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.

“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.

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.

Rochambeau Comes to Help the Revolution, Gets a Cold Shoulder

When le Comte Rochambeau and his 6,000 men sailed into Newport Harbor on the afternoon of July 11, 1780, they expected to be met by a welcoming committee of dignitaries, cheering crowds perhaps, or cannon salutes, speeches, a parade.

Newport’s Last Slave Auction: Rochambeau’s Prizes

In this article, historian Robert Selig writes about what may be the last slave auction in Newport, which was held by the French forces occupying Newport in 1781.

Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route and the Battle of Rhode Island Association fund Dr. Robert Selig’s translation of Comte de Rochambeau’s Orderly Book

W3R-US and BoRIA commissioned Dr. Robert A. Selig to translate sections of the Comte de Rochambeau’s Livre d’ordre, the Orderly Book.