The bronze group in Franklin Square honours the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a regiment of men of colour from the French colony that became Haiti, and the largest unit of soldiers of African descent to fight in the American Revolution. The regiment was raised on 12 March 1779 under the Marquis de Rouvray, open to free men of colour and to enslaved men who were promised freedom on their return. Each company was to have 100 men under three white officers. About 545 of them sailed in Admiral Charles Henri d'Estaing's expedition, which left Cap-Français on 15 August 1779 and reached Savannah on 8 September, to help American forces retake the city the British had captured in 1778.
An official list of the units at the siege assigned the Chasseurs to digging trenches. They fought back against a British sortie before dawn on 24 September, losing one man killed and seven wounded, and the allied assault of 9 October on the Spring Hill redoubt failed. Accounts differ on their part in it, but the City of Savannah's archives count at least 25 documented deaths among them.
The monument, by the sculptor James Mastin, was planned and funded by the Haitian American Historical Society, unveiled in 2007 and completed in 2009. Six life-size bronze figures stand on a granite pillar inscribed with the regiment's history. The drummer boy among them represents Henri Christophe, believed to have served at Savannah aged about twelve, who later became King of Haiti.
Getting there
32.0811, -81.0959
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop is an audio tour guide app that tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
