The native tribes of Africa differ as much in combative propensity and
ability for warlike enterprises as in their other traits. The people of
Wadai are distinguished for bravery above all their neighbors. The men
of Ashantee are great fighters, and have such a contempt for death that
they will continue their attacks upon a European intrenchment in spite
of appalling losses. A band that is overpowered will fight to the last
man; for it is the custom of the kingdom to punish cowardice with death.
They are almost the only negroes who will deliver battle in the open
field, in regular bodies with closed ranks. In Dahomey war is a passion
of the ruler and the people, and the year is divided between fighting
and feasting. The king's body-guard of five thousand unmarried women
preserves the tradition of bravery, as European regiments preserve their
flags. The mild Mandingos become obstinate in fight; they have minstrels
who accompany armies to war, and recite the deeds of former heroes; but
they are not capable of discipline. On the contrary, the negroes of
Fernando Po march and exercise with a great regard to order. In Ashantee
and upon the Gold Coast the negroes make use of horn signals in war to
transmit orders to a distance; and on the White Nile and in Kaffa
drummers are stationed in trees to telegraph commands. Great
circumspection is not universal; but the Veis maintain posts, and when
they are threatened, a watch is kept night and day. The negroes of Akkra
know the value of a ditched intrenchment.
The English praise the negro soldiers whom they have in Sierra Leone for
good behavior, temperance, and discipline; and their Jolofs at the
Gambia execute complicated manoeuvres in a striking way. West-Indian
troops have performed many distinguished services, and English officers
say that they are as brave as Europeans; but in the heat of a fight they
are apt to grow intractable and to behave wildly. The troops which
Napoleon used in Calabria, drawn from the French Colonies, emulated the
French soldiers, and arrived at great distinction.
D'Escayrac says that the native negro has eminent qualities for the
making of a good soldier,--dependence upon a superior, unquestioning
confidence in his sagacity, an enthusiastic courage which mounts to
great audacity, passiveness, and capacity for waiting.
From this the Congos must be excepted. Large numbers of them deserted
General Dessalines in San Domingo, and fled to the mountains, frightened
at the daring of the French. Here, if brave, they might have been armed
and officered by Spaniards to effect dangerous movements in his rear.
But he knew their timidity, and gave himself no trouble about them.
There is a genealogy which derives Toussaint from a Congo grandfather, a
native prince of renown; but it was probably manufactured for him at the
suggestion of his own achievements. The sullen-looking Congo is really
gay, rollicking, disposed to idleness, careless and sensual, fatigued by
the smallest act of reflection; Toussaint was grave, reticent,
forecasting, tenacious, secretive, full of endurance and concentration,
rapid and brave in war.[30] What a confident and noble aspect he had,
when he left his guard and walked alone to the head of a column of old
troops of his who had deserted to Desfourneaux, and were about to
deliver their fire! "My children, will you fire upon your father?"--and
down went four regiments upon their knees. The white officers tried to
bring them under the fire of cannon, but it was too late. Here was a
greater risk than Napoleon ran, after landing at Fréjus, on his march
upon Paris.
Contempt for death is a universal trait of the native African.[31] The
slaveholder says it is in consequence of his affinity to the brute,
which does not know how to estimate a danger, and whose nervous
organization is too dull to be thrilled and daunted in its presence. It
is really in consequence of his single-mindedness: the big necks lift
the blood, which is two degrees warmer than a white man's, and drench
the brain with an ecstasy of daring. If he can clearly see the probable
manner of his death, the blood is up and not down at the sight.[32] The
negro's nerves are very susceptible; in cool blood he is easily alarmed
at anything unexpected or threatening. His fancy is peopled with odd
fears; he shrinks at the prospect of a punishment more grotesque or
refined than usual. And when he becomes a Creole negro, his fancy is
always shooting timid glances beneath the yoke of Slavery. The negroes
and mulattoes at San Domingo looked impassively at hanging, breaking
upon the wheel, and quartering; but when the first guillotine was
imported and set in action, they and the Creole whites shrank appalled
to see the head disappear in the basket. It was too deft and sudden for
their taste, and this mode of execution was abandoned for the more
hearty and lacerating methods.
