Chapter 74: Chapter 71: Harsh Lessons

Cape Francois, Saint-Domingue

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August 2nd, 1778

"Merde," William Simon muttered as he marched towards the city with his military unit, "The British are finally here."

Simon was part of the French garrison that was stationed in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The war between France and Britain was fiercely raging on and he wasn't too surprised that the British attempted a landing on the valuable French colony. Especially since the British had defeated the French in a naval battle off the coast of the Bahamas just a month ago. However, the fact that the British managed to take the port city of Le Cap rapidly was concerning. The garrison in Saint-Domingue was reinforced by additional French troops several weeks earlier and Le Cap was formerly guarded by over three thousand French troops. The fact that half of them managed to escape and retreat from the city when the British invaded meant that the British had brought a great number of troops, or something else.

As the French Army consisting of six thousand men (gathered mainly from Port-au-Prince and the northern towns) moved towards Le Cap, they were greeted by the sight of the British Army preparing defenses around the town. Simon watched as British soldiers dug two lines of trenches over wide strips of land and erected barricades behind them as well. From the looks of it, the British had three thousand soldiers at most. The French general in charge of the attack, General Philibert Francois Rouxel, commanded his men forward in a direct assault against the British.

The French lacked heavy artillery, but the few artillery pieces they had fired upon the Redcoats. The British, who spotted the French Army moving towards their position, quickly hopped into their trenches and disappeared from sight. Simon almost snorted as shells rained down on the trenches from above, "The cowards. Hiding in their holes like a baby climbing back into its mother's womb."

It was difficult to see how much damage the artillery caused upon the British soldiers, but General Rouxel committed his troops and pushed forward. Eight thousand Frenchmen in uniform charged forward, determined to drive the British out of the trenches and retake the town.

Suddenly, when the French soldiers were four hundred meters from the first line of trenches, the British opened fire on their ranks. Hundreds of French soldiers fell from the stream of British fire coming from the trenches. Thankfully, Simon managed to avoid getting struck by a musket ball, but he witnessed at least two hundred people go down before they managed to reach the trenches. Gritting his teeth, he jumped into the trenches with his bayonet and engaged in a melee with a Redcoat.

While the French reached the first line of defense, British soldiers in the second line of trenches and behind the barricades fired on any individuals wearing blue. After an exhausting hour, Simon and the others finally managed to secure the first line of trenches after taking heavy casualties.

Before they could move forward, a dozen detonations rocked the trenches that the French just seized, killing many instantly and shaking the survivors. Simon was one of three hundred that were instantly killed in the blast. Thankfully for him, he would be one of the lucky ones as hundreds more were wounded and maimed from the blast. After the explosions, the surviving French ranks disintegrated and the survivors retreated away from the town without any organization.

By the time the smoke and dust cleared from the battlefield, the British took four hundred casualties, while the French suffered over two thousand. The British general that led the battle was none other than Brigadier General Patrick Ferguson, a survivor of the British Southern Campaign and designer of the Ferguson rifle.

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