Key figures: Major General John Sullivan, Major General Nathanael Greene, the Marquis de Lafayette, Admiral Charles Hector, Comte d’Estaing, Major General Robert Pigot, Major Samuel Ward (1st Rhode Island Regiment)
Summary
The Battle of Rhode Island — also known as the Battle of Quaker Hill and as the culmination of the Siege of Newport — was fought on August 29, 1778, on Aquidneck Island near Newport, Rhode Island. It was the first attempt at a combined military operation between the United States and France following the Treaty of Alliance signed in February 1778, and its failure exposed how difficult coalition warfare would prove in practice.
An American army of roughly 10,000 men under Major General John Sullivan, supported by the French fleet of Admiral Comte d’Estaing, had planned a joint assault on the British garrison that had occupied Newport since December 1776. A powerful Atlantic storm on August 10–11 dispersed and damaged both the French and British fleets, and d’Estaing withdrew to Boston to refit. Deprived of French naval support and weakened by militia desertions, Sullivan abandoned the siege and, on August 29, fought a defensive action to cover the withdrawal of his army from the island. The engagement was tactically inconclusive, but the orderly American retreat preserved the army from encirclement, and the collapse of the operation strained the young Franco-American alliance.
Background and Context
The Newport Garrison and the French Fleet
The British had held Newport — one of the finest deep-water harbors in New England — since December 1776, garrisoning Aquidneck Island under Major General Robert Pigot with a mixed force of British and Hessian regulars. When Admiral d’Estaing’s fleet arrived off the American coast in July 1778, it found New York Harbor too shallow at the bar and too well defended to attack. The allies instead settled on Newport as the objective: d’Estaing’s ships would force the harbor passages and land French troops while Sullivan’s army crossed from the mainland to invest the town from the north. Sullivan’s command was reinforced by Continental detachments under Major General Nathanael Greene — a Rhode Island native — and the Marquis de Lafayette, together with several thousand New England militia.
The Storm and the French Withdrawal
D’Estaing’s fleet entered the waters off Newport on August 8, and the operation appeared poised for success. On August 9, a British relief fleet under Admiral Richard Howe appeared, and d’Estaing put back to sea to give battle. Before the two fleets could engage decisively, a severe storm on August 10–11 scattered and dismasted ships on both sides. His flagship crippled and his squadron battered, d’Estaing announced on August 20 that he would sail to Boston to repair rather than risk his fleet against the reinforcements he expected the British to send. Sullivan, Greene, and Lafayette protested vigorously, but the French admiral departed, leaving the American army without the naval support on which the entire plan depended.
The Battle
Collapse of the Siege
The French withdrawal was a serious blow to American morale. New England militiamen, who had joined the expedition in expectation of a quick and decisive victory, began deserting by the hundreds; within days Sullivan’s effective strength fell from roughly 10,000 to about 5,000 men. With British reinforcements reported en route from New York, Sullivan recognized that the siege could not be maintained. On the night of August 28 his army abandoned its lines before Newport and withdrew northward up the island to a prepared defensive position anchored on Butts Hill, near the northern end of Aquidneck Island.
The Action of August 29
At dawn on August 29, Pigot’s British and Hessian forces advanced up the island along two roads in pursuit. Fighting developed around Quaker Hill and Turkey Hill, with heavy, back-and-forth skirmishing across stone walls and open fields. On the American right, the newly reorganized 1st Rhode Island Regiment — a racially integrated unit of white, Black, and Native American soldiers under Major Samuel Ward, many of its Black members recently enslaved men promised freedom for their service — held its ground against repeated Hessian assaults, an action for which the regiment became best remembered. The battle continued through the day without either side gaining a decisive advantage.
Casualties
Losses were comparatively light for a full day’s action. American casualties numbered roughly 30 killed, 137 wounded, and 44 missing; British and Hessian casualties were approximately 38 killed, 210 wounded, and 12 missing, a substantial share of them among the Hessian troops who bore the brunt of the assaults on the American right.
Aftermath
The Withdrawal from Aquidneck Island
Having held his position through August 29, Sullivan evacuated his army across the Sakonnet River to Tiverton on the night of August 30–31, completing the withdrawal just before a British fleet carrying roughly 4,000 reinforcements under General Sir Henry Clinton arrived off Newport. The successful evacuation — screened, by several accounts, by Lafayette, who rode overnight from Boston to help direct the rear guard — spared the Continental force the encirclement that the collapse of the naval plan had threatened.
Strain on the Alliance
The failed operation produced the first serious friction between the new allies. Sullivan issued general orders openly criticizing d’Estaing’s departure, and American resentment ran high in Boston and Newport alike. Lafayette and George Washington worked deliberately to repair the damage, cautioning against public recrimination and stressing the long-term value of the French connection. The episode was an early lesson in the difficulties of coalition warfare: coordinating armies and fleets separated by weather, communications, and divergent strategic priorities would remain a recurring challenge until the decisive Franco-American cooperation at Yorktown in 1781.
See Also
- Treaty of Alliance (France–United States) — the February 1778 alliance whose promise of French naval power the Newport operation first tried, and failed, to realize
- Comte d’Estaing — the French admiral whose fleet arrived to support the assault and whose storm-forced withdrawal to Boston doomed the siege
- Marquis de Lafayette — the Continental major general who protested d’Estaing’s departure and helped cover the American retreat
- Battle of Monmouth — the earlier 1778 engagement that, like Rhode Island, followed from the strategic shift caused by French entry into the war
- St. Lucia Campaign — the December 1778 Caribbean campaign in which d’Estaing’s fleet next confronted the British after refitting at Boston
Sources
- Battle of Rhode Island — Wikipedia
- Rhode Island Battle Facts and Summary — American Battlefield Trust
- Battle of Rhode Island — World History Encyclopedia
- Rhode Island, Aug 29, 1778 — American Battlefield Trust (battle map)