Dunmore issued a proclamation in November 1775, promising freedom to enslaved Blacks held by Patriots in Virginia, who joined the British cause to suppress the insurrection.

[2] "Smallpox also ruined the British plan to raise an army of slave and indentured servants by promising them freedom after the war - the disease killed off most of the Ethiopian Regiment even as it assembled.

By December 1775, the regiment had nearly 300 black people, including its most famous member, an escaped slave called Titus, then known as Tye.

That black people were trained to bear arms and kill was a revolutionary idea at the time, especially as they were with one of the world's best armies.

Woodford marched some of his men through the swamps and attacked the Ethiopian Regiment's flank, forcing them back in confusion.

Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment was formed under white officers and noncommissioneds, although it is probable that some of the black recruits later became sergeants.

Dunmore disbanded the Ethiopian Regiment in 1776 on Staten Island, although many of its members likely served as Black Pioneers during the occupation of New York Nothing is known of Tye's activities until he returned to New Jersey.

He took part in the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, and for the next two year was the Black Loyalist guerrilla leader called "Colonel" Tye.

He led the Black Brigade, which served with the Loyalist Queen's Rangers in defending British-held New York in the winter of 1779.

Tye led numerous raids in Monmouth County, New Jersey, disrupting American supply lines, capturing rebel officers, and killing suspected Patriot leaders.