This history is in regard to my father’s 5X great-grandfather, Samuel Stearnes, who was at the Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778.

Lately, I’ve been using AI more and more to help me sort through questions about family history and history in general. It’s become a really handy way to explore ideas, check facts, and think through problems from different angles. Sometimes I’ll even ask the same question to three different AI interfaces just to compare the answers and see which one gives the clearest or most useful response. I’ve found that it can be a great research companion, especially when I’m trying to make sense of complicated historical details, though I still like to double-check things against real records and reliable sources.

I asked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Co-Pilot the same question: I have an ancestor who was at the Battle of Monmouth. His name was Samuel Stearns and he signed a 3-year stint with the 15th Massachusetts Regiment Under the command of Timothy Bigelow. According to the company muster roll dated June 2nd, 1778, he was in “Captain Daniel Barnes company in the Battalion of Massachusetts Bay forces commanded by Timothy Bigelow Esquire.” with this information is it possible to place his whereabouts during the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey on June 28th, 1778?

After presenting each one, I will give it a grade.

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Co-Pilot: Yes—to a limited but meaningful degree, it is possible to place Samuel Stearns with the Continental Army at or near the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778, but probably not yet at an exact spot on the field from the single muster-roll entry alone.

What your evidence strongly supports

Your citation places Samuel Stearns in:

• Captain Daniel Barnes’s company
• in the regiment/battalion commanded by Colonel Timothy Bigelow
• on a muster roll dated June 2, 1778
• serving in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment (commonly associated with Bigelow’s regiment in this period)

Since the Battle of Monmouth was fought on June 28, 1778, and your ancestor was on the muster roll just 26 days earlier, the evidence strongly suggests he was serving with Bigelow’s regiment during the campaign that led to Monmouth, unless there is later evidence showing he was:

• sick,
• detached on other duty,
• absent,
• deserted,
• captured, or
• otherwise not present with the regiment.

What this likely means historically

Timothy Bigelow’s regiment was part of the Massachusetts Continental Line in Washington’s main army. At Monmouth, Massachusetts regiments like Bigelow’s would have been with the Continental forces moving across New Jersey in pursuit of the British after the British evacuation of Philadelphia.

So the safest historical conclusion is:

Samuel Stearns was very likely with Colonel Timothy Bigelow’s regiment during the Monmouth campaign and may well have been present with the Continental Army at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.

What you cannot say with certainty yet

From the muster-roll wording alone, you cannot yet prove:

• his exact location on the battlefield
• whether he was in the front line, reserve, baggage guard, or detached duty
• whether he was personally engaged in combat
• whether Captain Barnes’s company was fully present and actively engaged at the critical point of the action

Revolutionary War records often let you place a soldier in the unit, but not always in a precise physical position on the field.

Best historical wording to use right now

You could say something like:

“Samuel Stearns was serving in Captain Daniel Barnes’s company of Colonel Timothy Bigelow’s Massachusetts regiment as of June 2, 1778, and was likely with that regiment during the Monmouth campaign. In the absence of evidence showing he was absent, sick, or detached, he was likely present with the Continental Army at or near the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.”

That is careful, accurate, and genealogically responsible.

What records would help place him more precisely

To narrow his whereabouts further, the best next sources would be:

• Subsequent muster rolls or pay rolls
  Look for rolls from late June, July, or August 1778 that note whether he was present, sick, absent, or on command.
• Regimental histories of Timothy Bigelow’s regiment
  These may identify where the regiment was posted during the battle.
• Orderly books / brigade orders / after-action reports
  These sometimes place individual regiments within a brigade or division.
• Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War
  This compilation often summarizes service and may link him to additional rolls.
• Compiled service records at Fold3 / National Archives
  These may include multiple cards or abstracts showing attendance status around Monmouth.
• Histories of the Monmouth order of battle
  If Bigelow’s regiment can be tied to a brigade/division on June 28, you can place Samuel within that larger formation.

One important note about the unit name

The wording you quoted—“Battalion of Massachusetts Bay forces”—reflects period language and recordkeeping. By 1778, these units were functioning in the Continental Army, even when older or variant phrasing appears in records. That is not unusual.

