Le Cap. Battle before the town; massacre of prisoners and drowning of the 6th colonial in the harbor

Clervaux, followed by a few horsemen, pursued him vigorously; d’Henin turned about in fury, and single combat began between these two warriors, who had embraced each other at the ball not five days before. Clervaux cut him down with his saber and threw him from his horse. The French horsemen, ashamed of their flight, charged again and freed their general. Meanwhile Pétion, advancing along the high road at the head of the 13th, took Fort Pierre-Michel and found there all the guns spiked by the French, who had fled. Clervaux, instead of pressing his advantage and entering the Cap on the heels of the fugitives, spent his efforts around the entrenchment of Jeantot, which was vigorously defended by the chef de brigade Anhouil. He made seven assaults on the fort and was seven times repulsed. The colonel of the 10th colonial, Jean-Philippe Daut, a Black man, strove in vain to carry the post of the Haut-du-Cap, held by a battalion of the captain-general’s guard of honor. General Clausel, for his part, profiting by Clervaux’s mistake, rallied the fugitives and set up a battery against Fort Michel, which Adjudant-General Pétion had seized. The shells and bombs forced the Indigenous to abandon the position. Pétion, having found all the guns of Michel spiked, had been unable to answer the enemy’s fire. Clausel at once ordered General d’Henin, covered with wounds, to charge the 13th at the head of his dragoons. This cavalry, though it displayed the most brilliant valor, could not break the 13th colonial, which took back the position it had held before the battle. At the same time Petit Noël Prière, who had assailed the town from the side of the heights, was driven back with loss. The firing ceased on both sides, and the two armies remained facing each other. During the battle, horrible scenes were taking place within the town of the Cap. The whites, seized with terror, massacred all the Black men and men of color who crowded the prisons; the tears and prayers of the Indigenous women could not move the European soldiers. At the same time the town rang with the heartrending cries of the 1,200 men of the 6th colonial, Black and mixed-race, who had been put aboard ship. The sailors, frightened at the sight of so many Indigenous soldiers who, they claimed, meant to make themselves masters of the vessels, stabbed these unarmed unfortunates to death with cries of “Let us kill those who can kill us!” Their bodies vanished beneath the waves. Battalion commander Jacques Clervaux was also stabbed and thrown into the sea. Can one wonder at the vengeance the Indigenous took on the French? How sharply General Leclerc’s conduct contrasts with that of Pétion at the Morne Rouge, when he sent back his white prisoners. The captain-general warmly embraced Colonel Anhouil, who had saved the Cap by repulsing the seven assaults Clervaux had made on Fort Jeantot. Pétion’s defection grieved him deeply. Knowing the temper of that Indigenous officer, he judged that Pétion would not have joined the insurgents had he not been certain of the success of his undertaking. He climbed up to Fort Jeantot and examined the enemy camp attentively. He noticed that the French arms had been torn from the flags of the 10th and 13th. “They are fighting not only for their liberty but also for their independence,” he said in despair to General Clausel, whose somber face expressed that the fault lay with the First Consul. “It is all over,” he cried; “there is no longer any remedy for the evil.” It was a prophecy whose fulfillment was hastened by the government of Rochambeau. This event added to the sum of his griefs. He waited anxiously for news of Dessalines, in whom he still had some remnant of confidence; he still counted a great deal on General Christophe, whose frankness he liked.