The First Rhode Island Regiment, the first Continental Army unit largely comprised of Black New Englanders, showcased African Americans' skill as soldiers and commitment to their brethren on the battlefield. In the late 1770s, dwindling manpower forced George Washington to reconsider his original decision to ban Black people from the Continental Army. So in 1778, a Rhode Island legislature declared that both free and enslaved Black people could serve. To attract the latter, the Patriots promised freedom at the end of service. Though relatively small-only about 130 men-The First Rhode Island Regiment had an outsized impact. Commanding General John Sullivan praised its soldiers for their success against attacks in the Battle of Newport, saying they displayed "desperate valor in repelling three furious Hessian (German) infantry assaults." When the Rhode Islanders journeyed to Virginia, where several thousand other soldiers were assembling, they stood out, according to a French millitary officer there, as "most neatly dressed, the best under arms and the most precise in all their maneuvers." And one historian, William Cooper, lauded their fierce loyalty. When their commander Colonel Christopher Green was cut down during a surprise early-morning attack in May 1781, he wrote, "the sabers of the enemy only reached him through the bodies of his faithful guard of blacks, who hovered over him to protect him, and every one of whom was killed."