Birot called a council of war that decided on evacuation, and he and three officers then embarked secretly for Les Cayes, leaving Gauthier and Ogé in command.

The place was blockaded by land, and by sea as well: a flotilla of large gunboats, commanded by Bois-Blanc, took possession of the bay of Baynet, thus preventing it from being resupplied. Then famine made itself cruelly felt. Evacuation was contemplated: on 20 nivôse (10 January) the brigade chief Birot assembled a council of war; despite the opposition of the battalion chiefs Ogé and Gauthier, evacuation was decided. But on this news the subaltern officers declared loudly that the place could hold out still and that to abandon it would be cowardice and, beyond cowardice, treason. The soldiers were of the same opinion. Nevertheless Birot, Borno Déléar, Dupuche and Fontaine, the last of them military commandant, embarked stealthily in the night aboard a small schooner and made for Les Cayes, thus putting into practice the fatal example that Beauvais had bequeathed to them (1).

The garrison did not allow itself to be discouraged by this infamous desertion. Gauthier was proclaimed commander in chief, Ogé second in command. They swore to be faithful to their orders and to abandon the place only when it should be no more than a heap of rubble. Oh! how we must regret that so much heroism was not spent in sacrifice for a cause more honorable than that of civil war!