September 1st to 4th. Lafayette is in Tiverton (marked by ORANGE TRIANGLE). He has command of the Eastern Shore of Rhode Island. Lafayette writes a letter from Tiverton on 9/1.
September 5th to 20th. Lafayette is in Bristol (marked by the ORANGE STAR). His headquarters was the Reynolds House. Lafayette writes a letter from Bristol on September 5. On September 8th he writes ”the Bristol post continues to be the most exposed one, and consequently I shall remain here.” Israel Angell’s diary reports he had dinner with Lafayette in Bristol on September 6 and heard that New Bedford had been attacked by the British. He dined with Lafayette on the 12th as well. On September 8th he writes to Silas Talbot from Bristol suggesting a plot to captures the British vessel Pigot. September 13th he writes to his wife Adrienne from Bristol.
September 21st through 24th. Lafayette camps outside of Warren (ORANGE SQUARE near Warren.) He writes to d’Estaing and George Washington from Warren on September 21. In his letter to Washington he comments that in response to advice from General Sullivan, he “is in a safer place behind Warren.” On September 23rd he writes to the President of Congress from outside Warren. ”The moment I heard of America, I loved her. The moment I knew she was fighting for freedom, I burnt with the desire of bleeding for her..”
September 25th. Lafayette left for Boston and the Rhode Island Campaign is at an end. (BLUE LINES OFF TO BOSTON).
By October 5 Washington has requested that General Sullivan grant permission for Lafayette’s leave from duty.
Reynolds House, Bristol. Lafayette Headquarters
Resources: 1899, The Diary of Colonel Israel Angell Commanding Offifficer, 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, Continental Army, Edward Field, Israel Angell, Norman Desmarais
August 22. Lafayette is Major General for the Day. Lafayette and General Sullivan argue over Sullivan’s letter to D’Estaing. Lafayette refuses to agree to the letter because he finds it insulting to the French.
August 23. At counsel of War Lafayette backed an immediate retreat even though he was unhappy with the American position about the French. Lafayette is bitter about the claims the French deserted the Americans.
At Butts Hill (RED DIAMOND).
August 27. American forces decide to move to Butts Hill.
August 27. Lafayette leaves that evening to ride to Boston to talk to d’Estaing. Lafayette crosses Howland Ferry (RED TRIANGLE) to Tiverton.
August 28. Lafayette rode all night. 7 hours and 70 miles. Lafayette arrives in Boston about the same time the French Fleet Arrived. Boston is marked with a BLUE STAR.
August 29. Lafayette, John Hancock and General Heath meet with d’Estaing at Hancock’s home in Boston (BLUE STAR). The French will not return to Rhode Island.
August 30. Lafayette returns at 11 PM to Portsmouth by way of Howland Ferry (RED TRIANGLE>. He has missed the battle but has taken a role in the retreat.
August 31. Lafayette escorts the last pickets are off the Island via Howland Ferry (RED TRIANGLE) after 2 AM.
“Retreat of Rhode Island” One of the medallions on the guard of the sword presented to Lafayette by the Congress. In Recollections of the Private Life of Lafayette by Cloquet.
Resources:
Kitchin, Thomas. “A map of the colony of Rhode Island.” Map. London: Printed for R. Baldwin at the Rose, Pater Noster Row, 1778. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/6t053p17c (accessed January 16, 2024).
Red Triangle: Americans learn the British have left northern Aquidneck Island known as Rhode Island. Sullivan orders his troops to cross over to Portsmouth at Howland Ferry.
Brown Square: At 4 PM Lafayette goes onboard D’Estaing’s ship Languedoc out to sea by Newport. The ship is out to sea by Newport. The French decide to do battle with the British fleet that has appeared outside Newport. They are also unhappy that the Americans have moved onto Aquidneck Island before them.
August 10 – 13th, 1778
Red Diamond: Butts Hill area
August 10th, Lafayette and the Americans are camped around Butts Hill fortifications in Portsmouth.
August 11th, the Americans are still by Butts Hill with Lafayette as Major General of the Day. American troops parade at 4 PM. Lafayette’s troops paraded on the left and Greene’s troops on the right. A storm like a hurricane hits the island.
August 12th and 13th, the Storm is at its most fierce. Soldiers have no tents or shelter. Lafayette and Col. Wade inspect the water-logged American camp around Butts Hill.
