The Battle of Rhode Island Association
Veterans, widows and neighbors remember Sullivan’s campaign on Rhode Island, August 1778, in the sworn statements they gave for their pensions.
In August 1778 General John Sullivan’s army of Continentals and New England militia crossed onto Aquidneck Island, then called Rhode Island, to attack the British garrison at Newport with the help of a French fleet. The fleet sailed away, the siege failed, and on 29 August the Americans fought their way back to Butts Hill before leaving the island.
Fifty years later the men who had been there, their widows and their neighbors described those weeks to the federal pension office. This site gathers the passages from those statements that speak about the campaign. Each one links to a picture of the original page at the National Archives.
Tap a number on the calendar, or a step below, to read what the veterans said about it.
Dates come from modern histories of the campaign (see About). The veterans gave their own dates fifty years later, and they are often a little off, so the statements under each step are chosen by subject, not by date.
Every man whose pension file has a passage about the campaign. Names are spelled as in the National Archives catalog; the search also finds names that sound alike.
| Name | File | Service named in the file | Passages |
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