French offensives forced insurgents to the mountains but could not defeat them

Evidence

From outside Le Cap, bands of slave insurgents were watching. Although the April 4 decree was passed with the explicit intention of defeating the slave uprising, the commissioners had made little progress in doing so in the months after they arrived. Many of the French troops that accompanied them succumbed to disease; by one account half of them died within two months. In late October and early November 1792 a large and wellarmed expedition led by Rochambeau flushed insurgent bands out of the northern plain and captured their stronghold at Ouanaminthe, along the border with Santo Domingo. But most of the insurgents simply retreated into the mountains, and in the end the mission did little but “inflame the pride of the enemy,” who had realized that they could survive even when an impressive army was sent against them. The rebels remained “masters of the mountains, from which they could, at will, bring fire and iron to the plains.” With the majority of troops back in Le Cap, the insurgents advanced across the plain again, and by December some bands were once more camped close to the town. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 506

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 506
• XREF: connects to: French tactical victories could not win a prolonged elusive insurgency; French tactical victories failed to convert into strategic gains in the Aurès; Guerrilla tactics and psychological deception defeated a French mountain expedition. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Insurgents escaped capture by retreating into mountain strongholds #corroborates (0.75) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 514
• French troops faced guerrilla warfare that negated their conventional military advantage. #corroborates (0.70)
• Guerrilla warfare made French suppression of the insurgency fail #corroborates (0.60)
• F.L.N. attrition tactics stalled the war in the Aurès and frustrated the French #corroborates (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 329
• Pre-Challe French tactics wasted vast firepower while letting the A.L.N. slip away intact #expands (0.50)