When a negro has a motive, his nerves grow firm, his imagination escapes
before the rising passion, his contempt for death is not stolidity, but
inspiration. In the smouldering surface lies an ember capable of white
heat. That makes the negro soldier difficult to hold in hand or to call
off. He has no fancy for grim sitting, like the Indian, to die by
inches, though he can endure torture with tranquillity. He is too
tropical for that; and after the exultation of a fight, in which he has
been as savage as he can be, the process of torturing his foes seems
tame, and he seldom does it, except by way of close reprisals to prevent
the practice in his enemy. The French were invariably more cruel than
the negroes.
Southern gentlemen think that the negro is incurably afraid of
fire-arms, and too clumsy to use them with effect. It is a great
mistake. White men who never touched a gun are equally clumsy and
nervous. When the slavers began to furnish the native tribes with
condemned muskets in exchange for slaves, many ludicrous scenes
occurred. The Senegambians considered that the object was to get as much
noise as possible out of the weapon. The people of Akkra planted the
stock against their hips, shut both eyes and fired; they would not take
aim, because it was their opinion that it brought certain death to see a
falling enemy. Other tribes thought a musket was possessed, and at the
moment of firing threw it violently away from them. When we consider the
quality of the weapons furnished, this action will appear laudable. But
as these superstitions disappeared, especially upon the Gold Coast and
in Ashantee, negroes have learned to use the musket properly. Among the
Gold-Coast negroes are good smiths, who have sometimes even made guns.
In the West Indies, the Creole negro has become a sharp-shooter, very
formidable on the skirts of woods and in the defiles of the _mornes_. He
learned to deliver volleys with precision, and to use the bayonet with
great valor. The old soldiers of Le Clerc and Rochambeau, veterans of
the Rhine and Italy, were never known to presume upon negro incapacity
to use a musket. The number of their dead and wounded taught them what
men who are determined to be free can do with the white man's weapons.
Rainsford, who was an English captain of a West-Indian regiment,
describes a review of fifty thousand soldiers of Toussaint on the Plaine
du Cap. "Of the grandeur of the scene I had not the smallest conception.
Each general officer had a demi-brigade, which went through the manual
exercise with a degree of expertness seldom witnessed, and performed
equally well several manoeuvres applicable to their method of
fighting. At a whistle a whole brigade ran three or four hundred yards,
then, separating, threw themselves flat on the ground, changing to their
backs or sides, keeping up a strong fire the whole of the time, till
they were recalled; they then formed again, in an instant, into their
wonted regularity. This single manoeuvre was executed with such
facility and precision as totally to prevent cavalry from charging them
in bushy and hilly countries. Such complete subordination, such
promptitude and dexterity, prevailed the whole time, as would have
astonished any European soldier."
These were the men whose previous lives had been spent at the
hoe-handle, and in feeding canes to the cylinders of the sugar-mill.
Rainsford gives this general view of the operations of Toussaint's
forces:--"Though formed into regular divisions, the soldiers of the one
were trained to the duties of the other, and all understood the
management of artillery with the greatest accuracy. Their chief
dexterity, however, was in the use of the bayonet. With that dreadful
weapon fixed on muskets of extraordinary length in their hands, neither
cavalry nor artillery could subdue infantry, although of unequal
proportion; but when they were attacked in their defiles, no power could
overcome them. Infinitely more skillful than the Maroons of Jamaica in
their cock-pits, though not more favored by Nature, they found means to
place whole lines in ambush, continuing sometimes from one post to
another, and sometimes stretching from their camps in the form of a
horse-shoe. With these lines artillery was not used, to prevent their
being burdened or the chance of loss; but the surrounding heights of
every camp were well fortified, according to the experience and judgment
of different European engineers, with ordnance of the best kind, in
proper directions. The protection afforded by these outworks encouraged
the blacks to every exertion of skill or courage; while the alertness
constantly displayed embarrassed the enemy; who, frequently irritated,
or worn out with fatigue, flew in disorder to the attack, or retreated
with difficulty. Sometimes a regular battle or skirmish ensued, to
seduce the enemy to a confidence in their own superiority, when in a
moment reinforcements arose from an ambush in the vicinity, and turned
the fortune of the day. If black troops in the pay of the enemy were
despatched to reconnoitre when an ambush was probable, and were
discovered, not a man returned, from the hatred which their perfidy had
inspired; nor could an officer venture beyond the lines with impunity."
