Guerrilla bands under Sans-Souci resisted French conquest by refusing pitched battles

Evidence

Throughout August the French battled against insurgent bands across the colony. The still-loyal troops under Dessalines and Christophe brought them some successes. But insurgent leaders such as Macaya and Sans- Souci fought back, and even when they retreated they were never captured. Each time an insurgent encampment was “destroyed or dispersed” it was “replaced by another, led by the same leaders, striking the same blows against the enemy, nourishing the same hopes.” Sans-Souci was particularly successful, using tried-and-true techniques to stave off French advances, fighting a war without clear fronts, in which small groups set up in advance posts would sometimes hold, and sometimes retreat and draw the soldiers into “murderous ambushes.” The French lost 400 soldiers in one September attack against Sans-Souci. He managed to hold vast stretches of territory, nearly surrounding Le Cap on one side, while troops under the command of Macaya held the region of Limbé. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 1014

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the same evasion-warfare pattern seen in the Armada campaign and other colonial counterinsurgency cases.