The 1779 Battle of Savannah was one of the deadliest battles of the American Revolution, ending in an overwhelming defeat for French and American forces, an allied withdrawal, about 800 wounded or killed among the allies, and 55 wounded or dead among the British. The British victory in Savannah rekindled England's spirit for the war in part because it defeated troops of the regular army of France as well as American rebels, and it marked the first time French regular army units fought on American soil in the Revolutionary War. The wider conflict involved British, French, Hessian, Irish, Polish, Haitian, Spanish, Dutch, Scottish, Native Americans, and Americans of European and African heritage, many of whom were represented in Savannah. Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski, a brigadier general commissioned by Congress who had fought unsuccessfully for Polish independence, commanded the American cavalry and died from a wound received in the battle. A young Henry Christophe served with the allied army at Savannah and later fought for Haiti's independence from France before becoming King Henry I of Haiti, one of the first heads of state of African descent in the Western Hemisphere. The Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, the largest unit of black soldiers to fight in the American Revolution, fought in Savannah, and many of these free men and volunteers later helped lead Haiti's fight for independence. British Major General Augustin Prevost, a Swiss professional soldier of French Huguenot descent with a French wife, remained loyal to the British Crown. Arthur Dillon, an Irish nobleman and expatriate, commanded a regiment that included Irish soldiers serving the King of France and was prominent in the battle. The Swedish Baron Curt von Stedingk was wounded while leading a French column in the attack. The day before the battle, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, later the designer of Washington, D.C., tried to dismantle and burn the abatis, a barrier of sharpened tree limbs designed to slow attackers. Ancestors of people represented by the modern flags of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Haiti, Scotland, Poland, Ireland, and Germany fought in the Battle of Savannah.

Photo: Mike Stroud

Photo: Mike Stroud

Photo: Mike Stroud

Photo: Mike Stroud

Photo: The Battle of Savannah Marker

Photo: Bill Coughlin

Photo: Mike Stroud

Savannah, Georgia · USA