 After pushing back the rebels, the French garrison sent carrier pigeons to appeal for assistance from the French military command in the region.By then, forty to fifty men of Landriau's squadron had been killed or wounded and the rest of the unit had not slept for three consecutive nights.With the grenades in his squadron's arsenal depleted and ammunition mostly run out (about fifteen rounds per soldier was left), Landriau decided to launch a "Camerone-style charge" ("faire Camerone") against the rebels as a last-ditch effort to break the siege.