The Support of the French Antilles in the American War of Independence

Military reorganization of the colonies, reinforcements and decisive contribution at Yorktown (1781)

During the five years of France’s engagement alongside the young American nation, the French Antilles and the troops stationed there constituted a major asset for the French armies. They provided a logistics platform, a troop reserve, and a base for launching attacks to conquer the Caribbean islands held by the British.

At the same time, the three main islands — Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) — had a series of high-calibre governors.

Among them were Bouillé and Damas, who pinned down the British in the Antilles, diverting them from the American front, and Tastes de Lilancour who changed the balance of forces by agreeing to release the troops stationed in Saint-Domingue and send them to Yorktown, where they performed brilliantly.

The Military Reorganization of the Colonies

In 1765, the Duke de Choiseul, drawing lessons from the Seven Years’ War which had seen the loss at the Treaty of Paris in 1763 of most of New France and the Indian territories, considered that the campaign in Germany during that war “caused the neglect of the war at sea and in America, which was the real war.”

It was in this spirit that the Count de Boynes, appointed Secretary of State for the Navy in 1771, anticipating the possible resumption of conflict with Great Britain, reorganized the French military presence in the colonies. In the Antilles, by the ordinance of King Louis XV of 18 August 1772, four colonial infantry regiments were created, holding permanent garrison in the Antilles. These were the regiments of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cap Français and Port au Prince.

The colonial army thus represented, in 1775, 15 infantry battalions and 11 artillery companies. The various cannoneer-bombardier companies recreated from 1764 to 1775 were replaced in 1784 by a colonial artillery regiment, “le Royal artillerie des colonies,” whose 5th brigade of 4 companies was stationed at Port-Louis.

Reinforcements from France

From 1775, maritime convoys brought substantial reinforcements to the colonial garrisons with regiments from France. “L’État militaire pour la France de 1778” reports that the Armagnac regiment was in Guadeloupe and the Auxerrois and Viennois regiments in Martinique. The Agenois regiment was in Saint-Domingue, along with the Gâtinais and Cambrésis regiments. More than 50,000 men were sent to the Antilles during the American War of Independence from 1778 to 1783.

The Decisive Contribution at Yorktown

In 1781, Admiral de Grasse, having docked at Saint-Domingue on 16 July, found the frigate Concorde dispatched from Newport by Rochambeau to propose a joint action with the Antilles army. At the request of the Count de Grasse, the governor of Saint-Domingue, Jean-Baptiste de Tastes de Lilancour, although having received no directive from the King on this matter, took it upon himself to release a large part of the Saint-Domingue garrison troops. These troops, under the command of the Marquis de Saint-Simon, embarked on the 28 ships commanded by Admiral de Grasse and joined the forces at Yorktown. The addition of these 3,400 men to reinforce Rochambeau’s 5,300 men and the 6,000 “Patriots” of the American Corps proved decisive in the capture of Yorktown.

Local Recruitment

Experiments in recruiting from local populations were also conducted. Bouillé’s volunteers in Martinique were drawn from former soldiers or adventurous young men. The Grenadiers of Martinique, “Whites,” and the Chasseurs, “Free men,” were men subject to the militia who agreed to serve for the duration of the conflict in the regular army.

The same type of recruitment was carried out in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), and thus by two ordinances dated 12 March 1779, the Governor General of Saint-Domingue, the Count d’Argout, created on one hand the Grenadier Volunteers regiment, with “Whites” who had preferably served in the army, and on the other hand the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, with “Free subjects, people of colour.” The latter regiment distinguished itself in 1779 at Savannah, where a monument recalls that “The brave Chasseurs volontaires de Saint-Domingue, soldiers of African descent, fought during the American War of Independence.”

Comte Thierry de Seguins-Cohorn, Historian of the Society in France of the SAR

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