needless," because he would defend the fort "as long as he had a man and as to mercy it was neither sought nor expected". Hessian officer Johann von Ewald recalled Olney shouting, "By God no!" in reply to the demand for surrender. Later that afternoon, the Hessians tried to rush the fort but were slaughtered by American gunfire. An eyewitness reported that during the fight, Olney used the flat of his sword on soldiers who fired over the parapet without aiming their muskets. American losses in the engagement were 14 killed, 21 wounded, and one captured while the Hessians suffered 90 killed, 227 wounded, and 69 missing. Donop was mortally wounded. In January 1778, the enlisted men of the 1st Rhode Island were transferred to the 2nd Rhode Island. The officers and non commissioned officers of the 1st went back to the state to recruit. The regiment was filled up by enrolling enslaved blacks whose owners were compensated by the state. The RI General Assembly proclaimed, "Every slave, so enlisting, shall, upon his passing muster before Col. Christopher Greene, be immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely FREE as though he had never been encumbered with any Kind of Servitude or Slavery". No other state followed this course of action. Though every "negro, mulatto, or Indian man-slave" was eligible to enroll and the bounty was the same as for white men, fewer than 200 signed up. Alarmed at the cost, the Rhode Island Assembly stopped recruiting slaves on 10 June 1778. Monmouth At the Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778, Olney led the two consolidated Rhode Island regiments in Varnum's brigade which was temporarily commanded by Colonel John Durkee. Part of Charles Lee's advanced guard, this 300-man unit also included the converged 4th and 8th Connecticut Regiment plus two attached guns from Captain David Cook's company of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment. As the American units came into contact with the British rear guard, confused fighting broke out. Some British light dragoons attacked a party of militia horsemen but were driven off by volleys from infantry detachments under Richard Butler and Henry Jackson. Butler and Jackson moved forward but came under fire from two British cannons and pulled back into some woods. Thinking Butler and Jackson were enemy forces, Lee sent Durkee's soldiers to attack them. The matter was quickly straightened out and