Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue is a group of French settlers and 800 native riflemen “Gens de couleur”, from Saint-Domingue, who participated in the war of American independence. It was established by an order of 12 March 1779, under the command of the Laurent François Le Noir de Rouvray.
==History==
The expeditionary force, under the command of Comte d’Estaing and his lieutenant, Jean-Baptiste Bernard Vaublanc, left French Cape, August 15, 1779 and arrived September 8, 1779 to Savannah Georgia to help the American rebels, at the Siege of Savannah. They began the assault on 24 September in Savannah before dawn, besieged by the French and the Americans, to defend the trenches open at night. The Volunteers of Santo Domingo, in conjunction with the Grenadier Volunteers, charged with the bayonet a 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.
The future president of Haiti, Henri Christophe served there as a drummer.
==Legacy==
In 2009, a memorial sculpture was dedicated, in Savannah.
Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasseurs-Volontaires_de_Saint-Domingue