http://collections.ic.gc.ca/blackloyalists/people/secular/tye.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p52.html
Colonel Tye, an escaped African-American slave named Titus, gained fame during the American Revolutionary War as one of the most effective leaders of Loyalist troops against Patriots in central New Jersey.
Never appointed to be an officer by the British Army (which did not appoint African-Americans as officers), Colonel Tye earned his title as a sign of respective for his tactical leadership skills. As the commander of the Black Brigade, he led several raids against Patriots, seized supplies and assassinated many Patriot leaders during the war, providing substantial aid to the British. His aid to the British in New York City helped them withstand a siege by American forces under Gen. George Washington.
Born in 1763, Titus was originally owned by John Corlies, a Monmouth County, New Jersey Quaker who owned slaves in spite of his religion's opposition to slavery (it was Quaker practice to teach slaves how to read and write, and to free them at age 21). Corlies was known to be particularly cruel to his slaves, severely whipping them for even flimsy reasons.
In November 1775 John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore and royal governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation that offered freedom to slaves who would leave their Patriot masters and join the royal forces. The proclamation led almost 100,000 African-American slaves to escape and join the British, including Tye. Having learned to sell his own goods and memorizing a map of the area, Tye escaped from Corlies and fled down the coast to Virginia, passing himself off as a freedman and doing odd jobs.
Eventually be became captain of Dunsmore's Ethiopian Regiment, and survived the famine and sickness that plagued it. Returning to New Jersey, he joined the Black Brigade; his first recorded military action was to fight in the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, during which he captured a Patriot captain.
Tye and the members of the mixed-race Black Brigade at first fought independently, then fought with a white British unit called the Queen's Rangers. His knowledge of Monmouth County and his bold leadership soon made him a well-known and feared Loyalist commander. He led several successful raids during the summer of 1779, seizing food and fuel and freeing many slaves. He continued to fight through 1780, exacting revenge against his former owner and others, including the murder of well-known patriot Joseph Murray.
Tye was injured by a musket ball passing through his wrist while smoking out another Monmouth County patriot, Captain Joshua Huddy, from his home. Huddy and a female servant managed to resist Tye's band for two hours before they set fire to his house.
Tye developed gangrene from his wound, then tetinus, and died a few weeks later.
