Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue

Chasseurs-Volontaires de couleur de Saint-Domingue was founded on 12 March 1779 as a French regiment of colored troops (gens de couleur), though the officers were white. Laurent François LeNoir, Marquis de Rouvray commanded the Regiment.

Originally, the regiment was to consist of 10 companies of light infantry organized into two battalions, each company consisting of 79 men. It was open to all gens de couleur, not just free blacks of mixed race, but also slaves who were promised their freedom on their return, if they joined. On 21 April 1779, the regiment received authorization for an expansion. Each of the companies would now number 100 gens de couleur, plus three white officers. The enlisted men comprised 88 fusiliers, two drummers, eight corporals, four sergeants, and one "fourrier". The regimental officers, all white, consisted of a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, a battalion commandant, a major, and an aide-major.

The expeditionary force, under the command of Comte d'Estaing and his lieutenant, Jean-Baptiste Bernard Vaublanc, left Cap-Français on 15 August 1779, and arrived on 8 September 1779, in Savannah, Georgia, to help the American colonial rebels – who were intent on regaining control of the city, which British forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell had captured in 1778.

The British Army began their attack on 24 September in Savannah before dawn, besieged by the French and the Americans, to defend the trenches open at night. The Volunteers of Saint-Domingue, in conjunction with the Grenadier Volunteers, charged with their bayonets at the British column, but being too close to the English works, they suffered heavy losses. The siege ended with the failure of the attack on 9 October 1779. Conte D'estaing was wounded in battle, along with Pierre L'enfant who eventually design the Capital City of Washington, DC.

Slave Henri Christophe could not have served as a boy drummer as he was 22 years old at the time. He would later become the King of Haiti.

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Wikipedia