Freedom for Service

The men of the First Rhode Island Regiment were promised freedom in exchange for their lives. Rhode Island would compensate their owners; they would get their liberty — if they survived. Hundreds enlisted. At Butts Hill on August 29, 1778, they faced two Hessian regiments that charged their position three times. They held three times. The Hessians didn't break them. After the war, some of these men found that their legal freedom was harder to maintain than they had been promised. The records of the regiment are incomplete. Many of the men are known only by first names. They held the line at Butts Hill for a country that did not yet fully recognize them as people.