British troops take the fort of l’Acul above Petit-Goave

Sonthonax and Polverel had proclaimed freedom. French enslavers refused it and signed the colony over to Britain. On this day Lieutenant-Colonel John Whitelocke marched on the fort of l’Acul at Petit-Goave, a league from Leogane, with the 13th, 20th, 49th and 62nd regiments, two howitzers and two four-pounders. The republican garrison of about 600 men under a commander named De Lisle held out from seven in the morning until eight at night. When the fort finally fell, a young Black republican soldier set fire to an artillery caisson under the guardhouse gallery. He died in the blast, and so did the British and French who reached the fort first. Madiou counted sixty of them; the British report admitted five dead and thirty-two wounded.