Istwa Nou

After Charlemagne Peralte was killed the north went quiet and the fighting moved to the centre. Benoit Batraville had inherited the title of chief and was thought to hold about 2,500 cacos in the mountains southeast of Mirebalais, hill country that had sheltered runaways from Santo Domingo a century and a half earlier. Colonel Russell returned from leave with 1,346 marines and a gendarmerie of 2,700, rebuilt his staff, put his effort into intelligence and cut the caco country into zones. Before dawn on 15 January 1920 Batraville brought more than 300 men down on Port-au-Prince, some wearing gendarmerie uniforms taken in earlier fights. They came in three columns with flags up and conch shells sounding, one along the waterfront past the slaughterhouse and two swinging inland around Bel Air. Marine machine guns caught them at the edge of town. The cacos scattered into houses and fired from windows and corners. By daylight sixty-six lay dead and the man who led the attack, Solomon Janvier, was found hiding in his own house in the city.