Jeremiah Olney Jeremiah Olney ( 1749 – 10 November 1812 ) was born into an old family from Rhode Island . He formed a company of infantry from that state at the start of the American Revolutionary War . After serving as captain in 1776 , he was promoted to lieutenant colonel at the beginning of 1777 . As second - in - command of the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment , he fought at Red Bank . After its commander was wounded early in the action , he led Varnum ' s brigade in bitter fighting at Monmouth in June 1778 . In 1780 he married the governor ' s daughter , Sarah Cooke . Later that year he led his regiment in action at Springfield . He moved south in 1781 to lead the Rhode Island Regiment at Yorktown . After the war he helped found the Rhode Island chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati . He supported the Federalist Party and held various civil offices . After helping to establish the Providence Theater , he defended it against accusations of immorality . He also invested in farms , turnpikes , shipping , and other business ventures . Early career . Olney was born in 1749 at Providence , Rhode Island to parents Joseph Olney ( 1706 – 1777 ) and Elizabeth T . Mawney ( b . 1714 ) . He was one of Joseph ' s 12 children and was sibling to a twin named Marcy . Olney descended from Thomas Olney , a minister of the First Baptist Church in America and one of the founders of the Rhode Island colony . Olney at first declined a captain ' s commission in the Rhode Island Army of Observation . Later he assumed command of a company of infantry in Colonel Daniel Hitchcock ' s Rhode Island Regiment . He held a captain ' s commission in the regiment beginning on 3 May 1775 . He remained a captain during the entire year of 1776 when the unit was called the 11th Continental Regiment . The sources stated only that Olney fought in four battles ( Red Bank , Monmouth , Springfield , and Yorktown ) . However , one source noted that , " he participated in many engagements " , so it is likely that he fought in other battles as well . During the period May 1775 to January 1777 , the regiment served in the Siege of Boston and the New York and New Jersey Campaign . At the time of the Battle of Long Island in August 1776 , John Nixon ' s brigade of Nathanael Greene ' s division included Hitchcock ' s Regiment with a strength of 368 men . The regiment , renamed the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment on 1 January 1777 , fought at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek on 2 January 1777 where they held the lower ford on the left flank . In this position , they repelled the attacks of the British light infantry and Hessian jägers . The regiment , which numbered only 120 men , belonged to a 352 - man brigade commanded by Hitchcock . The 2nd Regiment participated in the Battle of Princeton the following day . After Charles Mawhood ' s initial attack routed Hugh Mercer ' s advance guard , George Washington rallied the Americans on the hill where Thomas Clark ' s house still stands . Hitchcock ' s small brigade joined with forces under Edward Hand , Thomas Mifflin , John Cadwalader , and others to defeat Mawhood . Hitchcock and Hand probably deployed on the American right flank . Hitchcock died of pneumonia on 13 January 1777 at Morristown , New Jersey . That day , Olney was promoted lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Rhode Island . Israel Angell became colonel while Simeon Thayer became major . The Rhode Island Assembly voted to recruit two full regiments when the terms of enlistment of the 1776 units ran out . By February only 50 men had enrolled but recruiting picked up and 400 men had enlisted by March . Another 1 , 800 state troops contained the British foothold at Newport . Together with the 1st Rhode Island Regiment , 4th Connecticut Regiment , and 8th Connecticut Regiment , the 2nd Regiment served in Brigadier General James Mitchell Varnum ' s brigade . The 2nd Regiment transferred to the Highlands Department on 12 March 1777 and back to the main army on 14 September . Under the command of Varnum , the 2nd Regiment arrived at Red Bank , New Jersey on 18 October . Red Bank . On 22 October 1777 Olney fought at the Battle of Red Bank where 500 Americans successfully defended Fort Mercer against the attack of Carl von Donop ' s 2 , 000 Hessian soldiers . Donop sent British Major Charles Stuart under a flag of truce to demand the fort ' s surrender . The American commander , Colonel Christopher Greene of the 1st Rhode Island sent Lieutenant Colonel Olney of the 2nd Regiment to receive the message . Stuart addressed Olney in a tone loud enough for the fort ' s garrison to hear . He said , " The King of England orders his rebellious subjects to lay down their arms , and they are warned that if they stand battle , no quarter will be given " . When Stuart insisted on seeing the fort ' s commander , Olney replied that they would , " defend the fort unto the last " . The British officer pressed further and Olney remarked that , " seeing Colonel Greene was altogether 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 slaves who were purchased by the state . The slaves were promised freedom after their terms of enlistment expired . 