In 1828 an English visitor, James Franklin, recorded that President Boyer of Haiti could in theory call on an army of 45,000 regulars and 113,000 National Guards. In practice he estimated that only 5,000 could actually be concentrated for action. He stated that the soldiers he saw were very poorly equipped, some minus bayonets, cartouche boxes, belts etc.
He also stated that the army should have worn blue uniforms faced in red with caps like the French infantry bearing the arms of the republic in brass on the front, white duck trousers and black gaiters. In practice many were shoe-less, shirt-less and their caps had become brown, the feathers hanging horizontally because their owners used the caps as water carriers or seats.
There was a navy including a brigantine of 6 or 8 guns, and three schooners each carrying four guns. There were some 500 sailors but no officer was capable of navigation and the ships could not therefore leave the shelter of the coast.
There was a presidential guard from the ranks of which former Captain Faustin Soulouque rose to become president, in 1846, and then emperor in 1849, invited to that position by 49 generals amongst others. Faustin' s navy was composed of two corvettes, one, the flagship, was of 20 guns, two brigs and four schooners. He could call on a large army although in 1851 he could assemble only 5-6,000 for a projected invasion of Santo Domingo which Britain and France pressured him to call off. His army was reported then as 11 regiments strong, counting 3-6,000, in rags after a campaign in the North against the rebel Prince Bobo. At a review the Emperor is reported as having worn blue and red plumes in his hat and rode at the head of a brilliant staff. A previous report stated that he habitually wore a blue uniform heavily laced over the entire front with gold and much gold elsewhere. He was tall and a notably good horseman, undoubtedly brave, but also cunning and corrupt. He was crowned in 1851 and created a numerous and splendidly costumed nobility. (One of the nobles, Geffrard, Duke of La Tabarra, an efficient mulatto officer raised the standard of revolt against Soulouque in 1858.
The army in the presidency of Geffrard was as bad as ever with the exception of a battalion of tirailleurs disciplined by Pétion Faubert, who had seen service in the French army. Sir Spenser St. John was the British resident and Consul General in Haiti from 1863 to approximately 1883, and stated that he had seen a battalion on parade numbering 13 privates, 10 officers and 6 drummers, the rest only attending on pay day. St. John had the typical racial attitudes of his time, denigrating the "Negro republic" but the Haitian state was a byword for incompetence and corruption. St. John had witnessed the Haitian army on parade, the men in ragged uniforms, discipline slack, officers with little knowledge of their job and a staff "in all the brilliant uniforms known to the French army."
He reported that the army in the early years (1825-1830) numbered 30,000 with a reasonable proportion of officers but after the fall of Geffrard in 1867 a published account of the army gave a figure of 6,500 general and staff officers 7,000 regimental officers and 6,500 soldiers. A "late return" (the book was published in 1884) gave the army as numbering 16,000, with about 1,500 of these being generals of division. The rank of general was a reward for political service and the frequent revolutions and intrigues regularly increased the numbers. Conscription was used to recruit the army, conscripts serving seven years, volunteers four. Pressing men was regularly resorted to. Geffrard pressed dozens of young men from the town of Cap Haitien after their unsuccessful revolt in 1865 and forcibly incorporated them into the tirailleur battalions. It was these battalions - the only ones St. John regarded as properly disciplined and equipped - which lead the revolution of 1867 and unseated Geffrard.
Men not on duty were allowed to work and received no rations. The presidential guard was composed of "mechanics and respectable labourers of the town and neighbourhood" who paid the colonels a sum each week to be exempted from service. President Salnave (1867-1869) had a favourite regiment, kept up at full strength and reasonably disciplined, which was rewarded by being allowed to pillage a town with the order "Mes enfants, pillez en bon ordre." An "insolent and overbearing" regiment, they were used to provide all the execution squads.
Sources:
Franklin, James, "The Present State of Haiti" London, 1828.
The Illustrated London News, Nov. 24 1849, April 20, 1850, Dec. 27, 1831 , Feb. 15. 1856, Oct. 29, 1859.
St. John, Spenser, "Hayti or the Black Republic" London 1884.
Back to Table of Contents: Booklet No. 6, Haiti 1793-1916
Back to El Dorado List of Issues
Back to Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1998 by The South and Central Military Historians Society
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com