Fort Léogane. Bazelais fires on Dessalines from it.

On the appointed day, at midnight, the Grand Fort and Talavigne, lying outside the line of circumvallation, were vigorously attacked by Colonel Christophe and by General Laplume. They carried both positions by assault. But at daybreak Auger threw himself boldly upon them and drove them from the Grand Fort. Emboldened by this first success, at seven in the morning he divided the reserve into two columns. The right-hand column, entrusted to Captain Ducroc, was to attack Fort Talavigne from the front, while he himself, at the head of the left-hand column, would take the enemy in flank. They marched against Laplume with the greatest intrepidity. At the same time Bazelais, threatened in Fort Léogane, fired a few round shot at Dessalines. Ducroc, hearing the cannon roar, thought Auger was already assailing Talavigne; he hastened to assault the fortification and found himself alone before Laplume, who gathered all his forces against him and crushed him. Immediately afterward Auger reached the foot of the ramparts and attacked in his turn. His shock was of the most impetuous; he was gaining ground; Toussaint’s troops were wavering at every point; he was entering the redoubts under the most murderous grapeshot when Dessalines launched the 4th and 11th demi-brigades against his column. The colonels of those two corps, Dommage and Nérette, after heroic efforts, succeeded in checking his onset and in freeing General Laplume. Auger, surrounded on every side by troops five times more numerous than his own, formed in close column, pierced the enemy masses with the bayonet and withdrew under the protection of Forts Léogane and Gouvernement. He then re-entered the town without having been broken. As he withdrew, Dessalines, admiring his courage and that of his soldiers, cried out: “What prodigies would I not perform if I had those brave men in my ranks!” The Jacmelians counted that day two hundred soldiers and twenty brave officers killed. Battalion Commander Bazelais was gravely wounded. In the besieging army General Laplume and Lieutenant Colonel Lacroix were struck by several balls. Fort Talavigne was taken from the Jacmelians, who could not retake it for the rest of the siege. Dessalines at once turned the guns of Talavigne against the town and began to cannonade it actively with a plunging fire.