Deslondes's forces recruited other enslaved people from plantations along the way southeast into St. Charles Parish before turning back shortly before encountering militia sent from New Orleans.
[6] The men killed two whites near the beginning of their march and burned down three plantation houses and some crops.
They fought primarily with cane knives and captured a limited number of weapons, although they had planned on more.
On January 11, a planter militia led by Col. Manuel Andry attacked the main body of insurgents at the back of Bernard Bernoudy's plantation west of New Orleans.
Andry and his overseer, a free man of color named "Petit" Baptiste Thomassin, had been the first targets of the insurrection.
Shortly afterward, the militia killed fourteen more enslaved people in other skirmishes and captured many more, although as many as 100 may have escaped permanently.
)[10][11] In a letter printed in the Philadelphia "Political and Commercial Advertiser" on February 19 that year, Deslondes was mistakenly described as a free person of color.