1806, October 17: (The Assassination at Pont-Rouge): Word of the southern risings reached Dessalines at Marchand on October 13, and within forty-eight hours …

1806, October 17: (The Assassination at Pont-Rouge): Word of the southern risings reached Dessalines at Marchand on October 13, and within forty-eight hours he was marching south with two battalions of the 4th Demibrigade, exclaiming: “My horse will wade in blood up to his breastplate!” On October 16, he halted at Arcahaie, picked up the third battalion of his imperial guard, and ordered a covering force under Colonel Thomas Jean and Major Antoine Gédéon to advance on Port-au-Prince and halt north of the city at Pont-Rouge — a red brick bridge built by the French. The 4th Demibrigade, Dessalines’s best troops, halted without orders at Montrouis to pick up supplies, while the companies under Jean and Gédéon straggled along the dusty road toward the city; outside St. Marc, an officer named Delpeche spurred his horse to warn the Emperor, but Dessalines would not listen, and Delpeche was bayoneted for bearing bad news. As the advance guard approached Port-au-Prince, the soldiers learned what was afoot: Pétion and Gérin met them at Pont-Rouge, where they surrendered and turned coat, with Major Gédéon — who had no such scruples as Colonel Jean — accepting a promotion and giving his scarlet tunic to an officer on Pétion’s staff, who took post on the bridge amid the carefully laid ambush. Every cultivator on the Cul-de-Sac knew or suspected that the trap had been set, yet not a single voice warned Dessalines as he rode south.