meantime, Lee had advanced with the brigades of Wayne and
Maxwell, to support the light troops engaged in skirmishing. The
difficulty of reconnoitring a country cut up by woods and morasses,
and the perplexity occasioned by contradictory reports, embarrassed
his movements. Being joined by Lafayette with the main body of the
advance, he had now about four thousand men at his command,
independent of those under Morgan and General Dickinson. Arriving on
the heights of Freehold, and riding forward with General Wayne to an
open place to reconnoitre, Lee caught sight of a force under march,
but partly hidden from view by intervening woods. Supposing it to be a
mere covering party of about two thousand men, he detached Wayne with
seven hundred men and two pieces of artillery, to skirmish in its rear
and hold it in check; while he, with the rest of his force, taking a
shorter road through the woods, would get in front of it, and cut it
off from the main body. He at the same time sent a message to
Washington, apprising him of this movement and of his certainty of
success.

Washington in the meantime was on his march with the main body, to
support the advance, as he had promised. The booming of cannon at a
distance indicated that the attack so much desired had commenced, and
caused him to quicken his march. Arrived near Freehold church, where
the road forked, he detached Greene with part of his forces to the
right, to flank the enemy in the rear of Monmouth Court House, while
he, with the rest of the column, would press forward by the other
road.

Washington had alighted while giving these directions, and was
standing with his arm thrown over his horse, when a countryman rode up
and said the Continental troops were retreating. Washington was
provoked at what he considered a false alarm. The man pointed, as his
authority, to an American fifer who just then came up in breathless
affright. The fifer was ordered into custody to prevent his spreading
an alarm among the troops who were advancing, and was threatened with
a flogging should he repeat the story. Springing on his horse,
Washington had moved forward but a short distance when he met other
fugitives, one in the garb of a soldier, who all concurred in the
report. He now sent forward Colonels Fitzgerald and Harrison to learn
the truth, while he himself spurred past Freehold meeting house.
Between that edifice and the morass beyond it, he met Grayson's and
Patton's regiments