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| Siege of Savannah | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAmerican Revolutionary War | |||||||
 Attack on Savannah, by A. I. Keller | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States France |  Great Britain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Benjamin LincolnLachlan McIntoshCasimir Pulaski †Curt von StedingkCount of Estaing | Augustine PrévostJohn Maitland | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Ground units: 7,722[1] Naval units: 42 ships | Ground units: 4,813[1] Naval units: 8 vessels | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 244 killed 584 wounded 120 captured[2] | 40 killed[3] 63 wounded 52 missing[4] | ||||||
Thesiege of Savannah or thesecond battle of Savannah was an encounter of theAmerican Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in 1779. The year before, the city ofSavannah, Georgia, had beencaptured by aBritish expeditionary corps underLieutenant-ColonelArchibald Campbell. The siege itself consisted of a jointFranco-American attempt to retake Savannah, from September 16 to October 18, 1779. On October 9 a major assault against the British siege works failed. During the attack, Polish nobleman CountCasimir Pulaski, leading the combinedcavalry forces on the American side, was mortally wounded. With the failure of the joint attack, thesiege was abandoned, and the British remained in control of Savannah until July 1782, near the end of the war.
In 1779, more than 500recruits from Saint-Domingue (the French colony which later becameHaiti), under the overall command of French AdmiralCharles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing, fought alongside American colonial troops against theBritish Army during the siege of Savannah. This was one of the most significant foreign contributions to the American Revolutionary War.[5] This French-colonial force had been established six months earlier and was led by white officers. Recruits came from the black population and includedfree men of color as well as slaves seeking their freedom in exchange for their service.[6]
Following the failures of military campaigns in the northernUnited States earlier in the American Revolutionary War, British military planners decided to embark on a southern strategy to conquer the rebellious colonies, with the support ofLoyalists in the South. Their first step was to gain control of the southern ports ofSavannah,Georgia andCharleston,South Carolina. An expedition in December 1778 took Savannah with modest resistance from ineffectivemilitia andContinental Army defenses.
There were many reasons why the British wanted to invade the Southern colonies. Although part of America, the Southern colonies tended to be more sympathetic to the British than to the Americans. The British were hoping that ordinary citizens of the Southern colonies would continue their support of the British army during the southern campaign, as they had in prior years.[7] Moreover, the British were promising that any enslaved African Americans who fought for the British would be given freedom, which helped gain support for the British among southern slaves.[8] Finally, the British wanted to gain control over the South for economic reasons. The South grew many profitable crops, such asrice,indigo, andtobacco. The American revolutionaries were using the money made from those crops to buy military supplies from Europe. Taking over the south would not only isolate New England, but also give the British access to those resources.[9]
When British generals were scouting the coast, they spotted the first French ships sailing to Charleston, South Carolina. However,General Augustin Prevost mistakenly reported that the French ships had disappeared. He did not realize that the ships he saw were the faster ships of a group sent by French AdmiralCharles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing to tell the American army they had arrived in Georgia. Prevost had been previously informed that a French army had arrived in Georgia. However, this information was not backed up by other intelligence. As a result, the British were unprepared for a possible French attack. Most of the British troops were in Beaufort or Sunbury, and fewer men were defending Georgia.[10]
The Continental Army regrouped, and by June 1779 the combined army and militia forces guarding Charleston numbered between 5,000 and 7,000 men. GeneralBenjamin Lincoln, commanding those forces, knew that he could not recapture Savannah without naval assistance; for this he turned to the French, who had entered the waras an American ally in 1778. Estaing spent the first part of 1779 in the Caribbean, where his fleet and a British fleet monitored each other's movements. He took advantage of conditions tocaptureGrenada in July before acceding to American requests for support in operations against Savannah. On September 3—an uncharacteristically early arrival as there was still substantial risk of seasonalhurricanes—a few French ships arrived at Charleston with news that Estaing was sailing for Georgia with twenty-fiveships of the line and 4,000 French troops. Lincoln and the French emissaries agreed on a plan of attack on Savannah, and Lincoln left Charleston with over 2,000 men on September 11.
