Savannah: September-October 1779

In December 1778, a British force seized the port city of Savannah as the central theater of the war shifted to the southern colonies. The following September, a combined force of some 7,700 Patriot and French soldiers laid siege to Savannah while a French fleet blockaded the town. As the siege worn on without result in early October, the American-French army led by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln and Vice-Admiral Charles Henri Hector attempted to storm the town. The disjointed assault failed with a high cost to the attackers. Lincoln and d’Estaing abandoned the siege, but the head of the Continental Army, General George Washington, saw within the failed effort the seeds of more effective allied operations in the future.