Rhode Island’s “Black Regiment” of the American Revolutionary War is fairly well-known to students of American History. Most published histories of the small colored battalion from Rhode Island are clearly biased in favor of the “regiment” and tend to interpret it as an elite military unit. However, a detailed study and analysis of Rhode Island’s segregated Continental Line by the author reveals a “military experiment” that was beset with difficulties from its start and ultimately failed as a segregated unit in 1780. In this work, many of the popular stories of Rhode Island’s “Black Regiment” are proven to be myths. Follow the accurate historical stories of the colored and white soldiers of Rhode Island’s Continental Line whose courage and sacrifices helped create an independent nation.
Known as the "Black" Regiment, the Story of the First Continental Army Unit Composed of African American and Native American Enlisted Men In December 1777, the Continental army was encamped at Valley Forge and faced weeks of cold and hunger, as well as the prospect of many troops leaving as their terms expired in the coming months. If the winter were especially cruel, large numbers of soldiers would face death or contemplate desertion. Plans were made to enlist more men, but as the states struggled to fill quotas for enlistment, Rhode Island general James Mitchell Varnum proposed the historic plan that a regiment of slaves might be recruited from his own state, the smallest in the union, but holding the largest population of slaves in New England. The commander-in-chief's approval of the plan would set in motion the forming of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. The "black regiment," as it came to be known, was composed of indentured servants, Narragansett Indians, and former slaves. This was not without controversy. While some in the Rhode Island Assembly and in other states railed that enlisting slaves would give the enemy the impression that not enough white men could be raised to fight the British, owners of large estates gladly offered their slaves and servants, both black and white, in lieu of a son or family member enlisting. The regiment fought with distinction at the battle of Rhode Island, and once joined with the 2nd Rhode Island before the siege of Yorktown in 1781, it became the first integrated battalion in the nation's history. In From Slaves to Soldiers: The 1st Rhode Island Regiment in the American Revolution, historian Robert A. Geake tells the important story of the "black regiment" from the causes that led to its formation, its acts of heroism and misfortune, as well as the legacy left by those men who enlisted to earn their freedom.
George Alfred Henty was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent best known for his historical adventure stories. A contemporaries described him as a man of strong will, reasonable ambitions and a hard, steady worker. Henty wrote about eighty books for boys. A young man who worked as his secretary for two years said that Henty used to walkup and down his study smoking his clay pipe and reeling off stories just as fast as the secretary could take them down. Best known for adventure stories such as The Young Bugler, Under Drake's Flag, With Clive in India, When London Burned: Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire, Moore at Corunna, At Aboukir and Acre, A Story of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt, With Buller in Natal, With Roberts to Pretoria and With Kitchener in the Soudan, In Freedom's Cause, Under Drake's Flag, In Times of Peril, The Lion of the North and In the Reign of Terror.
An anthology of 50 classic war novels with an active table of contents to make it easy to quickly find the book you are looking for.Works include:The Airlords of Han by Philip Francis NowlanAlroy by Benjamin DisraeliAmong the Pines by James R. GilmoreBear Trap by Alan Edward NourseThe Big Time by Fritz Reuter LeiberThe Black Arrow by Robert Louis StevensonBreed Nor Birth by Dallas McCord ReynoldsThe Chainbearer by J. FENIMORE COOPERComing Home by Edith WhartonDangerous Days by Mary Roberts RinehartThe Destroyers by Gordon Randall GarrettFinished by H. Rider HaggardFor the Temple by G. A. HentyThe Gods are Athirst by Anatole FranceThe Green Beret by Thomas Edward PurdomGreenmantle by John BuchanThe Highest Treason by Randall GarrettIn the Track of the Troops by R.M. BallantyneJimmie Higgins by Upton SinclairThe Kangaroo Marines by R. W. CampbellLa Vendée by Anthony TrollopeThe Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by John Fox, Jr.The Long Roll by Mary JohnstonMemoirs of a Cavalier by Daniel DefoeMistress Wilding by Rafael SabatiniMorale by Murray LeinsterMr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick MarryatMr. Standfast by John BuchanOkewood of the Secret Service by Valentine WilliamsOn the Irrawaddy by G. A. HentyOne Man's Initiation--1917 by John Dos PassosOne of Ours by Willa CatherThe Pathfinder by James Fenimore CooperPaths of Glory by Irvin S. CobbPushbutton War by Joseph P. MartinoThe Red Badge of Courage by Stephen CraneRemember the Alamo by Amelia E. BarrRide Proud, Rebel! by Andre Alice NortonSea Warfare by Rudyard KiplingShock Absorber by E.G. von WaldThe Spy by James Fenimore CooperSt. Elmo by Augusta J. EvansSword and the Atopen by Taylor H. Greenfield
