Toussaint fights Rochambeau in the Ravine à Couleuvres

On 23 February 1802 Toussaint Louverture met Napoleon’s army in a narrow pass about ten kilometres from Gonaïves. General Donatien de Rochambeau came down the ravine with 3,000 infantry. Toussaint held him with roughly 2,500 foot and 400 horse, long enough to pull his men back across the Petite Rivière. Thomas Madiou counted 300 Haitian dead and 200 French; the French claimed 800 of ours. It was the first large battle of the expedition Bonaparte sent to put Haitians back in chains, and it told both sides the war would be long.