British and French ships are returning damaged by the storm.
Languedoc returning without masts from Storm and Battle with British fleet.
Ozanne, Pierre, Artist. Le vaisseau le Languedoc dématé par le coup de vent dans le nuit du 12′ attaqué par un vaisseau de guerre Anglois l’après midy du 13 Aoust. [194] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2004670063/>.
When Lafayette wrote Silas Talbot about a plan to capture the British vessel Pigot, he alluded to Talbots’s “reputation which you have already acquired by your zeal and skill in the artificial way (as a mechanic in the military).” Talbot was known as an “artificer” – “a soldier-mechanic attached to the artillery and engineer service, whose duty it is to construct and repair military materials.” 1. What was there in Talbot’s military history that had him known as a someone who could devise, construct and repair for a military campaign? Talbot had a record of invention, construction and even “daring do” to get the job done. All his past experiences made him useful to the American cause.
Silas Talbot was intimately involved in the Rhode Island Campaign. As someone with experience as a mariner and builder, Talbot helped to construct the flatboats that would take American forces to Portsmouth on August 9th of 1778. As a soldier, Talbot fought in the rear guard to protect the Patriots as they retreated to Tiverton on August 29th and 30th, 1778. Talbot alternated between roles as sailor and soldier throughout the American RevolutionSilas Talbot’s life was full of adventures. There were “rags to riches” stories and then again there were stories of monetary downfall. He was wounded in naval battles and sustained injuries on the Revolutionary War battlefields but he kept getting back into the action. This article will focus on some of those adventures of a representative figure in Revolutionary Rhode Island Talbot came from a humble background. He was born to a farming family in Dighton, Massachusetts in 1751. His father died when he was twelve and Silas was indentured to a local stonemason. He learned his skills as a bricklayer, but Dighton was a seaport and Silas signed on as a sailor on sloops transporting cargo from Narragansett Bay to as far as the Carolinas. By 1770 Silas settled in Providence where some of his older siblings had established themselves. Silas’ bricklaying skills were put to work in construction. Talbot wanted property and he put aside enough money to buy a lot of land on Weybosset Street. In 1772 Talbot married well. He continued to purchase land and he also began to purchase slaves. Owning a black servant was a status symbol for Talbot. He moved from being a laborer to owning a construction business.
In the aftermath of the burning of the Gaspee and the Boston Tea Party, Rhode Island merchants were alarmed. Independent militias were forming and Talbot joined and was commissioned as a Lieutenant. He joined others of his company in learning military skills in a Providence warehouse, but he didn’t have any real military experience. On June 28, 1775 Talbot answered the Rhode Island Assembly’s call to send units to Boston. He marched with his men to join the Second Rhode Island Regiment and by July 1, he was commissioned a captain. Talbot and the other 1200 men in the Rhode Island brigade took part in the Siege of Boston watching over the Red Coats but not in direct battle. Talbot’s skills as a bricklayer came in handy as they built barracks on Prospect Hill.
By April of 1776 the Siege was over and Talbot and the Rhode Island men were proud to welcome General Washington as he passed through town. As Washington arrived in New London, Rhode Islander Esek Hopkins presented Washington with a problem. Hopkins was Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy. Hopkins had sought safety in New London harbor after damage to his ships. Hopkins needed a crew to sail the ships home to Providence. Washington offered to loan Hopkins men from the Rhode Island Regiment. “All those acquainted with Sea Service that have a mind to join the Admiral as Volunteer have Liberty.” Silas Talbot took that opportunity to sail home to Providence. This was the first example of how Talbot’s military service frequently switched between the army and the navy. In August of 1776 he joined the Rhode Island troops in New York. In September he took part in an attempt to place a “fireship” (literally a ship set on fire with combustibles ) next to a British ship to catch it on fire. Talbot stayed on the “fireship” as long as he could to get it closer to the British vessel. Unfortunately the fireship did little damage, but Talbot was gravely burned.
While Talbot healed he served as a recruitment officer to enroll more Rhode Island troops to the cause. Talbot’s adventures continue in the next article.
