On 30 March 1844 Dominican forces under General José María Imbert held Santiago de los Caballeros, in the north of the new Dominican Republic, against the Haitian army of General Jean-Louis Pierrot. The Haitians withdrew the next day. On 30 March 1814 the Allied armies attacked Paris, which capitulated that night.
Battle of Santiago
30 March 1844 · 182 years ago
A new republic invaded
The independence of the Dominican Republic from Haiti was proclaimed in Santo Domingo on 27 February 1844. Haiti answered with an invasion in several columns: in the south under President Charles Hérard, in the north under General Jean-Louis Pierrot, whose target was Santiago. In the south the Dominicans beat Hérard at Azua on 19 March.1
In the north, Pierrot's advance spread alarm in Santiago. José María Imbert took command of its defense on 27 March. He had three forts, named Dios, Patria and Libertad (God, Fatherland and Liberty), built up on the approaches to the town, with ditches and a gun in each.2
Assault after assault
On 30 March the Haitians attacked the Dominican lines. They came on in columns against the forts and the entrenchments, first on one wing, then on the other, and at last along the whole line, and were thrown back each time with heavy losses. The Haitian cavalry soon left the fight. The Ministry of Defense's magazine and the historian Héctor Luis Martínez both credit Captain Fernando Valerio, who according to the magazine led a machete charge of his company at the end.3
At about five in the afternoon a Haitian envoy came out, and the firing stopped for the night.4
A retreat
On 31 March Pierrot broke camp and marched away. Why he left is told differently. García writes that the Dominicans offered to let him withdraw unmolested; Imbert's report says he left in disorder, before receiving an answer, fearing an attack on his rear. Other accounts say the Dominicans falsely told him that President Hérard had been killed at Azua.5
On the retreat, between Guayubín and Talanquera, the Haitians ran into ambushes laid by Commandants Francisco Caba and Bartolo Mejía.6
Imbert reported that the Haitian army numbered about 4,000 men and lost no fewer than 600 dead; these are the victor's figures. Martínez writes that the March victories consolidated Dominican independence.7
Also on 30 March: the Battle of Paris, 1814
On 30 March 1814 the Allied armies attacked Paris, defended by Marshals Marmont and Mortier, Marmont on the heights of Belleville. Napoleon was not there: he was hurrying back to his capital and had reached La Cour-de-France, a post station south of Paris, when he learned that the battle was lost. That night the marshals agreed to a capitulation, and the French troops left the city. The battle that opened the Allied road to Paris is told on our page for 25 March.8
Also on this day
Battle of Lijevče Field
30 March 1945 · 81 years ago
On the Lijevče plain by Banja Luka, forces of the Independent State of Croatia fought Montenegrin Chetniks under Pavle Đurišić who were trying to move west. The Chetniks failed to break through, most of them surrendered, and Đurišić was later executed.
