Octobre 14, 1781. Having besieged Yorktown for several weeks, grenadiers of le Gatinois are part of the assault force on Redoubt 9. In conjunction with men from Le Régiment de Deux-Ponts, raised in the Rhineland for French service, le Gatinois attacked the fortification and took it at the point of the bayonet. Wilhelm Graf Von-Schwerin, one of these German soldiers, wrote to his uncle several days later:
“In order to approach the closer one we had to take two redoubts which the enemies had on our right and left. On 14 October our company of grenadiers, where I have the honor of still serving, received orders to march into our redoubts. Our chasseurs, the grenadiers of the Gatinois Regiment and their chasseurs joined us at nightfall…At 8 o’clock at night we approached the redoubts, always hidden behind our entrenchments. At 8.15 we were ordered to march in attack step up to the enemy redoubt and ascend it in an assault, our colonel-en-second at the head. There was a very lively fire from all sides for about a quarter of an hour, after which the enemy offered to surrender. The garrison of the fort consisted of 160 men, of which we took no more than 40 prisoners without counting the dead. The others saved themselves as best they could…”
Another member of the Deux-Ponts, Georg Daniel Flohr’s account paints an even more horrific picture:
“Anyone can imagine what happened once we were inside the redoubt. People of four nations were thrown together: Frenchmen, English, Scots, and Germans…the soldiers…were so furious that our people were killing one another…The whole redoubt was so full of dead and wounded that one had to walk on top of them.”
An estimated 50-80 members of Le Régiment Gatinois gave their lives during the Yorktown Campaign. Our impression serves as a reminder of their story and their sacrifice. #LestWeForget
Photo by kind permission of SJ Photograthy.
Le Régiment Gatinois 