On the night of July 9, 1777, a young Rhode Island militia officer named William Barton and a small raiding party slipped through British defenses on the Portsmouth shore and carried away General Richard Prescott—wearing nothing but his nightclothes.
Colonel Barton was second-in-command of the fort at Tiverton Heights, a small foothold against the British forces that occupied Aquidneck Island across the Sakonnet River. That spring, Rhode Island’s General Assembly declared it a disgrace that no attack ``hath, as yet, been made against the enemy.’’ The assembly set bounties on the capture of British soldiers, from $20 for a private to $1,000 for a general.
Barton opted to go after the big prize, the officer in charge of 4,000 British and Hessian soldiers occupying Newport. His plan was so bold that it bordered on foolishness. Besides the troops under his command, Prescott was on an island, protected by a squadron of warships.
On July 3, Barton asked the regiment at Tiverton Heights to undertake a hazardous mission. According to lore, every man stepped forward. He selected forty strong rowers, including Thomas Austin, who carried the scars of 300 lashes on his back, ordered by Prescott after Austin refused the use of his oxen to haul British cannon.
On July 4, 1777, they launched three whaleboats into the Sakonnet for a roundabout trip across Mount Hope and Narragansett Bays before doubling back toward Portsmouth, their oars muffled with sheepskin. They rowed between two British warships, passing so near to one of them that the oarsmen could hear the watch on deck calling out the time.
Finally, the boats crunched ashore at Portsmouth. The men’s feet smudged the dew in the fields as they hiked to the farmhouse of Mr. Overing, where Prescott spent his nights, crossing a creek then cutting through the edge of an orchard hoping to avoid detection.
Led by African-American Guy Watson, who may have been Barton’s slave, the men kicked in the door and stormed into Prescott's chambers. The raiders led the partially-clothed general back across the fields, sat him in a whale boat and rowed him across the bay. The daring raid had succeeded.
The General Assembly made good on its $1,000 reward, a prize that Barton divided among his men. Continental Congress voted to present him “an elegant sword,” even though Barton wrote that he preferred cash. The sword is now in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society. The fortification at Tiverton Heights now bears his name, Fort Barton.
Even British Lt. Frederick Mackenzie gave grudging respect to Barton and his men for pulling off the capture: "The Rebels certainly run a great risk in making this attempt. They however executed it in a masterly manner, and deserve credit for the attempt. It is certainly a most extraordinary circumstance, that a General Commanding a body of 4,000 men, encamped on an Island surrounded by a Squadron of Ships of War, should be carried off from his quarters in the night by a small party of the Enemy from without, & without a Shot being fired."
]]>During August 1778, Tiverton was the fulcrum on which the American Revolution teetered. From all over New England militiamen marched along dusty roads to rendezvous at the fort on Tiverton Heights.
From Gloucester, Newburyport, and Marblehead came 265 fishermen to ferry American troops across the Sakonnet River.
From Boston came John Hancock, in command of the Massachusetts militia including Paul Revere, who wrote home, “It seems as if half of Boston was here.”
From New York came 1,000 Continental troops led by Rhode Islander Major-General Nathanael Greene, and another 1,000 led by the 19-year-old Marquis d’Lafayette.
Perhaps most importantly, from France came a fleet of twelve warships commanded by Comte D’Estaing, gun ports open, brass cannon glinting in the sun, the lead ship flying the French colors.
The French were not impressed by the American troops gathered at Tiverton. Lafayette’s aide wrote: “I have never seen a more laughable spectacle; all the tailors and apothecaries in the country must have been called out. They were mounted on bad nags, and looked like a flock of ducks in cross-belts.”
The target of this amassed force was Aquidneck Island, a short row across the Sakonnet. The British occupied the island with a garrison of 6,700 men. Their surrender might break England’s will, resulting in victory for the Americans.