The temporary successes enjoyed by the French General Le Clerc, which
led to the surrender of Toussaint and his subsequent deportation to
France, were owing to the defection of several black officers in command
of important posts, who delivered up all their troops and munitions to
the enemy. The whole of Toussaint's first line, protecting the
Artibonite and the mountains, was thus unexpectedly forced by the
French, who plied the blacks with suave proclamations, depreciating the
idea of a return to slavery. Money and promises of personal promotion
were also freely used. The negro is vain and very fond of pomp. This is
his weakest point. The Creole negro loved to make great expenditures,
and to imitate the lavish style of the slaveholders. So did many of the
mulattoes. Toussaint's officers were not all black, and the men of color
proved accessible to French cajolery.
Take a single case to show how this change of sentiment was produced
without bribery. When the French expedition under Le Clere arrived, the
mulatto General Maurepas commanded at Port-de-Paix. He had not yet
learned whether Toussaint intended to rely upon the proclamation of
Bonaparte and to deliver up the military posts. General Humbert was sent
against him with a strong column, and demanded the surrender of the
fort. Said Maurapas,--"I am under the orders of Toussaint, who is my
chief; I cannot deliver the forts to you without his orders. Wait till I
receive his instructions; it will be only a matter of four-and-twenty
hours." Humbert, who knew that Toussaint was in full revolt,
replied,--"I have orders to attack."
"Very well. I cannot surrender without an order from General Toussaint.
If you attack me, I shall be obliged to defend myself."
"I also have my orders; I am forced to obey them."
Maurepas retired, and took his station alone upon a rampart of the
works. Humbert's troops, numbering four thousand, opened fire. Maurepas
remains awhile in the storm of bullets to reconnoitre, then coolly
descends and opens his own fire. He had but seven hundred blacks and
sixty whites. The French attacked four times and were four times
repulsed, with the loss of fifteen hundred men. Humbert was obliged to
retreat, before the reinforcement which had been despatched under
General Debelle could reach him. Maurepas's orders were not to attack,
but to defend. So he instantly hastened to another post, which
intercepted the route by which General Debelle was coming, met him, and
fought him there, repulsed him, and took seven cannon.
This was not an encouraging commencement for these children of the
French Revolution, who had beaten Suwarrow in Switzerland and blasted
the Mameluke cavalry with rolling fire, who had debouched from the St.
Bernard upon the plains of Piedmont in time to gather Austrian flags at
Marengo, and who added the name of Hohenlinden to the glory of Moreau.
Humbert himself, at the head of four thousand grenadiers, had restored
the day which preceded the surrender of the Russians at Zürich.
Le Clerc was obliged to say that the First Consul never had the
intention of restoring slavery. Humbert himself carried this
proclamation to Maurepas, and with it gained admittance to the
intrenchments which he could not storm. This single defection placed
four thousand admirable troops, and the harbor of Port-de-Paix, in the
hands of the French, and exposed Toussaint's flank at Gonaïves; and its
moral effect was so great upon the blacks as to encourage Le Clerc to
persist in his enterprise.
