Battle of Rhode Island Shared Articles

The Early Life of Nathanael Greene
This Continental Army general’s family arrived in America in the mid-1600s and soon became prominent and prosperous in their region. As a youth, he had little formal education but managed to find time to study great military leaders of the past. During our War for Independence, he lost most of the battles he fought but managed to hold his thread-bare regiments together.

Nathanael Greene Joins the Cause
Nathanael Greene was one of the greatest American generals to emerge from the American Revolution. Without any formal military training or any experience, Greene developed into a leader feared and respected by his British counterparts.

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.