Le Cap. Garrison marches with Boyer and Magon on Sainte-Suzanne, Le Trou and Vallière.

By his plan of campaign, Leclerc was to drive all of Toussaint’s forces back upon Les Gonaïves, blockade them there on every side, and hurl them into the sea, where they would have met certain death. He entrusted the command of the arrondissement of Le Cap to General Boyer, that of the arrondissement of Fort-Dauphin to Rear Admiral Magon, and ordered the divisions of his army to abandon the points they occupied and converge on that center. General of division Debelle, commander of the artillery and engineers of the army, received the order to leave Le Cap with 1,500 men and go to reinforce Humbert, whose reverses in the mornes of Port-de-Paix the captain-general had learned. He was to attack Maurepas and force him to fall back on Les Gonaïves. On 28 Pluviôse (17 February) almost all the French troops occupying the department of the North set out. Desfourneaux’s division left Le Limbé and followed the road to Plaisance; Hardy’s left Le Cap and moved to Le Grand Boucan and Le Mornet. The garrisons of Le Cap and Fort-Dauphin, joined together, marched under the orders of General Boyer and Rear Admiral Magon on Sainte-Suzanne, Le Trou and Vallière, and carried these positions after several most bitter engagements. On 29 Pluviôse (18 February), General Desfourneaux established himself near Plaisance. The commandant of that town, Jean-Pierre Dumesnil, a Black officer, instead of giving everything over to the flames at the approach of the French, as Toussaint’s instructions required, came out to meet Leclerc with 300 infantry and 200 horsemen and made his submission to him. The next day Desfourneaux entered Plaisance without striking a blow.