Gonaïves. Reached by Toussaint on 2 Brumaire.

Toussaint was at Les Verrettes, preparing to go to the eastern part to organize the tribunals there according to his Constitution, when General Dessalines, who was with him, received a letter from Les Gonaïves informing him that the greater part of the North had risen. The governor had not the slightest hint of this conspiracy. After sending orders to the 4th demi-brigade, in garrison at Saint-Marc, to set out for Les Gonaïves, he went with his usual speed to La Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite. He resolved to stifle at once, by the greatest sacrifices, an insurrection whose principles could in his view only subvert all society. On 2 Brumaire he reached Les Gonaïves. Colonel Vernet had already marched out at the head of a battalion of the 7th and a detachment of the Gonaïves battalion, advancing on the town of Plaisance, which the insurgents held. At his approach the rebels abandoned the town after committing great excesses there. As they withdrew they announced that General Moyse would soon come and put himself at their head. Toussaint, who had left Les Gonaïves to set up his headquarters at Cocherel, returned there as soon as he learned the extent of the insurrection. He ordered Dessalines to drive the insurgents from the heights of Plaisance, and resolved to fight General Moyse in person. He went at once, with two companies of his mounted guard, to the town of Louverture (Ennery), where order was kept by the energy of Commandant Claude Martin. He learned that the insurgents had seized La Marmelade; on 4 Brumaire he marched against them, preceded by a squadron of his guard and followed by two companies of the Gonaïves battalion commanded by Citizens Jean Charles and Coco. As soon as he came upon the insurgents he had them charged with the bayonet; they abandoned La Marmelade and fled in the greatest disorder, charged by the dragoons. They took refuge toward La Souffrière, promising to return soon with General Moyse. Toussaint sprang upon them and overthrew them at La Souffrière, at the Ravine Dorée, at Fond Bleu, at the Grande Rivière, in the quarter of Périgourdin and at the Rivière Dorée, and dispersed them completely in the woods.