Acul of Petit-Goâve. Beyond it Dessalines routs 200 men of the South.

After crossing precipices and frightful roads, Dessalines arrived on 3 May (13 Floréal) with his whole army on the morne that overlooks Petit-Goâve. To prevent the enemy from falling back on the department of the South, he was preparing to set ambushes between the Acul of Petit-Goâve and the bridge of Miragoâne. But Colonel Faubert forestalled his intentions by ordering 100 men to go and occupy the Acul. At the same time General Clervaux, having crossed the morne of Tapion, made a feint attack on the town to announce his arrival to Dessalines; and the same day the port of Petit-Goâve was blockaded by a brig and two schooners. Dessalines’s army crowned all the mornes overlooking the Acul and Fort Résolu; it expected a general engagement, believing the town still held by the army of the South: two soldiers had presented themselves at the outposts of Colonel Jasmin of Toussaint’s army and had said aloud: “General Rigaud sends word to you not to attack the enemy yet; he is about to gather other troops and send them to you.” Under cover of Dessalines’s hesitation, Faubert left the place and strove to join Pétion at the bridge of Miragoâne.

Dessalines entered Petit-Goâve on 3 May during the day. Without losing an instant he formed his army into three columns: the left was composed of the 7th and 8th demi-brigades, the center of the 4th, and the right of the 11th. He set off at the head of 8,000 men in pursuit of the Rigaudins. He caught up with them beyond the Acul. The troops of the South, 200 men of whom 30 were horsemen, were drawn up in line of battle around the buildings of a plantation. These brave men did not fear to await Dessalines without flinching; he attacked them vigorously at two in the afternoon. They withstood several impetuous charges. The 4th, which rushed upon them with the bayonet, was halted; the 8th came up, broke their ranks and routed them. All the officers of Toussaint’s army who were mounted formed a squadron, charged the fugitives and pursued them almost to the bridge of Miragoâne, the boundary between the departments of the South and the West. Dessalines returned to Petit-Goâve. There had fallen into his power three American ships laden with merchandise, which privateers of the South had captured; one 36-pounder; fourteen 24-pounders, one 18-pounder, eleven 4-pounders, and stores of every kind.