British troop strength in the area consisted of about 6,500regulars atBrunswick, Georgia, another 900 atBeaufort, South Carolina, underColonelJohn Maitland, and about 100 Loyalists atSunbury, Georgia. GeneralAugustine Prevost, in command of these troops from his base at Savannah, was caught unprepared when the French fleet began to arrive offTybee Island near Savannah and recalled the troops stationed at Beaufort and Sunbury to aid in the city's defense.
Captain Moncrief of theRoyal Engineers was tasked with constructing fortifications to repulse the invaders. Using 500–800African-American slaves working up to twelve hours per day, Moncrief constructed an entrenched defensive line, which includedredoubts, nearly 1,200 feet (370 m) long, on the plains outside the city.
TheRoyal Navy contributed two aging warships,HMS Foley andHMS Rose, to the city's defence. They landed their guns and most of their men to reinforce the land forces. In addition, the British also deployed the armedbrigHMS Keppel (1778) and the armed shipGermaine, the latter from the East Florida navy. There were twogalleys,Comet andThunder, also from East Florida. Lastly, the British armed two merchant vessels,Savannah andVenus.[13][14]
Estaing began landing troops below the city on September 12, and began moving in by September 16. Confident of victory, and believing that Maitland's reinforcements would be prevented from reaching Savannah by Lincoln, he offered Prevost the opportunity to surrender. Prevost delayed, asking for 24 hours of truce. Owing to miscommunication about who was responsible for preventing Maitland's movements, the waterways separating South Carolina'sHilton Head Island from the mainland were left unguarded, and Maitland was able to reach Savannah hours before the truce ended. Prevost's response to Estaing's offer was a polite refusal, despite the arrival of Lincoln's forces.
On 19 September, asCharles-Marie de Trolong du Rumain moved his squadron up the river, he exchanged fire withComet,Thunder,Savannah, andVenus. The next day the British scuttledRose, which was leaking badly, just below the town to impede the French vessels from progressing further. They also burntSavannah andVenus.[13] ByscuttlingRose in a narrow part of the channel, the British effectively blocked it. Consequently, the French fleet was unable to assist the American assault.Germaine took up a position to protect the north side of Savannah's defenses.Comet andThunder had the mission of opposing any attempt by the South Carolinian galleys to bombard the town. Over the next few days, British shore batteries assistedComet andThunder in engagements with the two South Carolinian galleys; during one of these, they severely damagedRevenge.[13]
Estaing, rejecting the idea of assaulting the British defenses, unloaded cannons from his ships and began a bombardment of the city. The city, rather than the entrenched defenses, bore the brunt of this bombardment, which lasted from October 3 to 8. "The appearance of the town afforded a melancholy prospect, for there was hardly a house that had not been shot through", wrote one British observer.[15] The Franco-American bombardment killed numerous civilians; an American officer stated that "The poor women and children have suffered beyond description. A number of them in Savannah have already been put to death by our bombs and cannon", while one of Prevost’s aides commented that "Many poor creatures were killed trying to get to their cellars, or hide themselves under the bluff of the Savannah River."[16] When the bombardment failed to have the desired effect, Estaing changed his mind, and decided it was time to try an assault. He was motivated in part by the desire to finish the operation quickly, asscurvy anddysentery were becoming problems on his ships, and some of his supplies were running low. While a traditionalsiege operation would likely have succeeded eventually, it would have taken longer than Estaing was prepared to stay.
