ESTAING, Jean Baptiste Charles Hector, COM1E D', Marquis of Saillans, French army and navy officer; b. Auvergne, 1729; d. Paris, 28 April 1794. He entered the French army as colonel of infantry; was promoted to brigadier-general in 1757, and in 1777 became vice-admiral in the French navy. In 1778, in accordance with the treaty between France and the United States, France fitted out a fleet of 12 ships of the line and four frigates to aid the latter in the struggle against Great Britain and Estaing was placed in command. He sailed 13 April, reached Delaware Bay in July, and pro ceeded to New York. He captured some prises off the coast of New Jersey, agreed to assist in a land and sea attack on Newport to expel the British from Rhode Island; reached the har bor late in July; and hearing of the approach of a fleet, put to sea to meet it. He was over taken by a severe storm, which caused him to put into Boston for repairs and the pro jected attack failed. Subsequently he captured
Saint Vincent and Grenada, West Indies, and in 1779 co-operated with General Lincoln in an in effectual attempt to capture Savannah, Ga. He returned to France in 1780. He commanded the allied fleets of France and Spain in 1783; was chosen admiral of the navy in 1792. He was in favor of the French Revolution, and was one of the Assembly of Notables. In 1789 he was commander of the National Guard, and three years later admiral by the selection of the Legislative Assembly. Two years later, prob ably. because he had tried to save the life of Mane Antoinette, despite his eminent military and naval services to France he was con demned as a royalist and guillotined. Estaing had ambition to shine as a literary man and he wrote poetry, a drama and a work on the Colonies.