Jim Stempel’s From Valley Forge to Monmouth: Six Transformative Months of the American Revolution is most highly recommended.
About the Reviewer: James Holden-Rhodes is a retired Marine Corps officer, combat veteran, and PHD. He has lectured and taught at the National Drug Intelligence Center, National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Western European Union (Paris), University of New Mexico, and New Mexico State University. He created and served as the Director, Intelligence Studies Program, NMSU, and was selected as the 2009 Outstanding Intelligence Studies Teacher. He is the author of Sharing the Secrets – Open Source Intelligence and the War on Drugs, along with Smart and Faithful Force: Henry Clay Cochrane and the Unites States Marine Corps, 1861 – 1905.