D’Estaing knew that the British fleet expected reinforcements to arrive any day, which would mean certain destruction for the French ships. On the morning of August 10, D’Estaing decided to attack the enemy fleet anchored in Newport, but the British commander ordered his ships to flee. They receded toward the horizon with the French fleet after them, preparing to battle in the Atlantic.
American commander John Sullivan decided to press the land attack without French naval support. He ferried troops, cannon, horses, and supplies across the Sakonnet River, and the force of 10,000 marched toward Newport.
For days, both sides fired cannons at each other mostly without effect, while keeping an anxious eye on the sea, wondering what happened to the naval fleets that had slipped away from Newport to do battle. Whose sails would appear on the horizon?
Fog shrouded Newport on the morning of August 20, so thick it was difficult to see fifty yards. When skies cleared after noon, the sails of twelve large ships appeared. They drew nearer until a look through field glasses revealed the French tri-color flying from their masts.
But the French fleet had been crippled, not through battle with the British but by a storm at sea, and D’Estaing intended to sail into Boston for repairs.
Without support from the French fleet, many militia men wanted no part of British bullets and bayonets, and they began crossing the Sakonnet back to Tiverton in droves. The time had come to end the siege of Newport, but it would not be easy. Sullivan had to ferry nearly 5,000 men across the Sakonnet with an enemy force of 6,000 at his back.
The American retreat was defended by the Rhode Island First Regiment, a segregated unit of enslaved Rhode Islanders—African-Americans, Narragansetts, and men of mixed race—who were promised their freedom in exchange for enlisting. The solders of the 1st wore uniforms of cream-colored pants and jackets, with tall white hats emblazoned with blue anchors and topped with big blue feathers.
Twice the Hessians charged with their bayonets. Twice, in deadly hand-to-hand fighting, the 1st Rhode Island drove them back. The Hessians took on reinforcements and again attacked. With the help of reinforcements, the 1st “soon put the Enemy to rout,” Nathaneal Greene reported to General Washington, and the American forces escaped to Tiverton.
The Battle of Rhode Island resulted in a military draw. The Americans lost 30 dead and 137 wounded, while British losses were 38 dead, 210 wounded. The enemy temporarily kept their stranglehold on Rhode Island, but the underdog Americans stood toe-to-toe with the mighty British and had driven them back.
]]>In June of 1776, on the highest point of ground in Newport, the Americans erected a signal beacon and a small fortification. This high point is known as Tonomi Hill, a shortening of Miantonomi, the name of the sachem of the Narragansetts when Newport was settled in 1639. According to local tradition, the Narragansetts used the hill in much the same way as the European settlers, as a lookout and signaling location.
When the British occupied Newport in December of 1776, they made Tonomi Hill a focus of their efforts to defend the city, according to Frederick Mackenzie, a British soldier who kept a detailed diary of his time spent in America. For instance, on August 10, 1777, Mackenzie reported, “A Detachment of a Captain, 2 Subs. and 100 men of the 22d Regiment, marched this day and encamped near Tonomi-hill near Newport, where they are to be employed in carrying on some works.”
On May 2, 1778, Mackenzie wrote, “The troops are employed in construction of a Redoubt on Tonomi hill, which, from the nature of the situation, is capable of being made a place of great strength, and will cover the left of our position.” On May 5, he reported, “Three of the Redoubts near the town are finished, and that on Tonomi hill nearly so. When the works intended to be made from Green-end to the shore on the left of Tonomi are finished, the town will be rendered very secure, as it is by much the best position for the purpose.”
There were actually two earthwork fortifications at this location. The first and larger is on Tonomi Hill; the second earthwork (sometimes called a “fleche”) is located on an outcrop to the north called Sunset Hill or Little Tonomi, and was connected to the main earthwork by a high ridge. After the French sent their fleet into Narragansett Bay on July 29, 1778, Mackenzie noted, “The troops were informed last night, that on three Guns being fired from the North Battery in Newport, (which is the Signal that the Enemy is landing) they are immediately to get under arms. On this Signal, Ditfourth's Regiment is to throw 200 men into Tonomi hill; 30 into the Fleche on the left of it.”
