PORTSMOUTH — A solemn ceremony memorializing casualties “on all sides” commemorated the 246th anniversary of the Battle of Rhode Island at Fort Butts Hill last Thursday, Aug. 29.

It was on that date in 1778 when one of the key battles of the American Revolutionary War was fought to the south and southwest of the fort, which is being cared for by the Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee (BHFRC). The BHFRC is a committee of The Battle of Rhode Island Association (BoRIA), the event’s host.

Col. Paul Murphy (USAF Ret.), BoRIA director and BHFRC chairman, welcomed more than 40 visitors to the site near Portsmouth High School, which was headquarters to Major Gen. John Sullivan during the Rhode Island Campaign of 1778.

“Tonight’s about the fallen,” Murphy said during the ceremony, after which he laid a wreath while “Taps” was played. A diverse squad of reenactors from the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments, Varnum Continentals, the Henry Knox Color Guard from the Boston Chapter of the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), and the New Hampshire SAR Color Guard, all paid tribute during the musket salute.

“Massachusetts troops, along with Rhode Island militia, and British and French, actually built this fort. When you walked through that gate tonight, you might not have realized it but you walked into a living history bowl. If you walk in any direction, you’re gonna hit earthworks that were put up by pick and shovel by gentleman just like these 250 years ago,” Murphy said while motioning to the reenactors.

About 5,000 American troops “from shore to shore were dug in in front of this hill,” he said. “Across the valley, at Quaker Hill, Turkey Hill and Almy Hill, there would have been 5,000 Hessians and British troops facing this way, firing at each other. This fort actually did what it was supposed to do, which was basically make the British think they were never going to take this place if they attacked, so they didn’t try. It did its duty by just being a deterrent.”

‘Very sacred place’

Portsmouth Town Historian Jim Garman spoke about the history of the fort and ongoing efforts to revitalize it. 

“This location is a very sacred place,” said Garman, who recalled coming to the fort in 1978 for a reenactment, when a gentleman asked him to write about town history — because no one else was doing so. “That was my inspiration to write six books and about 50 to 60 articles on Portsmouth history.”

The property lay dormant for years after the war, Garman said. “It was owned by a man named Benjamin Hall around 1910 and (he) actually had a surveyor plot this property out for 200 house lots. Fortunately, that didn’t happen,” he said.

Later on, the Rev. Dr. Roderick Terry purchased the land and donated it to the Newport Historical Society, of which he was president. “They had it for a while and lost a little interest in it, and so it was taken over by the state. The state in turn turned it over to the Town of Portsmouth in 1968,” Garman said.

The fort was listed on the National Register in 1973 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1976, but the land remained fallow. Interest was revived in 1976, however, and efforts to restore the fort to its former glory began in 2020 by Murphy’s committee, Garman said.

“This property is very special, and it’s extraordinary how cleaned up it’s become in the last five years,” he said. “It survives today as the largest remaining Revolutionary War site in southern New England.”