In the brief period of pacification which preceded this attempt of
Bonaparte to reconquer the island, Toussaint was mainly occupied with
the organization of agriculture. His army then consisted of only fifteen
demi-brigades, numbering in all 22,500, a guard of honor of one thousand
infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and an artillery corps. But the
military department was in perfect order. There was an État-Major,
consisting of a general of division with two aides-de-camp, a company of
guides, one of dragoons, and two secretaries,--ten brigadier-generals
with ten secretaries, ten aides-de-camp, and an escort,--and a board of
health, composed of one chief inspector, six physicians, and six
surgeons-general. The commissary and engineering departments were also
thoroughly organized. The pay of the 22,500 men amounted to 7,838,400
francs; rations, 6,366,195; musicians, 239,112; uniforming, 1,887,682;
officers' uniforms, 208,837. The pay of a non-commissioned officer and
private was 55 centimes per day.
In this army there were one thousand mulattoes, and five or six hundred
whites, recruited from the various artillery regiments which had been in
the colony during the last ten years. Every cultivator was a member of
the great reserve of this army, its spy and outpost and partisan.
The chief interest of the campaign against Le Clerc turns upon the
obstinate defence of Crête-à-Pierrot. Here the best qualities of black
troops were manifested. This was a simple oblong redoubt, thrown up by
the English during their brief occupation of the western coast, and
strengthened by the negroes. The Artibonite, which is the most important
river of the colony, threading its way from the mountains of the
interior through the _mornes_, which are not many miles from the sea,
passed under this redoubt, which was placed to command the principal
defile into the inaccessible region beyond. The rich central plains, the
river, and the mountains belonged to whoever held this post. The
Mirbalais quarter could raise potatoes enough to nourish sixty thousand
men accustomed to that kind of food.
When Toussaint's plan was spoiled by defection and defeat, he
transferred immense munitions to the mountains, and decided to
concentrate, for the double purpose of holding the place, if possible,
and of getting the French away from their supplies. It was a simple
breastwork of Campeachy-wood faced with earth, and had a ditch fifteen
feet deep. At a little distance was a small redoubt upon an eminence
which overlooked the larger work. To the east the great scarped rocks
forbade an approach, and dense spinous undergrowth filled the
surrounding forest. The defence of this place was given to Dessalines, a
most audacious and able fighter. Toussaint intended to harass the
investing columns from the north, and Charles Belair was posted to the
south, beyond and near the Artibonite. Toussaint would then be between
the fortress and the French corps of observation which was left in the
north,--a position which he turned to brilliant advantage. Four French
columns, of more than twelve thousand men, commenced, from as many
different directions, a slow and difficult movement upon this work. The
first column which came within sight of it found a body of negroes drawn
up, as if ready to give battle on the outside. It was the surplus of one
or two thousand troops which the intrenchment would not hold. The
French, expecting to rout them and enter the redoubt with them, charged
with the bayonet; the blacks fled, and the French reached the glacis.
Suddenly the blacks threw themselves into the ditch, thus exposing the
French troops to a terrible fire, which was opened from the redoubt.
General Debelle was severely wounded, and three or four hundred men were
stretched upon the field.
The advance in another quarter was checked by a small redoubt that
opened an unexpected fire. It was necessary to take it, and cannon had
to be employed. When the balls began to reach them, the blacks danced
and sang, and soon, issuing suddenly, with, cries, "_En avant! Canons à
nous_," attempted to take the pieces with the bayonet. But the
supporting fire was too strong, they were thrown into disorder, and the
redoubt was entered by the French.
Early one morning the camp of the blacks was surprised by one of the
columns, which had surmounted all the difficulties in its way.
Notwithstanding the previous experience, the French thought this time to
enter, and advanced precipitately. Many blacks entered the redoubt, the
rest jumped into the ditch, and the same terrible fire vomited forth.
Another column advanced to support the attack; but the first one was
already crushed and in full retreat. The blacks swarmed to the parapets,
threw planks across the ditch, and attacked both columns with drums
beating the charge. The French turned, and met just resistance enough to
bring them again within range, the same fire broke forth, and the
columns gave way, with a loss to the first of four hundred and eighty
men, and two or three hundred to the latter.
Upon this retreat, the cultivators of the neighborhood exchanged shots
with the flanking parties, and displayed great boldness.
