Dessalines storms the Tombeau des Indigènes; Viet is taken and whipped to death

On 28 February 1805 Dessalines, marching against Santo Domingo, after having crossed the Yaque river, received notice from Commandant Barthélemy Mirault of the vanguard that sentinels had been discovered behind a rampart of stones raised on a hillock. He rushed upon the French outposts, which took flight and withdrew into the camp where Viet commanded. It was a fortification raised in the main road on an eminence that 2 mornes overlooked on both sides. The French and the Spaniards called it the Tomb of the Indigènes. The Emperor approached to within a hundred paces to examine it: it was bordered with cannon, girdled with a ditch, and flanked with cardasse, aloes and other thorny trees that seemed bound to make it inaccessible. Dessalines had it attacked immediately. The vanguard lay in ambush on the left of the fort, the 4th half-brigade turned it, and Generals Daut and Gabart attacked from the front. Viet climbed upon the ramparts and had grapeshot and cannonballs spewed into our ranks. The 4th crossed the cardasses at a run, to the great astonishment of the French, who believed…

Rouzier tells this under the entry TOMBEAU DES INDIGÈNES.