1st Rhode Island Regiment

The 1st Rhode Island was initially formed by the Colonial government before being taken into the Continental army. The revolutionary Rhode Island Assembly authorized the regiment on 6 May 1775 as part of the Rhode Island Army of Observation. The regiment was organized on 8 May 1775 under Colonel James Mitchell Varnum, and was therefore often known as "Varnum's Regiment." It originally consisted of eight companies of volunteers from Kent and Kings Counties.

Varnum marched the regiment to Roxbury, Massachusetts in June 1775, where it took part in the siege of Boston as part of the Army of Observation. It was adopted into the Continental Army by act of Congress on 14 June 1775. It was expanded to ten companies on 28 June, and was assigned to General Nathanael Greene's Brigade in General George Washington's Main Army on 28 July. General Washington officially took command of the Continental Army upon his arrival in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 3 July 1775.

The soldiers of Varnum's Regiment had enlisted until the end of 1775, like all others in the Continental Army, and the Regiment was discharged on December 31, along with the remainder of the Army.

The Continental Army was completely reorganized at the beginning of 1776, with many regiments receiving new names and others being disbanded. Enlistments were for one year. Varnum's Regiment was reorganized with eight companies on 1 January 1776 and re-designated as the 9th Continental Regiment. Under Colonel Varnum, the regiment remained near Boston until the British evacuated the city in March. It was then ordered to Long Island and took part in the disastrous New York and New Jersey campaign, including the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Harlem Heights, retreating from New York with the Main Army. The Continental Army was reorganized at the end of the year, as was the case in 1775, but soldiers were now given the option of enlisting for "three years or the war", unlike the previous practice of enlisting only until the end of the year.

The Continental Army was reorganized once again in 1777, and the 9th Continental Regiment was re-designated as the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Colonel Varnum was promoted to brigadier general on February 27, 1777 and was succeeded by Colonel Christopher Greene, a distant cousin of General Nathanael Greene. Under Colonel Greene, the regiment successfully defended Fort Mercer at the Battle of Red Bank on 22 October 1777 against an assault by 2,000 Hessians.

1781 watercolor drawing of American soldiers from the Yorktown campaign, showing a black infantryman from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment on the far left

Blacks had been barred from military service in the Continental Army from November 12, 1775 until February 23, 1778. Rhode Island was having difficulties recruiting enough white men to meet the troop quotas set by the Continental Congress in 1778, so the Rhode Island Assembly decided to pursue a suggestion made by General Varnum to enlist slaves in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Varnum had raised the idea in a letter to George Washington, who forwarded it to the governor of Rhode Island without explicitly approving or disapproving of the plan.[2] On 14 February 1778, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to allow the enlistment of "every able-bodied negro, mulatto, or Indian man slave" who chose to do so, and voted that "every slave so enlisting shall, upon his passing muster before Colonel Christopher Greene, be immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free."[3] The owners of slaves who enlisted were to be compensated by the Assembly in an amount equal to their market value.

A total of 88 slaves enlisted in the regiment over the next four months, as well as some free black men. The regiment eventually totaled about 225 men; probably fewer than 140 of these were black.[4] The 1st Rhode Island became the only regiment of the Continental Army to have segregated companies of black soldiers; other regiments that allowed black men to enlist were integrated. The enlistment of slaves had been controversial, and no more non-white men were enlisted after June 1778. The unit continued to be known as the "Black Regiment" even though only white men were recruited to replace losses, a process which eventually made it an integrated unit.[5]

The regiment fought in the Battle of Rhode Island in August 1778 under the command of Major Samuel Ward, Jr., as Colonel Greene had been assigned as a brigade commander for the campaign. It played an important role by defending a redoubt on West Main Road where it successfully repelled three charges by the Hessians. Repeated attacks from British regulars and Hessian forces failed to break the line of the Patriot forces and allowed the successful retreat of Sullivan's army.[6] Historian Sidney Rider notes that the Hessians charged three times and were repulsed each time.[7] According to Rider, the Hessian Colonel "applied to exchange his command and go to New York, because he dared not lead his regiment" into battle again, "lest his men should shoot him for having caused them so much loss."[7] The First Rhode Island suffered three killed, nine wounded, and eleven missing.[6]

