[[[Lee's Orders misunderstood.--Retreat of two Brigades.--A general Retreat ordered by Lee.--General Maxwell.]]]
{ 358}as to order the marquis to wheel his column by his right, and gain and attack the enemy's left. At the same time, he weakened Wayne's detachment on the left, by ordering the regiments of Wesson, Stewart, and Livingston to the support of the right.
He then rode toward Oswald's battery to reconnoiter.
At that moment, to his great astonishment, as he said, Lee saw a large portion of the British army marching back on the Middletown road toward the court-house. Apparently disconcerted, he immediately ordered his right to fall back. The brigades of Scott and Maxwell, * on the left, were already moving forward and approaching the right of the royal forces, who were pressing steadily on in solid phalanx toward the position occupied by Lee, with the apparent design of gaining Wayne's rear and attacking the American right at the same moment. General Scott had left the wood, crossed a morass, and was forming for action on the plain, and Maxwell was preparing to do the same, when Lee ordered the former to re-enter the wood, arrange his column there, and wait for further directions. Perceiving the retrograde movement on the right, and perhaps mistaking the spirit of Lee's order, Scott recrossed the morass, and retreated through the woods toward the Freehold meeting-house, followed by Maxwell. As soon as intelligence of this movement reached Lee, he sent an order to La Fayette to fall back to the court-house. The marquis obeyed, but with reluctance. As he approached the courthouse, he learned, with surprise and deep mortification, that a general retreat had begun on the right, under the immediate command of Lee, and he was obliged to follow. The British pursued them as far as the court-house, where they halted, while the Americans pressed onward across the morass above Carr's house (G) to the broken eminences called the heights of Freehold, where they also halted. The heat was intense, and both parties suffered terribly from thirst and fatigue. In many places they sunk ankle-deep in the loose, sandy soil. Their rest was of short duration. The royal troops pressed forward; and Lee, instead of making a bold stand in his advantageous position, resumed his retreat toward the Freehold meeting-house. A panic seized the Republican troops, and over the broken country they fled precipitately and in great confusion, a large portion of them pressing toward the causeway over a broad morass, ** where many perished; while others, overpowered by the heat, fell upon the earth, and were trampled to death in the sand by those pressing on behind them. In the first retreat, a desultory cannonade had been kept up by both parties; but now nothing was heard but a few musket-shots and the loud shouts of the pursuing enemy.
