Colonel Morgan was sent with five hundred men to reënforce Maxwell. On the twenty-fourth, General Scott, with fifteen hundred chosen troops, was despatched to reënforce those in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, more effectually to retard their retreat. On the twenty-sixth, Washington moved the entire army to Kingston; and learning that the British army was moving directly toward Monmouth, advanced an additional force of one thousand men under General Wayne, placing General Lafayette in command of the entire corps, including the brigade of Maxwell and Morgan’s Light Infantry. Orders were also sent to Lafayette: “Take the first opportunity to strike the rear of the enemy.” Some writers have involuntarily followed Lee’s theory, that the attempt by Washington to stop Clinton’s retreat and to defeat so large and so well-appointed an army as that of the British general, was folly from the start; but such critics overlook the determining facts of the situation. Washington never counted numbers so much as conditions. He never swerved from a steady purpose to wear out superior numbers by piecemeal, until they were at his mercy or so benumbed by his strokes as to yield the field. Hence it is seen, that with all his approaches to the retiring columns of Clinton, he never failed to hold in complete reserve and mastery every conceivable contingency of a general engagement. Moreover, as a matter of fact, his army, reënforced from the north, was not inferior in numbers; was unencumbered with baggage, and was not exposed to attack. A fight was a matter of choice, and not at the option of the enemy. It is therefore of essential interest to notice how systematically Washington advanced in this memorable campaign of Clinton’s March to the Sea. It is of equal interest to notice the development of the career of Lafayette, under Washington’s supervision and confidence; since America is more indebted to this discreet and gallant officer than to any other, for the immediate service which assured the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, three years later in the war. At half-past four of the afternoon of June 26th, Lafayette and Wayne were at Robin’s tavern. Lafayette thus wrote to the Commander-in-Chief: “I have consulted the general officers of this detachment, and the general opinion seems to be, that I should march in the night, near them [the enemy], so as to attack the rear-guard on the march. Your excellency knows that by the direct road you are only three miles further from Monmouth than we are in this place. Some prisoners have been made, and deserters are coming in very fast.” Second despatch, 5 o’clock P.M.: “General Forman is firmly of opinion, that we may overtake the enemy. It is highly pleasant to be followed and countenanced by the army; that, if we stop the enemy and meet with some advantage, they may push it with vigor. I have no doubt but if we overtake them, we possess a very happy chance.”