November 18, 1803 · Northern Province Theater
November 18, 1803
On November 18, 1803, on a hillside outside Cap-Français (the colonial capital), Dessalines's revolutionary army fought the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution against the battered remnants of Rochambeau's French force. The battle was fierce: French cannon fire was intense, and the Haitian commander François Capois had his horse shot from under him, stood up in the open, and kept advancing — a moment of such audacity that even the French reportedly paused to applaud before resuming fire. The Haitian forces overwhelmed the French positions over the course of the day. Three weeks after Vertières, Rochambeau formally surrendered Cap-Français to the British navy rather than to Dessalines — one final act of racial contempt — and was evacuated with his surviving men.
Commanders