Leclerc’s vanguard falls into Marinier’s ambush

In February 1802, being at the Gonaïves, Toussaint had the Coupe à Pintade occupied by his army to halt Leclerc’s march on Gonaïves. Christophe was guarding the position of the Bayonnais, thus covering Toussaint’s right; but General Salm dislodged him from it. The battalion chief Marinier, a Black officer, at the head of 600 men, had laid an ambush at the entrance of the Coupe à Pintade, in the middle of the highway, near Poteau. On 23 February Leclerc’s advance guard, advancing from Ennery on Gonaïves, fell into the ambush and was thrown back. Desfourneaux and the Hardy division removed the obstacles after having lost 300 men.

Rouzier tells this under the entry Coupe à Pintade (la).