Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot

Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot
Part of the Haitian Revolution
Date 4–24 March 1802 Location Artibonite River valley, near Saint-Marc, Haiti Result Pyrrhic victory for the French
Belligerents
France	Haitian rebels
Commanders and leaders
Charles Leclerc	Jean-Jacques Dessalines

The Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot was a major battle of the Haitian Revolution.

The battle took place at the fort of Crête-à-Pierrot (in Haitian Creole Lakrèt-a-Pyewo), east of Saint-Marc in the Artibonite River valley. General Charles Leclerc's French colonial army besieged the heavily barricaded fort, which was defended by Haitian forces under Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The fort was significant as it controlled access into the Cahos Mountains. The defenders, running short of food and munitions, eventually abandoned the fort but were able to force their way through the French lines and into the Cahos Mountains. The French, although gaining control of the fort, had suffered heavy losses, including the death of General Charles Dugua. Alexandre Petion, a mixed-race French general, played an important role in the capture of the fort when he managed to deploy his cannon on a hill overlooking the Haitian position.

Following the battle, Dessalines temporarily swore allegiance to France and joined his forces with Leclerc's, leading Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian leader, to agree to surrender. Though a defeat for the Haitians, the battle demonstrated their fighting qualities and showed that they could cause significant casualties to regular European forces. When disease disabled much of the French army, Dessalines once again returned to the field, now as the leader of the Haitian forces after the arrest and death of Louverture, and the story of the stubborn resistance of the Haitians at La Crête à Pierrot helped give his troops confidence.

External links

• The Louverture Project The Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot