 Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the home set for Happy New Year, 2018. It's a pleasure to get the series started and my honor to introduce our speaker, Robert Grandchamp. Robert is the award-winning author of a dozen books on the American military history. He earned his master's in American history from Rhode Island College. Robert is a former national park ranger who would probably not be working today anyway. And for the last seven years, he has been an analyst with the Immigration Service. And he is working with the Immigration Service obviously for many reasons. He resides in Jericho Center and he is married to his wife Elizabeth who is with us here today also. So we're going to hear about the role of the militia in the Revolutionary War. Since Robert is from Rhode Island, he has done a lot of work. Is this one of your ancestors that you researched? So what was pertinent to Rhode Island I think was pretty much, we'll find out more about that but it's probably pretty much the same with the militia units throughout the Revolutionary War. So Robert, it's all yours. Thank you. Thank you. Great to, technical malfunctions. Great to be here today. I've been coming to these lectures ever since I moved up here and great to see such crowd here today. So most of us perhaps have done some research on our ancestors and what they did way back in the way. And growing up, my family pretty much has been in Rhode Island for 12 generations. And growing up, I've heard stories from my grandmother that have come down through the years about what our ancestors did and what they did in the past. And one of those was my sixth great-grandfather, Joseph Knight. And my grandmother really all she knew over the years was Joseph Knight was a big deal in the Revolution and that's how I got it growing up. So as I got older, as I got into college, I wanted to know what was this big deal about. And it turns out that Joseph Knight, my sixth great-grandfather, made quite a name for himself in the Revolution. And I'm going to be talking today about what he did and what the militia did in the Revolution focusing on Rhode Island, where I'm from originally. So 1620, we have these guys, the Pilgrims, show up in Plymouth, Massachusetts. And they very quickly realized that, you know, here we are in the New World and we have to provide some defense for ourselves. For the first 50 years of settlement in Massachusetts, you know, things went pretty peaceful between the Wampanoags, the local native peoples, and the English settlers in Boston and Plymouth. And then in 1675, we have something called King Philip's War that starts. And Native Americans, the Wampanoags in Massachusetts, the Narragansets in Southern Rhode Island, the Nyanics in Connecticut, the Nipmucs up here start a war against the English settlers. In terms of casualty percentages, the bloodiest war in American history. Settlements all over Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts are destroyed. And unfortunately, at the end of it, most of those Native peoples are either killed or sold off into slavery. But at the beginning of that conflict, while you have men with muskets, with swords, they're pretty much not an organized force. You would have your musket in your house and you would go off and use it to go hunting with. There was some training involved with the militia. The National Guard starting and dating back to the 1630s with training. But in terms of military service, it's not really something that these colonists had thought about before this. They had pretty much taken it back. This peaceful settlement that we had had with the Native peoples would continue. But King Philip's War really broke the ice. That war was something we had to face on this continent. Afterwards, almost immediately, starting in the late 1600s, going through into the 1760s, you start having a series of war against the French and the Indians. What we think of the French and Indian War more correctly termed the Seven Years War from 1754 into the 1760s is just the very tail end of almost 70 years of continued warfare with French raiding parties coming down out of Canada, burning New Hampshire, Massachusetts, raiding frontiers, raiding settlements along the frontier of the Hudson River. So all these events lead up to militia laws being enacted throughout the colonies. Basically, if you were a man between the ages of 16 and 60, you had to provide yourself with a list of equipment more than likely some sort of musket, some sort of cartridge pouch to hold ammunition, and a bayonet was often on the list. And also, you would have to assemble four to six times a year to train. And these training bands, as they become known, are both popular and unpopular. Unpopular in that it takes time away from farming, it takes time away from your average vocation. However, training day became a bit of a holiday. You would show up early in the morning at the captain's house, you would wake him up with a volley of musket tree, and you would literally spend your whole day down at the tavern, sitting there consuming large amounts of rum, politicking for different officer positions while training. So while these events have a bit of a holiday to them, they are very important because