Suddenly, early in September, 1779, the French fleet under
d'Estaing appeared before Savannah. It had come from the West
Indies, partly to avoid the dreaded hurricane season of the
autumn in those waters. The British, practically without any
naval defense, were confronted at once by twenty-two French ships
of the line, eleven frigates, and many transports carrying an
army. The great flotilla easily got rid of the few British ships
lying at Savannah. An American army, under General Lincoln,
marched to join d'Estaing. The French landed some three thousand
men, and the combined army numbered about six thousand. A siege
began which, it seemed, could end in only one way. Prevost,
however, with three thousand seven hundred men, nearly half of
them sick, was defiant, and on the 9th of October the combined
French and American armies made a great assault. They met with
disaster. D'Estaing was severely wounded. With losses of some
nine hundred killed and wounded in the bitter fighting the
assailants drew off and soon raised the siege. The British losses
were only fifty-four. In the previous year French and Americans
fighting together had utterly failed. Now they had failed again
and there was bitter recrimination between the defeated allies.
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