Washington at Monmouth

Period1858

MediumSteel engraving on paper

Dimensions6.5 × 9.1 in. (16.5 × 23.1 cm)

InscribedInscribed bottom margin center, "WASHINGTON AT MONMOUTH. / NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM / Entered according to act of Congress by G. P. Putnam in the clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.."

SignedInscribed lower left, "Darley." Inscribed lower right, "G. R. Hall."

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 1988

Object number1988.4.3

DescriptionA dynamic battle scene with George Washington, arm raised, and three officers approaching on horseback from the left and confronting Gen. Charles Lee and his militia troops approaching from the right. A drummer in the foreground is leaning down to drink from a pool of water. Another militiaman to the right is carrying a wounded soldier. A story and a half house appears in the right distance.
Curatorial RemarksWashington Irving’s text was accompanied by this engraving after a painting by Felix O. C. Darley (1822 - 1888). An important American illustrator of the pre-Civil War era, Darley was a prolific artist who illustrated books by Irving, Charles Dickens, James Fenimore Cooper, and others. His images were also reproduced in mass-market periodicals such as Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. For the majority of Americans of his generation, Darley’s illustrations enhanced their understanding of the nation’s history––including events related to the Battle of Monmouth. This representation effectively compliments Irving’s descriptions of the exchange, although the soldier drinking from the watering hole was probably a pictorial embellishment intended to emphasize the scorching heat of that early summer’s day. Darley’s image also brings to mind the words of Major Jacob Morton, who, in recalling the event in 1840, claimed that upon meeting Lee, Washington “reined in his horse . . . and (raising his right hand high above his head) exclaimed in a loud voice: ‘My God! General Lee, what are you about!” NotesThe event pictured in this engraving occurred during the Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778. In his Life of George Washington (1856–59), Washington Irving described how the general “galloped forward to stop [Lee’s] retreat . . . his indignation kindling as he rode . . . Arriving at a rising ground, Washington beheld Lee approaching with the residue of his command in full retreat. By this time he was thoroughly exasperated.” When questioned about the “meaning of this disorder and confusion,” Lee informed his commander that because the British forces were “stronger than mine . . . I did not think [it] proper to run such a risk.”

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