Port-de-Paix. Taken by Clausel and Quérangal’s squadron; Capoix broke out of the Petit Fort by night

At almost the same time, Rochambeau was having Port-de-Paix taken from Capoix. On 18 Nivôse, Year 11 (8 January), the ship of the line Duquesne, commanded by Quérangal, the frigate Sybille, commanded by Magendie, the corvette Sandwich, the brig Aiguille and the schooner Sophie appeared before Port-de-Paix. The squadron, which Quérangal commanded in chief, carried the 31st demi-brigade, a free battalion of the West and three companies of artillery, under the orders of General Clausel. The troops, covered by the fire of the ships, landed east of the Petit Fort amid the bullets that the Indigenous rained upon the launches as they came ashore. The grenadiers of the 31st and of the free battalion assaulted the Petit Fort, which Capoix held in person; they were repulsed. Rallied by Adjutant-General Ramel, they marched under the enemy’s fire against Fort Laveaux, which they carried with the bayonet. At the same time the seamen of the fleet, who had been formed into battalions, seized the Grand Fort. Fort Pageot and the Petit Fort were still in the hands of the Indigenous. Adjutant-General Ramel sprang from Laveaux against Pageot under the hottest fire of the Petit Fort. His arm was shattered by a ball and he was driven back. Clausel led the 31st back to the assault; he entered without striking a blow the fortification that the Indigenous had abandoned while he was rallying the fugitives. The naval division then directed all its fire against the Petit Fort, which the independents still held. Capoix seemed bound to be annihilated under the round shot and grape; his guns were dismounted, and the fort no longer returned fire. Battalion Commander Aubry, commanding the artillery, had for his part set up in the center of the town a battery that blasted the Indigenous. Battalion Commander Daulion thought he could carry the fortification by storm; he marched against it; but his grenadiers were crushed at the foot of the ramparts. Night came on, and the firing ceased. Then Capoix came out of the Petit Fort without firing a single shot, broke through the enemy line with the bayonet, and reached the open country without being molested. The French, left masters of the town, at once shipped their wounded to La Tortue, among them two field officers, Ramel and Dalivart. Clausel had suffered considerable losses; most of the picked soldiers of the 31st had fallen. He made Squadron Commander Aubry a colonel and awarded muskets of honor to several noncommissioned officers of the 31st. Captain Quérangal received the congratulations of Rochambeau. Clausel returned to Le Cap after leaving the command of Port-de-Paix to Squadron Commander Daulion.