Battle of Monmouth
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40 free Battle of Monmouth trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Battle of Monmouth was fought on June 28, 1778, when George Washington's rebuilt Continental Army caught a British column on the march. It was one of the largest battles of the Revolutionary War, and it produced more arguments, legends and courtroom drama than almost any other day of the conflict. These questions cover the whole story: why the British were on the road, how the American advance went wrong, what passed between Washington and Charles Lee, who the battlefield's most famous heroine really was, and how the day has been retold in paintings, novels, games and on stage. The quiz suits students, history buffs and anyone planning a visit to the battlefield park. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave with a handful of fun facts worth repeating.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At the Battle of Monmouth, which weather hazard killed dozens of soldiers who were never hit by enemy fire?
Extreme heat
Extreme heat dogged the whole campaign: the British alone reported 59 men dead of fatigue after the battle. An 1854 reenactment was called off for the same reason.
Q 02Which legendary heroine of the Battle of Monmouth is most often identified as Mary Ludwig Hays?
Molly Pitcher
Molly Pitcher is probably a blend of several women seen on the field that day. Her name now graces a turnpike service area, a highway and a thoroughbred horse race.
Q 03Which Broadway musical covers Charles Lee's retreat at the Battle of Monmouth in the song "Stay Alive"?
Hamilton
Hamilton paints Lee as a fool who is replaced mid-battle. In reality Washington let him stay and command the rearguard, and Lee was among the last officers to leave the field.
Q 04In the legend of the Battle of Monmouth, whose place at a cannon did water-carrier Mary Hays take?
Her husband's
Her husband's post fell empty when William Hays collapsed, so she swabbed and loaded in his place. Despite the legend he was not killed: he survived the battle.
Q 05In which state was the Battle of Monmouth fought as the British army marched overland to the coast?
New Jersey
New Jersey's Monmouth County was already split by a vicious local civil war between Patriots and Loyalists, and an estimated half of its families suffered serious harm during the war.
Q 06At which winter camp did George Washington's army drill for months before marching to fight at Monmouth?
Valley Forge
Valley Forge emptied on June 19, 1778, exactly six months after the army arrived, and nine days later the retrained Continentals stood up to British regulars in open battle.
Q 07Which future vice president led troops at the Battle of Monmouth and collapsed from exhaustion there?
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr was a young officer whose regiment was devastated by British artillery that day. With his health still poor, he resigned from the army the following March.
Q 08Which city, the American capital, had the British army abandoned only days before the Battle of Monmouth?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia had been occupied since the previous autumn, forcing Congress to flee. The British gave it up to gather their forces in one stronghold once a European ally joined the war.
Q 09The first reenactment of the Battle of Monmouth, in 1828, was staged to boost which presidential candidate?
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson, himself a general turned candidate, won that year's election. It suited a battle that always mattered more politically than militarily.
Q 10Which nation's new alliance with the Americans forced the British onto the defensive before the Battle of Monmouth?
France
France signed its treaty of alliance in February 1778. Faced with a wider war, London ordered a third of its American army away to the West Indies and Florida.
Q 11Which city was the British army trying to reach when George Washington caught up with it at Monmouth?
New York
New York was where London wanted its American army gathered. The troops arrived in early July without losing a single wagon, ferried the last stretch by the Royal Navy.
Q 12Which 20-year-old major general led the American vanguard until Charles Lee claimed the command just before Monmouth?
Marquis de Lafayette
Marquis de Lafayette got the job only because Lee first refused it as too small for his rank. Lee changed his mind once he realized how large the force had become.
Q 13Which Prussian drillmaster's training showed in the Continental Army's steadiness at the Battle of Monmouth?
Baron von Steuben
Q 21Which painter of Washington Crossing the Delaware also painted Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth?
Emanuel Leutze
Emanuel Leutze finished the Monmouth canvas in 1854 for a banker patron, three years after his famous river crossing. Historians cite it as the battle's romantic, sanitized image.
Q 22Which 2012 video game has Charles Lee deliberately sabotage the Battle of Monmouth to ruin George Washington?
