Morne de l’Hôpital. Two battalions of the 13th withdrew there during the fight.

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.