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.
November 2024 Edition
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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.
This grant builds upon the foundation’s previous support of $25,000 for Phase 1 work conducted in the summer of 2024. The findings from the initial phase are expected to be published in early 2025, providing valuable insights into the fort’s history.
The primary objective of this research is to enhance our understanding of Butts Hill Fort’s construction and evolution. The study aims to uncover details about the fort’s initial building by American forces, subsequent modifications by British troops, and its final configuration by Rochambeau’s French engineers in 1780-1781. Remarkably, despite being abandoned in 1783, approximately 80% of the fort remains intact today.
Dr. Uhl, the lead archaeologist for the project, expressed her enthusiasm: “This continued support from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation allows us to delve deeper into the rich history of Butts Hill Fort. Our work will not only contribute to academic knowledge but also help preserve an important piece of Rhode Island’s Revolutionary War heritage. My students and I are excited to share the knowledge gained through this work with the community by enhancing visitor experiences and through outreach events.” Dr. John Robertson, an expert of RI’s Revolutionary War defenses, and Dr. Robert Selig, an expert on comte de Rochambeau, will be consultants on this project.
This article was written by Jerry Cutter in 1977 as a member of the Prudence Island Historical Society. It resurfaced as an unpublished hardcopy earlier this year and Robert A. Geake did further research.
Rhode Island History Hunt
On the rainy, cool Saturday morning of November 23rd, a group of history lovers gathered at the Portsmouth Historic Society for the kick off of BoRIA’s event series, titled “Revolutionary Rhode Island History Hunt”. Produced by North Kingstown-based FreshMaps, and following a storyline written by BoRIA Historical Advisor, Gloria Schmidt, folks were guided by a GPS-enabled map to find 19 clues at six locations around Portsmouth, including Heritage Park, Patriots Park and Butts Hill Fort. These were significant to the 1778 battle that happened on the island during the Revolutionary War.
Once they located a map pin, a video storyteller appeared on their phone, and after learning the significance of each location, they were challenged to answer a trivia question correctly, or solve a puzzle related to the story to earn points. At the fort, there was a special surprise – the 54th Regiment of Foot, a group of British regiment re-enactors was conducting marching drills, fully dressed in red coats, and carrying muskets!
This living history experience was one of many ways that the Battle of Rhode Island Association attempts to raise awareness of Rhode Island’s unique role in the War for Independence. We are collaborating with FreshMaps to deliver such experiences around the state, with Providence and Bristol hunts currently in development, and 10 more planned, including Coventry, East Greenwich and Warwick. This project was funded by the RI Department of Commerce . We will let everyone know about more events as plans are finalized. Click here for the educational video series that were recorded for this history hunt.
December 5th: Portsmouth Historical Society’s Annual Meeting and Holiday Gathering, 6PM
December 7th & 8th: Christmas at Spell Hall, General Nathanael Greene Homestead, Coventry, 10AM
December 7th & 8th: Christmas at the Castle, Smith’s Castle, North Kingstown, 12PM
December 8th: Colonial Yuletide at the Varnum House Museum, East Greenwich, 1PM
December 11th: Fred Zilian Lecture: The Rhode Island Campaign, Tiverton Public Library, 6:30PM
December 13th: Virtual Lecture—Transatlantic Abolitionism in the Age of Revolution
December 17th: Virtual Lecture—Unlikely Soldiers: The Bakers of Washington’s Army, 1778-1781
By Gloria H. Schmidt
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.
By Christian McBurney
I have spent much of the last decade writing of and giving talks about Rhode Island’s historic attempt to raise a “Black Regiment” that would serve in the War of Independence.
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, though free blacks and other men of color had enlisted in previous wars and militia. Lesser known is the regiment of black soldiers who served with the Lègion de Lauzun of France.
That year of 1778 also was the beginning of the important alliance with the French government, one that assuredly increased our chances of winning independence from Great Britain with much needed “money and material” as well as both naval and military support.
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Did You Know?
Here are 5 interesting facts about Rhode Island's role in the American Revolutionary War:
First to renounce allegiance to the British Crown: Rhode Island was the first colony to formally renounce its allegiance to King George III. On May 4, 1776, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed an act that effectively declared independence from Great Britain, two months before the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence.
The Gaspee Affair: Often considered a precursor to the Boston Tea Party, the burning of the HMS Gaspee in 1772 was one of the first acts of open defiance against British rule. Rhode Island colonists attacked and burned this British revenue schooner in Narragansett Bay, an event that some argue sparked the American Revolution.
Battle of Rhode Island: This battle, which took place on August 29, 1778, was the first attempt at cooperation between French and American forces following France’s entry into the war as an American ally. Although the battle ended inconclusively to some historians, it demonstrated the potential of Franco-American military cooperation.
First Black Regiment: The Battle of Rhode Island featured the distinguished performance of the First Rhode Island Regiment, which included a large number of free and formerly enslaved Black and indigenous soldiers. This was the first black regiment to fight in America, and they played a crucial role in defending against British and Hessian attacks.
Significant wartime suffering: During the war, Rhode Island endured considerable hardship. The British occupied Newport for more than three years (1776-1779), resulting in half the town’s population fleeing and taking many decades to return to normalcy. The British army also burned nearly 500 buildings for firewood and extensively foraged for supplies in the southern part of the state.
These facts highlight Rhode Island’s significant and often pioneering role in the American Revolutionary War, from early acts of defiance to military innovations and wartime sacrifices.
Did You Know? Oops – last month!
George Washington’s Most Trusted General
When was Nathanael Greene Born?
“Nathanael Green was born on August 7, 1742, in Potowomut, Rhode Island, and died on June 19, 1768, on his farm in Georgia.”
Reader Andrew MacK of Bristol, RI, noted that he died in 1786 – not 1768 – but still at the young age of 43. We had him dying before the Revolutionary War – sorry!