Definition from Century Dictionary
Biographical information from William Fowler Jr’s Silas Talbot: Captain of Old Ironsides
In researching another topic in Revolutionary Rhode Island, I came across a book by Judge Benjamin Cowell. Cowell was born in 1781, so he wasn’t a Revolutionary War Veteran, but he made it his aim in life to help Rhode Island veterans get their pensions. He began recording the stories these old soldiers had to tell to justify their service. Cowell began to gather eyewitness accounts, speeches, letters, rosters and every piece of information he could find on Rhode Island’s role in the War for Independence. In 1850 he gathered all this material into a book: Spirit of ’76 in Rhode Island. I am gradually making my way through this book, but I found a Portsmouth story to share.
Cowell introduces the story this way (he refers to himself as “the writer”: “In the summer of 1849, the writer reconnoitered the battle ground on Rhode Island to ascertain any interesting facts which might be within the recollection of any of the old inhabitants in the neighborhood; and in his researches, he called at the house of Mr. Seth Anthony, an aged “Friend” who now lives on the farm where the battle took place, and always lived in the neighborhood. From him he gathered no little information, and from questions which the writer put to him he received a few days afterwards the following reply, which deserves a place in these sketches.
Portsmouth, Oct 13, 1849. To Benjamin Cowell, Providence, Respected Friend, —In answer to thy questions I have to say, that I was about twelve years of age at the time of Sullivan’s expedition against the British, and lived with my father on the west road on the Island, about two and a half miles from Bristol Ferry, lived there all the time the British were in possession of the Island, and I have now, although eighty-two years of age, a distinct recollection of most of the events that took place, at least in our neighborhood. The battle on the 29th of August, 1778, took place on the farm on which I now live, which is a little to the westward of the house where my father lived; there had been skirmishing all day, but the principal fight was a little northward of “Anthony’s Hill.” (Note that we call it Almy’s Hill.) Before the American troops came on the island, the British had fortified Butt’s Hill, one of their Generals (Smith) quartered at my father’s house, the Hessians quartered in the Friends’ Meeting House on Quaker Hill. After General Sullivan came on, the enemy retreated towards Newport, and I recollect General Greene took up his quarters at my father’s house.
Almy Hill Battle Site – Garman photo
When the enemy came back on the 29th, while Gen. Greene was eating his breakfast, our house-maid said to him, the British would have him; he observed very cooly “he would eat his breakfast first;” after he had done he went to his troops. During the day some Hessians entered our house, and plundered every thing they could,— they took my father’s silver knee-buckles; I saw one of them take hold of my father and demand his money and threatened his life, but he did not get it; my father had about two thousand dollars in gold and silver, but he had taken the precaution to bury it under an old stone wall. The Hessians also searched my mother’s pocket, turned it inside out, but there was no money in it. My father and mother were “Friends,” and we kept silence as to our political opinions. I remember Gen. Green once observed that his mother was a Friend, and was opposed to his going into the army, but she said “if he would go, to be faithful.” There appeared to be fighting all day, sometimes one side would drive the other and then be obliged to retreat. But as far as I could judge, the main armies did not fight. It appears to me the events of that day will always be fresh in my recollection.
I also remember the great storm some days before the battle, I never knew so severe a storm before; it lasted several days, and did a vast deal of damage. The day after the battle the Americans all left the Island. And I also do distinctly recollect that the day after the fighting the British determined to burn all the houses in our neighborhood, and would have done it if the Americans had not left the Island that night.- We had this information from the British Officers.. (Signed). Seth Anthony
The DAR Monument on the grounds of the Portsmouth Historical Society gives us an opportunity to tell the story of the Battle of Rhode Island. Last Thursday night I was serving as a docent at an open house and guests asked me about the monument. A few years ago I would have taken a few moments to mention it marked the site of the first skirmish in the battle, but now I know a little too much about the Battle. The current thinking is that the skirmish on West Main and Union started earlier. Action was going down East and West Roads simultaneously.
Nevertheless, it gave me an opportunity to share the story with people who had frequently passed the monument but had not known about the Battle. Sharing that story is exactly what the Daughters of the American Revolution had in mind when they erected it in 1910 on the 132nd Anniversary of the Battle.
Battle of Rhode Island Memorial at PHS
A newspaper article from that time recorded that ” the exercises took place at 4 o’clock – the 3:20 (trolley) car from Newport taking out a large number. Some came in automobiles, others in carriages and when all had assembled there were fully 100 or more people on the ground.” Reverend Loucks of the Christian Union Church had granted permission for the monument to be placed at the southwest corner of the church yard. The Colonel Barton and the William Ellery Chapters of the DAR intended to place it “in a very conspicuous place it will attract the attention of passersby.” No local fieldstone was suitable, so the monument was constructed from a “magnificent specimen of Westerly granite instead.”
