The Significance Of The Battle Of Quaker Hill

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The Battle of Rhode Island, also known as the Battle of Quaker Hill or the Siege of Newport took place on Aug. 29th, 1778 during the American Revolution (1775-1783). The site was listed on National Register of Historic Places on May 30th, 1974 and is located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Presently, the historical site preserves the significant portions of the battlefield on which the conflict was fought including American defences in Tiverton and the Conanicut earthworks Battery as well as two underwater sites which preserve the HMS Cerberus and HMS Lark, both British ships lost during the French naval bombardment.

Significance

The Battle of Rhode Island is significant as it represents the first joint French and American operations against the British forces during the Revolution following the signing of the Treaty of Alliance (1778). In addition, the actions of the First Rhode Island Regiment during the conflict are distinguished by the defense of their position from a British flanking action. Their defense of the American position is noted by historians as evidence that Colonial forces were now able to successfully engage and repel British troops. This encounter is also significant in the course of the American Revolution, since it was the only engagement fought during the war in which Black Americans participated as a distinct segregated group as an all Black unit. This unit’s skill in defending the American line against the British-Hessian attacks served to demonstrate that Black Americans could be a formed into a cohesive and effective fighting unit. Finally, despite the Treaty of Alliance, combined planning, and military action on the part of both French and American units, the eventual abandonment of the conflic...

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...merican troops from Butt’s to Quaker Hill. However during the engagement and attempt to flank the colonial units, the First Rhode Island Regiment unexpectedly and successively repulsed the British-Hessian forces on the southern slope of Lehigh Hill.

o Located on the right (west) side of the American line, they defended their part of the hill against fierce attacks by German troops. Numbering 400 men, the First Rhode Island acquitted itself well, repulsing three separate and distinct charges from 1,500 Hessians

On August 30th, 1778 Sullivan and the remaining American forces retreated from Aquidneck onto the mainland to Tiverton and Bristol concluding the Battle of Rhode Island. While the battle was in many ways indecisive, the American withdrawal from the region to the mainland would leave Aquidneck Island under the control of British forces until October 1779.

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