The Battle of Vertières () was the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, and the final part of the Revolution under Jean Jacques Dessalines. It was fought on 18 November 1803 between the indigenous Haitian army and Napoleon's French expeditionary forces, who were committed to regaining control of the island. Vertières is situated just south of Cap-Haïtien (known then as Cap-Français), in the Départment du Nord, Haiti. By the end of October 1803, the forces fighting the expeditionary troops had already taken over most of the territory of St. Domingue. The only places controlled by the French forces were Môle St. Nicolas, held by Noailles, and Cap-Français, where, with 5,000 troops, French General Rochambeau was at bay. Background In 1802, the revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture was captured by Napoleon's troops. From the ship that would lead him to his prison cell, and eventual death, Louverture said: “In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of black liberty in St. Domingue. It will spring back from the roots, for they are numerous and deep.” After L'Ouverture’s death, Jean Jacques Dessalines continued the fight for liberty by leading the resistance to the French. Battle Dessalines defeated the French army numerous times before the battle of Vertières. During the night of 17–18 November 1803, the Haitians positioned their few guns to blast Fort Bréda, located on the habitation where Louverture had worked as a coachman under François Capois. As the French trumpets sounded the alarm, Clervaux, a Haitian rebel, fired the first shot. Capois, mounted on a great horse, led his Haitian demi-brigade forward despite storms of bullets from the forts on his left. The approach to Charrier ran up a long ravine under the guns of Vertières. French fire killed a number of soldiers in the Haitian columns, but the soldiers closed ranks and clambered past their dead, singing. Capois' horse was shot, faltered and fell, tossing Capois off his saddle. Capois picked himself up, drew his sword; brandished it over his head and ran onwards shouting: "Forward! Forward!" (En avant! En avant!). Rochambeau was watching from the rampart of Vertières. As Capois charged forth, the French drums rolled a sudden cease-fire. Suddenly, the battle stopped. A French staff officer mounted his horse and rode toward the intrepid Capois-la-Mort (Capois-the-Death). With a loud voice, he shouted: "General Rochambeau sends compliments to the general