cans 312; total
1133.

As the army began its retreat, Lieutenant-colonel Maitland with the
grenadiers and marines, who were incorporated with the grenadiers,
charged its rear with the purpose of accomplishing its annihilation.
It was then that there occurred the most brilliant feat of the day,
and one of the bravest ever performed by foreign troops in the
American cause. In the army of D'Estaing was a legion of black and
mulatto freedmen, known as Fontages Legion, commanded by Vicount de
Fontages, a brave and experienced officer. The strength of this legion
is given variously from six hundred to over eight hundred men. This
legion met the fierce charge of Maitland and saved the retreating
army.

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. Count D'Estaing received
orders to recruit men from Saint Domingo for the auxiliary army; and
there being no question of color raised, received into the service a
legion of colored freedmen. There had been for years a colored militia
in Saint Domingo, and as early as 1716, the Marquis de Chateau