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,