SRU students complete report on 1778 Siege of Newport for NPS

BEFORE LEAVING Newport in 1779, the British destroyed many of their own forts and barracks. Seen on Plan de la ville, by Edouard Charles Victurnien Colbert, Comte de Maulevrier, are some of the abandoned British defenses in Middletown, repaired and expanded by the French under Rochambeau in 1780. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CLEMENTS LIBRARY
BEFORE LEAVING Newport in 1779, the British destroyed many of their own forts and barracks. Seen on Plan de la ville, by Edouard Charles Victurnien Colbert, Comte de Maulevrier, are some of the abandoned British defenses in Middletown, repaired and expanded by the French under Rochambeau in 1780. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CLEMENTS LIBRARY

NEWPORT – A 365-page report detailing the 1778 Siege of Newport, a battle fought from opposing hills in Middletown that became one of the largest military operations of the American Revolution, is the result of a collaboration between students at Salve Regina University and the Middletown Historical Society.

“Siege of British Forces in Newport County by Colonial and French in August of 1778” is the first in-depth academic study to analyze what researchers believe “could very well have been the site where the Revolutionary War was won.” The skirmish, part of the greater Battle of Rhode Island, which looked to retake Newport, was the first joint-military effort between the French and the colonists, who had recently become allies.

The report reads: the battle “underscores the turning point of the war, reached by a decisive American victory at Saratoga a year earlier. With such momentum behind the patriot cause and a newly formed alliance, the war could actually have been won in Newport had the outcome been different. Instead, the Campaign put a severe strain on the new alliance as each side blamed the other for the loss.”

Computerized mapping of the area was also conducted by students who imposed historic maps onto aerial photos of the region and utilized ground-penetrating radar to discover remnants of British and colonial defenses, study the effectiveness of cannons and the overall viability of the campaign.

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Commissioned by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Program through a $67,200 grant to the Middletown Historical Society in summer 2015, the majority of the research was performed by Salve Regina students under Jon Marcoux, cultural and historic preservation assistant professor; John Quinn, a history professor; and Kenneth Walsh, the Middletown Historical Society research team’s principal investigator. Christina Alvernas, a 2002 Salve graduate, who also was the writer and lead researcher for the Middletown Historical Society research team, edited the document.

Presented to Jane Gerety, Salve president, and Scott Zeman, provost/vice president for academic affairs, in early December, the report is now available in public libraries and historical societies’ archives across Aquidneck Island. An electronic version is also available in the university’s McKillop Library digital commons repository.

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