Israel Angell served as Captain of the Johnston militia company before the Revolution. In May 1775, he was commissioned a Major of the Providence County Regiment, which was an Army of Observation, and participated in the Siege of Boston. When the Second Rhode Island Regiment was formed in October 1776, he was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel by General George Washington. Colonel Daniel Hitchcock commanded this regiment. Upon the death of Daniel Hitchcock in 1777, Israel took command of the regiment as the Colonel. He led the regiment through the battles of Brandywine, Fort Mercer, Red Bank, Princeton, Monmouth, and Springfield, New Jersey. He was present at the encampments in Morristown and Valley Forge.  

Governor Greene of Rhode Island received the following letter from  General Washington:
“ ... The Gallant behavior of Colonel Angell’s Regiment on the 23rd of June 1780 at Springfield reflects the highest honour upon the officers and men. They disputed an important pass with so obstinate a bravery that they lost upwards of forty killed, wounded, and missing before they gave up their ground to a vast superiority of force...”

Colonel Angell received two gold medals, one from Washington and one from Lafayette. He retired from service in March of 1781. He returned to Providence and was a cooper, farmer, tavern–keeper, and merchant. He outlived three wives and fathered 17 children. 

He died in 1832 at the age of 92. On his headstone in Old North Burial Ground, Providence, it says, “Friend of Washington, Lafayette, and Rochambeau.”