the men learned the military training, what they might not pick up for in parade ground grace, they know how to handle these muskets. Firearms are an important part of the early American experience. Almost every man in the colonies owned one, they knew how to use it. So we have these series of wars that are going on in the 1700s against the French, against the native peoples. Rhode Island is pretty much spared directly of this. They send parties off to fight in the 1740s up at Louisbourg. They send parties to fight at Crown Point and Montreal and Quebec during the French and Indian War in the 1750s, 1760s. But Rhode Island itself is pretty insular. It's not really attacked during this. One of the men that comes up in this period is my sixth great-grandfather Joseph Knight. He's born here in Situit, Rhode Island in 1740. Now the Knights are a pretty important family in Western Rhode Island at this time. They own large tracts of land. They clear the land off, speculate on it, and sell it off to settlers. They're also going to be involved in what's called the Hope Furnace. It was a large ironworks that was bankrolled by the Brown family of Providence, Brown University getting their name from them. So Knight comes of age in the 1750s and the 1760s getting involved in these parts of the trade. He's going to get married relatively young at 25 to Elizabeth Knight, his first cousin. They're going to have five children by 1775. Knight starts a tavern on the side. He has a very large house. And he is also going to get interested in military affairs at a young age. At 19 he is commissioned as an ensign in the first company of the Situit militia. And by 1774 he is a captain. So even though Knight he's promoted up through the ranks, he's commissioned by the governor, he's actually elected to these positions by the men under his command. So it gives you some idea of what his fellow townspeople thought of him, promoting him pretty steadily up through the ranks. Knight is involved in these events and he's also going to get involved in politics. He's elected to the town council early on in 1773 and things with the British which had been cordial for years by the 1760s with the implementation of taxes after the French-Indian war, the Americans start getting pretty revolutionary and that's what eventually leads to our revolution. So Knight is watching affairs, watching things as they get involved but he's more reactionary rather than becoming one of these firebrands from Massachusetts like John Adams, Samuel Adams. He's going to wait for events to work themselves out. But very quickly things start acting up in Rhode Island. October of 1774 here in Newport there's a place called Fort George. Fort George has about 60 cannons, about 2,000 muskets. These are going to be captured by the Rhode Island militia and sent to armed companies throughout the state. So once things start picking up up in Massachusetts in the fall of 1774, the winter of 1775, the militia companies throughout Rhode Island begin responding. The General Assembly of Rhode Island passes new militia laws saying you're going to have to turn out for training now three times a week. So imagine you have a job and now you have to leave your job three days a week to go train. They're going to publish new militia regulations and they're going to start chartering new companies throughout the state forming those independent militia companies into regiments. Providence County where situate is is going to sponsor three regiments forming its own brigade. So now the situate companies, this is situate, are now part of the third Providence County regiment of which Knights Company mustering about 60 men is the first company. So throughout the winter of 1774 and 1775, the men of situate are training, getting ready. They know what's coming. This is a letter that's been in the family since 1775. And some men did not take the three days a week of training to heart like most of night soldiers. So basically what this boils down to is these three men didn't show up for an entire week of training. And Knight is basically saying, we're finding you $3 and if you don't pay the fine, we're going to toss you in jail. So that's how serious they took this training. If you missed a day, you had to pay a dollar, which obviously was a lot more money back then. So we have our muskets that are distributed from George here in Newport. The militia companies in Rhode Island are gathering training, getting ready for the storm to break. Up there in Boston, Major General Thomas Gage realizes that there are some firebrands out in Concord, Massachusetts, basically doing the same thing. They're gathering arms, gathering cannon. And he decides to launch a presumptive strike. One of the men sent out on April 19, 1775 is Major John Pitcon. Pitcon is in command of a battalion of Royal Marines in Boston. And Pitcon wrote to a friend over in England saying, all I have to do is draw my sword halfway out of its scabbard and the whole of the Massachusetts militia will run away. That's what they thought. We're pretty familiar with what happens on April 19, 1775 by 800 British soldiers march out to Concord. There's fighting at Lexington Green. Nine Americans are killed. The British march to