Rigaud’s grenadiers storm the fort of Les Irois and are repulsed

In August 1796 the English General Bowyer occupied the Irois. André Rigaud marched against him on 6 August from Tiburon. The English garrison numbered more than 2,000 men. The republican army halted on the Laroc habitation, where it camped along the seashore. An English frigate discovered it, cannonaded it for three hours and inflicted heavy losses on it. The next day Rigaud broke camp and came within cannon range of the fort of the Irois. This fortification is built on the summit of a sheer rock washed by the sea. The path that led to it was so narrow that two men could scarcely walk abreast on it. Rigaud drew up his army in battle order on the plain, also 2,000 men strong. A column of 300 grenadiers carrying long ladders received the order to storm the fort. The republicans, despite the cannonballs and the grapeshot of the fort, reached its foot without firing a single musket shot, set their ladders against the rock, and began to climb. At once a plunging fire of the most murderous kind, boiling water, molten lead and enormous stones covered the grenadiers. The bulk of the…

Rouzier tells this under the entry IROIS (les).