The real Battle of Monmouth had begun. The British forces were repulsed at every point. At the hedge-row, three brilliant charges were made, and Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton of the British Grenadiers was among the killed. As the day advanced, Lee reported in person, and again requested “his excellency’s pleasure,” whether to form his division “with the main body, or draw them up in the rear.” He was ordered to re-form them in the rear of English Town, three miles distant. Baron Steuben was also on duty at that point. When, about five o’clock, all cannonading ceased in the direction of the battlefield, Colonel Gimât, of Washington’s staff, arrived at English Town with an order for the advance of the troops which had been re-formed under Lee’s supervision; announcing that the British were in confusion. Colonel Gimât stated in his evidence before the court-martial which subsequently tried Lee, that when he communicated this order to that officer Lee replied, that “they were only resting themselves, and there must be some misunderstanding about your being ordered to advance with these troops”; “and it was not until General Muhlenburg halted, and the precise orders of Washington were repeated, that Lee could understand that the cessation of firing was occasioned by the _retreat_ of _Clinton_, and _not_ by the _defeat_ of _Washington_.” During the evening, the American army advanced, ready for a general attack upon the British troops, at daybreak. Washington, with a small escort, visited every picket. The position was made impregnable, and the army was in the best possible spirits for a complete victory, and expected victory. At 10 o’clock at night, Clinton silently broke camp and departed for Middletown, where he joined Knyphausen, reaching New York on the last day of June. The British and the American casualties were each about three hundred, some of these being deaths from excessive heat. It appeared afterwards, that the desertions from the British army numbered nearly two thousand men. European comments upon this battle were as eulogistic of the American Commander-in-Chief as after the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Germantown. The historian Gordon says of Washington, upon his reaching the battlefield: “He animated his forces by his gallant example, and exposed his person to every danger common to the meanest soldier; so that the conduct of the soldiers in general, after recovering from the first surprise occasioned by the retreat, could not be surpassed.”