Concord. The Americans this time decide not to run away. They make a stand. And for the next eight hours along the battle road from Concord back to Boston, there's a very bloody battle that leaves close to 300 British and 75 Americans dead or wounded. That's the start of the American Revolution. Almost immediately, riders are dispatched from Boston throughout the countryside to New Hampshire, to Massachusetts, through Connecticut, into Rhode Island, saying the war started. We need troops up in Boston immediately. About five o'clock on the evening of April 19, one of those riders gallops through situate, screaming at the top of his lungs, they're fighting, they're fighting. Night is out in his field plowing. Quite literally, it's the statue of the Minuteman at the North Bridge in Concord. He literally drops his plow, rushes into his house, grabs his musket, and goes to the tavern to rally his men. About 50 men from the first company of situate gather that night debating their plan. And the following morning, with night in command, they start marching up towards Boston. They cross into Massachusetts and they're met by other riders who tell them, hey, the British are back in Boston. We're going to lay siege, but it's up to you if you want to go home, but the British are back. The emergency's out for now. So night and his men turn around and go back home. They are the first company of Rhode Island militia to respond to the crisis. Rhode Island very quickly, musters a brigade of three regiments under Nathaniel Green, and they march to Boston. Now, it's very interesting to know, night never joins the continental line. He never joins what becomes the main army under George Washington. Rather, he is going to provide invaluable service through his militia duty in Rhode Island. So now, the revolution's on. Night is going to play a central role in what's going to become part of a very impressive defensive network. Now, remember, we captured from the British about 60 to 70 cannon from Fort George there in Newport. And the Rhode Island General Assembly very quickly deposes the governor of Rhode Island, Joseph Watton, who's a noted loyalist, and they're going to put Nicholas Cook in charge. And Cook is a firebrand. He's a revolutionary. And he realizes that Narragansett Bay, which divides the state roughly in two, is going to be a very important passageway. Basically, keeping that bay open is going to be one of the most crucial roles of the militia throughout the revolution. So Cook is going to order batteries erected, places like Tiverton, Bristol, Warwick, Point Judith, Jamestown. All along the bay, they're going to throw up fortune batteries, keeping the British away from Providence. Providence is a very important manufacturing center. It's also a large shipyard. Another thing, Southern Rhode Island. It's a bread basket, very fertile soil down there. A lot of that food is going to go to support and feed what becomes the kind of an alarming. So Knight, early on in 1775, he's going to spend most of the war here in Warwick, ironically, where I grew up. And they're going to erect a series of fortifications here on Warwick Net. The bay is only about a mile and a half wide at that point. Very, very important position, basically the last stop before the British get to Providence. And that is the fare of Rhode Islanders throughout the war. Defend Providence, defend Providence. So 1775, the forts are thrown up. Knight goes back and forth between Cituit, his wife Elizabeth, and his duty at Warwick. The militia companies are on duty for about a month at a time. And you go down to Warwick, serve there for a month. Go back, tend to your farm, tend to your business, and go back and forth. He's actually going to put his wife in charge of running his tavern. And she's going to send a letter to him at one point that, you know, there's some sketchy people here. What do you want me to do about it? It's a pretty interesting piece. But that's where he's going to spend most of the war. So remember, after what happens at Lexington and Concord, the British are penned up in Boston. By the fall winter of 1775 into 1776, those British soldiers are getting pretty hungry up there in Boston. Thomas Gage, he's been recalled back to England. William Howe is now in charge. And Howe is going to send the Royal Navy out to find food. A squadron of three ships under Captain James Wallace is going to sail into Narragansett Bay. Now Newport is, if there's a hub of loyalism in Rhode Island, it's Newport. It was a city of close to 10,000 people at this time. It's the fifth largest in the colonies, and a lot of those people are loyal to the crown. Most of the people who live up this way, however, are not. So Wallace sails into Narragansett Bay and very quickly strips Newport of pretty much anything edible. And most supplies are sent back to the British in Boston. So Wallace, into January of 1776, he's launching raids along the coast of Jamestown, gathering, looking for supplies. Doesn't go too well with the local populace. Early on in the war, the British thought that by offering the Americans an olive branch, basically, you know, we'll buy supplies from you, we're not going to take them. And Wallace says to a man named James Pearce here on