The Hon. William Paine Sheffield (U.S. Congressman from RI 1st district) gave the address. He recounted that at the corner of Union and East Road, the British forces were split (some going down Middle Road and others down East Road). “The patriots under Col. Livingstone. ‘sprung from behind the walls of this field and poured a storm of bullets upon the bewildered enemy, reloaded and repeated the desolating fire before the British could recover from the shock.’ A terrible slaughter ensued.”
Sheffield went into the background of the French Alliance, the Siege of Newport and the necessity of the orderly retreat. Understanding that background is the only way one could understand what had taken place. This was a complex situation. Sheffield quoted Lafayette on his experience of the Rhode Island Campaign: “Lafayette, on his visit to Rhode Island in 1824 told the late Mr. Zachariah Allen as he rode with him in a carriage across the border from Connecticut ‘In this state I have experienced more sudden and extreme alternations of hopes and disappointments than during all the vicissitudes of the American war.”
What were the “extreme alternations of hopes and disappointments” Lafayette experienced?
Hope: After two years of British Occupation, the French fleet arrived to aid the Americans on August 8th.
Hope: The American army continued to advance toward Newport. Lafayette and General Greene brought the American army from Tiverton to Aquidneck Island. The British retreated from Portsmouth. The hope was that between the American army and the French Navy that Aquidneck Island would be free from British occupation.
Disappointment: August 11-13, 1778 a major storm damaged the French fleet and by August 22 the fleet left for Boston to undergo repairs.
Disappointment: The alliance between the French and Americans deteriorated as Lafayette attempted to be a bridge between the two allies. Lafayette rides to Boston to meet with French Admiral D’Estaing.
Disappointment: American General Sullivan and his officers make the decision to retreat.
Hope: Americans valiantly hold back the British forces as they make a retreat to Tiverton. There are losses, but the Americans save men and equipment to fight another day.
Hope: Lafayette returns in time to bring the last American forces off Aquidneck Island.
Disappointment: Lafayette regrets he missed the fight.
These hopes and disappointments are from my research. These events are mentioned in Sheffield’s address, but the labels of Hopes and Disappointments are mine.
Sheffield ends his address congratulating the chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution for “marking this scene of patriotic valor..” The monument is unveiled and the inscription is revealed. “In memory of those patriots who fought here in the first skirmish of the Battle of Rhode Island, August 29, 1778. Erected by the William Ellery and Colonel William Barton Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.”
After the unveiling, the Star Spangled Banner was sung and participants gradually made their way home. The newspaper report comments. “There was nothing then to remind one of the strife which had taken place on that spot so long ago, everything seemed so peaceful.”
Resources: Click below to read a transcription of the 1910 newspaper article on the dedication. Transcription by Portsmouth Historical Society.
“Bloody Brook” is part of Portsmouth folklore. The story is that the brook ran red because of all the blood spilled there at the Battle of Rhode Island. What exactly happened there? Why is Bloody Brook or Barker Brook important to the battle?
Map with permission of the Benson Family
I came across an older account by Eric O’D Taylor with a map by John Norman Benson that helps me understand this.
“Immediately before the American line and just in front of the advancing German reinforcements was a brook, called even now from the appearance that day gave its muddy waters “Bloody Run Brook.” Where the road crossed, a bridge had been built. On either side of the road a soft marsh extended following both banks. If a battery could be placed so that it commanded the road, and, above all the bridge, all was not lost.
…Greene spotted nearly a quarter of a mile up the road at the base of a hill a slight eminence with a flat top and a clear command of the brook’s valley. Quickly he brought three field pieces to the place and opened on the advancing British ..
