The Final Mission of Butts Hill Fort 1782

In June 1781, French forces left Butts Hill and the rest of Rhode Island (Aquidneck Island) to join Washington as they marched toward Yorktown. This departure came after nearly a year of preparation, including a mock battle on Rhode Island in 1780.

Butts Hill Fort Awarded $500 from Student at Hathaway Elementary School in Portsmouth, RI.

On Monday, December 16th, members of the Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee (BHFRC) and the Battle of Rhode Island Association (BoRIA) were on hand at Hathaway Elementary school in Portsmouth for a special check presentation.

Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail Signs Installed throughout Rhode Island

A request from the Battle of Rhode Island Association in the fall of 2022 to replace 5 old W3R-US (W3R) signs in Portsmouth became a 2-year effort by the RI Department of Transportation (RIDOT) to replace all these signs in RI.

French Officers at the Battle of Rhode Island

Dozens of French Army officers departed France for America to serve as officers in the Continental Army. Several fought during the Rhode Island Campaign of July-August 1778 and at the Battle of Rhode Island.

A Rhode Island Officer’s Recollections Lead to New Information on Battle of Red Bank

The author recently came across the recollections of Simeon Thayer, who served from 1777 to 1781 as a major in Rhode Island Continental Army regiments. He was one of the outstanding military figures from Rhode Island during the war.

BoRIA Secures $71,749 Grant from van Beuren Charitable Foundation for Continued Archaeology at Butts Hill Fort

The Battle of Rhode Island Association (BoRIA) has been awarded a $71,749 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation (vBCF) to support Phase 2 of archaeological work at Butts Hill Fort. This project, scheduled for 2025, will be led by Dr. Alexandra Uhl of Stonehill College along with her students.

“I Had Like to Have Forgot to Mention a Famous Sham Battle”

With the Naval War College on Aquidneck Island, we island residents have a familiarity with the idea of “wargaming” or rehearsing the decisions leaders would make during warfare involving joint military operations. Wargaming did not begin with the War College in the 1870s. While the French were on the island during the American Revolutionary War from 1780 to 1782, they held “mock battles” by Woods Castle in the Third Beach area of Middletown.

Victims of Newport’s Stamp Act Riots Reimbursed (Not)

Bostonian merchants, sailors and dockworkers hated the Stamp Act enacted by Parliament in early 1765. What right did Parliament have to tax Americans when they were not represented in Parliament?

Lafayette in Rhode Island

“The moment I heard of America, I lov’d her.” The Marquis de Lafayette wrote this in a letter from his camp near Warren, Rhode Island, on September 23, 1778.

Another “Black Regiment” in the Revolutionary War

The Act of the General Assembly in February 1778 was historic because it was the first attempt to raise such a force of enslaved men in America.