A colonial victory—with trucks, walkie-talkies and Port-O-Sans Under a scorching sun, long lines of blue-coated colonial troops and fringe-shirted riflemen advanced shoulder to shoulder through the fields of New Jersey to attack the forces of King George III. Skirmishers darted ahead to draw the redcoats' fire, then rejoined the ranks.
Coolly poised to repel the attack, the British forces moved forward, Hessian grenadiers in fearsome mitred helmets, the Scottish Black Watch regiment resplendent in tartan kilts. Almost as one, the Continentals opened with a fusillade of musket and rifle fire. The British responded with a volley of their own. The smoke cleared. A Red Cross truck lumbered across the field to pick up the fallen, all of them victims of heat exhaustion.
Commanders with walkie-talkies ordered their forces to regroup.
A truck, not a wagon, in the 18th century? Walkie-talkies for the generals? Yes, a few of the historical niceties were ignored last week as the state of New Jersey staged one of the final acts of America's Bicentennial celebration by re-creating the Battle of Monmouth. In the actual engagement, which occurred on June 28, 1778, the forces were evenly balanced at about 12,000 men each. In the 1¾-hr. replay on the site of the original there were some 1,200 patriots and only 600 redcoats, watched by about 75,000 spectators.
No matter. The 20th century participants acted as if the battle were genuine. When, at a climactic moment, George Washington's Life Guard marched relentlessly through sulfurous musket and cannon smoke, patriotic shivers shook the spectators. Woman camp followers cheered on their men and hissed at the enemy. Colonial soldiers taunted: "The King's a queen." Indeed, spirits run so high at these mock fights—marking all the important Revolutionary War engagements, starting in 1974—that individual soldiers are not given ramrods. The reason: an overexcited fighter might forget to extract a ramrod from his musket before firing, sending it flying like a spear.
The real Battle of Monmouth ended inconclusively, with the British withdrawing, then slipping away from the colonials and marching to New York. Still, the battle, in which some 200 British and 100 colonial soldiers died, was an important psychological victory for Washington's troops. The young American Army had faced its foes in the 18th century European fashion, a standup, line-vs.-line fight, and held the field.