Piémont. Held by two battalions of the 13th under Lubin Hudicourt; the French were driven back to it.

Having made vain efforts to bring the citizens to take up arms, Lamartinière went to the arsenal. He was boiling with fury; had he not met with opposition from Magny and Monpoint, he would have burned Port-Républicain, which he called a cowardly and corrupt town, ready to receive new chains. He went in alone to Lacombe and said to him: “Citizen, the authority of Governor Toussaint Louverture is the only one recognized by the officials of the colony, and whoever disregards it is guilty before the Constitution. Therefore, citizen, I ask you for munitions and arms to fight the French, who are coming to plunge us back into slavery.” Lacombe flatly refused to grant his request, declaring that he had received no order to do so from General Agé, his immediate superior, and that in any case Leclerc had not been sent by the First Consul to change the order of things already established, but rather to put the finishing touch to the tranquillity and happiness of the colony. Lamartinière brandished his saber in one hand and his pistol in the other: “Since that is how it is, die, wretched colonist,” he cried in a thundering voice; and Lacombe fell, struck by a ball in the head. This act of cruel energy spread terror through the arsenal; all the munitions were at once handed over to him. The colonists who had formed the plan of arresting him were frightened, and most of them hid and awaited the outcome of events. All the citizens had shut their doors; the streets were full of patrols, and every white man they met was arrested and taken to the barracks. Agé ceased entirely to command, and Lamartinière found himself sole master of the town. He sent battalion commanders Bardet and Séraphin, who held Fort Bizoton with the 1st battalion of the 13th, the order to conquer or die; he placed the other two battalions of the 13th and some gunners at the Piémont entrenchment, under the orders of commandant Lubin Hudicourt. The whole body of the 13th, a regiment of the South composed of Rigaud’s former soldiers, had been won over by the inhabitants of the town, to whom the soldiers had promised not to fire on the French. A company of cavalry of the guard of honor under Captain Barthélemy Marchand and a company of the foot guard commanded by Captain Eloy Turbet took up position in the redoubt of the Léogane gate. The rest of the guard of honor occupied Fort National. Strong detachments of the 3rd colonial patrolled the town to hold the inhabitants in check and to fight them should they arm with the aim of attacking Fort Léogane from behind while the French stormed it. The 3rd demi-brigade was drawn up in line of battle on the Place Vallière. The troops Lamartinière had to oppose to Boudet amounted to 2,400 men; they would have sufficed to defend the town, had they been loyal.

The next day, 5 February, at ten in the morning, the French army landed at Le Lamentin. Lamartinière, to his great astonishment, did not hear the guns of Fort Bizoton. At once Fort National fired three alarm guns, and all the whites who had been arrested were led to the Valembrun savanna and to Saint-Martin, where they were pitilessly massacred. Boudet advanced at the head of a division of 6,000 men, whose columns, formed in part of veterans, presented an imposing sight. These valiant warriors shone with all the brilliance of their uniforms. Tall bearskin caps weighed on their menacing brows, great black gaiters covered their trousers, and their arms glittered in the burning rays of the sun. When the division came near Fort Bizoton, Boudet sent in an officer under flag of truce, who declared to Bardet and Séraphin that they must, in the name of France, their fatherland, surrender the fort to him; that they would be kept in their ranks, and that nothing would be changed in the colony. At the same time Boudet said to the grenadier companies drawn up behind him: “Comrades, you will march with arms at the carry beneath the guns of the fort, for you are on French soil; and if rebels dare to fire on you, you will carry the fortification with the bayonet and put its garrison to the sword.” The battalion of the 13th came out of the fort and advanced to meet the French with cries of “Long live our brothers!” The division answered with cries of “Long live liberty! Long live the Republic!” The colonial battalion took its place in the European lines and marched against the town. A French regiment occupied Fort Bizoton. Having arrived opposite the Piémont redoubt, at the bend in the highroad, Boudet halted his column and sent the cavalry colonel d’Henin to the fort of Léogane with the mission of receiving the submission of the troops who held it. Lamartinière appeared in the redoubt and ordered the cavalry of the guard of honor to dismount and fight in the entrenchments. Colonel d’Henin, arriving at the foot of the fort, asked to speak with the man in command there; Lamartinière presented himself. “We have not come to fight you,” d’Henin said to him; “you are French; we are brothers; we come to increase, by mingling with you, the number of the defenders of the fatherland.” He threw his sword far from him and asked to enter the fort alone, among his fellow countrymen. “No! no!” cried the soldiers. Boudet, impatient at so much delay, had d’Henin recalled and said in a loud voice that was heard in the redoubt: “Grenadiers, forward! With the bayonet!” The charge was beaten, and the division, moving off, marched against the fort. At that very moment battalion commander Magny arrived. “Halt, my friends! Halt, my brothers!” he cried, addressing the French. Whether his voice was not heard, drowned by the noise of the drums, or whether Boudet would not listen to him, the French column had already reached the foot of the fort. “Fire! fire!” Magny commanded. Death flew through the French ranks. The guard of honor, crying “Long live liberty! Long live the Republic!”, kept up a heavy and murderous fire. The grenadiers of the 68th fired a terrible volley and rushed at the redoubt; they were stopped, raked with grapeshot and driven back to Piémont, leaving the road covered with dead. The two battalions of the 13th who were at Piémont, instead of charging them from behind, withdrew to the Morne de l’Hôpital, out of musket range. Commandant Lubin Hudicourt, who was at the head of the Piémont battery, seeing himself betrayed, fired a volley of cannon shot on the whites and hurried back into the fort of Léogane.