Prudence Island that on January 12th, 1776, I'm going to stop at Prudence Island and I'm going to pay you for whatever is on the island. I want turkeys, I want sheep, whatever is there, I will give you good hard money for it. Well, Pearce is the captain of the local militia company on Prudence Island. And he writes back to Wallace that whatever you take off this island will be at the point of the bayonet. They're not playing games anymore. They're going to stop the British. So Pearce, great luck of intelligence, he knows the British are coming on January 12th. So he sends out dispatches to Bristol, to Warwick, to Providence, saying hey, the British are coming the next day, I'm going to need some help down here. One of those dispatches goes to Warwick. And in command at Warwick is William West, who's a Brigadier General in command of the 3rd Providence County Regiment and the Brigade and most of the forces on the west coast of Narragansett Bay. And West is very good friends with Knight, they grew up together in Situat and West is going to send Knight and about a dozen men to Prudence. About 20 more are going to come from Bristol. The early morning hours of January 12th, 1776, all the women, all the children on Prudence are sent off to Warwick. Most of them are never going to set foot on the island again. Pearce gathers at the top of the island waiting for reinforcements. Now they didn't really know what Wallace's plans were. They didn't know if he was just going to stop the island, gathers supplies, or if he would make it up further up the bay to Providence. So not too many men are sent to Prudence. About 30 in total, about 12 from Situat and about 20 from the Bristol garrison. So Knight and his men row over and meet up with Pearce and about 30 of his men from the Prudence Island militia. Now as I mentioned earlier, you have to remember these officers are voted in by the men. One of the problems with the Americans early on in the war is that they're not a really disciplined fighting force. And basically if somebody is going to give me an order, I want some part of that. Nobody is going to order me around. I want to have some say, some discussion and what's about to happen. Very much so with these militia companies. They felt that if they voted those officers in, those officers could not give them orders without them having some part of it. So if you're like me, a good Vermonter, you go to town meeting once a year and you argue about taxes, argue about putting sidewalks in and what not. So if you can imagine, here it is, about one o'clock on January 12th, 1776. And the militia is literally having a town meeting on the beach on Prudence Island. Knight and Pearce put that out to them. The British are down this way about three miles away. Why don't we march down there and attack them? They say, if it sounds like a good idea, let's go down there and attack the British. So they march down the island and get their dander up a little too quickly. The British are out of range and they fire a volley. Well, the British very quickly come up into position and Knight and Pearce realize they've bitten off more than making chew. There's about 150 British on the island to about 45 to 50 American militiamen. For the next two hours, there's a running battle up the length of the island. The Americans fighting behind stone walls and fences, fighting a delaying action against the British. Finally, by nightfall, Knight, Pearce, and the rest of the militia are hemmed in on the very top point of the island. Knights coming on, they very quickly row off the island back to Warwick. Well, Wallace is feeling pretty confident. He's only lost two men, the Americans lose two killed, two wounded. So that night, he proceeds to start burning parts of the island and that is a beacon to militia companies throughout the area. They see prudence burning and they realize they can burn the island, they can do that to our home. So militia companies respond from throughout the coastal areas and by the next morning, over 500 men are landed on prudence island. So while they faced about 50 Americans the day before, they're now facing almost 500. And that day, that morning, there's another nasty little fight on prudence island, but this time it's the British running back to their boats. About nine killed, about 12 British wounded for about three or four Americans killed and wounded. So it's a pretty nasty little fight, but it's one that proves to the British that the Rhode Island militia will respond. December of 1776, the British are going to land in Newport and they're going to take over the entirety of Equinic Island. And the British land in Newport, but they don't really do anything. They're going to stay there for over three years and pretty much hold the town and the island, but not really do much of anything else. The Rhode Island militia is going to gather a policy of containment. They feel that containing the British on Newport is the best policy. They didn't want them to go up and take Providence. Over here we have the Hope Furnace, which by this point is a very large ironworks producing cannon for the American Revolutionary effort. Likewise, we didn't want them to march into this area, destroy all the crops, the foodstuffs that