After a day of battle, General Sullivan decided that his forces were insufficient and ordered an orderly withdrawal during the night. His soldiers left their camp fires burning to make the Hessians think that they were still in place. The retreat lasted a total of four hours, with six Continental brigades retreating.[8] Sullivan praised the Rhode Island Regiment for its actions, saying that they bore "a proper share of the day's honors."[6] General Lafayette proclaimed the battle as “the best fought action of the war.”[8]

The regiment saw little action over the next three years, since the focus of the war shifted to the south. It remained in Rhode Island to defend against a possible attack by the British forces in Newport, and was later sent to Westchester County in New York where the Continental Army was located.

On 1 January 1781, the regiment was consolidated with the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment and was re-designated as the Rhode Island Regiment. The regiment spent the early months of 1781 in an area of the Hudson River Valley called by some historians the "Neutral Zone".

The "Neutral Zone" was an area in the Hudson River Valley described as “a desolate, sparsely populated buffer zone between the forces of the English to the South and the Americans to the North.”[9] People who continued to live in the area had to deal with “theft, murder, and destruction” by renegade groups, such as the “cowboys” or the “skinners.”[10] These renegade groups “cloaked their plundering under an alleged allegiance to one of the combatants.”[10] To whichever side the renegade groups leaned, they would forage for goods to sustain “both men and beasts of burden.”[10]

The constant foraging and raiding in the neutral zone, especially by the British supporting “cowboys,” (loyalist militia) caused Major-General Heath to command Colonel Greene and the Black Regiment to defend Pine's Bridge on the Croton River from “marauding Cowboys” who frequently made incursions from their base in Morrisiania (South Bronx), under the command of loyalist leader Brigadier General James Delancy.[10]

On the 14th May 1781, Colonel Delancey and his unit of loyalist militia, De Lancey's Refugee Corps, assaulted Pine's Bridge (near present day Yorktown, New York) and caught Colonel Greene and the Rhode Island Regiment by surprise.[10] Delancey's troops killed Colonel Greene, Major Ebenezer Flagg and eight African-American soldiers of the Rhode Island Regiment.[10] The black troops were reported to have “defended their beloved Col. Greene so well that it was only over their dead bodies that the enemy reached and murdered him.”[10] Colonel Greene and Major Flagg were buried at the First Presbyterian Church in Yorktown.

Following the death of Colonel Greene, Lieutenant Colonel Jeremiah Olney took command of the regiment. Under Olney's command, the regiment took part in the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781 which proved to be the last major battle of the Revolution. After Yorktown, the regiment moved with the Main Army to Newburgh, New York where its primary purpose was to be ready to react if British forces in the city went on the offensive.

On January 22, 1783, the regiment was placed under command of Colonel Marinus Willett of the New York Militia, along with other units, to capture Fort Ontario in the town of Oswego, New York on the shore of Lake Ontario. On February 8, the force of about 500 soldiers, with 120 horse-drawn sleighs, left Fort Herkimer near Utica. Although the expedition was able to get within a mile of Fort Ontario, the attack was called off at the last minute as the moon was not due to set with enough time before daybreak to make a surprise attack. After the expedition, the Rhode Island Regiment returned to Newburgh, where it remained for the remainder of its service.

On March 1, 1783, the regiment was reorganized into six companies and designated as the Rhode Island Battalion (or "Olney's Battalion"). On June 15, the Rhode Island Regiment veterans were discharged at Saratoga, New York, and the remaining soldiers of the battalion who were enlisted for three years, were organized into a small battalion of two companies. The British evacuated New York on November 25, and the Rhode Island Battalion disbanded on December 25 at Saratoga, New York. It was one of the few units in the Continental Army to have served through the Continental Army's entire existence.