In an official record prepared in Paris, now before me, are these
words: "This legion saved the army at Savannah by bravely covering its
retreat. Among the blacks who rendered signal services at that time
were: Andre, Beauvais, Rigaud, Villatte, Beauregard, Lambert, who
latterly became generals under the convention, including Henri
Christophe, the future king of Haiti." This quotation is taken from a
paper secured by the Honorable Richard Rush, our minister to Paris in
1849, and is preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Henri
Christophe received a dangerous gunshot wound in Savannah. Balch says
in speaking of Fontages at Savannah: "He commanded there a legion of
mulattoes, according to my manuscript, of more than eight hundred men,
and saved the army after the useless assault on the fortifications, by
bravely covering the retreat."
It was this legion that formed the connecting link between the siege
of Savannah and the wide development of republican liberty on the
Western continent, which followed early in the present century. In
order to show this connection and the sequences, it will be necessary
to sketch in brief the history of this remarkable body of men,
especially that of the prominent individuals who distinguished
themselves at Savannah.
In 1779 the French colony of Saint Domingo was in a state of peace,
the population then consisting of white slave-holders, mulatto and
black freedmen (affranchis), and slaves.
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