Sally St. Clair: The Hidden Heroine of the Siege
Sally St. Clair as imagined by Nations & Cannons
Like so many women of her time, there is very little known about the life of Sally St. Clair, but her heroic death and romantic legend solidify her place in American history.
Sally was born in New Orleans, French Louisiana, around 1750. She was described as a Creole woman of color, likely of mixed African and French descent.
In 1762, nearing the end of the Seven Years War, France ceded Louisiana to Spain, though the transfer process would take several years. Following the war, the region experienced an influx in French refugees, the Arcadians, after their expulsion from Canada by the British. Between the arrival of French, Spanish, and German immigrants, and Louisiana’s increased involvement in the international slave trade, Sally grew up in a true cultural melting pot.
When Sally was 18, the Creole elite of New Orleans, along with nearby German settlers, attempted an insurrection against the new Spanish government in the hopes of returning Louisiana to French rule. Sally was swept up by the cause, spreading word of the rebellion throughout the community and participating in riots that broke out on the streets of New Orleans. The revolt failed, and five of the rebellion’s leaders were executed, while others were jailed or banished.
Fearing imprisonment, deportation, or death for her part in the uprising, Sally fled to the British colonies. She travelled throughout the southern colonies, finding work wherever she could, or simply begging, borrowing, or stealing what she needed. As a woman of color, she had to be very careful while traveling through the colonies. Southern slave catchers would often kidnap black people, regardless of their legal status, and sell them to rural plantations. As such, Sally likely stayed close to urban centers, such as Charleston or Savannah, near larger free black communities.
While in South Carolina, Sally met a young Patriot soldier, Sergeant Johann Wilhelm Jasper. The two became lovers, though their relationship was not to last long. The Continental Army was due to attempt an attack on British forces in Savannah, and Jasper was to march with them. Sally could not bear to be parted from him, and her sympathy to the rebel cause drove her to take action. Sally enlisted as a man in the Continental Army in South Carolina in 1779, where she could fight beside Jasper without him ever knowing her true identity. She cut her hair short and donned a soldier’s uniform. As physicals were not performed on new recruits, and bathing was not a common occurrence in the army camps, Sally would have been able to keep her identity under wraps with relative ease.
During the Siege of Savannah, Sally served alongside other French-speaking soldiers of color with the arrival of the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a French regiment from what would later become Hati.\
Under Benjamin Lincoln, Sally and her fellow soldiers advanced on Savannah, though the siege was ultimately unsuccessful. Sally was mortally wounded during the battle on October 9, 1779, while protecting Johann Jasper. Only after her death was her identity revealed.
Works Cited
Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. Vintage Books, 2009.
Dyhouse, Janie. “Women In War.” Digitaledition.qwinc.com, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 27 Jan. 2018, digitaledition.qwinc.com/article/Women In War/2994897/470668/article.html.
“Louisiana (New Spain).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_(New_Spain)#History.
MORRIS, GEORGE POPE. DESERTED BRIDE: and Other Poems (Classic Reprint). FORGOTTEN Books, 2017.
Pasquier, Michael T. “Insurrection of 1768.” 64 Parishes, 7 Dec. 2016, 64parishes.org/entry/insurrection-of-1768.
Wildwood, Warren. Thrilling Adventures among the Early Settlers. J.E. Potter, 1863.
