June 28, 1778
The Battle
of Monmouth
The longest single day of combat in the Revolutionary War.
Where the Continental Army proved it could stand against British regulars.
Where William Van Dyck fought for American independence.
The Stakes
By June 1778, the Continental Army had survived Valley Forge—barely. Washington's force had endured a winter of starvation, disease, and desertion. But under the training of Baron von Steuben, they had been transformed from a rabble into something approaching a professional army.
The British, under General Henry Clinton, were evacuating Philadelphia and marching across New Jersey toward New York. Washington saw an opportunity. If the Continental Army could catch the British column on the march, they might prove—to themselves, to Congress, to France, to the world—that American forces could stand against the most powerful military on earth.
On June 28, near the courthouse town of Monmouth, New Jersey, the two armies collided. What followed was the longest single day of sustained combat in the Revolutionary War.
The Temperature
June 28, 1778, was one of the hottest days of the year. The temperature soared past 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Men wore wool uniforms. They carried 60 pounds of equipment. They marched. They ran. They fought.
More soldiers collapsed from heat stroke than from British musket balls. Men dropped unconscious mid-battle. Some never woke up. The heat was its own weapon, as deadly as cannon fire.
Yet the Continental Army held the field.
William Van Dyck Was There
1756-1807
Twenty-two years old. A farmer from Somerset County. Son of Dutch immigrants who had arrived in New Netherland generations before. William Van Dyck stood in Captain Abraham Vroom's company, surrounded by neighbors and relatives, young men from the Raritan Valley who had left their plows to pick up muskets.
He had no military training before the war. He was not a professional soldier. He was a citizen defending his home, his community, his family's future.
When the order came to form line, he formed line. When the British advanced, he loaded and fired. When the heat became unbearable, he endured. When confusion erupted around him, he held his position.
This was the moment. This was how ordinary people built a nation.
The Battle Unfolds
Morning
The Advance
General Charles Lee leads the American vanguard forward to engage the British rear guard. Initial contact is made near Monmouth Courthouse. The heat is already oppressive.
Midday
Confusion and Retreat
Lee's attack becomes disorganized. British counterattacks push the Americans back. Lee orders a retreat. Confusion spreads. Men begin falling from heat exhaustion.
Then Washington arrives.
Afternoon
Washington Takes Command
Washington personally rallies the retreating troops. He establishes a new defensive line. Artillery is positioned. The Continental Army—including William Van Dyck and his Somerset neighbors—stands firm.
British assaults crash against American lines. The fighting becomes intense. Artillery duels. Musket volleys. Bayonet charges. Hours of sustained combat in hellish heat.
Evening
The British Withdraw
As darkness falls, the British break off the engagement and slip away under cover of night. The Continental Army holds the field. Tactically, a draw. Psychologically, a transformation.
Why Monmouth Mattered
The Battle of Monmouth was not a decisive victory. No one surrendered. No territory changed hands. The British reached New York and the war continued for five more years.
But something fundamental had changed. The Continental Army—starved, frozen, mocked as amateurs just months before—had stood toe-to-toe with British regulars in open combat. They had not broken. They had not run. They had held their ground and fought the British to a standstill.
They had proven they were a real army.
That psychological shift rippled outward. American morale surged. French confidence in their new ally strengthened. British certainty that they could crush the rebellion with conventional tactics began to crack.
For the men who fought there—men like William Van Dyck—Monmouth became a defining moment. They had done something extraordinary. They had helped prove that independence was possible, that ordinary citizens could stand against an empire.
More than a century later, William's great-great-grandson Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke would join the Sons of the American Revolution on the strength of this service. The Inmates' Watch would be given to a warden who carried Revolutionary heritage in his name and in his blood.
The thread runs through Monmouth. This is where it became real.
"They fought not as strangers, but as neighbors defending the soil their families had worked for generations."