Charles Bélair attacked the rear of the block-house, and Pétion, taking command of the army, drove the troops of the North back into the wood of Bayahondes.

Meanwhile Dessalines, in despair at not having succeeded in his movements by the right of the block-house, attempted a movement by the left, that is to say by the Tapion. Charles Bélair falls, on 4 thermidor (22 July), upon the rear of the block-house, and climbs the scarps of the hill; already some soldiers occupy its height. But chance had led some officers of the 4th of the South that way. They gave the alarm to a neighboring post. At the noise of the musketry, Dessalines advanced his troops into the savanna of Tauzin: the action became general. Charles Bélair is thrown back to the seashore. Toureaux has four 4-pounders brought out of the block-house.

There was so little discipline in this small army when Rigaud was not with it that at the moment of beginning the battle a violent quarrel broke out between Toureaux and Faubert: one wished to begin the attack on the left, the other on the right. Pétion, who saw that everything was about to be compromised, took command of the army, sent cannon to the shore to beat off the privateers of the North who were hindering the march of Geffrard’s column, and with Dartiguenave’s column he charged the bulk of the army of the North and drove it back into the wood of Bayahondes. He had lost fifty men (1). It is here that the defection of Squadron Chief Millet to the army of the South belongs. Camped at the Acul of Léogane, he was indignant at the arbitrary executions of which he was a witness. He carried off a part of his cavalry; and, making for Grand-Goâve, he met General Moyse, who was riding into town. Questioned on his change of position, he answered with a volley. Moyse, who was not hit, continued at full gallop toward Léogane (1).