Vertières. Evacuated and burned by its commandant; occupied by the 7th.

Dessalines, as he withdrew to the headquarters at Vaudreuil, ordered Clervaux to attack the enemy again the next day at daybreak. He felt so certain of success that he further ordered the whole night to be spent making gabions. He told the officers around him that in the course of the next day he would be able to bring his cannon up to the town. The commandant of Vertières, having lost his bravest soldiers, judged that he could not withstand the formidable assaults of Capoix again. He left the fort and gave it to the flames. The 7th at once took possession of it. While it was fighting the fire, the Indigenous of the other corps cried out: “The whites are running away; forward!” They run after the French; the French face about, halt, level their pieces, and boldly ask them what they want. Not a single musket shot was fired.