Assassin's Creed III
Assassin's Creed III makes Lee a Templar villain whose treachery is exposed by the hero, Connor. The real Lee was tried for his retreat and his insolence, never for treason.
Q 23Which time-travel novel series by Diana Gabaldon reaches the Battle of Monmouth in its eighth book?
Baron von Steuben had begun his drills only that spring, yet half the troops at Monmouth were recruits who had joined since January and still kept their order under fire.
Q 14Which British general, who later surrendered at Yorktown, led the division that drove back Charles Lee at Monmouth?
Lord Cornwallis
Lord Cornwallis had the first division, about 10,000 of the army's best troops, and it turned around as soon as the rearguard came under attack.
Q 15What name is commonly given to the German auxiliary soldiers who marched with the British army at Monmouth?
Hessians
Hessians were hired out by their own rulers, so legally they counted as auxiliaries rather than mercenaries. Hundreds of them deserted during the British retreat.
Q 16Which British general, newly appointed commander-in-chief in North America, led the army that fought at Monmouth?
Henry Clinton
Henry Clinton inherited an order to retreat with the job. He privately hoped a big battle on the march would make up for the humiliation of giving up the rebel capital.
Q 17Which general, the victor of Saratoga, had George Washington's critics hoped to put in his place before Monmouth?
Horatio Gates
Horatio Gates was the favorite of a faction in Congress that doubted Washington after the defeats of 1777. Washington's success at Monmouth silenced them.
Q 18Which fiery general, nicknamed "Mad", led the late-afternoon attack on British grenadiers at the Battle of Monmouth?
Anthony Wayne
Anthony Wayne asked for three brigades, was refused, and crossed the bridge with just 400 men. They mauled a lone grenadier battalion before being driven back.
Q 19What sentence did the court-martial hand Charles Lee after his disputed retreat at the Battle of Monmouth?
A year's suspension
A year's suspension was so mild that some read it as a vindication. Lee never served again: Congress ended his army career in 1780 after he sent it an offensive letter.
Q 20A Washington aide sneered that the cautious war council before Monmouth would have done honor to a society of what?
Midwives
Midwives was the jab of a young lieutenant colonel on the staff who wanted a bolder attack. Within hours Washington agreed and sent another 1,000 picked men forward.
Outlander
Outlander puts Jamie Fraser in the Continental Army for the battle, where his wife Claire is wounded. He resigns his commission to stay at her side.
Q 24Which Washington aide wounded Charles Lee in a duel over Lee's slurs on the general after Monmouth?
John Laurens
John Laurens shot Lee in the side that December. Lee wanted a second exchange of fire, but the two men's seconds stopped the duel there.
Q 25Which future president fought at the Battle of Monmouth as a young officer before resigning that December?
James Monroe
James Monroe was an aide to the American general Lord Stirling by then. His part in Washington's 1776 river crossing is immortalized in the most famous painting of it.
Q 26From which point on the coast did the Royal Navy ferry the British army away after the Battle of Monmouth?
Sandy Hook
Sandy Hook was picked only midway through the march, as the British commander had set out without settling his route. His army got there without any more fighting.
Q 27Which present-day borough, home to the 1884 Monmouth Battle Monument, grew from the village the battle is named for?
Freehold
Freehold was then a village called Monmouth Court House. Two centuries later the same town produced Bruce Springsteen, who grew up there.
Q 28Which state granted Mary Hays, the cannon-loading heroine of Monmouth legend, a yearly pension in 1822?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania voted her $40 a year for her wartime service. She spent her last decades in Carlisle as a servant for hire, well liked though she cursed like a soldier.
Q 29In Joseph Plumb Martin's memoir of Monmouth, a cannonball flying between a woman gunner's legs tore away what?
Her petticoat
Her petticoat lost its whole lower half, Martin wrote, and she coolly remarked that it was lucky the shot had not passed a little higher before going back to her gun.
Q 30By tradition, which rank did George Washington award Mary Hays after Monmouth, giving her a lifelong nickname?
Sergeant
Sergeant was a title she kept for the rest of her life in Carlisle. The story says Washington had spotted her loading a cannon and asked who she was.