Bellevue. Besieged and bombarded by Dessalines and Cottineau; Tessier killed; evacuated by Renaud Desruisseaux.

The redoubt of Bellevue, which for several months had held back Toussaint’s masses, was armed with only one 24-pounder and two 8-pounders. On 30 Vendémiaire (22 October) Dessalines attacked it vigorously. The garrison, spurred on by Tessier, answered energetically throughout the day a battery of several 8-pounders that commanded the fort. The next day (1 Brumaire), Dessalines ordered Cottineau, commander of the squadron of the North, to approach the fortification within cannon range. The squadron, having anchored with springs on its cables, opened fire at six in the morning while the land batteries played vigorously. Colonel Tessier, exhorting his soldiers not to give way, was carried off by a cannonball. The fire ceased on both sides only at noon. The garrison of eight hundred men fought valiantly; it was assailed by more than twenty thousand. One of the 8-pounders of Fort Bellevue was dismounted by a 14-pound ball. The squadron was reinforced by three gunboats under the orders of Lieutenant Lacroix of the navy. At two in the afternoon of the 23rd it resumed its fire against the fort and against the ambuscades the Rigaudins had set up on the seashore. The land batteries thundered as well on their side. The cannon did not cease to be heard until the end of the day. The garrison of Bellevue had suffered great losses; it was deprived of provisions. It had become impossible for it to hold out any longer. In the night of 23 to 24 October Colonel Renaud Desruisseaux evacuated Bellevue, after sending the munitions of war to Petit-Goâve and burying his 24-pounder, one of whose trunnions he broke. He withdrew to Grand-Goâve, to Adjutant General Toureau, without being troubled by the enemy, which had not perceived his retreat. On the 24th at daybreak battalion commander Ferbos announced to Commandant Rousselot that Bellevue had been evacuated. Dessalines was at once informed of it. He entered the fort and had all the corpses he found there burned. At the same time he launched against the enemy two hundred men, whom Colonel Faubert crushed near Grand-Goâve. Faubert evacuated the position he held at eight in the morning, passed boldly under the eyes of the enemy, and returned to Grand-Goâve.