Kentish Guards; in 1774 an elite militia unit from Kent county. James Mitchell Varnum was colonel and Nathanael Green was a private due to his limp. The Kentish Guardsmen did not favor having an officer on parade with such an unsightly disability. When selected by the Assembly to lead the Rhode Island brigade, Greene became the only American soldier to rise from private to general in one day.
from:
Walker, Anthony. So Few The Brave (Rhode Island Continentals 1775-1783). Newport, Rhode Island: Seafield Press, 1981.