1792-Jul.-11: General La Salle wrote a series of urgent dispatches to Governor-General Desparbés detailing the collapse of military discipline among the Fren…

1792-Jul.-11: General La Salle wrote a series of urgent dispatches to Governor-General Desparbés detailing the collapse of military discipline among the French troops in Saint-Domingue. He described how the revolutionary ideals of “liberty and equality” had undermined the traditional chain of command, making it impossible to effectively suppress the general insurrection. The General warned that the soldiers were as much a threat to colonial order as the insurgents themselves. These papers, later collected and published, highlight the internal disintegration of the French colonial state during the early 1790s. The correspondence serves as a critical primary source for the study of the revolution’s impact on the French military.