Mare-à-la-Roche. Carried by Rochambeau’s right column without a shot.

Rochambeau, having learned that Toussaint had a considerable depot of powder at the Ravine-à-Couleuvre, resolved to leave General Christophe’s track. He made his way along paths the enemy did not hold and marched on Saint-Michel de l’Atalaya, which he took without striking a blow on 19 February. His right-hand column carried, without firing a musket, the Mare-à-la-Roche, a fairly strong position defended by four hundred men supported by artillery. By this maneuver Rochambeau, after securing a line of retreat on Saint-Michel, was to burst out unexpectedly by the Ravine-à-Couleuvre into the plain of Lacroix, called the Savane Désolée, and cut off every retreat from Toussaint by placing himself between Les Gonaïves and the bridge of the Ester.