Siege of Savannah 1779: A 24-Hour Truce, Spring Hill and Henri Christophe

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The British had captured Savannah the previous winter as part of a Southern strategy built on expected Loyalist support, offers of freedom to enslaved people who fled to British lines, and cutting off the cash crop revenue that funded the rebels. In September 1779 a French fleet of 25 warships and about 4,000 troops under Admiral d'Estaing arrived during hurricane season and joined General Benjamin Lincoln's 2,000 Americans. British commander Augustine Prevost had fewer than 5,000 men scattered across outposts. When d'Estaing demanded surrender, Prevost asked for a 24-hour truce and got it. Colonel John Maitland used the time to row hundreds of veterans from Beaufort through unguarded waterways near Hilton Head, and Prevost then politely declined.

The British scuttled ships, including HMS Rose, in the river channel, forcing the French to haul naval guns ashore for a bombardment from October 3 to 8 that wrecked homes but not the earthworks. With scurvy and dysentery spreading, d'Estaing ordered an assault on October 9. An informant warned the British, fog scattered the columns, and the attack on the Spring Hill redoubt met the 71st Regiment of Highlanders instead of militia. In about an hour the allies lost over 800 men while the British lost fewer than 100; d'Estaing was shot twice and Casimir Pulaski was mortally wounded by grapeshot. Among the more than 500 Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint-Domingue was Henri Christophe, later king of Haiti.

• Civilians fled the shelling into cellars or hid under the river bluffs as cannon fire splintered wooden houses.
• Swedish officer Count von Stedingk planted a flag on the British works and later called leaving his dying men his bitterest moment.
• The Chasseurs covered the rear during the retreat so the army was not wiped out.
• D'Estaing sailed away a week later, and the British held Savannah for years afterward.
• Many Chasseurs who survived Savannah went on to lead in the Haitian Revolution.