The BoRIA Post
The official newsletter of the Battle of Rhode Island Association featuring news, events and Rhode Island history. Learn more at www.battleofrhodeisland.org.
Jim Stearns, Editor March 2nd, 2026
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Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee (BHFRC) Awarded Grant from Americana Corner
BHFRC is proud to announce that we’ve been selected as a 2026 @AmericanaCorner Preserving America Grant recipient! The program was established to assist non-profit organizations in the telling of the incredible story of America from its founding era through its first century as a nation. According to BHFRC Chair Paul Murphy, “this generous $5,000 grant from Tom Hand and Americana Corner will help fund our 2026 main effort to obtain professional-grade interpretive signage for Butts Hill Fort. We have made great strides in recovering and preserving the fort and transforming the entire multi-acre area, and adding historical signage is the final touch to transform it into a true heritage site for all generations to enjoy and appreciate”.
Learn more at americanacorner.
BoRIA Receives Donation from the Rhode Island Sons of the Revolution
BoRIA is pleased to announce the receipt of a restricted grant of $1,000 from the Rhode Island Sons of the Revolution (RISoC), which will be used for “continued restoration and preservation of Butts Hill Fort in Portsmouth—Rhode Island’s largest surviving Revolutionary War earthwork.”
This generous gift reflects RISoC’s enduring commitment to preserving Rhode Island’s Revolutionary War legacy. BoRIA is grateful for this support and for our shared dedication to protecting Butts Hill Fort as a key historic site as we continue restoration efforts and prepare for the 250th-anniversary commemorations.
Why Butts Hill Fort Matters
- Largest surviving Revolutionary War earthwork in southeastern New England
- Central to the 1778 Battle of Rhode Island and the broader Rhode Island Campaign
- A tangible link to the American–French alliance and the soldiers who fought for independence.
In Memoriam — Jim Garman
Portsmouth’s Town Historian
The BoRIA joins the Portsmouth community in mourning the passing of Jim Garman, 87, longtime Town Historian and a devoted steward of Aquidneck Island’s past.
Jim grew up in a Pennsylvania coal-mining family, an experience that shaped his lifelong interest in ordinary people and the places they lived. After coming to Rhode Island, he taught history at Portsmouth Abbey School for nearly four decades, influencing generations of students while encouraging curiosity about the past beyond the classroom.
Alongside his teaching career, Jim operated a commercial photography business with his wife. His photography — and the extensive local image archive of more than 2,000 postcards he assembled over many years — became an invaluable visual record of the Island’s people, buildings, and changing landscape. That work naturally evolved into deeper historical research and ultimately his appointment as the Portsmouth Town Historian in 2014.
For more than forty years Jim worked tirelessly to preserve and share the story of Portsmouth and Aquidneck Island. Through books, lectures, walking tours, and public programs, he brought local history to life and helped residents see familiar places with new understanding. He was especially generous in sharing his knowledge with community organizations, including the BoRIA, where his insight helped visitors better understand the Rhode Island Campaign and the significance of Butts Hill Fort.
Jim was a steady and welcome presence at commemorations and educational events. He had a gift for making history approachable — never simply dates and names, but stories about real people connected to the ground beneath our feet.
BoRIA extends its condolences to Jim’s family and friends.
His legacy endures in the stories he preserved and the community he inspired to remember them.
Author Christian McBurney to Speak at The Redwood Library & Athenæum (New Date)
Original date of 2/25 was postponed due to Blizzard Cleanup
In recognition of Black History Month, on Tuesday, March 31st at 6:00 PM, BoRIA and our partner at the Redwood Library & Athenæum at 50 Bellevue Ave. in Newport, present author and historian Christian McBurney and his lecture: The Second American Revolution: Rhode Island’s Role in the Abolition Movement in the North, 1763 to 1784. This event is free but registration is requested, please click here to register.
The American Revolution gave rise to the Western world’s first organized abolition movement, which emerged in the North. In 1774, Rhode Island enacted what may have been the first law in the late eighteenth-century Western world aimed at curbing the slave trade—an especially striking development given that Newport was then the leading slave-trading port among the thirteen mainland colonies. This will be filmed for our website and YouTube page.
About the Author:
Christian McBurney is an independent historian who has authored nine Rhode Island history books, four of them on the American Revolutionary War. His books include The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War and Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Great Britain’s African Slave Trade. He is also the founder and publisher of a leading Rhode Island history blog at smallstatebighistory.
About the venue:
The Redwood Library & Athenæum is America’s first purpose-built library (1747) and the oldest continuously operating at its original location. Visit them online here: https:/
New Insights Into the Battle of Prudence Island, January 12–13, 1776
A lecture was presented by Laurie J. Greaney of the Battle of Rhode Island Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, under the auspices of the Portsmouth Historical Society on January 14, 2026.
This presentation examined the dramatic Revolutionary War action on Prudence Island and the remarkable agricultural landscape that shaped the fighting. Using period maps, pension records, and contemporary newspaper accounts, Ms. Greaney reconstructed how local militia forces used the island’s extensive farm walls and rugged terrain to counter repeated British attempts to outflank and encircle them. Their resistance ultimately repelled the attackers and influenced the later military careers of officers such as Major Benjamin Tolman and Captain Andrew Waterman. The talk also described the devastation that followed, including the burning of homes and farms in 1777, leaving much of Prudence Island sparsely inhabited for decades as families were forced to abandon their property.