In August of 1778, when the Americans began massing troops on the north end of Aquidneck Island in preparation for an attempt to retake Newport, the British created a new front line, with Tonomi as the westernmost position. During the American siege, Mackenzie noted the role Tonomi played in defending the British position: “About 6 this afternoon about 40 Rebels took post at Potter's chimnies on our left, but some shots being fired at them from Little Tonomi & Irish's they went off. We lost no men this day by the fire of the Enemy. Our troops at work on the Line, which is now extended within 200 yards of Great Tomini.”
After the Revolution, the earthworks at Tonomi Hill remained intact due to their difficult terrain and inaccessibility. Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan who traveled within the former thirteen colonies after the Revolution, described the “two hills close to each other and very dominating called Tonomi hills, where there is a sufficiently capable and well constructed...redoubt.” The property surrounding the fortifications soon reverted to farmland. On October 15, 1795, William Ellery (a signer of the Declaration of Independence) was paid $10 for “levelling the earth round the Citidel on Tonomi hill,” possibly to remove the remains of the barracks or an encampment.
On his 1848 visit to Newport, the American historian Benson Lossing provided a detailed description of Tonomi Hill: “About a mile and a half northward of Newport rises a bold, rocky eminence, called ‘Tonomi Hill’, celebrated as the seat of the Narragansett sachem of that name, and the commanding site of a small fort or redoubt during the war of the Revolution. …Tonomi Hill is said to be the highest land upon the island, except Quaker Hill, toward the northern end. On its southern slope is the mansion of Mr. Hazzard. …On the top of the hill Mr. Hazzard has erected an observatory, seventy feet high, over a cellar which was dug by the Indians, and in which is a living spring of water. The hill is two hundred and seventy feet above the bay and the top of the observatory commands one of the most beautiful panoramic views in the world.”
According to a 1921 description of the area, “A dense growth of cedars now covers these hills. In the center of Tonomi Hill fort there is an observation tower, which replaced an old one blown down many years ago, from which an extensive view of Newport and its harbor and surroundings could be enjoyed.” In 1922, Newport created a city park on Tonomi Hill, which included a 90-foot tall stone memorial, supposedly on the foundation of the Tonomi Hill powder magazine.
]]>In early 1776, the residents of the Point neighborhood in Newport awoke to see the British frigate HMS Scarborough anchored just offshore. With the threat of war suddenly looming, the town hastily threw up a semi-circular earthwork fort at the northern end of the neighborhood on the pastureland of “Quaker Tom” Robinson.
When the British occupied Newport in December of 1776, they took possession of the earthwork and began to improve it. In December 1777, British officer Frederick Mackenzie noted in his diary that one corporal and six privates manned the fort. As the British prepared for imminent attack by combined French and American forces in 1778, they thickened the battery’s walls and installed guns. The North Battery became one of three British sea batteries designed to protect Newport from attack by water. During the aborted siege of Newport, the battery stood ready to defend its position with two 24-pound and three 12-pound cannons.
Before the British abandoned Newport and Aquidneck Island in 1779, they destroyed many of the earthworks and fortifications. When the Americans returned they went to work to repair the damage. Jeremiah Greenman, a young soldier from Rhode Island, reported in his diary entry of October 29-31, 1779: "Continuing in Newport fixing the North battery on the point which the enemy had layed almost level".
The North Battery was re-named Fort Greene in 1798 to honor Rhode Island’s General Nathanael Greene, one of George Washington’s most trusted officers. The fort was abandoned a few years later, after the construction of Fort Adams at the entry of the passage to the Atlantic Ocean. During the War of 1812, Fort Greene was again repaired, this time with a semi-circular brick wall facing the water. In 1814 – 1815, the Secretary of War granted responsibility of the fort to the Newport Artillery Company. In 1891, the Secretary of War approved use of the property as a park, and the City of Newport filled in remaining trenches and levelled the surface.
