1844, February 27 – March 19: (The Dominican Independence and the Fourth Invasion): As cathedral bells tolled Compline on the night of February 27, 1844, Jua…

1844, February 27 – March 19: (The Dominican Independence and the Fourth Invasion): As cathedral bells tolled Compline on the night of February 27, 1844, Juan Pablo Duarte, at the head of a band of patriots calling themselves “Trinitarios,” (1) seized the ancient fortress of Puerta del Conde in Ciudad Santo Domingo, proclaimed independence, and before dawn had wrested the city from its slothful, sleepy Haitian garrison. Two days later, on advice of Commissioner Barrot, the Haitian général de place meekly signed the capitulation Duarte laid before him and embarked aboard three ships for Jacmel, ending eighteen years of Haitian misrule in the East. (2) On March 10, Hérard took the field with 30,000 troops to enter Santo Domingo via the traditional routes: Pierrot — Christophe’s aged and eccentric brother-in-law — would march on Santiago from the north, while a central column under Hérard advanced by way of Lascahobas to rendezvous at Azua with a third column attacking through the Cul-de-Sac and Neyba. The fourth Haitian army to enter Santo Domingo in less than fifty years received a predictable reception: armed with pikes, machetes, and fowling pieces, furious Dominican peasants fought the Haitian invaders at every house and crossroads to cries of “Long live the Holy Virgin and the Dominican Republic!” When Rivière-Hérard reached Azua on March 19, Dominican General Pedro Santana had sited two guns covering the narrow gateway to the town, and as the Haitians recoiled with more than fifty dead under volleys of musketry, Santana abandoned the town and withdrew, while at Santiago the Dominicans under General José-María Imbert had already sent Pierrot reeling northward.