When several days of shelling failed to produce a surrender from General Prevost, Count d’Estaing decided to storm the city with infantry and cavalry. The Vice-Admiral was unwilling to carry out a lengthy siege because dysentery and scurvy were spreading among his sailors and his supplies were growing short. General Lincoln issued the attack orders to the Patriot troops on the morning of 9 October.
"The soldiers will be immediately supplied with 40 rounds of cartridges, a spare flint, and have their arms in good order. The infantry destined for the attack of Savannah will be divided into two bodies; first composed of the light troops under the command of Colonel Laurens; the second, of the continental battalions and the first battalion of the Charleston militia, except the grenadiers, who are to join the light troops. The whole will parade at 1 o’clock, near the left of the line, and march by platoons . . . The cavalry under the command of Count Pulaski, will parade at the same time with the infantry and follow the left column of the French troops, precede the column of the American light troops; they will endeavor to penetrate the enemy’s lines between the battery on the left of Springhill redoubt"
Maj. Gen. Benjamin LincolnSteward, T. G. 1843-1924. (1899). “How the black St. Domingo legion saved the patriot army in the siege of Savannah, 1779.” Washington, D.C.: The Academy, 1899, p. 9.