By 1905, the fort and its wall were in ruins. The semicircular brick wall was nearly destroyed and covered with water. In 1926, the War Department offered the property for sale, and former Newport mayor Frederick P. Garretson bought the site and gave it to the city. During World War II, the government purchased the site back from the city of Newport and used it for ship repair and storage, but in 1964 sold it back into private hands for commercial purposes. Local citizens banded together and raised funds to preserve the property, and in 1973 Fort Greene again became a city park, this time permanently.
]]>In 1778, when the British built a defensive line of earthworks to protect Newport from the besieging American troops, the Battery at Green End stood near the southern end of that line. A sinuous mound of earth and a grassy open area with a steep slope to the east mark the site of this Revolutionary War defense work. As recently as the late 19th century, cannonballs were unearthed from nearby properties, souvenirs of the 1778 Siege of Newport, in which the Americans to the east kept up a cannonade against British positions.
The British held their positions in and around Newport until October of 1779, when they withdrew to prepare for a campaign in the colonies to the south. In July 1780, a French fleet with thirty-six troop transports arrived in Newport to begin the planning and staging that ultimately led to American victory in the Battle of Yorktown.
The French troops of the St. Onge regiment improved on the British fort at Green End, and it became known as the Redoubt St. Onge. When they departed in June of 1781, Green End fort was abandoned.
During the 19th century the area around the fort became farmland, and in 1894 the Newport Historical Society assumed ownership of Green End Fort. By 1923, the property was developed as a park, with a grassy central open area and a historical marker. The site is now maintained by the Sons of the Revolution and recent removal of the aggressive local overgrowth has revealed the fort's dramatic eastern profile.
]]>The remains of Fort Barton stand on a rise 110 feet above sea level that is capped by an observation tower offering a commanding view of Narragansett Bay. During the early years of the American Revolution, the fort occupied a strategic highpoint overlooking a bottleneck of navigable water between the Sakonnet River and Mount Hope Bay, the shortest distance between Aquidneck Island and the mainland. These narrows—connected by a series of ferries and bridges from the 1680s—were the most vulnerable part of the passage for vessels plying the waters between the upper Narragansett Bay area and the Sakonnet River to Newport and the open ocean.
After the British occupied Newport and Aquidneck Island in 1776, Tiverton became an asylum for American sympathizers and a mustering point for Colonial forces. Construction of the fortification was a joint effort by the governments of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. On June 11, 1777, British officer Frederick Mackenzie described these efforts in his journal: “The Rebels have been busily employed in making a work on the hill above Howland's ferry where their guns have been placed all the Winter. It appears to be very extensive, and must cost them a great deal of labour, as there is little or no soil on the hill.” On June 28, 1777, the Americans erected a flagstaff at the fort and raised their colors. The following day, Mackenzie described the fort as "irregular in its figure, but very extensive. From the situation, it must be strong."
A week after the fort was commissioned, Lieutenant Colonel William Barton led a daring raid to capture British General Richard Prescott on Aquidneck Island. This exploit brought such renown that the fort at Tiverton Heights was named Fort Barton in his honor.
During 1777 and 1778, thousands of Colonial troops—including Paul Revere and John Hancock—were assembled in Tiverton for an invasion of Aquidneck Island. During the summer of 1778, 11,000 Continental troops and militia ferried across the narrows in one of the greatest massings of American soldiers during the war. With French naval support crippled by a storm, American troops fought their way back to Tiverton under the protection of the guns at Fort Barton. After this battle, most of the soldiers departed the area, leaving only a handful of men at the fort.
