1803-11-18: (The Battle of Vertières, the Final Major Engagement of the Haitian Revolution, in Which Dessalines’s Forces Defeat the Remnants of Napoleon’s Ar…

1803-11-18: (The Battle of Vertières, the Final Major Engagement of the Haitian Revolution, in Which Dessalines’s Forces Defeat the Remnants of Napoleon’s Army South of Cap-Haïtien, Making Haitian Independence Inevitable): On November 18, 1803, the Battle of Vertières was fought south of Cap-Haïtien, the last major engagement of the thirteen-year Haitian Revolution. Dessalines’s revolutionary forces, fighting against the remnants of Napoleon’s expeditionary army already devastated by yellow fever, prevailed decisively. Over 1,200 Haitian revolutionaries died in the assault, but the French surrender precluded any possibility of France regaining control of the colony. The battle ended what Napoleon’s ambition had begun: the most expensive military campaign France had ever launched in the Western Hemisphere, defeated not by a rival European power but by the descendants of the people France had enslaved. November 18 is a national holiday in Haiti, originally known as Armed Forces Day until President Aristide abolished the army in 1995.