To return to Malsburg (a German commander). At nine AM he left his men north of Bloody Run Brook beside and even on the slopes of Barrington Hill. Re-crossing the brook, he came upon Lt. Murarius’ company already demoralized by the fire from the new battery. Reducing them to some sort of order, he continued to the rear and found the ammunition carts which he was seeking. …. If Malsburg was to advance, the troublesome redoubt with its three cannon must be taken or silenced. Eagerly he hurled again the insignificant mound all troops stills out of the brook. It was a distinct mistake. Slight as the elevation of the redoubt looked from the road and Turkey Hill, it loomed like a fortress above the low valley of the marshy brook. Encumbered in the marsh across which they must jump from grass tuft to grass tuft, the Hessians staggered forward. . Now they are on firm ground; the guns as just ahead of them; they slow up a moment to dress ranks for the charge. Does someone move in the bushes to right, to left, of the redoubt? It is too late. The word is given. The charge goes home—and crumples like paper before the sheets of flame which burst from behind the stone wall lining the road, from the windows of a house before now hidden in the trees, from the underbrush and from the super heights of the redoubt itself. As Malsburg withdrew his shattered column, finding refuge behind the wall on the right of the main road, he saw the elated defenders of the little redoubt, break out from their hidden defenses. “They were mostly wild looking persons,” he wrote, in their shirtsleeves. Among them, too, were many negroes.”
From Campaign on Rhode Island by Eric O’D Taylor and illustrated with woodcuts by John Norman Benson. This booklet is in the collection of Town Historian James Garman. There is an abbreviated pamphlet available online: http://www.newportalri.org/
The diary of Johann Conrad Dohla gives us a unique account of the Rhode Island Campaign. Dohla was one of the Hessian (German) troops whose services were sold to George III to fight against the Rebels in the American Revolution. He arrived in America in 1777 as a private in the Ansbach-Rayreuth group of Hessians. In June of 1777 he arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. In this blog I will include part of his diary entries from August 1778 that help us understand what was happening on Aquidneck Island (Rhode Island) during the Rhode Island Campaign.
August 7, 1778
Our Bayreuth Regiment sent a large command to the region beyond Tonimy Hill. All Turkish and Indian corn and all other grains on Rhode Island were destroyed. All stone walls and fences around the fields were torn down. All trees were chopped down, and many houses torn down and burned down in order to detect sooner the arrival of the enemy crossing over from New England.
August 9, 1778
…. During the night, after tattoo (a military lights out), our regiment had to fall out in the greatest haste and march forward three English miles because the rebels were crossing over to Rhode Island in many boats. We remained under the open sky throughout the night and the next morning returned to our camp. Also during the night a Hessian ensign and three men, and an English lieutenant and two men, went over to the enemy.
August 11, 1778.
We moved our camp about one hour forward and again set up our tents near Tominy Hill. This Tominy Hill, an exceptionally strong hill fortification on a high cliff, is the place to which our troops would fall back in an emergency.
August 17, 1778
At work on the fortifications. We laid out a line and dug the trench. Everywhere batteries and redoubts, as well as connecting trenches, were completed all along our line, and everything soundly reinforced with wood. The fortifications work continued day and night without let up, and we had many hardships. Within or lines ten principal fortified points were played out namely: 1. Stone Battery, 2. The North Trench, 3. Somerset, 4. The Irish Redoubt, 5. Fort Fanning, 6. Fort Clinton, 7. Fort Percy, 8. the Ice Redoubt, 9. Prince Dauneck, and 10, Conanicut. The enemy, in a little less than an hour, set up a big camp opposite, set his posts and sentries very near us, and fortified himself in the region of Boxland Ferry.
August 19, 1778
At noon today the enemy, after completing his battery on this side of the heights, began to fire cannon at our camp and defenses and to throw in bombs. Therefore we had to change our front and camped all together behind the fortifications of Tominy Hill as we camped in front of it previously. eHere we were safe from the balls and bombs. The batteries and fortifications of both sides fired heavily, and that continued unceasingly, only ending during the blackness of night.
August 22, 1778
In the morning I went on work detail at the fortifications. During the night the French ships, which had been before the Newport Harbor, disappeared and no one knew where they had gone.
August 28, 1778
This night a 25 man picket from our regiment, commanded by Lt. Ciracy, was attacked by a strong party of Americans, who had crept up through a field of Indian corn. One of our men was killed in this action, and three men were wounded. The enemy, however, had to pull back and take flight. Also tonight, the Americans withdrew the artillery with which they had been firing at us and their heavy baggage to New England, but continuously harassed our outposts in order to cover their withdrawal.
