Polish troops in Haiti.

[juergen c. olk]

This is for you Shipka. Polish troops used in putting down Haitian revolt.

[grant]

That rebel on the left seems to be ahead of his compatriots in holding back the Polish troops....

[has.been]

No.  he is merely showing what happens when you assemble your plastic Napoleonic figures with inferior super-glue.

[carlos marighela]

Bloody ventriloquists! Nina Conti aside, I can never abide the buggers.

[AlyMorrison]

If you want to learn a bit more about the Haitian revolution I would recommend listening to Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast ...

http://www.revolutionspodcast.com/

He has also covered the French Revolution , The American war of Independance ,The English Civil War and a seperate podcast on the History of Rome.

All the best.  Aly

[AWu]

2nd and 3rd Polish demi brigades, renamed in Haiti as accordingly 113 and 114 French demi brigades.

5280 men most of whom perished in Haiti Only around 700 of whom returned to Europe, 400 other fought on the Haitians side, as war for slavery wasu npopular. There are still polish names on Haiti and some people of traceable Polish-mix breed and blue eyes.

Some of the officers succumbed to piracy and tried to establish colony in Florida

Very interesting conflict.

[Shipka]

Trent Miniatures produce some for the period

[gustav]

have always though that those Polish troops fighting in Haiti were incongruous to the extreme.
 

[janner]

have always though that those Polish troops fighting in Haiti were incongruous to the extreme.
 

Yes, it's a bit like deploying Indian battalions to France or sending Australians to fight in North Africa 

[Vanvlak]

Or Maori sappers in Gallipoli - one of them is buried here in Malta, poor man, so far from home.
His name is recorded simply as Pakeha, and he died a hundred years ago last February.

[AWu]

Yes it is bitter part of Polish alliance with Napoleon, and one that we are not very proud of. We prefer to talk about those soldiers that had gone to Haitian side and settled there after the war. (What is interesting polish forces that deserted for Haitian side were spared in white people massacres of 1804)

But to French defense i have to say that they chose their fate themselves (Poles)

They refuse to go to service of Kingdom of Etruria - citing their republican convictions, so Nepoleon wanted to remove them from the picture as unreliable -But poles accepted colonial service and preferred them to enrollment into Etrurian army.

On trivia worth noting is that while never leading Polish troops in Santo Domingo - first Pole here was Gen Jablonowski - most senior Afro-Polish (is this right word    in history of Polish armies. He commanded Artibonit Division but he died due to illness before any polish troops arrived, so he commanded only French units and fought against and destroyed Coutreau force.