[Beginning of excerpt]
[1778. Wild is a Sergeant in Captain Hancock's company of Col.
Joseph Vose's (First Massachusetts) Regiment]
21 June. About 9 o’clk it ceased raining. We struck our tents & fell in & were counted off in order to march. About 11 o’clk we marched off, and made no halt till we got within about a quarter of a mile of the Dilewear [Delaware], where we pitched our tents on an eminence’ and we had orders to be ready to cross the ferry tomorrow morning at 4 o’clk.
22 June. At 5 o’clk the General was beat. [footnote: A particular beat of drum or march, being that which, in the morning, gives notice to infantry to be in readiness to march. – Century Dictionary.] We struck our tents and loaded our baggage. Between 6 & 7 o’clk we fell in & were counted off in order to march. About 8 o’clk we marched down to the ferry & crossed. We marched about a mile and a half in the Jerseys, and made a halt there till about 1 o’clk. Then we marched about 2 miles further, where we came up with Genl Lee’s Division and encamped in a field.
23 June. This morning at 5 o’clk the General was beat, & we turned out & got ready to march. About 7 o’clk we marched off, but left all our tents standing & our heavy baggage behind us. We marched about 10 miles, & halted on the road about 4 hours, & turned into a field to cook provision, & had orders to march at 11 o’clk at night. Our tents did not come up this night, but what little time we had to sleep we slept in the open field, which was only from 11 o’clk at night till 4 in the morning. The reason we did not march at 11 o’clk was because we could not get provision till late.
24 June. This morning at 4 o’clk the General was beat. We got up, fell in & were counted off in order to march, but we did not. Our tents came up to us, & we pitched them on the field, where we lay all night. We had no orders to march this day, but slept very quietly in our tents all day.
25 June. This morning at 5 o’clk the General was beat throughout the whole army; at 6 o’clk the Troop beat. [footnote: A particular beat of the drum. – Scott’s Military Dictionary] We fell in & were counted off in order to march. We left all our tents standing & our heavy baggage behind us. We marched off, and making several short stops on the road to rest we arrived at Kingstown between 12 & 1 o’clk. We marched into a large field there and made a halt, it being very hot weather. Just after we halted we sent out a large detachment, to see if they could make any discovery of the enemy, under the command of the Markis Delefiat [Marquis de Lafayette]. About sundown we moved ahead about a quarter of a mile further, into a field where we expected to take up our lodgings for the night. But we had not been here above a quarter of an hour before the long roll beat. We fell in to our arms and marched about 5 miles, and halted in the road all night.
26 June. At 5 o’clk we fell in to our arms & were counted off in order to march. About half after --- o’clk we began our march and marched about 5 miles, and halted in the road & drew two days allowance of pork & flour. We cooked our provision. Between 4 & 5 o’clk we began our march again, but we had not got but a very short way before it began to rain, which caused us to stop. It held raining above an hour successively, and was attended with very heavy thunder and sharp lightning. It being late when it stopped raining, we took our lodgings in the road without anything to cover us, or any thing to lodge on but the wet ground, & we in a very wet condition.
27 June. This morning at 5 o’clk the General beat. We got up & fell in to our arms and were counted off in order to march. We drew a gill of whiskey a man, and about 7 o’clk we began our march, and marched about 4 miles & stopped in the road to rest and get water. After stopping about a half an hour we marched again about a mile further, and it being excessive hot, we halted again. I expected we should go further but we stopped here all day. We had no orders for marching at sundown. I had the flank guard while we marched this day. We lay in the open field. Hard thunder, &c. &c.
28 June. This morning about 6 o’clk the General beat; in about an hour afterwards the Troop beat. We fell in & marched off. Went about 4 miles, & made a little halt to sarch [search] our arms and ammunition. Every man was compcated [accommodated ?] with 40 rounds apiece. We left all our packs and blankets, and marched on in pursuit of the enemy as far as we could. About 2 o’clk came up with them. Our Division formed a line on the eminence about a half a mile in the front of the enemy, and our artillery in our front. A very smart cannonading ensued from both sides. We stayed here till several of our officers & men were killed and wounded. Seeing that it was of no service to stand here, we went back a little ways into the woods; but the cannonading still continued very smart on both sides about two hours, when the enemy retreated and we marched up & took possession of their ground. This place is called Monmouth. It has been very hot all day. Numbers of our men had fainted and given out with the heat before we came up to the enemy. We lay here all night in the field.
29 June. Very warm this morning. We lay still here till 5 o’clk, at which time the General beat, and we marched to the ground where we left our baggage yesterday, and lay there all night without any tents.
30 June. Excessive hot this morning. We lay still here all day.
1 July [1778]. This morning between 1 & 2 o’clk the General was beat. We got up & fell in, & were counted off in order to march; but we were delayed till almost daylight, and then we marched off & went 9 miles without making of any halt, which brought us to a place called Spots Wood. We arrived here about 8 o’clk in the morning, and make a general halt here. We had orders to march at 1 o’clk tomorrow morning.
2 July. The General was beat at 12 o’clk; the Troop just afterwards. We began our march at 1 o’clk in the morning. We went as far as Brunswick, where [we] came up with our baggage. We went about 2 miles from the town and pitched out tents in a field.
3 July. We remain still in camp. Very rainy weather all day. No orders for marching yet.
4 July. Dark & cloudy weather this morning. This afternoon at 5 o’clk the army turned out & fired a fudey joy [feu de joie] to celebrate the Glorious Independence of Americay. This evening we had orders to march at 3 o’clk tomorrow morning.
[5 July 8 miles march]
[6 July 10 miles to Springfield, camped near meeting house]
[7 July 10 miles to “New Arck”, camped “on an eminence” 1 mile further.]
[8 July no report]
[9 July to “Sloter Dam” total 12 miles march]
[10 July 10 miles to “Peramhart”, camped near meeting house]
[11 July 3 miles to “Saddel river”]
[12 July 11 miles to a place 8 miles below Kings Ferry]
[13 July 8 miles march. To 1 mile below Kings Ferry]
[End of excerpt. Transposed footnotes in italics. All
other text from the source.]