Equally compelling was the explanation of how these stories can be recovered today through careful “breadcrumb” research in Revolutionary War pension applications and other primary sources. By tracing witness testimony and service details, the project is gradually identifying the ordinary soldiers who fought on Prudence and connecting them to specific locations—from the historic cemetery to the surviving stone walls that still stand shoulder-high nearly 250 years later, silent witnesses to the fighting that once moved from fence line to fence line.
The lecture emphasized how much research remains. Ongoing work seeks to identify additional local soldiers, map their movements onto the modern landscape, and better protect surviving features such as the stone walls and cemetery as tangible links to the island’s Revolutionary War history.
Laurie is a retired science teacher with more than 25 years of teaching experience who brings a scientist’s discipline to historical investigation. Her interest in historical records began as a college intern with the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission and later expanded into genealogy, working extensively with probate, land, and vital records. An organizing member of the Battle of Rhode Island Chapter, NSDAR, and former DAR State Chair for Historic Preservation, she has focused much of her research on Prudence Island, Portsmouth, and the Battle of Rhode Island since purchasing the historic 1897 Lookout House on the island in 2015.
BoRIA Director and BHFRC Chair, Paul Murphy Interview on RI Time Capsule
Recently Paul Murphy sat down with hosts Mark Kenney and Steve Stone from the Portsmouth Historical Society on an episode of Rhode Island Time Capsule. Paul discussed the ongoing efforts in the restoration and reemergence of Butts Hill Fort in Portsmouth. Click here for episode.
March 8th, 10:00 AM – Dressing for a Revolutionary Romance with Maria Vazquez, Bristol Historic & Preservation Society HQ, 48 Court St, Bristol.
March 8th, 2:00 PM – Middletown Historical Society’s Winter Lecture Series: Forgotten Heroes of the American Revolution with Janet Uhlar, St. Lucy’s Parish Hall, 909 West Main Road, Middletown.
March 13-15th, – Behind the Lines: Unsung Women of the American Revolution Conference, Portsmouth Friends Meeting House.
April 7th, 7:00 PM – Little Compton Historical Society’s Virtual Lecture Series: Lafayette in the American Revolution and his Evolution as an Anti-slavery Advocate. Click here to register for this free event.
Robert A. Geake
Explore the timeline compiled by historian Robert A. Geake in honor of Black History Month which follows the formation and service of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment throughout the Revolutionary War!
The first racially diverse military unit in our history, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment broke many social barriers of its time and set in motion a shift in attitude towards racial equality. Follow their story from recruitment along the shores of Rhode Island to the trenches of the Siege of Yorktown, and learn the tale behind this critical moment in our nation’s history.
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Did You Know?
Little Compton in the Revolutionary War Era
· Little Compton was a Rhode Island town during the Revolution. Originally part of Plymouth Colony, it became part of Rhode Island by a royal boundary decision in 1747 and remained in Newport County throughout the war and ever since.
· Little Compton natives Aaron Biggs and Benoni Simmons helped carry out the burning of the Gaspee.
· Its position on the Sakonnet River (then called the Sakonnet Passage or East Passage) gave it strategic importance. Facing Aquidneck Island and British‑occupied Newport, Little Compton was exposed to naval patrols, raids, and troop movements along the river. A number of Newport residents took shelter in Little Compton during the war.
· Local men served in Rhode Island militia companies and in the Continental armies. Several men, like Thomas Church, also served as military planners and advisors, and are considered Patriots though not soldiers. Little Compton contributed at least two militia companies within the Newport County militia, commanded by Cornelius Briggs and John Davis.
· Civilian Isaac Barker appears in pension records as providing intelligence in 1778, reporting British ships and troop movements near Little Compton to American officers using local signal points.
· Though records show the Little Compton Town Council and the vast majority of its residents were on the side of the Patriots, local resident Abial Cook was caught supplying the British soldiers with sheep and was punished.
· British foraging parties seized livestock and supplies along the coast, creating hardship for civilians, though Little Compton was never permanently occupied like Newport. One British landing at Sakonnet Point resulted in the death of a teenage boy.
· The town’s economy relied primarily on farming, livestock, dairy production, and food provisioning, which supplied nearby communities and indirectly supported Continental forces. Coastal fishing, river transport, and small-scale boat building provided supplementary income but were not sufficient to make Little Compton a major port or commercial center. As documented in widows’ pension applications, women and children took responsibility for their family farms while male family members were away at war.
· Little Compton emerged from the war economically strained rather than devastated as did Newport. The 1790 federal census recorded 1,542 residents, suggesting demographic stability and modest post‑war growth.
· On the eve of the Revolution, historians estimate that roughly 10% of Little Compton’s residents were enslaved Black people, reflecting Rhode Island’s unusually high reliance on slavery within New England.
· A number of Little Compton’s African American and Wampanoag men served in the Revolution both in Rhode Island’s Black Regiment and in local companies. Three members of the Sakonnet Wampanoag Sucanush family – Aaron, Moses, and Jonathan – served in the Black Regiment. As did enslaved Ebenezer Richmond, Ebenezer Gray, and Boston Wilbour, each of whom received their freedom upon enlisting in 1778. Enslaved Sippo Cook and Ceasar Church also served in other companies and eventually received their freedom as well.
· A small number of free Black residents and dozens of Sakonnet Wampanoag people lived in Little Compton as laborers, mariners, and farm workers. After the war, Rhode Island’s 1784 Gradual Emancipation Act began to reduce slavery while expanding a marginalized free Black community.
– Joe Studlick and Marjory O’Toole
