Le Poteau. Salm’s brigade and Hardy’s division establish themselves here.

In the meantime Desfourneaux’s division took up position in front of Ennery, where General Hardy had assembled his whole division. It followed the high road to Les Gonaïves (22 February). General Leclerc commanded this army corps in person. The chef de bataillon Marinier, a Black officer, at the head of 600 men of the 7th, had laid an ambush at the entrance of the Coupe-à-Pintade, in the middle of the high road, near Le Poteau. The next day, 23 February (4 Ventôse), the French advance guard fell into the ambush and was thrown back on the main body of the army, whose march was halted for a moment. Desfourneaux, supported by Desplanques’s brigade and Hardy’s division, had the charge beaten and carried the ambush, after losing more than 300 men. The French were astonished at the stubborn courage of the Indigenous in this affair. The same day Salm’s brigade and Hardy’s division established themselves at Le Poteau. Marinier withdrew in good order to the entrance of Les Gonaïves, at the Pont des Dattes. There he found Morisset with his squadron. Generals Hardy, Salm and Pambour came out for their part on the Châtelain road to join the captain-general at Les Gonaïves. They drove the battalion of the Red Jackets back upon the town. Hardy reached the Pont des Dattes without meeting any obstacle. There a new fight began. The 7th, entrenched in a strong position and supported by Morisset’s squadron, held back the ardor of the French column, which, having no cavalry, recoiled before the impetuous valor of the dragoons of the guard of honor. Morisset left Marinier in his entrenchments at the Dattes and flew to the aid of Vernet, who was heroically defending the entrance of Les Gonaïves against Leclerc in person. Twelve thousand men had been striving since daybreak to force their way into this place, whose approaches were defended by only 1,400 men. Morisset made a brilliant charge and drove the French back as far as the Tannerie. Vernet, surrounded by such forces and uselessly losing brave soldiers in the defense of a place he would in any case be forced to abandon to the persistence of an enemy ten times superior in numbers, ordered the evacuation. The town was given over to the flames; and while the women, the children and the old men carried off their most precious belongings in carts, Morisset, by desperate charges, halted the march of the French, who would have liked to save the town from a general conflagration so as to find shelter from the burning rays of the sun. Leclerc deployed Desfourneaux’s division in the plain. The Red Jackets, the Indigenous cavalry and the 2nd battalion of the 7th, seeing themselves about to be surrounded, made for the Morne Grammont, where Vernet met Madame Louverture and the whole family of the former governor, who had abandoned Cocherelle. Leclerc took possession of a town in ashes on 5 Ventôse (24 February). His soldiers nonetheless raised cries of victory. From Grammont, Morisset heard these joyful acclamations. He cried out: What! after so many defeats, they have the audacity to sing of victory! He leapt onto his horse and said to his companions, who were worn out with fatigue: Let fifteen intrepid dragoons follow me. The whole squadron eagerly gathers around him. He crossed the Morne Grammont and reached the cemetery near the blockhouse. The French troops had stacked their arms and were at rest. Night had fallen on the town. He fell upon a European battalion and made a frightful slaughter of it. He returned to Grammont carrying a flag he had taken from the enemy. During the night General Christophe joined Vernet. Both took the road to the bridge of the Ester. They sent the women and children who had evacuated Les Gonaïves on toward the Cahos. Vernet had lost in these various fights 200 men of the Red Jackets and 300 men of the 7th, and of Morisset’s squadron only 60 dragoons remained. He sent a courier to Lacroix who informed Toussaint of the burning and evacuation of Les Gonaïves and of his retreat to the bridge of the Ester. Toussaint left Lacroix and hurried to join him. He sent Magny with part of his guard of honor to Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite. Pourcely, a man of color, went with the rest of his troops to camp on the Marchand plantation. The few prisoners taken in the fight at Lacroix, and the whites arrested at Les Gonaïves, were taken to Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite. They were handed over to a detachment that led them to La Verdure, a plantation near the town. They were all put to the knife with these words: We have not enough provisions to feed our soldiers; how could we maintain those who come to destroy us?