Against the advice of many of his officers, Estaing launched the assault against the British position on the morning of October 9. The success depended in part on the secrecy of some its aspects, which were betrayed to Prevost well before the operations were supposed to begin around 4:00 am. Fog caused troops attacking the Spring Hill redoubt to get lost in the swamps, and it was nearly daylight when the attack finally got underway. The redoubt on the right side of the British works had been chosen by the French admiral in part because he believed it to be defended only by militia. In fact, it was defended by a combination of militia and British regulars from Maitland's 71st Regiment of Foot, who had distinguished themselves atStono Ferry. The militia included riflemen, who easily picked-off the white-clad French troops when the assault was underway. Estaing was twice wounded, and Polishcavalry officerCasimir Pulaski, fighting with the Americans, was mortally wounded. By the time the second wave arrived near the redoubt, the first wave was in complete disarray, and the trenches below the redoubt were filled with bodies. Attacks intended asfeints against other redoubts of the British position were easily repulsed.
The second assault column was commanded by the Swedish CountCurt von Stedingk, who managed to reach the last trench. He later wrote in his journal, "I had the pleasure of planting the American flag on the last trench, but the enemy renewed its attack and our people were annihilated by cross-fire".[17] He was forced back by overwhelming numbers of British troops, left with some 20 men—all were wounded, including von Stedingk. He later wrote, "The moment of retreat with the cries of our dying comrades piercing my heart was the bitterest of my life".[18] After an hour of carnage, Estaing ordered a retreat. On October 17, Lincoln and Estaing abandoned the siege.
The battle was one of the bloodiest of the war. While Prevost claimed Franco-American losses at 1,000 to 1,200, the actual tally of 244 killed, nearly 600 wounded and 120 taken prisoner, was severe enough. British casualties were comparatively light: 40 killed, 63 wounded, and 52 missing. Sir Henry Clinton wrote, "I think that this is the greatest event that has happened the whole war," and celebratory cannons were fired when the news reached London.[19]
It was perhaps because of the siege's reputation as a famous British victory thatCharles Dickens chose the siege of Savannah as the place for Joe Willet to be wounded (losing his arm) in the novelBarnaby Rudge.[20]
Three currently-existing Army National Guard units (118th FA,[21] 131st MP[22] and 263rd ADA[23]) are derived from American units that participated in the siege of Savannah. There are only thirtycurrent U.S. Army units with lineages that go back to the colonial era.
In 2005, archaeologists with the Coastal Heritage Society (CHS) and the LAMAR Institute discovered portions of the British fortifications at Spring Hill, the site of the worst part of the Franco-American attack on October 9. The find represents the first tangible remains of the battlefield. In 2008, the CHS/LAMAR Institute archaeology team discovered another segment of the British fortifications in Madison Square. A detailed report of that project is available on line in pdf format from the CHS website. CHS archaeologists are currently finalizing a follow-up grant project in Savannah, which examined several outlying portions of the battlefield. These included the position of the Saint-Domingue reserve troops at the Jewish Burying Ground west of Savannah.[24][25][26]
An archaeology presentation and public meeting took place in February 2011 to gather suggestions for managing Savannah's Revolutionary War battlefield resources. Archaeologist Rita Elliott from the Coastal Heritage Society revealed Revolutionary War discoveries in Savannah stemming from the two "Savannah Under Fire" projects conducted from 2007 to 2011. The projects uncovered startling discoveries, including trenches, fortifications, and battle debris. The research also showed that residents and tourists are interested in these sites. Archaeologists described the findings and explored ways to generate economic income which could be used for improving the quality-of-life of area residents.[27]
The battle is commemorated each year byPresidential proclamation, onGeneral Pulaski Memorial Day.
The battle is much-remembered inHaitian history;[citation needed] theChasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, consisting of some 545gens de couleur—free men of color fromSaint-Domingue—fought with the Americans.
Henri Christophe, who later declared himself to be the king of (northern) Haiti, while a republic was established in southern Haiti, was 12-years old at the time and may have been among these troops.
Many other less-famous individuals from Saint-Domingue served in this regiment and formed the officer class of the rebel armies in theHaitian Revolution, especially in the northern province around today'sCap-Haïtien, where the unit was recruited.[citation needed]
Steamer Pulaski.
de la radiere.