In 1923, Dr. Roderick Terry donated the site to the Newport Historical Society. During World War II, Tiverton Civil Defense erected a plane-spotting tower atop Fort Barton, and a continuous watch was maintained. A current Tiverton resident remembers her father volunteering four-hour shifts to spot enemy planes, whose silhouettes were painted above the tower’s windows. In 1968, the property was transferred to the town of Tiverton. Today, a park includes remains of the earthworks, an observation tower, and a nature walk through the woods to the east along Sin and Flesh Brook.
]]>Butts Hill Fort is the largest remaining Revolutionary War fortification in southeastern New England. In 1776, when the Americans built a small battery there, the area was also known as Windmill Hill after a succession of mills, beginning in 1668, that took advantage of the high and windy location. In December of 1776, British and Hessian troops occupied the existing fort. In September of 1777, British General Robert Pigot ordered the residents of Portsmouth to aid in the construction of earthworks, and by December the British had completed barracks for 200 men just south of Butts Hill Fort.
During the summer of 1778, American troops began massing at Fort Barton in Tiverton, and on July 26, the British received word that a fleet of French ships had sailed from New York and was likely headed for Rhode Island to reinforce the Americans. In response, the British army abandoned its fortifications in the northern portions of the island and began to reinforce defensive lines around Newport.
By August 11, American troops were camped around Butts Hill, and on August 15, they moved south toward Newport. The American dug trenches opposite the British defenses and the two sides exchanged cannon fire while the Americans awaited the expected arrival of French reinforcements. After more than a week of cannonading, the Americans received news that the French fleet had sailed to Boston to make repairs inflicted by a storm, and that the British fleet was returning.
On August 28, 1778, the American forces began an orderly retreat, but were soon pursued by the British. During the ensuing Battle of Rhode Island, the largest military engagement of the war within the former colony, Butts Hill Fort served as the American headquarters. From its heights, American commanders could easily see the battlefield between Butts Hill, Quaker Hill, and Turkey Hill.
In the early morning hours of August 31, the last members of the American army left Aquidneck Island. Fort Butts had protected the initial retreat, and the guns of Fort Barton in Tiverton and a battery on Gould Island in the Sakonnet River protected the troops as they crossed to the mainland. The Americans held Butts Hill Fort for only seventeen days in 1778. Despite that short time, the earthwork had been the center of the American line during the Battle of Rhode Island. When the British abandoned Rhode Island in October 1779, the Americans again occupied Fort Butts, and in the summer of 1780 they connected the redoubt and the former British barracks into one structure.
Following the war, Butts Hill Fort remained virtually intact, largely due to the land’s unsuitability for farming. A great deal of the structure remained in 1848 when Benson Lossing visited Butts Hill Fort and made a sketch of the battle ground. However, by 1907 the fort and the surrounding property had been platted for 200 house lots. Local preservationists worked to save the earthwork, and in 1923 the fort opened as a park with a series of tablets to mark the lines of the fortification. Unfortunately, by 1934 the earthwork at Butts Hill was overgrown with low vegetation and trees. By 1968, the State of Rhode Island had taken possession of the fort and conveyed it to the town of Portsmouth.
Interest in the Fort was renewed after the Portsmouth Historical Society formed the The Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee (BHFRC) in 2021. After successfully gaining recognition for Butts Hill on the Washington–Rochambeau Route (WARO) National Historic Trail, the BHFRC was absorbed by a new nonprofit, the Battle of Rhode Island Association (BoRIA). Alongside the long-term goal of restoring Butts Hill, BoRIA is committed to researching and preserving the Revolutionary history of Rhode Island, including their contributions to the commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
Together with the Portsmouth Department of Public Works, the BoRIA has made the southern half of Butts Hill accessible to visitors and has stabilized and maintained seven segments of Revolutionary Era earthworks. Work is ongoing on the northern half of the Fort, which includes seven more earthworks segments. Visitors can also explore a virtual tour of Butts Hill on the Battle of Rhode Island Association’s website, alongside a digital collection of historical maps, fort renderings, and battle artifacts.
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