Dufrété. Rigaudin rampart turned by Laplume; Auger mortally wounded.

On 28 June he learned from deserters that the army of the South occupied the plain of Fond-des-Nègres, that it had two bronze four-pounders, that its infantry pushed its outposts to near Muzaine, and that its cavalry stood to the left of the infantry on an opposite plantation. General Rigaud came from Les Cayes to put himself at the head of his troops, who numbered 800 men, and resolved to attack. But Dessalines, informed of his plans, forestalled him. It was the 29th. As he was gravely ill that day, he entrusted the chief command of the troops to Colonel Dommage, an officer of the Artibonite who had his entire confidence; there were, however, two brigadier generals in the army, Laplume and Clervaux; but Laplume had formerly served under Rigaud, and Clervaux was a man of color. He remained at Muzaine with the first battalion of the 4th and with the 7th demi-brigade. Dommage entered the plain of Fond-des-Nègres at the head of 10,000 men. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 4th formed the vanguard; next came the 8th, 10th and 11th, commanded by Laplume; the 6th and 9th formed the rearguard, under the orders of Clervaux. Rigaud had been so imprudent as to draw up in line of battle in the middle of the plain. Dommage attacked him boldly; the fight was obstinate; and after two hours of bloody struggle the 10th took from the Rigaudins one of their bronze pieces. Dommage then deployed his many columns to surround them on every side. Rigaud, so as not to be enveloped, retreated; but the 4th fell on him with impetuosity and overthrew him. The cavalry of the South, instead of charging to cover the retreat of the infantry, took flight and reached Aquin at full gallop. The plain of Fond-des-Nègres was covered with dead; and the 8th, 11th, 6th and 9th had just arrived there. The battle had been won an hour when the 3rd regiment of the South, some 200 men, came out into the plain and appeared on the field. This weak body was suddenly surrounded and destroyed under a formidable fire. Its colors fell into the hands of the enemy. Toussaint’s troops continued their march to the far end of the plain. There they discovered two camps, set one on the right and the other on the left, on two mornes that form the Petite Vallée. Laplume attacked the left-hand fortification at the head of 2,000 men, and the 8th, with its colonel Pierre-Louis Diane at its head, assailed the one on the right. In less than an hour both positions were carried. The Rigaudins went to rally farther on behind a small rampart on the morne Tremé, or Dufrété. Colonel Romain Cap, who had been in the right-hand fortification, had offered only a feeble resistance. When Rigaud reproached him for his conduct, he answered: General Toussaint has a quarrel with no one but you. He then fled through the woods. This same Romain Cap will be arrested after the fall of Rigaud and put to death by Toussaint Louverture.

Laplume could not carry the rampart behind which the Rigaudins had entrenched themselves; the next day, however, 30 June, he succeeded in turning it and seizing it. It was in this action that Auger, who had covered himself with so much glory at Jacmel, was mortally wounded. He went to end his days at Les Cayes. Laplume, by false maneuvers, sacrificed a great number of his soldiers. One may judge of it by the losses of the grenadier company of the 1st battalion of the 8th, which had eighty men killed. Colonel Pierre-Louis Diane was gravely wounded. General Laplume, displeased at having seen the chief command of the army entrusted to Colonel Dommage, had gone into action only half-heartedly. Dessalines, who had just arrived from Muzaine at Fond-des-Nègres, called him before him, abused him with words, threatened to strike him and to have him shot. He drove him from his presence, telling him that he would denounce his conduct to the general-in-chief. Laplume withdrew with a bow, without uttering a word. How great already was the power of Dessalines, who, a brigadier general, did not fear to treat another brigadier general in this way. This incident also shows how false was the position of all those who had formerly served under Rigaud; Laplume, a brigadier general, had in reality less influence over the troops than a battalion commander or a colonel from the North or the Artibonite. Dessalines could treat him like the lowest of soldiers without offending the senior officers of his army.