are supplying the Continental Army. So containment becomes the policy of the Rhode Island militia. For what he did on Prudence Island, Knight is promoted to major of the 3rd Providence County Regiment. Even though they retreated, I guess he did good enough to earn a major's commission. So he is now in charge of all the forces in the Warwick area. And again, they're keeping close watch on the British in Newport. The British occasionally will launch raids against Bristol, against Warren. Those are burned in June of 1778. June of 1777, there's another nasty little fight down here on the Casey farm in Wickford, Rhode Island, where Knight again leads his men into action. It's, believe it or not, a night engagement. The British are pushed back to their ship without getting any supplies. Whenever the British set foot on mainland Rhode Island during the revolution, the militia very quickly turns out and just as quickly they are pushed back to the sea, returning to Newport. 1778 comes into effect and we have the French Alliance. And the French send a squadron of ships to the United, what is now the United States, and they are looking for something to do. They are convinced that the best target is going to be Newport. Washington decides that the first object of the Franco-American Alliance is going to be to try to free Newport. And so Washington sends up Lafayette, Green, a few other generals, some continental troops. But more importantly, a lot of militia from throughout New England responds. July and August of 1778, there is a siege of Newport. The Americans from the mainland besieging Newport, the French ships from the sea trying to lay siege to the city. Unfortunately, on August 20th, 1778, there's a hurricane. And the French fleet is pretty much destroyed. They have to sail away back to Boston for repairs. That leaves the Americans on Newport very vulnerable. Reinforcements have coming up from the British garrison at New York, and they are going to land in Newport. John Sullivan, who's in charge of the American forces on the island of Rhode Island, Aquedic Island, realizes we have to get off the island, we have to retreat. So on August 28th, he's going to abandon his siege line and start the retreat up the island back to Tiberty. The following morning, August 29th, the British are going to come up in pursuit. And on the northern tip of the island, there's going to be another nasty little battle called the Battle of Rhode Island. About 250 British and Americans on both sides are going to be killed or wounded. Knight and his situant men are present on the field. However, they're actually going to come up late in the day. They're going to take part in forming the retreat, being some of the last group of American soldiers to retreat off of the island. So even though, again, they're pushed off, back off the island, the British take the entire island again. They have, again, just demonstrated, contributed to the American cause. The Continentals go away, back to join Washington, and the militia is again in charge of the affairs in Rhode Island. Knight made a name for himself during the siege of Rhode Island, the siege of Newport, and he's going to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1779 for his actions. However, by 1779, the American Revolution is shifting south. It's moving into the Carolinas, into Virginia. The British are going to pull that garrison out of Newport and send those troops down south. Eventually, most of those troops will surrender at Yorktown. So now, Rhode Island is pretty much British free. The militia is going to stay on duty until the final peace treaty in 1783. Knight, in the meantime, he's going back to situate. He's served on the town council. He's become president of that council. He's also established a very profitable tavern. Looking at receipts, he was serving out a lot of rum, a lot of other spirits. He was paying a lot of taxes on that. The revolution's over, but Knight's service is not. He's actually going to stay in the militia as a Lieutenant Colonel in command right up through the eve of the War of 1812, when he's well into his 60s. So militia service is very important to him throughout his whole life, and he's going to stay in that through its entirety. After the revolution, we form the Art of Coles of Confederation and eventually the Constitution. Now, if you've studied your constitutional history, Rhode Island is the very last state that will adopt the Constitution. First in war, last in peace. And the farmers who live in Western Rhode Island don't really like the Constitution as it is presented to them up front. They feel that without what becomes the Bill of Rights in that that basically Rhode Island would be joining a confederation where the rights of the individual would not be protected by the government. So 1788, when Rhode Island is presented with the Constitution for the first time, Knight is actually one of most of the people in Western Rhode Island who voted down. He will not vote yes to support the Constitution until the Bill of Rights is eventually passed. When it is, Knight votes yes. Rhode Island joins the United States in 1790 and it's still there today. So Knight throughout the rest of his life, very, very active in civil affairs. Not