It was plain to the French that this open redoubt would have to be
invested; but before this was done, Dessalines had left the place with
all the troops which could not be fed there, and cut his way across a
column with the loss of a hundred men. The defence was committed to a
quarteroon named Lamartinière.
While the French were completing the investment, the morning music of
the black band floated the old strains of the Marseillaise within their
lines. La Croix declares that it produced a painful sensation. The
soldiers looked at each other, and recalled the great marches which
carried victory to that music against the tyrants of Europe. "What!"
they said, "are our barbarous enemies in the right? Are we no longer the
soldiers of the Republic? Have we become the servile instruments of _la
politique_?" No doubt of that; these children of the Marseillaise and
adorers of Moreau had become _de trop_ in the Old World, and had been
sent to leave their bones in the defiles of _Pensez-y-bien_.[33]
The investment of Crête-à-Pierrot was regularly made, by Bacheiu, an
engineer who had distinguished himself in Egypt. Batteries were
established before the head of each division, a single mortar was got
into position, and a battery of seven pieces played upon the little
redoubt above. This is getting to be vastly more troublesome than the
fort of Bard, which held in check these very officers and men upon
their road to Marengo.
Rochambeau thought he had extinguished the fire of the little redoubt,
and would fain storm it. The blacks had protected it by an abatis ten
feet deep and three in height, in which our gallant ally of the
Revolution entangled himself, and was held there till he had lost three
hundred men, and gained nothing.
"Thus the Crête-à-Pierrot, in which (and in the small redoubt) there
were hardly twelve hundred men,[34] had already cost us more than
fifteen hundred in sheer loss. So we fell back upon the method which we
should have tried in the beginning, a vigorous blockade and a sustained
cannonade."
The fire was kept up night and day for three days without cessation.
Descourtilz, a French naturalist, who had been forced to act as surgeon,
was in the redoubt, and he describes the scenes of the interior. The
enfilading fire shattered the timber-work, and the bombs set fire to the
tents made of macaw-tree foliage, which the negroes threw flaming into
the ditch. A cannoneer sees a bomb falls close to a sick friend of his
who is asleep; considering that sleep is very needful for him, he seizes
the bomb, and cuts off the fuse with a knife. In a corner nods a
grenadier overcome with fatigue; a bomb falls at his side; he wakes
simultaneously with the explosion, to be blown to sleep again. The
soldiers stand and watch the bright parabola, in dead silence; then
comes the cry, "_Gare à la bombe!_" Hungry and thirsty men chew leaden
balls for relief. Five hundred men have fallen. Some of the officers
come for the surgeon's opium. They will not be taken alive. But the
excitement of the scene is so great that opium fails of its wonted
effect, and they complain of the tardiness of the dose. Other officers
make their wills with _sang froid_, as if expecting a tranquil
administration of their estates.
During the last night the little garrison evacuates the upper redoubt,
and is seen coming towards the work. Down goes the drawbridge, the
blacks issue to meet them, taking them for a storming party of the
French. There is a mutual mistake, both parties of blacks deliver their
fire, the sortie party retreats, and the garrison enters the redoubt
with them. Here they discover the mistake, but their rage is so great
that they exhaust their cartridges upon each other at four paces.
Descourtilz takes advantage of the confusion to throw himself into the
ditch, and escapes under a volley.
The place is no longer tenable, and must be evacuated. A scout apprises
Toussaint of the necessity, and it is arranged that he shall attack from
the north, while Lamartinière issues from the redoubt. During
Toussaint's feint, the black garrison cut their way through the left of
Rochambeau's division.
General Le Clerc cannot withhold his admiration. "The retreat which the
commandant of Crête-à-Pierrot dared to conceive and execute is a
remarkable feat of arms. We surrounded his post to the number of more
than twelve thousand men; he saved himself, did not lose half his
garrison, and left us only his dead and wounded. We found the baggage of
Dessalines, a few white cannoneers, the music of the guard of honor, a
magazine of powder, a number of muskets, and fifteen cannon of great
calibre."
