page_title: Jeremiah Olney
section_title: Monmouth
hierarchical_section_title: Jeremiah Olney / Monmouth
caption_attribution_description: Grenadier, 40th Regiment of Foot, 1767.
context_page_description: Jeremiah Olney was born into an old family from Rhode Island. He formed a company of infantry from that state at the start of the American Revolutionary War. After serving as captain in 1776, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel at the beginning of 1777. As second-in-command of the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, he fought at Red Bank. After its commander was wounded early in the action, he led Varnum's brigade in bitter fighting at Monmouth in June 1778.
  In 1780 he married the governor's daughter, Sarah Cooke. Later that year he led his regiment in action at Springfield. He moved south in 1781 to lead the Rhode Island Regiment at Yorktown. After the war he helped found the Rhode Island chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati. He supported the Federalist Party and held various civil offices. After helping to establish the Providence Theater, he defended it against accusations of immorality. He also invested in farms, turnpikes, shipping, and other business ventures.
context_section_description: At the Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778, Olney led the two consolidated Rhode Island regiments in Varnum's brigade which was temporarily commanded by Colonel John Durkee. Part of Charles Lee's advanced guard, this 300-man unit also included the converged 4th and 8th Connecticut Regiment plus two attached guns from Captain David Cook's company of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment. As the American units came into contact with the British rear guard, confused fighting broke out. Some British light dragoons attacked a party of militia horsemen but were driven off by volleys from infantry detachments under Richard Butler and Henry Jackson. Butler and Jackson moved forward but came under fire from two British cannons and pulled back into some woods. Thinking Butler and Jackson were enemy forces, Lee sent Durkee's soldiers to attack them. The matter was quickly straightened out and Durkee was shifted to support two guns commanded by Eleazer Oswald on the left flank. At this time Durkee was wounded and Olney succeeded him in command of Varnum's brigade.
  Soon after this, Lee became aware that British commander Henry Clinton assembled 6,000 troops nearby, many more than he had suspected. Oswald withdrew his two guns because they were out of round shot and the crews were unable to bring up their ammunition wagon. As Clinton's troops moved forward menacingly, Lee lost control of his division. Some units began retreating and other units, seeing their neighbors withdraw, fell back as well. Observing his troops withdrawing without orders, Lee gave orders for a general retreat. Oswald, Lee's artillery chief, massed 10 cannon to cover the movement.
  Pressed by British columns, the retreat continued and Oswald dissolved his large battery, returning Olney's two guns as well as two guns belonging to William Maxwell's New Jersey Brigade. Two more guns were sent to the rear. Washington appeared on the scene and relieved Lee of his command. However, he soon relented and permitted Lee to organize a holding action while he deployed the American main body into a defensive line. Lee placed Olney's brigade behind a north-south hedgerow with two of Oswald's guns in support on their right. Oswald's other two guns took a position where they could cover the detachments of Nathaniel Ramsey and Walter Stewart on the left flank. Lee directed Henry Livingston Jr. to protect Oswald's two guns on the right, but instead he took position behind the hedgerow on Olney's left.
  After a sharp struggle with the Brigade of Guards, Stewart and Ramsey were driven out of the woods on the left. Both Stewart and Ramsey fell wounded and Ramsey was captured by some troopers of the 16th Light Dragoons. Next, the dragoons attacked the hedgerow but were repelled by Olney and Livingston. Clinton yelled for the 2nd Grenadier Battalion and half of the 1st Grenadier Battalion to attack the hedgerow. Charging into intense musketry and case shot, the elite grenadiers broke into the hedgerow position. Oswald pulled his guns out just in time, covered by Olney's men. In the melee, 16 grenadiers found themselves surrounded by Olney's troops, but the Americans were so bent on retreating that they paid no heed to their enemies. During the violent struggle, the commander of the 2nd Grenadiers Henry Monckton was killed. After this action, which occurred about noon, Olney joined the rest of Lee's division which was reorganizing in the rear of Washington's main body.
caption: Olney's brigade faced the crack British grenadiers at Monmouth. Grenadier, 40th Foot.
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