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1803-07-16

Dolosié evacuated Léogane, which Pétion and Cangé had surrounded.

Haitian

During his absence, Pétion had concerted with Cangé a new attempt against Léogane. He had had two battalions of each of the 3rd, 4th and 8th brought from Camp-Frère. Dolosié, who commanded the town, seeing himself so rigorously surrounded and despairing of receiving any help from Port-au-Prince, took the resolution to evacuate. On 27 messidor (16 July) (1), he abandons the Fort-National, his last refuge, and heads by the road of fort Ça-ira toward the roadstead where the frigate the Poursuivante was awaiting him. But in his march he meets such resistance that he is obliged to fall back as far as the Fort-National, which, unfortunately, the natives had not taken, because Dolosié had cleverly spread the rumor that this position was mined in such a way as to blow it up. The next day Dolosié, instead of forcing the entrenchments of the road of Ça-ira, where Cangé was posted with the 4th and 8th, deceiving the expectation of the besiegers, slips away by the left and opens a passage for himself through the gardens of Bineau. There, however, Lestrades was stationed with the two battalions of the 3rd. The fight was sharp. Lestrades was wounded, a circumstance that contributed to the safety of the French. They were able to reach the landing place of Bineau, where, protected by the fire of their ships, they threw themselves on board in disorder, leaving on the field of battle their four pieces of artillery (1). It was shortly after this evacuation that the commander in chief came to rejoin Pétion and Cangé. The former was already commandant of the department of the West, in which were comprised Arcahaye, Croix-des-Bouquets, Port-au-Prince, Léogane, Jacmel, Baynet and the two Goâves. Cangé was already commandant of the arrondissement of Léogane; for Dessalines, proceeding in the Roman manner, disposed of localities before having made their conquest. There remained only to give a military commandant to the town which had just been evacuated; adjutant-general Marion was that commandant.

Source  ·  p. 224 Joseph Saint-Rémy (des Cayes), Pétion et Haïti: étude monographique et historique, tome 3 (Paris: chez l'auteur, 1855), p. 224; English translation, Rasanblaj.