August 29, 1778
When during the early morning, we began to fire our cannon at the enemy, there was no answer in return. Therefore, two thousand men from the army, including our two regiments, were ordered to search out and pursue the retreating enemy, They marched for about three English miles, where they caught up with the enemy, who opposed us as much as possible and, grouped together in order to frustrate our attack, amounted to about ten thousand men. Finally, when the cannon began firing at them, they took flight. They were pursued, and the firing from both sides lasted throughout the day. In our advance we had to climb over many stone walls, five to six feet high, which served as fences around the fields. The enemy often took post behind these and fired through the openings where stones had been removed. Despite this difficulty, we chased them back into their fortifications, of which one, called “Windmill Hill,” had many heavy cannon. Since a farther advance was not advisable, we stood still until the cannon arrived; from which time, throughout the day, each side fired against the other.
During this heavy fighting our regiment, as we were on the left wing, engaged in combat the entire day. We lost no more than three me….They were killed by a cannonball, and two men were wounded. …
August 31, 1778
In the morning, as it became apparent that the enemy had completely left the island, the vacated defenses were immediately occupied by the English and Hessians, and we began to set up camp near Windmill Hill.
Resources
Map: Partie de l’etat de Rhode-Island, et position des armees Americaine …
Dohla, Johann. A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution. Norman, Oklahoma,University of Oklahoma Press. 1990.
This is an account by an eyewitness, but Joseph Durfee is penning his reminiscences many years after the events. At the time of the Battle of Rhode Island, Durfee was a major in Col. Whitney’s Regiment. The last blog related Durfee’s account of the “Battle of Fall River” and this blog entry is a continuation of the account beginning with the Americans crossing to Aquidneck Island.
Preparation for invasion of Aquidneck
” During a considerable part of the month of August following (the Battle of Fall River – see the previous blog), we were busily engaged in procuring arms, ammunition, and provisions for the soldiers, and in building flat-bottomed boats and scows for the troops to cross over the river on to Rhode Island, with a view to dislodge the British army, who then had possession of the island. A barn, now standing near the Stone Bridge, was occupied for a commissary store, of which I had the charge until things were in readiness and the troops prepared to cross over to the island, when I left the store in charge of my friend and relative, Walter Chaloner.
The Expedition Begins
In the fore part of August 1798, the American troops embarked in the boats and scows prepared for them and landed on Rhode Island, where I joined them, having been appointed a Major in Colonel Whitney’s Regiment. Our troops were then marched to a spot but a short distance to the North of what is called Butts’ Hill; where they encamped for the night with nothing but the canopy of heaven for a covering and the ground for our beds. But we were animated with the hope of liberty–with a belief that we were engaged in a righteous cause—and that He, who sways the sceptre of the universe would prosper our undertaking.
Waiting on the French
At this time we were anxiously looking for the French fleet from which we hoped for assistance against the enemy, whose numerous bodies of troops were before us. Soon the French fleet bore in sight, when the British set fire to the shipping in the harbor and blew up most of the vessels within their reach. Not long after the French fleet came up, the British fleet appeared in the offing. Immediately the French fleet tacked about, went about and attacked the British squadron, when broadsides were exchanged and a bloody battle ensued.
The Storm
A tremendous storm came on long remembered as the Angust storm, in which the two fleets were separated, and many who had escaped the cannon’s mouth found a watery grave. The French feet, or so much of it as survived the storm, went into Boston to repair and the remnant of the British fleet went into New York.
Siege of Newport
Soon after this storm, our troops marched in three divisions towards Newport. One on the East road, so called one on the West road, and the Brigade, commanded by General Titcomb moved in the centre, until we came in sight of Newport–when orders were given to halt, erect a marque and pitch our tents. General orders were issued for a detachment from the army of three thousand men – our number being too small to risk a general engagement with the great body of British troops then quartered on the South end of the Island. Early on the next morning a detachment of troops, of which I was one, was ordered to proceed forthwith and take possession of what was called Hunneman’s Hill. The morning was foggy and enabled us to advance some distance unobserved by the enemy — but the fog clearing away before we reached the hill, we were discovered by the British and Tory troops, who commenced such a heavy cannonade upon us, that it was deemed expedient by the commanding officers, to prevent the destruction of many of our brave troops, that we should fall back and advance under the cover of night. Accordingly when night came, we marched to the hill undiscovered by the enemy. We immediately commenced throwing up a breast work and building a fort. When daylight appeared, we had two cannon mounted–one twenty-four pounder and one eighteen–and with our breast work we had completed a covered way to pass and repass without being seen by the enemy. The British had a small fort or redoubt directly under the muzzles of our cannon, with which we saluted them and poured in the slot so thick upon them that they were compelled to beat up a retreat. But they returned again at night to repair their fort, when they commenced throwing bomb shells into our fort, which however did but little damage. I saw several of them fiying over our heads and one bursting in the air, a fragment fell upon the shoulder of a soldier and killed him.
