The Queen’s Rangers, Trumpeter Griffiths

Banard E. Griffiths, better known as “Trumpeter Barney of the Queen’s Rangers”. Griffiths, a runaway slave joined the British at the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780. In a letter written by John Graves Simcoe, former commander of the Queens Rangers, to Britain’s Secretary-at-War, Sir George Yonge, on March 20, 1789, Simcoe’s letter highlighted the exploits of “B. E. Griffiths” during the fierce skirmish at Spencer’s Ordinary, Virginia, on June 26, 1781. When the British surrendered at Yorktown, Simcoe made sure that Griffiths and other former slaves that had joined the regiment were safely smuggled aboard HMS Bonnetta so as not to be returned to slavery in the newly formed country.

Model: JJD-SQR02