Black Soldiers of Liberty
Estimates have appeared in print for generations that 3,000 to 5,000 Black soldiers served in the American military in the Revolution.
Colonel Daniel Hitchcock Of Rhode Island
A collateral descendant of Daniel Hitchcock (first cousin, nine times removed), the author had always been fascinated by the short but important life of this colonel from Providence, Rhode Island, who was taken by illness following the Battle of Princeton at the young age of thirty-seven.
Bristol Historic & Preservation Society’s ‘Timeline of Enslavement’ wins national award
The Bristol Historical & Preservation Society received an Award of Excellence for its “Timeline of Enslavement in Bristol, R.I.” from The American Association for State and Local History.
Ann Bates: British Spy Extraordinaire
One of the few known female spies on either side in the Revolutionary War, Ann Bates spied for the British during the Rhode Island Campaign of July and August 1778, the first time the French and American forces jointly cooperated to attack a British outpost.
Who Carried the British Grenadier Sergeant’s Carbine in the Varnum Armory Collection?
In a rack atop the 19th-century glass-front bookcase in the Varnum Commander’s Office is a rare English Carbine, a scaled-down version of the British Land Pattern Musket, commonly known as the “Brown Bess”.
BUILDING AND ATTACKING REDOUBTS
From Bunker Hill to Yorktown, a feature of military actions during the American Revolution was the redoubt. Of course, redoubts were a fixture in world-wide military operations long before, and long after, that war, but those fortifications built of earth, sod and timber were usually more complex than their simple materials suggest.
Thomas Plumb, British Soldier, Writes Home From Rhode Island
“Dear Brother,” wrote Thomas Plumb from Newport, Rhode Island, on February 22, 1777.
A Loyalist or a Patriot?
Who was Bristol’s Most Loyal Loyalist and Bristol’s Most Patriotic Patriot?
Stanton Hazard, Feared Loyalist Privateer Captain
Stanton Hazard was born on January 8, 1743, into the prominent Hazard family of King’s (later Washington) County. He moved to Newport and, as with many young men, he took to the sea.
Rhode Island Militia Battles the Dreaded British Captain James Wallace on Prudence Island
The American Revolution was fought from Maine to Illinois, hundreds of military encounters occurring in what eventually became the United States of America. Among those events were two skirmishes on Prudence Island, a large island in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, on January 12 and January 13, 1776.
