Les Chausseurs Volontaires de Saint Dominigue

As it is Independence Day, I thought I'd share this bit of history I discovered while in Savannah, Georgia. The "volunteer foot soldiers" were free men of African descent who volunteered to fight against those darned Brits in a campaign to capture Savannah in 1779. They left Haiti to come and help the cause of American independence. 

The monument pictured here explains the contribution of these soldiers:

"In its fourth year, the American Revolution had become an international conflict. Rebelling American colonies and their French allies attempted to capture Savannah from the British in 1779. Haitian soldiers of African descent were part of the allied forces...Several veterans of the campaign became leaders of the movement that made Haiti the second nation in the Western Hemisphere to throw off the yoke of European colonialism."