general orders to "attend the scavengers, assist in cleaning the streets & removing all newsiances being thrown into the streets". Ethiopian Regiment Lord Dunmore organized his 800 Black Loyalist volunteers into the Ethiopian Regiment. They trained in the rudiments of marching and shooting before engaging in their first conflict at the Battle of Kemp's Landing. The Patriot militia at Kemp's Landing was unprepared for the attack and retreated. Next, Dunmore led the Royal Ethiopians into the Battle of Great Bridge; Dunmore was overconfident and misinformed about the Patriot numbers, however, and the Patriots overwhelmed the British troops. After the battle, Dunmore loaded his Black troops onto ships of the British fleet, hoping to take the opportunity to train them better. The cramped conditions led to the spread of smallpox. By the time that Dunmore retreated to the Province of New York, only 300 of the original 800 soldiers had survived. Black Brigade The "Black Brigade" was a small combat unit of 24 in New Jersey led by Colonel Tye, a slave from Monmouth County, New Jersey who had escaped to British lines early in the war. The title of colonel was not an official military designation, as he was not formally commissioned as an officer, but such titles were permitted anyway in an unofficial capacity. Tye and the Black Brigade were the most feared Loyalists in New Jersey, and he led them in several raids from 1778 at the Battle of Monmouth to defending the British in occupied New York in the winter of 1779. Beginning in June 1780, Tye led several actions against Patriots in Monmouth County, and he was wounded in the wrist during a raid on a Patriot militia leader in September. Within weeks, he died from gangrene, and Black Pioneer leader Stephen Blucke took over the Black Brigade and led it through the end of the war. Postwar treatment When peace negotiations began after the siege of Yorktown, a primary issue of debate was the fate of Black British soldiers. Loyalists who remained in the United States wanted Black soldiers returned so their chances of receiving reparations for damaged property would be increased, but British military leaders fully intended to keep the promise of freedom made to Black soldiers despite the anger of the Americans. In the chaos as the British evacuated Loyalist refugees, particularly from New York and Charleston, many American slave owners attempted to