1st Rhode Island
Regiment
It was October 1781.
Washington’s Continental Army was about to launch its attack on the British at Yorktown, Virginia. Among the soldiers was the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, a company of Black, white, and Indigenous troops.
Primus Babcock gripped his musket with slick hands. He’d held it hundreds of times since the Revolution began. But tonight—on orders from George Washington himself—it was unloaded. No ammunition; just a heavy bayonet attached to the end. The soldiers’ only hope was secrecy. They had to get close enough to the British for that bayonet to be deadlier than a bullet.
The enemy fort, Redoubt 10, was only yards away.
All around the fort, the British had laid sharp wooden logs and branches to stop the Americans from getting too close. Babcock tried not to breathe as men with axes crept forward. On Washington’s orders, the men began clearing a hole through the branches.
Thwack. Thud.
The British heard the axes chopping in the darkness and raised their guns to fire.
Musket balls screamed through the air. Terror and adrenaline flooded Babcock’s veins, but he knew his orders: Wait. As soon as the axes cleared a gap, they would flood the fort and overwhelm the British.
He would follow those orders out of loyalty, duty, and courage. But unlike the white men around him, Babcock was also following them to earn his freedom.
At the start of the American Revolution, an estimated 500,000 Black Americans lived in the colonies. About 90% of them were enslaved.
He remembered the glorious day in 1778 when he first heard, “Every Slave, so enlisting, shall … be immediately discharged from the Service of his Master or Mistress; and be absolutely FREE.” Rhode Island needed soldiers so badly that it didn’t care about the color of a person’s skin. Black men and Native American men flocked to join the new 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Babcock was one of these Black Americans.
In 1778, Rhode Island
could not convince enough white soldiers to enlist. With the approval of George Washington, the state allowed enslaved African Americans and Native Americans to join its regiment.
Of course, the American Revolution would have to succeed. He would have to stay alive. But freedom wasn’t just a fool’s hope anymore. The thought had driven him through training. It had driven him through the early battles when he first saw those red coats of the British and dodged enemy gunfire. It drove him now as the wooden defenses gave way. He and his countrymen surged forward to fight. Beyond them, the lanterns of Yorktown twinkled.
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment had made history before; for the first time, over half of its soldiers were Black and Indigenous. That night, it made history again. The soldiers helped capture Redoubt 10, and thanks to their victory, American artillery guns moved closer to Yorktown. The British surrendered a few days later. The last major battle of the American Revolution was won.