Retreat
At this time, we were anxiously waiting the return of the French fleet from Boston, where they had gone to repair. But learning that they could not then return, and knowing the situation of the British troops, that they were enlarging and strengthening their furts and redoubts, and that they had reinforcements arriving daily from New York, it was deemed expedient by our commanding officers, Lafayette, Green and Sullivan, all experienced and brave Generals, that we should retreat to the North end of the Island. Accordingly, on the 29th day of August, early in the morning we struck our marque and tents and commenced a retreat. The British troops followed, and soon came up with our rear-guard and commenced firing upon them. The shots were briskly returned and continued at intervals, until our troops were joined by a part of our army a short distance to the South of Quaker Hill, so called, when a general engagement ensued, in which many lives were lost on both sides. At night, we retreated from the Island to Tiverton. On the following day we left ‘Tiverton, crossed over Slade’s ferry and marched through Pawtucket and Providence to Pawtucket where we remained until our service expired.”
Resources:
“Plan of the works, which form the exterior line of defence, for the town of New-Port in Rhode Island : Also of the batteries and approaches made by the rebels on Honeymans Hill during their attack in August 1778 / This plan surveyed and drawn by Edward Fage, lieutt of artillery, November 1778.”. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wcl1ic/x-8373/wcl008443. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed November 21, 2022.
Reminiscences of Col. Joseph Durfee : relating to the early history of Fall River and of Revolutionary scenes. (1830s)
The Varnum Continentals is a non-profit historic and patriotic organization that owns Varnum House Museum and the Varnum Armory and Military Museum. They are named in honor of James Varnum who served as Brigadier General in the Continental Army.
Varnum Continentals Image by Jay Killian
Varnum’s military career began with the Kentish Guards who were chartered as a militia by the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1774 as a unit of the Rhode Island Militia. Varnum was one of the founders of the Kentish Guards and he was elected their first commanding officer.
With the outbreak of the War for Independence, Varnum was commissioned by the RI Assembly as a Colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry. He served in the Continental Army as a Brigadier General from 1777-1779. He served in the siege of Boston, the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Red Bank (New Jersey), at Valley Forge and the Battle of Rhode Island. During the Battle of Rhode Island, Varnum’s Brigade – stretched across West Main Road and faced Turkey Hill. It was comprised of four continental regiments – 2nd Rhode Island, Livingston’s 1st Canadian, Sherburne’s and Webb’s. In all, Varnum commanded 800 Continentals in the Battle of Rhode Island.
Varnum was an advocate for the establishment of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment (known as the Black Regiment). This is his letter to Washington proposing the unit.
From Brigadier General James Mitchell Varnum Camp [Valley Forge] Janry 2d 177[8]
Sir— The two Battalions from the State of Rhode Island being small, & there being a Necessity of the State’s furnishing an additional Number to make up their Proportion in the continental Army; The Field Officers have represented to me the Propriety of making one temporary Battalion from the two, so that one intire Core of Officers may repair to Rhode Island, in order to receive & prepare the Recruits for the Field. It is imagined that a Battalion of Negroes can be easily raised there. Should that Measure be adopted, or recruits obtained upon any other Principle, the Service will be advanced. The Field Officers who go upon this Command are Colo. Greene, Lt Colo. Olney and Major Ward: Seven Captains, Twelve Lieuts., six Ensigns, one Pay Master, one Surgeon & Mate, One Adjutant & one Chaplin. I am your Excellency’s most obdt Servt J. M. Varnum
In 1907 a group of local men -(many had formerly been members of the Kentish Guard) – chartered the Varnum Continentals “to perpetuate the customs, uniform and traditions of the period [of the American Revolution], and thereby, and in other ways, to encourage patriotism in the people.” On December 31, 1992, Bruce Sundlun (Governor and Captain General of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) formally reactivated Varnum’s Regiment of May 4, 1775, as a unit of the Rhode Island Militia.
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