Burnt-earth resistance in the north trapped Leclerc in a costly war

Evidence

Louverture’s army had held out and inflicted heavy losses on their enemy. Most important, it had survived. In the north, the rebel army advanced on the French, taking a number of towns in the mountains. Among their leaders were Henri Christophe, the officers Macaya and Sans-Souci, and Sylla, whose name suggests a Mandingo origin. In late March some of Louverture’s troops under the command of Sans-Souci approached Le Cap, reaching the hospital on its outskirts. Meanwhile rebels set fire to so much of the northern plain that “at midnight it was possible” to read in the center of Le Cap “by the light of the flames.” In early April Leclerc sent recently arrived French reinforcements into the plain, with some colonial troops as scouts to lead them. The latter, however, defected, and many French troops were killed in ambushes. A hundred were taken prisoner by Sans-Souci and delivered to Louverture. “Toussaint still holds the mountains,” Leclerc reported in late April, and he had under his command 4,000 troops and “a very considerable number of armed cultivators.” The only way to “end this war” was to conquer and then occupy the mountains of the north and the west, and to hold onto those areas he already controlled. But to do so, he continually reminded the minister in Paris, he would need more troops. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 972

Categorization

• XREF: Colonial scouts defecting mid-campaign echoes the earlier chapters’ theme of black troops switching allegiances as the struggle hardened.