My bottom line

Yes, with the information you have, you can reasonably place Samuel Stearns with Timothy Bigelow’s regiment during the Monmouth campaign and likely at or near the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.

No, this evidence alone does not let you place him at a specific point on the battlefield.

If you’d like, I can help you with either of these next steps:

• Draft a genealogy-proof summary paragraph for your family history document, or
• Help reconstruct where Bigelow’s regiment stood at Monmouth using known order-of-battle information.

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Here’s the grade that I gave Co-Pilot: F

I gave it F because it was a waste of time. It spent the first half struggling to make the point that we can not say for certain that Samuel Stearns was at the Battle of Monmouth. I guess I should have been more specific in asking the whereabouts of the 15th Massachusetts on the date of June 28,1778.

The second half said that yes it is possible to place his regiment at the Battle of Monmouth but then does no such thing.

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Gemini: Yes, it is entirely possible to place your ancestor’s general whereabouts, experiences, and specific positioning during the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778) using the details you provided.

By linking Captain Daniel Barnes’ company and Colonel Timothy Bigelow’s 15th Massachusetts Regiment to the larger Continental Army structure, we can map out exactly where Samuel Stearns stood on that famously brutal summer day.

Here is the breakdown of his whereabouts and what his day looked like.

The Chain of Command

To find a single private or corporal on a Revolutionary battlefield, you have to look at their Brigade assignment.

• Company: Captain Daniel Barnes
• Regiment: 15th Massachusetts Regiment (commanded by Col. Timothy Bigelow)
• Brigade: Glover’s Brigade (commanded by Brigadier General John Glover)
• Division: Part of the main army body directly under General George Washington

Timeline of His Movements: June 28, 1778

1. The Morning: The Grueling March

The 15th Massachusetts spent the morning marching from their previous encampments in pursuit of the retreating British army under Sir Henry Clinton. June 28 was historically brutal—temperatures soared past 100°F (38°C) with high humidity.

Before Samuel Stearns ever saw a British redcoat that day, he was enduring a forced march in heavy wool clothing with no shade and limited water. Period accounts from Glover’s Brigade note that the heat was so punishing that numerous men fainted or suffered heatstroke on the road before ever firing a shot.

2. The Afternoon: Tactical Positioning on the High Ground

While the vanguard under General Charles Lee initially engaged and then retreated in confusion, Washington arrived with the main army (including Glover’s Brigade) to stabilize the situation.

Washington deployed his main defensive line on Perrine’s Hill (elevated ground looking across a ravine and morass toward the British positions).

• Location: Glover’s Brigade, including the 15th Massachusetts, was positioned on the left-central wing of Washington’s main defensive line on this elevated ground.
• The Action: Samuel’s regiment was ordered to form battle lines on this ridge with Continental artillery pieces deployed directly to their front.

3. The Height of Battle: The Artillery Duel

Samuel’s position on the ridge became the focus of a massive, multi-hour artillery duel—one of the largest cannonades of the American Revolution.

• Because they were forming the main line supporting the guns, the men of the 15th Massachusetts had to stand or lie down under incoming British counter-battery fire while enduring the suffocating heat.
• To contextualize how dangerous Samuel’s immediate vicinity was: during this exact cannonade, a sister company in his own regiment (Captain Edmund Munro’s Company) took a direct hit from a British artillery ball that killed Captain Munro and several soldiers instantly.

4. Evening and Nightfall

Glover’s Brigade held the high ground, successfully repelling British advances alongside the rest of Washington’s main line. As the British began to disengage and slip away under the cover of darkness toward Sandy Hook, Glover’s men advanced to occupy the ground the British had just vacated. Samuel Stearns would have spent that night sleeping out in the open fields of the battlefield.

Summary of His Whereabouts

On June 28, 1778, Samuel Stearns was positioned on the elevated ridge of Perrine’s Hill (located in modern-day Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Freehold, New Jersey). As part of Glover’s Brigade on the left-center of the American line, he spent the critical hours of the battle supporting the Continental artillery, enduring intense heat, and facing down the British army’s heavy cannonade.

