Philippeaux. Pétion’s battery against the powder magazine.

Dessalines for his part had all the blockhouses of the plain occupied. On the sixth complementary day his troops moved forward. Reinforced by Cangé’s division, they amounted to 15,000 men. Port-Républicain was invested in form. The division of the Artibonite, commanded by Gabart, was posted against the Portail Saint-Joseph and Fort National. That of the arrondissement of Port-Républicain held the ground that stretches between Fort National and the Morne de l’Hôpital; and General Cangé’s was posted between the Porte de Léogane and Fort Bizoton. Dessalines chose for his headquarters the spring of Turgeot, half a league from the place. On 1 Vendémiaire General Pétion set up on a hillock of the Philippeaux plantation, southeast of the city and 200 toises from the powder magazine, a battery of two guns, one a four-pounder and the other an eight-pounder, and a six-inch howitzer that he had brought from Petit-Goâve. He threw several shells onto the post of the powder magazine, which forced the French to evacuate it. The Indigenous, under the fire of 17 cannon that spread death in their ranks, nonetheless drew the blockade of the city ever tighter. The 11th demi-brigade, commanded by Frontiche, came up within musket shot of the entrenchments that closed the circuit of the place. Although every gun of the fortifications was turned against it, it succeeded in raising a battery whose fire greatly troubled the French. General Lavalette made every effort to rouse the national guard, composed almost entirely of Indigenous men, to second the European garrison. But he met with nothing but discouragement or treachery. A citizen, Balthazar Inginac, in whom he had some confidence, was nevertheless carrying on a quiet and active propaganda in favor of Dessalines. He gathered at his house during the night young men full of daring and resolve, and talked with them of the means of delivering the place to the Indigenous if the French did not make haste to evacuate it. The French troops, reduced to 1,400 men, were worn out with fatigue. They had no rest by day or night; they manned every post, no longer daring to trust a single one to the national guard.