Recapture of St. Lucia
- When
- 1794–1796
- Where
- Saint Lucia, eastern Caribbean island
- Episodes
- 3
In June 1795 French forces, nominally under Victor Hugues, recaptured Saint Lucia from the British, reversing the British capture of April 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars. The island had been seized by Vice-admiral John Jervis's forces after France's declaration of war on Britain, and the French recovery formed part of the wider revolutionary struggle in the Caribbean.
Episodes
- British Capture of Saint Lucia, 1794
British forces under Vice-admiral John Jervis captured Saint Lucia on 1 April 1794, after France declared war on Britain.
- French Recapture of Saint Lucia
French forces under Victor Hugues's nominal control took Saint Lucia back from the British in June 1795.
- British Recapture of Saint Lucia, 1796
A British expeditionary force landed in 1796 and retook Saint Lucia from the French, burning Castries in the Second Brigand War.
Background and detail
Background. After the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars and the proclamation of the French First Republic, Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse arrived in Saint Lucia in December 1792 with revolutionary pamphlets, and the colony's poor whites and free people of colour began arming themselves. France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793, and General Nicolas Xavier de Ricard became governor.
British Occupation. The National Convention abolished slavery on 4 February 1794, and on 1 April of that year Saint Lucia was captured by British forces under Vice-admiral John Jervis. The island thus passed into British hands early in the war between the two powers.
French Recapture. In June 1795 French forces recaptured Saint Lucia from the British. The operation was carried out under the nominal control of Victor Hugues, the French revolutionary figure associated with the recovery of French positions in the region. The supplied sources date the recapture to June 1795 but do not state a specific day.
Aftermath. The French hold on the island proved temporary. In 1796 a British expeditionary force landed on Saint Lucia and recaptured it from the French; during this operation Castries was burned, and the recapture became known as the Second Brigand War.
People involved
- Victor Hugues · Nominal commander of the French forces that recaptured Saint Lucia
- John Jervis · Vice-admiral whose British forces captured Saint Lucia in April 1794
- Nicolas Xavier de Ricard · French governor of Saint Lucia after France declared war on Britain
- Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse · Lieutenant who brought revolutionary pamphlets to Saint Lucia in December 1792
Sources
- Saint Lucia Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.