only turning out with the militia every year, running his cavern, getting involved in politics. But for him, politics was very local. He never runs for state office, never runs for federal office. He was more concerned with what was going on in his own town in situate. He's going to lose his wife Elizabeth in 1820 and he himself will pass away on February 27, 1825 at the age of 85. And in his obituary that is published in the Providence newspapers, he was called situates bravest son. And he will be remembered even into the 1900s at a dedication of a Civil War monument in situate. Two of Knight's great grandsons go off to fight, excuse me, twelve of Knight's great grandsons go off to fight in the Civil War. Two of them do not come back. And even as late as 1913 that title, situates bravest son, is still propagated at the dedication of that monument. He's going to be buried under a very small marker on his farm and you see here this large body of water situate reservoir. That wasn't there during the American Revolution. That was actually created in the 1920s. The Knight family, their land, a lot of the area on Knight farms are going to be covered up underwater. A lot of the cemeteries that are in that flood plain are going to be removed and reinterred in another large location. Joseph Knight was pretty lucky. He still rests in the rocky soil of western Rhode Island. And it was that rocky soil of Rhode Island that he loved so much that he and his men in the Rhode Island militia were willing to go out and defend time and again during the American Revolution. Thank you. Any questions? Yes? You started with the fall prevention in King Philip's War. Could you tell us what the impetus for the war was? Well, there's a lot of different things that boiled up to a book. Basically, the Wampanoag on natives from Massachusetts, they were losing their rights, they were losing their land and basically they felt that they had to make a stand. And it went well for them early on. However, the English people rallied and pushed them back, repulsed them. And by June 1776, when Philip was killed, it's pretty much over for them. But there were many, many different causes of the war. There's a lot of really good books about it. But that's sort of a little bit before my time period. I'm curious about the transition of the disbanding of militias. Yes. And that must have been difficult because the men were very loyal to this idea and yet they couldn't keep going. Well, they are loyal to their term of service. And if you were, if you enlisted for 30 days, you enlisted for a set amount of time. So to give you a very good example of this, John Stark in Vermont. So he has a brigade of militia from New Hampshire. They're ordered out for, I believe, a 60-day period. So they destroyed the Brunswickers at Bennington. So they hang out in Vermont at Paulette in Manchester for a few weeks after the Battle of Bennington. On the eve of the Battle of Saratoga, the first battle at Freeman's Farm, their term of service is over. And Horatio Gates, who's the American commander there, is basically pleading with Stark, hey, you have 1,500 guys, I can really use you. And he's like, our term of service is over and they march off the field. Same thing during the Civil War. Numerous regents, if your term was up, you're done. So they were loyal to their term of service more than anything else. And Washington always complained about the militia. He felt they were unreliable. They ate him out of the house and home. Frequently, they would show up to Continental Service without any ammunition, without any muskets. Washington would issue them ammunition, arms from the Continental stores. When they went home, they'd take that stuff with them. So Washington had a love-kate relationship with the militia. While they were really good force multipliers, the Continental Army really is no bigger than 12,000 to 15,000 men throughout the Revolution. That's the main army under Washington. The militia would show up again and again, but they would show up for a week, two weeks, and go back to their farms and fields. So Washington really had this love-kate relationship with them, but the militia really, really played an important role in the conflict. It could not have been won strictly by that main army under Washington. Do you want to determine whether a person would be in the Continental Army or be in the militia? Well, it was enlistment. There was no drafting during the American Revolution, so you went and volunteered for Continental Service. Now, Continental Service could be anywhere in the colonies, in the United States. Some of those men that served with Knight early on, about 10 of them actually enlist in the Continental Army. Several of them lose their lives later on, fighting in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Line. But it was, you were in the militia. If you were a man between 16 and 60, unless you had a physical or mental defect, you were in the militia. No exe-hands or butts about it. And like this letter says, if you didn't show up, you better either pay or you're going to jail. Continental Service was voluntary, much like the military today. Do you say anything about the Brown family and when they started to become