La Fossette. The Indigenous reached its savanna near the present Masonic Lodge and were stopped by Thouvenot’s battery

At daybreak General Clausel, who until then had kept to the defensive, went to examine the enemy’s position and made ready to drive him from the points he held. He assembled the whole garrison on the parade ground and gave his orders to the senior officers in Rochambeau’s presence. His advance guard, composed of the National Guard, the maritime gendarmerie and a battalion of the 7th of the line, moved off and opened fire with a vigorous attack on the Barrière-Bouteille, to clear a passage along the high road. The Indigenous, crying “Long live liberty! The town is ours!”, threw themselves upon the French with fury, overthrew them, and began to penetrate into the Cap. That would have been the favorable moment for the Black and mixed-race National Guards to declare for the independents, had they really formed the plan of delivering the place to General Romain; on the contrary, they displayed the greatest intrepidity and kept up the spirits of the Europeans. The French captain Colzi was mortally wounded; Battalion Commander Desfontaines rallied the fugitives of the 7th and of the maritime battalion, who returned to the charge, supported by the grenadiers of the Guard of Honor and the two administrative companies. The slaughter became frightful; they fought hand to hand. After a stubborn struggle the French were overthrown once more. The Indigenous advanced into the savanna of La Fossette, near the present Lodge of the Freemasons, boldly pressing on their heels at the charge. But a formidable battery, set up by General Thouvenot at the far end of La Fossette, was suddenly unmasked; it spread death through the ranks of the independents. The Indigenous rushed toward the cannon; but the French artillery, well served, checked their impetus and forced them to withdraw under the most murderous grapeshot. Brigade Commander Neterwood, at the head of the cavalry of the Guard of Honor, charged them and drove them from the high road. By this success General Clausel restored his communications with the blockhouses of the Haut-du-Cap and the Hôpital des Pères. At the same time Battalion Commander Thouzard, at the head of a division of the National Guard, was marching on the Cliquet plantation to meet the independents, whom he came up with only on the Picard plantation. The Indigenous of this column were striving to join their companions established on the Espagne plantation, to form a mass that was to force La Fossette. Thouzard threw them back on the Espagne plantation, then marched on it with the bayonet and put the column holding it to utter rout. He succeeded in putting out the fire that had been set in the great house of that plantation. The Indigenous, driven from the Espagne plantation, withdrew to the summit of the Morne Lory. Battalion Commanders Jumel and Léaumont, at the head of thirteen companies of chasseurs of the line and of Russy, attacked them vigorously, dispersed them, and pressed them so closely that they gave them no time to burn the Tiphaine plantation. At the same time Commandant Caignet carried the Hôpital post with the bayonet. Romain still held Fort Bélair. General Thouvenot set up against this position a battery of eight cannon and a howitzer. The round shot, the bombs and the shells forced the Indigenous, in less than half an hour, to abandon Fort Bélair. Behind the fort they met a French column that cut off their retreat. A fresh combat began; and after a bloody struggle General Romain passed over the bodies of the French column.