General Knyphausen, with the first division of the British troops, among which was the chief body of the Hessians, and the Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalists, moved forward at daybreak. Sir Henry Clinton, with the other division, consisting of the flower of his army, ** did not follow until eight o'clock. Dickinson observed the earliest movement, and sent an express to Lee, and to the commander-in-chief, the moment Knyphausen began his march. Washington immediately put the army in motion, and sent orders to General Lee to press forward and attack the enemy, unless there should be very powerful reasons to the contrary. This discretionary clause in the orders eventuated in trouble. Lee advanced immediately with the brigades of Wayne and Maxwell and sent an order to Grayson to press forward and attack the pickets of the enemy as speedily as possible, while he himself pushed forward to overtake and support him. Grayson, with the two brigades, had passed the Freehold meeting-house, two miles and a half from Monmouth, when he received the order. Lee's aid, who bore it, gave it as his opinion that he had better halt, for he had learned on the way that the main body of the British were moving to attack the Americans. This information was erroneous, but it caused Grayson to tarry. General Dickinson, who was posted on a height on the eastern side of a morass, near s in the plan, received the same intelligence, and communicated it to Lee, through the aid, on his return. Lee conformed to the reports, and, after posting two regiments of militia upon a hill southeast * William Grayson was a native of Prince William county, in Virginia. He was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with Sir William Howe respecting prisoners, while the army was at Valley Forge. In the battle of Monmouth he commanded a regiment in the advanced corps, and behaved with valor. At the close of the war he returned to his native state, and was elected a representative in Congress in 1784. In 1788 he was a member of the Virginia Convention, called for the purpose of considering the Constitution of the United States. With Patrick Henry he opposed the ratification of that instrument. He was appointed one of the first senators from Virginia in 1789, with Richard Henry Lee. He died at Dumfries, while on his way to Congress, on the 12th of March, 1790. ** It was composed of the thirty-fourth and fifth brigades of British, two battalions of British grenadiers, the Hessian grenadiers, a battalion of light infantry, the Guards, and the sixteenth regiment of light dragoons. [[[Approach of the American advanced Corps.--Conflicting Intelligence.--Preparation for Battle.--Plan of the Action.]]] {356}of the meeting-house, to secure a particular road, he pushed forward, with his staff, across the morass, at a narrow causeway near the parsonage indicated by an oblong upon the stream toward the left of the plan, and joined Dickinson upon the height. [Illustration: 0366]