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Here’s the grade that I gave Gemini: A+

I was impressed by the detail such as the fact that Samuel was wearing a woolen uniform and would have been miserable in the New Jersey humidity. And then there is the detail of “Samuel Stearns would have spent that night sleeping out in the open fields of the battlefield”

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ChatGPT: Yes. Not to the precision of “he stood beside that fence rail at 2:17 p.m.” ⚔️🌞, but with the information you have, we can place Samuel Stearns within a fairly specific part of the American line at the Battle of Monmouth.

Your ancestor was serving in:

• 15th Massachusetts Regiment
• specifically in Captain Daniel Barnes’s company
• under Colonel Timothy Bigelow
• present on the June 2, 1778 muster roll, just weeks before the battle.

That is excellent evidence that he marched with the regiment into Monmouth.

Where was the 15th Massachusetts at Monmouth?

By June 1778, Bigelow’s regiment belonged to:

• General John Glover’s Brigade
• within the division commanded by Johann de Kalb
• attached during the battle to the wing under General Nathanael Greene.

That placement is important because Greene’s command occupied the American right wing, south of the main Monmouth battlefield, near key roads and hedgerows around the village of Monmouth Court House (modern Freehold, New Jersey).

Likely battlefield position

Most historians place Glover’s Brigade in Greene’s sector during the critical afternoon fighting, where Washington stabilized the collapsing American line after Charles Lee’s retreat.

That means Samuel Stearns was probably:

• fighting in the organized defensive line Washington formed after the morning confusion,
• positioned on or near elevated ground covering the right flank,
• involved in prolonged artillery and musket exchanges against British attacks under Charles Cornwallis.

Bigelow’s regiment was not part of the chaotic initial retreat under Lee. Instead, it appears to have been among the disciplined Continental units helping Washington re-form the army and resist the British counterattack. (National Park Service)

So Samuel’s day probably looked something like this:

🌄 Dawn march in crushing heat 🥵 Long movement across dusty roads 🔁 Sudden redeployment after Lee’s withdrawal 🔥 Afternoon combat in Greene’s line 💨 Dense smoke, artillery fire, extreme dehydration 🌙 Holding position until the fighting ended near sunset

Monmouth was infamous less for slaughter than for heat. Soldiers collapsed from sunstroke across both armies. Some accounts describe men dropping beside their muskets “like candles guttering in July wind.”

Can we narrow it further to Barnes’s company?

Possibly, but only partially.

At Monmouth, companies within a regiment generally fought together in line, though exact company-by-company placements rarely survive. Captain Daniel Barnes’s company would almost certainly have been:

• one of the eight companies forming the 15th Massachusetts line,
• probably deployed shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of Bigelow’s regiment,
• occupying a frontage of perhaps 20 to 40 yards in the brigade line.

Without:

• a surviving company orderly book,
• battlefield map naming Barnes’s company,
• or a pension statement describing Samuel’s own recollections,

we usually cannot pinpoint the exact spot more precisely.

What we can say with confidence

You can reasonably state that Samuel Stearns:

served in Captain Daniel Barnes’s Company of Colonel Timothy Bigelow’s 15th Massachusetts Regiment, part of Glover’s Brigade in Nathanael Greene’s wing of Washington’s army, and participated in the afternoon defensive fighting at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.

That is already a remarkably detailed reconstruction for a Revolutionary War private soldier. Many soldiers of the era vanish into the fog like footprints in rainwater. Samuel left enough paper sparks behind to place him firmly on one of the Revolution’s most famous battlefields.

A next-level reconstruction would involve:

• locating surviving brigade returns,
• examining Glover’s Brigade battlefield maps,
• checking Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors volumes,
• and especially searching for Samuel Stearns pension affidavits or later recollections.

Those sometimes contain vivid little fragments like:

“I stood in line near the orchard…” or “we were ordered to support the artillery…”

Tiny lantern flashes from 248 years ago.

As far as sources go, ChatGPT provided easy access to all of the sources. I won’t list them here.

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Here’s the grade that I gave ChatGPT: A

I assigned an A because its logic was clearly defined, its reasoning was well-articulated, and it provided a high level of detail along with accessible source documentation.