influential and how big a role they played in the revolution? Well, again, the Browns basically bankroll, a large part of it. They're pre-war merchants. Unfortunately, a lot of that money is made through the African slave trade. They found Brown University, but they're bankrolling a lot of what's going on. Later on, after the revolution, they're going to be one of the early families involved in the China trade, abandoning the slave trade, and importers through China of goods to what becomes the United States. But a large part of their money right now during the revolution is tied up in that whole furnace. And they're going to receive contracts to make nearly 600 cannon that are going to serve in the American Revolution. So they're making good part of their income through the whole furnace. Knight is involved in that company through the use of his horses. He's actually contracted out to haul timber to feed the furnace and also to deliver iron ore, which is mined here in Cranston to the furnace. It was operated on the Tuxet River. It's not there today. It was destroyed in the 1820s through a fire. I'm curious about the anecdote you told us about Knight's wife running the taverns. Yes. And sort of the nefarious characters you're talking about are those conflicts between loyalists and colonists or the British doing spying in that? You know, I don't think so. She said, I have the letter at home, but it's some interesting people here at the tavern, and she wanted his advice on it. But royalism in Rhode Island is pretty much strictly to Newport. Newport is the hotbed of royalism in the state. Most of the folks in western Rhode Island, you know, situate is not on the coast. Most Rhode Islanders, Rhode Island at this point has a population of about 60,000. Situated is a town of about 3500. They're backwoods farmers. They're not really involved in the politics of, you know, the king. They were, the revolutions going on were going to support this thing. So it was more of, they were there, they got involved. Yes, sir. Were there any small arms manufacturers in the state at the time? There were not. There were groups that would manufacture muskets from different parts. Those called Committee of Safety muskets, which literally you can have a brown best lock, a Charleville barrel, and some Dutch furniture. But the glorification, the bone that they got was that capture of those 2000 muskets early on in October 1774. Is your family ever retained? We do not. I have the letter and I've been told that his sword is out there somewhere. That's been what I've been told for the last 20 years. Anybody knows where it is. I'd love to have it on my walls. But we've never seen it. No. My wife, my wife moved into a military museum and she's slowly turning into a house that she wants to live in. Yes, sir. Sounds like you have a lot of stuff from your family. But where, I'm just curious sort of where you did your research. Was there certain treasure troves you came across? Well, pretty much I was lucky. I went to Rhode Island College in Providence. And if you're going to do research on American history, Providence is a fantastic place. Brown University, Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Island State Archives, Rhode Island College. There's different archives all over the state. And pretty much that's where I lived, was all those repositories. So certainly I've done research all over. Someone once said that the country needs a war about every 25 years to prepare the next generation, which it's an unfortunate thing to say. Did the French and Indian War contribute to the readiness of the militia for the Revolutionary War? Well, in terms of night, he wasn't involved in the French and Indian wars at all. But a lot of the leaders that Washington stark, those are guys who get their military service through the French and Indian War. Washington certainly for necessity, the Western Frontier in Virginia. So a lot of the early American leaders prepare themselves through the French and Indian War. On April 19th, during the first battle of the Revolution, the average American going into battle that day had more combat experience than the average British soldier. And the Americans throughout the Revolution, they learn on the job. They learn from their mistakes. And through a combination of miracles, the French and some really bad British generals that John Burgoyne, they managed to pull off a victory. I was just curious, could you elaborate on the role of the African-Americans? Yes. Well, Prince Island, I found a notation that when they were getting ready for the battle, there were 11 African-American slaves on the island. And they were given muskets and taught how to fight. And that's, it was just one brief account that I saw regarding that. Now Rhode Island has the highest population of slaves of any colony. Here in South County, Rhode Island, King's County, now Washington County, almost 25% of the population of Kingston was enslaved. And during the Valley Forge winter of 1778, James Mitchell Varnum, who's a Brigadier General in command of the Rhode Island Brigade, the Rhode Islanders are starving, dying by the dozens of Valley Forge. And he has this idea that, well, let's buy the freedom of these African-American