Siege of Savannah

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Siege of Savannah
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Attack on Savannah, by A. I. Keller
Date 16 September – 18 October 1779 Location Savannah, Georgia, United States Result British victory
Belligerents
United States Kingdom of France	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Benjamin Lincoln Lachlan McIntosh Casimir Pulaski † Curt von Stedingk Comte d'Estaing	Augustine Prévost John Maitland
Strength
Ground units: 7,722[1] Naval units: 42 ships	Ground units: 4,813[1] Naval units: 8 vessels
Casualties and losses
244 killed 584 wounded 120 captured[2]	40 killed[3] 63 wounded 52 missing[4]

The siege of Savannah or the second battle of Savannah was an encounter of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in 1779. The year before, the city of Savannah, Georgia, had been captured by a British expeditionary corps under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell. The siege itself consisted of a joint Franco-American attempt to retake Savannah, from September 16 to October 18, 1779. On October 9 a major assault against the British siege works failed. During the attack, Polish nobleman Count Casimir Pulaski, leading the combined cavalry forces on the American side, was mortally wounded. With the failure of the joint attack, the siege was abandoned, and the British remained in control of Savannah until July 1782, near the end of the war.

In 1779, more than 500 recruits from Saint-Domingue (the French colony which later became Haiti), under the overall command of French nobleman Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing, fought alongside American colonial troops against the British Army during the siege of Savannah. This was one of the most significant foreign contributions to the American Revolutionary War.^[5] This French-colonial force had been established six months earlier and was led by white officers. Recruits came from the black population and included free men of color as well as slaves seeking their freedom in exchange for their service.^[6]