The Pearl of the Antilles. - The Haiti Campaign - The Battle of Bassin-Bleu - 8th August 1791

Bolstered by reinforcements General Toussaint Louverture launched his offensive on the riotous slaves of Georges Biassou. Tensions had been building since the the war broke out, Baissou had moved to forces to defend the border at the Los Trois river, however Louverture had found a crossing point undefended and had caught the slave forces in the flank.

Louverture significantly outnumbered the defenders and had spent wisely with both a secondary and moveable deployment point, the table was a scattering of slave huts and the occasional plantation field.

Biassou's force was limited with 3 sections of militia a handful of skirmishers. They had been bolstered by a mass of unarmed slaves keen to defend their newly found freedom.

The insurgent forces positioned their deployment point behind the orchard and were quick to throw their skirmish troops into the wooded area just as the first unit of Haitian loyalists appeared on the road to their left letting off an opening volley. The insurgents ducked for cover but their inexperience  showed and they started to take to pick up shock and casualties.

In the centre of the table the Louverture triggered his moveable deployment point and brought forward his rank and file, a skirmish section slipped around the flank of the defenders while the Haitian Regulars moved into a firing line and brought their muskets to bear.

Despite holding many of the cards and a force ratio of 2:1 it sometimes feels that it was not to be your day and for General Toussaint Louverture he was starting to get that feeling. An opening volley smashed into the lining out insurgent militia with 9 hits landing on the formation.....

However luck was on the side of Biassou as he peered through the smoke to see not a single casualty or shock point on the militia formation.

For a number of rounds both sides were content to engage each other at long range. The loyalist were frustrated by Biassou's defenders, Louverture still had a further Battalion off table. However there was not enough room to deploy on the flank and the only option was to deploy behind the weakened Loyalists under  Louverture's command.

Meanwhile armed with stakes and knives the revolting slaves gathered behind the orchard, their shaman chanting and drums beating they worked themselves up into a frenzy. 

They swept forward and drove the loyalist skirmishers back from the secondary deployment point. The skirmishers unwilling to tangle with the slaves and their big choppers.

The fired up slaves rushed towards the individual sections who scrabbled to form a defensive line. The main loyalist Battalion was unable to move into a position to halt the slave advance and  Louverture had to rely upon his scattered skirmishers to slow them down.

Forced to counter this aggressive move the second Battalion was finally brought into play. The column marched forward to halt the slave charge.

The advancing slaves were now under fire by multiple loyalist groups and the shock was starting to mount. The Slaves halted and slowly were forced back as the shock started to mount.

The sun was starting to set and both sides were content to allow each other to disengage.  Louverture held the higher force morale and held the table but this was not to be the victory he had hoped for. The enemy was still largely intact.

Casualties were minimal on both sides from their main force with the Louverture losing 2 dead and 1 wounded after their doctors had done their work, whilst Biassou lost 4 dead from their core force.

Holding the table the loyalists acquired 2 sacks of supplies hardly a just reward for such a flank attack.

Next time Louverture would get revenge on Biassou.