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An Unfinished War: A History of Rhode Island's Black Regiment in the American Revolution
Hardcover
Armed ForcesGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesRevolutionary Period (1775-1800)
Publisher Price: $34.95
ISBN13: 9781594164781
Publisher: Westholme Publishing
Published: Dec 8 2026
Pages: 464
Language: English
In the crucible of the American Revolution, a remarkable group of men took up arms to fight for a country that asserted all men are created equal. The Black, American Indian (mostly Narragansett), and multiracial soldiers of the 1st Rhode Island's Black Regiment shouldered muskets to help birth a nation whose founding promises of liberty and equality had yet to extend to them. Some of these men had previously served in integrated Rhode Island regiments, helping to successfully defend Fort Mercer at Red Bank in 1777 and surviving the brutal winter at Valley Forge. After the 1st Rhode Island was reestablished as a segregated unit in early 1778, the regiment made a memorable stand during the Battle of Rhode Island, helping to repel three assaults by British army troops. Devastated by disease following the Yorktown campaign, the regiment's soldiers of color participated in the little-known Oswego Expedition during a severe snowstorm in the winter of 1783, the final campaign of the Revolution. After the war, the regiment's surviving veterans hoped that their service would entitle them to the same rights as other citizens--but it was not to be. Today, the 1st Rhode Island is one of the most famous regiments of the Revolutionary War.
Deeply researched and compellingly told, An Unfinished War: A History of Rhode Island's Black Regiment in the American Revolution by Christian McBurney follows the story of these soldiers from recruitment and first battles to their harrowing wartime experiences and postwar lives. Drawing on army muster rolls, pension records, contemporary diaries, and other archival documents, the author dismantles longstanding myths while uncovering new truths about the men who served, including the identification of more than 130 enslaved men who obtained their freedom by enlisting in the regiment. The author also describes how the regiment's memory was used to promote civil rights throughout our nation's history, including in the struggle to employ Black troops in the Union Army during the Civil War. With its clear and insightful narrative, An Unfinished War is a compelling American story that begins on the battlefields of the War for Independence and echoes powerfully into our own time.
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