Siege of Savannah

Also known as the second battle of Savannah, the siege of Savannah unfolded in 1779 as part of the broader American Revolutionary War, a conflict spanning 1775 to 1783. A year earlier, British forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell had seized the Georgia city outright. Combined French and American troops set out to reclaim it, mounting a siege that stretched from September 16 through October 18, 1779.

Their efforts culminated in a large scale assault on October 9, 1779, against the fortified British lines, an attack that ultimately did not succeed. Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish nobleman commanding the allied cavalry, suffered a mortal wound in the fighting that day. Once this combined offensive collapsed, the allies had no choice but to lift the siege entirely. Savannah stayed under British control from that point until July 1782, just before the war drew to its close.

Defence

In the region, the crown's forces numbered roughly 6,500 regulars stationed at Brunswick, Georgia, with an additional 900 troops at Beaufort, South Carolina, led by Colonel John Maitland, and around 100 Loyalist fighters holding Sunbury, Georgia. From his headquarters in Savannah, General Augustine Prevost oversaw these scattered garrisons, but the sudden appearance of the French fleet off Tybee Island left him scrambling to respond. He ordered the detachments from Beaufort and Sunbury to march back and bolster Savannah's defenses.

Responsibility for shoring up the city's fortifications fell to Captain Moncrief of the Royal Engineers. He put between 500 and 800 enslaved African-Americans to work, laboring as long as twelve hours daily, to dig an entrenched line studded with redoubts stretching nearly 1,200 feet, or 370 meters, across the open ground beyond Savannah.

Naval support came from two elderly Royal Navy vessels, HMS Foley and HMS Rose, whose crews and cannons were brought ashore to strengthen the defenders on land. Beyond these, the British forces called upon the armed brig HMS Keppel, commissioned in 1778, along with the armed ship Germaine supplied by the East Florida navy. Two additional galleys from East Florida, named Comet and Thunder, joined the effort as well. Finally, the British pressed a pair of merchant vessels, Savannah and Venus, into armed service.

Siege

On September 12, Estaing put troops ashore south of the city and had them advancing toward it within four days. Certain the fight was already won, and trusting that Lincoln would keep Maitland's reinforcements from reaching Savannah, he called on Prevost to surrender. Prevost stalled, requesting a day's truce. Because no one had clearly settled who was meant to block Maitland's route, the channels dividing Hilton Head Island from the South Carolina mainland went unwatched, letting Maitland slip into Savannah just hours before the truce expired. Even with Lincoln's troops now on hand, Prevost turned down Estaing's demand, though he did so courteously.

On September 19, Charles-Marie de Trolong du Rumain brought his squadron upriver and traded shots with Comet, Thunder, Savannah, and Venus. The following day, the British deliberately sank the badly leaking Rose just downstream of the town to block the French ships from pressing forward, and set fire to Savannah and Venus as well. Placed in a tight stretch of the channel, the sunken Rose effectively sealed it off, leaving the French fleet unable to lend support to the American attack. Germaine stationed himself to guard the northern edge of Savannah's fortifications. Comet and Thunder were tasked with stopping any South Carolinian galleys that tried to shell the town. In the days that followed, shore batteries backed up Comet and Thunder in clashes with the two galleys, inflicting heavy damage on Revenge during one such fight.

Deciding against a direct strike on the British lines, Estaing instead had cannons hauled off his ships to bombard the city itself. It was the town, not the fortified positions, that absorbed most of the shelling, which continued from October 3 through the 8th. One British witness described the scene grimly, noting that almost no house had escaped being struck by gunfire. Civilians died in large numbers under the combined French and American bombardment. An American officer remarked on the terrible suffering of women and children, some already killed by shells and cannon fire, and one of Prevost's aides recalled that many unfortunate people died while trying to reach their cellars or take shelter along the riverbank. When the bombardment did not produce the results he wanted, Estaing reversed course and resolved to attempt a direct assault instead. Part of his urgency stemmed from wanting to wrap up the campaign quickly, since scurvy and dysentery were spreading among his crews and supplies were dwindling. A conventional siege would probably have succeeded in time, but not within the timeframe Estaing was willing to accept.

Despite objections from several of his officers, Estaing ordered the attack on the British lines for the morning of October 9. Much of its hoped-for success rested on surprise, but word reached Prevost well ahead of the planned 4 a.m. start. Heavy fog left troops advancing on the Spring Hill redoubt disoriented in the swamps, delaying the assault until almost daybreak. The French admiral had targeted the redoubt on the right flank partly because he assumed only militia held it. In truth, it was manned by both militia and regulars from Maitland's 71st Regiment of Foot, veterans who had proven themselves at Stono Ferry. Among the militia were riflemen who picked off the French soldiers in their white uniforms with ease once the attack began. Estaing suffered two wounds, and the Polish cavalry officer Casimir Pulaski, serving alongside the Americans, was fatally wounded. By the time reinforcements reached the redoubt, the initial wave had collapsed into chaos, and the ditches beneath it were choked with the dead. Meanwhile, diversionary strikes against the other redoubts along the British line were beaten back without difficulty.

Leading the second column was the Swedish Count Curt von Stedingk, who succeeded in pushing all the way to the final trench. In his journal he recorded the fleeting triumph of raising the American flag there, only for the enemy to counterattack and cut his men down in crossfire. Overwhelmed by superior numbers, he was driven back with only about twenty men left standing, all wounded, himself included. He later described the retreat, with his dying comrades' cries ringing in his ears, as the most painful moment of his life. After an hour of bloodshed, Estaing called off the attack. On October 17, both Lincoln and Estaing gave up the siege altogether.