This was the last great battle to be fought in the northern states,
and a few weeks later Washington took up his quarters on White
Plains. There for nearly three years he stayed, guarding the great
waterway of the Hudson, and preventing the British from making any
further advance in the north.
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Chapter 62 - The Story of a Great Crime
For his strange conduct at the battle of Monmouth General Lee was
court-martialled, and deprived of his command for one year. Before
the year was out, however, he quarreled with Congress, and was
expelled from the army altogether. So his soldiering days were
done, and he retired to his farm in Virginia. He was still looked
upon as a patriot, even if an incompetent soldier. But many years
after his death some letters that he had written to Howe were found.
These proved him to have been a traitor to the American cause. For
in them he gave the British commander advice as to how the Americans
cold best be conquered.
Thus his strange conduct at the battle of Monmouth was explained.
He had always given his voice against attacking the British on
their way to New York. And doubtless he thought that if Washington
had been defeated, he could have proved that it was because his
advice had not been followed. If in consequence Washington's command
had been taken from him, he would have been made commander-in-chief
and cold have easily arranged terms of peace with the British.
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