Batardeau. Separates the two armies at Sibert; Larose crosses at its mouth

Christophe had been encamped since the day before at Boucassin, nine leagues from Port-au-Prince. He had ordered the 4th and the 7th, which formed his vanguard, and the main body of his army to move along the high road. The 7th had already taken the path that runs along the seashore and, after crossing the Prince plantation, had halted on the 31st on the Laffiteau plantation. By the orders of the generalissimo, Larose, at the head of the 8th, was to leave the high road, follow the coast and halt only at Sibert.

General Pétion, wishing to surprise Christophe, set out for the Arcahaie on 1 January 1807 at two in the morning. He was at the head of the six companies of the 3rd, of the 11th and 21st demi-brigades, of a battalion of the 20th, of a battalion of the 24th, and of two squadrons. These ill-assembled troops made up an effective strength of 3,000 infantry and three hundred horse.

Pétion entered the high road of the Arcahaie and imprudently left on his left the path that runs along the shore; for, pursuing his march, he was bound to meet the main body of Christophe’s army, some 10,000 men, while at the same time the 8th, emerging from the shore path onto the high road, would cut off all retreat toward Port-au-Prince: caught between two fires, he would have been crushed. Toward daybreak, deserters from the 7th fortunately came to warn him that the enemy was about to emerge onto the savanna of Bouc-en-Bouc and cut the road to Port-au-Prince. He at once ordered a retreat; his troops carried out this movement in the greatest haste and did not halt until Sibert, a plantation four leagues from Port-au-Prince.

Pétion had been warned in time, for as soon as it was light, on the first of January, Christophe, halting at the bridge of the salt pond of Bouc-en-Bouc, came in sight of the Sibert plantation. A stream called the Sibert River, or Batardeau, crossed that property and ran into the sea. The army of the Republic, having crossed this river, had halted on the left bank. The Sibert stream thus separated the two armies. The 11th demi-brigade had formed its line of battle across the high road, along the Batardeau, which a bridge crossed a little above the high road, facing the Moléard plantation, where Pétion had just set up his headquarters. Moléard was occupied by the six elite companies of the 3rd under the orders of Colonel Gédéon. The weather was heavy with fog, and a fine rain was falling toward Port-au-Prince.

The 4th demi-brigade, the leading corps of Christophe’s vanguard, continued its march and came to a halt on the right bank of the Batardeau. Jean Louis Longuevalle, its colonel, and Guerrier, commander of the 7th, were challenged by Métellus, who asked them where they were going. They answered that they had orders from the head of the government to halt only at Port-au-Prince, where several traitors were to receive the wages of their misdeeds. What can so many troops be coming to seek at Port-au-Prince, and in full peace, cried Colonel Métellus? Does the Constitution allow the President of Haiti to betake himself with an army to the place where the Senate holds its sittings? At that same instant General Yayou appeared on the bank of the Batardeau and ordered the 4th, in vain, to fall back. The officers and grenadiers of the 1st battalion of that corps called out to the troops of Port-au-Prince: “Comrades, let us fraternize; Pétion is a traitor; General Christophe is the lawful head of the State!! Why should we cut one another’s throats to satisfy the ambition of a conspirator, an enemy of his country?” These words were beginning to shake the soldiers of the 11th. Pétion understood that the moment to break with Christophe had come, and that war was preferable to a fearful peace during which Christophe would make himself master of men and things. He ordered fire to be opened. But the 11th hesitated to fire, not knowing where the fatherland lay; nevertheless, yielding to the ascendancy of Métellus, its colonel, an officer wholly devoted to Pétion, it delivered a regimental volley. The soldiers of the 4th of the Artibonite, who stood opposite with ordered arms, were overthrown by the fusillade. The grenadiers, though they had lost Savary, their captain, returned to the charge. But they were stopped by the fire of the whole republican line, which stretched from the high road to the bridge of Moléard.

Christophe, who held the bridge of Bouc-en-Bouc in the middle of the high road, sent forward the 7th and two battalions of the 20th to support the 4th.* The fight was at once renewed. On neither side were there any cannon. Christophe had brought none, because he did not expect so strong a resistance. As for Pétion, he had committed the grave fault of not lining the Batardeau of Sibert with artillery. While the 4th was re-forming under the enemy’s fire, Larose, at the head of the 8th, resolved to attack Pétion’s troops in the flank. He made for the mouth of the Batardeau, whose bridge, on the seashore side, was held by the 3rd battalion of the 20th under the orders of Louis Lerebours. Lerebours had been imprudent enough to abandon his position, thinking that Christophe had been beaten; he had fallen back upon the yard of the Sibert plantation. The left flank of the army of Port-au-Prince was thereby left uncovered. Larose crossed the Batardeau unopposed and marched resolutely against the enemy. By Christophe’s orders, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 20th had just left the high road and were advancing to support Larose.