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1779 Oct

1779 Oct: The Chasseurs Volontaires fight at the Siege of Savannah.

1779 Oct: The Chasseurs Volontaires fight at the Siege of Savannah. These free men of color returned from the American Revolutionary War with military experience and ideas of liberty. Significance: Over 500 gens de couleur (free men of color) from Saint-Domingue fought alongside the French and Americans. Nuance: They were not just laborers; they were an elite light-infantry unit. At the end of the failed siege, they provided the critical rear-guard cover that allowed the retreating American and French forces to escape, preventing a total British massacre.

Source Girard, Haiti: The Tumultuous History, 37; Dubois, Avengers of the New World, 37; Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier, 43