Portsmouth

Battle of Rhode Island Monument

Monument · Butts Hill Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871

A granite monument near the Butts Hill Fort site commemorating the Battle of Rhode Island and specifically the service of the First Rhode Island Regiment. The monument acknowledges the regiment's majority-Black composition — unprecedented in the Continental Army — and the soldiers' conduct under repeated assault by Hessian troops. The monument was dedicated in 1878, 100 years after the battle.

Butts Hill Fort

Battlefield · Butts Hill Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871

The earthwork fortification at the northern end of Aquidneck Island, which served as the main American defensive position during the Battle of Rhode Island on August 29, 1778. Colonel Christopher Greene's First Rhode Island Regiment — recruited from free Black men and formerly enslaved men who were promised freedom for service — held the Butts Hill position and repeatedly repulsed Hessian attacks, the most celebrated action of the engagement.

Quaker Hill Battlefield

Battlefield · Quaker Hill Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871

The hill in Portsmouth where the heaviest fighting of the Battle of Rhode Island took place on August 29, 1778. The engagement was a fighting retreat: American forces under General John Sullivan withdrew north under British pressure after the French fleet under d'Estaing failed to materialize as planned. Quaker Hill preserves the terrain of the battle, with stone walls and agricultural fields essentially unchanged.

Portsmouth Historical Society

Museum · 870 E Main Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871

The Portsmouth Historical Society maintains collections related to the town's role in the Revolution, including records of the Battle of Rhode Island and the First Rhode Island Regiment. The museum occupies the Christian Union Church (1865) in the center of Portsmouth. The society's collections include artifacts from the battle and documentation of the enslaved men from Rhode Island who fought for their freedom.

Prescott Farm (General Prescott Capture Site)

Historic House · 2009 W Main Rd, Middletown, RI 02842

The area associated with the capture of British General Richard Prescott on July 9–10, 1777, by Lieutenant Colonel William Barton and 40 volunteers. Prescott was captured from his headquarters in a farmhouse by a small boat party that came ashore in the night. The capture was used to negotiate the release of American General Charles Lee. Prescott Farm is now a preservation property of the Aquidneck Land Trust.