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 Durkee was shifted to support two guns commanded by Eleazer Oswald on the left flank . At this time Durkee was wounded and Olney succeeded him in command of Varnum ' s brigade . Soon after this , Lee became aware that British commander Henry Clinton assembled 6 , 000 troops nearby , many more than he had suspected . Oswald withdrew his two guns because they were out of round shot and the crews were unable to bring up their ammunition wagon . As Clinton ' s troops moved forward menacingly , Lee lost control of his division . Some units began retreating and other units , seeing their neighbors withdraw , fell back as well . Observing his troops withdrawing without orders , Lee gave orders for a general retreat . Oswald , Lee ' s artillery chief , massed 10 cannon to cover the movement . Pressed by British columns , the retreat continued and Oswald dissolved his large battery , returning Olney ' s two guns as well as two guns belonging to William Maxwell ' s New Jersey Brigade . Two more guns were sent to the rear . Washington appeared on the scene and relieved Lee of his command . However , he soon relented and permitted Lee to organize a holding action while he deployed the American main body into a defensive line . Lee placed Olney ' s brigade behind a north - south hedgerow with two of Oswald ' s guns in support on their right . Oswald ' s other two guns took a position where they could cover the detachments of Nathaniel Ramsey and Walter Stewart on the left flank . Lee directed Henry Livingston , Jr . to protect Oswald ' s two guns on the right , but instead he took position behind the hedgerow on Olney ' s left . After a sharp struggle with the Brigade of Guards , Stewart and Ramsey were driven out of the woods on the left . Both Stewart and Ramsey fell wounded and Ramsey was captured by some troopers of the 16th Light Dragoons . Next , the dragoons attacked the hedgerow but were repelled by Olney and Livingston . Clinton yelled for the 2nd Grenadier Battalion and half of the 1st Grenadier Battalion to attack the hedgerow . Charging into intense musketry and case shot , the elite grenadiers broke into the hedgerow position . Oswald pulled his guns out just in time , covered by Olney ' s men . In the melee , 16 grenadiers found themselves surrounded by Olney ' s troops , but the Americans were so bent on retreating that they paid no heed to their enemies . During the violent struggle , the commander of the 2nd Grenadiers Henry Monckton was killed . After this action , which occurred about noon , Olney joined the rest of Lee ' s division which was reorganizing in the rear of Washington ' s main body . Later career . On 26 April 1780 Olney wed Sarah Cooke ( 1755 – 1843 ) , daughter of Governor Nicholas Cooke . He fought at the Battle of Springfield on 23 June 1780 . In the combat , the 2nd Rhode Island under Angell held up Wilhelm von Knyphausen ' s greatly superior British - Hessian force at the Springfield Bridge for 40 minutes before withdrawing in good order . The new bride received a mistaken report that her husband had been killed , causing her to have a nervous breakdown . Her condition lasted a few years after which she recovered and outlived her husband by over 30 years . The couple had only one child , Mary Timmins Olney ( 1799 – 1878 ) who married Samuel Carr ( 1795 – 1832 ) and had three sons . The 1st and 2nd Regiments were merged on 1 January 1781 and the new unit was named the Rhode Island Regiment . Olney tranferred to the new regiment in January and assumed command of the regiment on 14 May 1781 . When the regiment began its march south to Virginia , Olney was listed as the commander of 360 officers and men . At the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781 , his regiment belonged to Colonel Elias Dayton ' s Brigade of Benjamin Lincoln ' s Division . Olney was promoted to colonel on 30 September 1783 . At the end of the war Olney resigned his commission . He was a founding member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati and served as its treasurer and later as its president from 1800 to 1814 . He served as Distributor of Pensions for Rhode Island invalid soldiers . During the war he paid his own money for supplies and equipment for his regiment . After the war he had difficulty getting reimbursed for these expenses . A staunch member of the Federalist Party , he argued in favor of adoption of the United States Constitution . For his political support , he was rewarded by being appointed to the lucrative position of Customs Collector for the Port of Providence by President George Washington . He retained this position despite attempts to oust him in 1793 and 1802 for too - rigorous enforcement of duties and fees . The Embargo Act of 1807 caused a large increase in smuggling and he resigned his post in 1809 . Olney pursued numerous money - making ventures after the war . From 1784 until his death , he managed a farm in Rehoboth , Massachusetts that was owned by his in - laws . He sold water from " Jeremiah Olney ' s Fountain " to nearby homes in North Providence . He bought shares in turnpikes , sold framed prints , invested in property , and sold lottery tickets . He acted as the agent for some ex - officers who owned shares in a farm in Tiverton , Rhode Island . From 1806 to 1811 he owned shares in the Union Cottton Manufacturing Company . He invested in the trading voyages of his seafaring brother - in - law Joseph S . Cooke . He helped start the Providence Theatre and defended it in print against people who called it a bad influence . He died on 10 November 1812 and was buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence .