Flora provided his own musket, which points to the likelihood that he had already garnered the respect of his white neighbors as free blacks were not able to bear arms or enlist in the military at the time.

As Flora retreated from his post under heavy fire from the British line, he ripped up a plank from the bridge.

The only casualty, a soldier with a wounded thumb, on the American side survived, to speak very highly of William Flora and his courage.

30 years after his military service in the American Revolutionary War, he was honored with a 100 acre land warrant in what is now Southwestern Ohio.

Even though his second stint in the military was short, he served on a gunboat as a marine under Commodore Stephen Decatur.

Flora was honorably discharged again from the military and lived the rest of his years in peace until his passing in Portsmouth in 1820.