Toussaint turned immediately towards the north, raised the cultivators,
attacked the corps of observation, drove it into Cap Français, ravaged
the plain, turned and defeated Hardy's division, which attempted to keep
open the communications with Le Clerc, and would have taken the city, if
fresh reinforcements from France had not at the same time arrived in the
harbor.
After the arrest of Toussaint, Dessalines reorganized the resistance of
the blacks, and attacked Rochambeau in the open field, driving him into
the city, where Le Clerc had just died: in that infected atmosphere he
kept the best troops of France besieged. "_Ah! ce gaillard_," the
French called the epidemic which came to complete the work of the
blacks. Twenty thousand men reinforced Rochambeau, but he capitulated,
after a terrible assault which Dessalines made with twenty-seven
thousand men, on the 28th November, 1803.
One more touch of negro soldiery must suffice. There was an
intrenchment, called Verdière, occupied by the French, upon a hill
overlooking the city. Dessalines sent a negro general, Capoix, with
three demi-brigades to take it. "They recoiled," says Schoelcher,
"horribly mutilated by the fire from the intrenchment. He rallied them:
the grape tore them in pieces, and hurled them again to the bottom of
the hill. Boiling with rage, Capoix goes to seek fresh troops, mounts a
fiery horse, and rushes forward for the third time; but the thousand
deaths which the fort delivers repulse his soldiers. He foams with
anger, exhorts them, pricks them on, and leads them up a fourth time. A
ball kills his horse, and he rolls over, but, soon extricating himself,
he runs to the head of the troops. '_En avant! En avant!_' he repeats,
with enthusiasm; at the same instant his plumed chapeau is swept from
his head by a grape-shot, but he still throws himself forward to the
assault. '_En avant! En avant!_'
"Then great shouts went up along the ramparts of the city: '_Bravo!
bravo! vivat! vivat!_' cried Rochambeau and his staff, who were watching
the assault. A drum-roll is heard, the fire of Verdière pauses, an
officer issues from the city, gallops to the very front of the surprised
blacks, and saluting, says,--'The Captain-General Rochambeau and the
French army send their admiration to the general officer who has just
covered himself with glory.' This magnificent message delivered, he
turned his horse, reëntered the city, and the assault is renewed.
Imagine if Capoix and his soldiers did new prodigies of valor. But the
besieged were also electrified, would not be overcome, and Dessalines
sent the order to retire. The next day a groom led a richly caparisoned
horse to the quarter-general of the blacks, which Rochambeau offered as
a mark of his admiration, and to replace that which he regretted had
been killed."
The valor and fighting qualities of the blacks in San Domingo were
nourished by the wars which sprang from their own necessities. They were
the native growths of the soil which had been long enriched by their
innocent blood; more blood must be invested in it, if they would own it.
Learning to fight was equivalent to learning to live. Their cause was
neither represented nor championed by a single power on earth, and
nothing but the hope of making enormous profits out of their despair led
Anglo-American schooners to run English and French blockades, to land
arms and powder in the little coves of the island. Will the negro fight
as well, if the motive and the exigency are inferior?
We make a present to the Southern negro of an excellent chance for
fighting, with our compliments. Some of us do it with our curses. The
war does not spring for them out of enthusiasm and despair which seize
their hearts at once, as they view a degradation from which they flee
and a liberty to which they are all hurrying. They are asked to fight
for us as well as for themselves, and this asking is, like emancipation,
a military necessity. The motive lacks the perfect form and
incandescence, like that of a star leaping from a molten sun, which
lighted battle-ardors in the poor slaves of San Domingo. And we even
hedge about this invitation to bleed for us with conditions which are
evidently dictated by a suspicion that the motive is not great enough to
make the negro depend upon himself. If the war does not entirely sweep
away these poor beginnings and thrust white and black together into the
arms of thrilling danger, we need not expect great fighting from him. He
may not disgrace himself, but he will not ennoble the republic till his
heart's core is the war's core, and the colors of two races run into
one.