slaves and have them fight for the Continental Army. Meanwhile, before this, there were handfuls of African-Americans who were fighting in the Continental Army. Washington didn't really like it, but if you were there, you had a musket, you were loyal. Okay. So Washington, he's losing a lot of guys at Valley Forge. And he's like, okay, go to Rhode Island and see what you can do to recruit. So they recruited, they bought more, more and bought the freedom of about 180, 190 African-Americans. And those have formed into the First Rhode Island Regiment. And the problem with this unit is there's so many myths, so many legends that have grown up with it over the years. It's really hard to distinguish facts from fiction. They fight at the Battle of Rhode Island. Do they win the battle like everybody says they do? No, they don't. They were there, on the field, they contribute. The rest of the war, nobody knows what to do with them because disease, desertion, battle casualties, they reduce them tallying down to about 100 men. And it's very costly. It costs almost 150 pounds for each slave that is freed. So by 1780, two years into this experiment, there's only about 100 African-Americans left. They're consolidated with the Second Rhode Island, forming what becomes known as the Rhode Island Regiment. They're actually kept in segregated companies within that regiment and they are eventually disbanded with the rest of the Continental Army. So while they did serve, they did contribute. It's really hard to separate facts from fiction. There was a recent book on the regiment written by a gentleman in Rhode Island, and I hate speaking ill of fellow authors, but it was a completely almost fictionalized account of that action. There are several really good books by Sidney Ryder. It's probably the best one to go read about what they did. Yes, sir? I happen to work with a re-enactry on the Sepp Warners Regiment of Butte, and in response to this, we have identified two African-Americans who served with Warners. One of them disappeared after the Battle of Hudders and have not been ill of traceable. By the way, they came from Rhode Island. Well, thank you very much. It was a pleasure to be here today. Thank you. Thank you. Ethan Allen. Yes, thank you. I'm sorry if that's what I was talking about. Thank you. We're here in Vermont. And again, welcome everybody to Ethan Allen Homestead Museum. Thank you so much for coming and contributing to us and having us here. We have someone who has an announcement. Would you like to talk about the flag? You don't have to. I just saw you there. We have an under way at the Vermont State House. Alright, this is Maydeth Townsend, who you represent. I'm one of the South Burlington State Grants. Yes, and one of the volunteers here at Homestead contacted me. His family lives in my district in South Burlington. And asked if I wouldn't try to get a law passed because it has to be by law to have any flag blown at the State House other than the American flag and the Vermont flag. And so in any case, the proposal is to allow the flying of the Green Mountain Voice flag every January 15th in commemoration of 28 towns back in 1777 on January 15th declaring their independence from the British province of Quebec and the American states of New Hampshire and New York. These 28 towns were supportive of Ethan Allen both militarily and politically. And what we now know as the Green Mountain Voice flag was indeed used back in the day. And there's a remnant of the one that was carried into the battle of Bennington in the Bennington Historical Museum. It was carried by General Stark as a matter of fact. It may have been General Stark's brigade flag so it would probably more of a New Hampshire flag than a Vermont flag, unfortunately. Oh, we're not going to be talking about that. He owned it, you know, until the 1830s. So far, so good. The Committee of Jurisdiction in the House has voted favorably on the bill and it's going to be voted on on the House floor this Tuesday. And assuming everything goes well, it then goes over to the Senate and hopefully it will meet with favor there also so that next January 15th would be the first time the Green Mountain Voice flag would be lying in the safe house for that day. Well, we thank you so much for your effort. Don't worry tomorrow. Thank you. One other announcement before we go, please. The next talk is February 18th. And we're going to go from war to peace, if you will. Susan Willette, who was the chair of the history department at St. Michael's College will be talking about a lady named Phoebe Orvis. She'll be talking about the diary of Phoebe Orvis, who was a person who lived back in that same time period. And coincidentally, we received three copies of a book which arrived last week called The Art of Cookery. I don't know if any of you have heard about this. It's like the very first American cookbook. It was published in 1805. And Dan looked at this. Our director said, that's our fireplace on the cover of the book, which we don't know. I just sent a note to the publisher, asked them how they happened to get the picture because no one talked to us. This is a 2016 publication. So we do have a few copies around in the gift shop. Again, thank you for coming today.