← Back to the front page

Juneteenth and Other Lesser Known African-American Historical Culture

Khalid Elhassan June 15, 2020 34 min

Colonel Tye - American Revolutionary War — Colonel Tye as portrayed in a PBS documentary. PBS

21. The Ethiopian Regiment

A member of the Ethiopian Regiment. Pintrest

Despite the waves of illnesses and epidemics that devastated the British camps set up for runaway slaves, the blacks who lived were game for service. The survivors were assembled in what came to be known as Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, led by white officers and sergeants. On November 15^th, 1775, the new black soldiers got their first taste of combat in the small-scale Battle of Kemp’s Landing. It was a British victory over the colonial militia, during which a Patriot colonel and slaveholder were captured by a former slave.

However, the easy victory at Kemp’s Landing made Dunmore overconfident, and he became convinced that the Patriots were cowards. A few weeks later, on December 9^th, 1775, the Ethiopian Regiment fought in the Battle of Great Bridge, in which the British were tricked by a double agent into making a frontal assault across a bridge. They were decisively repulsed, and the Patriot victory forced the British to evacuate Norfolk.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.