Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue
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Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue is a group of white colonists, 800 native gens de couleur riflemen, and slaves, from French colonial Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti), who participated in the American Revolutionary War in Savannah, Georgia.
The group was established by an order of 12 March 1779, under the command of the Laurent François Le Noir de Rouvray.
History
The expeditionary force, under the command of Comte d'Estaing and his lieutenant, Jean-Baptiste Bernard Vaublanc, left French Cape, August 15, 1779, and arrived September 8, 1779, in Savannah, Georgia, to help the American colonial rebels – who were intent on regaining control of the city, which has been captured in 1778 by British forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell.
The British Army began their attack on 24 September in Savannah before dawn, besieged by the French and the Americans, to defend the trenches open at night. The Volunteers of Saint-Domingue, in conjunction with the Grenadier Volunteers, charged with their bayonets at the British column, but being too close to the English works, they suffered heavy losses. The siege ended with the failure of the attack on 9 October 1779.
Slave-boy Henri Christophe may have served as a drummer and would later become the King of Haiti.
Legacy
In Savannah in 2009, a memorial sculpture was dedicated to the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue.[1]
References
- ^ "Haitian Monument Completed - WSAV: News, Weather, and Sports for Savannah, GA". WSAV. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
External links
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