Combat· Banana Wars
Port-au-Prince Caco Attack
A bold rebel thrust at the Haitian capital, repulsed in the streets.
On 15 January 1920, in a final spasm of the Caco rebellion, some three hundred fighters in three columns under Benoît Batraville attempted to force their way into Port-au-Prince itself. They were met at once by Marines of the 8th Regiment and other brigade units, with the Haitian gendarmerie. In one street encounter, a twelve-man Marine detail under Second Lieutenant Gerald Thomas, later a general and Commandant, faced a body of some fifty Cacos marching up the street; Thomas held his men's fire until the rebels were close, then loosed a single devastating volley. The attackers penetrated parts of the city and burned a block before they were driven out and back into the surrounding hills, half their number killed, wounded, or taken. It was the 8th Regiment's first real fight in Haiti, and the rebellion's last serious effort.
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Record no. 873