[1] Admiral William Banks Caperton, leading the initial landing force, declared martial law and ordered the Haitian army dissolved.

"[5] On one occasion, the Haitian ambassador to the United States balked at the idea of signing a Butler-inspired compact that would give the gendarmerie control of the nation's postal service.

[7] Even at the local level, junior officers were virtual "potentates", having not only military and police authority in their jurisdictions, but also being responsible to sit as judges in civil and criminal cases, to collect taxes, to manage prisons, to enforce weights and measures, to register vital statistics, and to audit the financial records of municipal governments.

"[9] Some gendarmerie actions, including the enforcement of government press censorship, and the use of conscripted civilian labor for infrastructure development, have been cited as factors leading to the Second Caco War (1918–20), a rebellion by Haitians against the occupation.

The assault was repulsed with significant loss of life, and commanding officer Lieutenant Patrick Kelly earned Haiti's Médaille militaire and a promotion to captain for his role in the defense of the barracks.

The day following the Battle of Port-au-Prince, a contingent of 12 gendarmes under Lt. Kemp C. Christian overran the cacos' base camp, killing 30 rebels and capturing their only field gun.

Unlike the bulk of gendarmerie units, which garrisoned towns, Provisional Company A was a mobile force organized to conduct preventative patrols.

[8] Following the war, the U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Haiti and Santo Domingo convened a series of hearings to investigate the behavior of gendarmes and marines during the conflict.

[14] One gendarme, Eucher Jean, stated that:[2] ... during the first part of the month of November 1918, while I was a first sergeant in the Gendarmerie d'Haïti, serving in the district of Hinche, Haiti, I saw Lieut.

Freeman Lang, Gendarmerie d'Haïti, take a Haitian who was prisoner, named Teka, out of the prison in the town of Hinche, and purposely execute him with a machine-gun rifle.Despite the sometimes gruesome testimony it was generally believed the hearings were politically motivated and that individual excesses could largely be traced only to Lang and Dorcas Williams, both of whom had been acting under the orders of a Marine Corps officer who had since been committed to an insane asylum.