| 26th Regiment | 1600 |
| 2nd Battalion Piedmontese | 2000 |
| Dismounted Cavalry | 250 |
| Artillery | 250 |
| Detachments of Corps | 500 |
| —— | |
| 4600 |
Exclusive of the marines of the various ships.
The enemy's force sailed from Martinique on the afternoon of February 21st, 1805; and, flying the British flag, arrived off Dominica between 3 and 4 a.m. on February 22nd. The British commander-in-chief, Brigadier-General Prevost, deceived by the colours of the ships, sent the captain of the fort, an artillery officer, on board the Majestueuse, to conduct the supposed British admiral and his fleet to a safe anchorage.[29] Shortly afterwards the boats pushed off with the troops, and the squadron changed its colours to French.
Directly this was perceived, the grenadier company of the 46th, with the light company of the 1st West India Regiment (107 rank and file), under Captain O'Connell, and a company of militia, marched from the garrison at Morne Bruce to Point Michell, about three miles distant. At this spot the enemy concentrated, and effected a landing under a heavy fire from the fleet. Two thousand eight hundred troops having been landed at the extremity of a cape within a short distance of Point Michell, they advanced towards that place in column of subdivisions, the only formation which the restricted space would admit, the point being bounded by inaccessible heights on the right, and a broken and rugged shore on the left.
The two companies of the 46th and the light company of the 1st West India Regiment were posted behind the walls of some ruined buildings in the village of Point Michell, which afforded excellent cover, and where they were entirely sheltered from the fire of the enemy's shipping; while the French had to advance on a narrow front, entirely exposed to their fire.
The attack commenced about 5 a.m. Four times the enemy were led to the assault, and as many times they were repulsed. At about 6.30 a.m. the remainder of the 46th and some local militia arrived, and the struggle continued; but not without loss on our side, Major Nunn and Captain O'Connell, 1st West India Regiment, being wounded, the former mortally, and four men killed. At last, the enemy, finding all his endeavours to force the position were ineffectual, landed the remainder of his troops to leeward of the town of Roseau, on the British right, and attacked Fort Daniel, a small redoubt mounting a six-pounder gun, and defended by 2 artillerymen, and 1 sergeant and 5 men of the 1st West India Regiment. These were all made prisoners in the work, which the enemy had attacked with 500 men. Brigadier-General Prevost then retired with the militia to the heights of Woodbridge Estate; and, the British right being now turned, the regulars, some 200 in number, who had been so gallantly defending the left, retired to effect a junction with the garrison at Fort Rupert, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Broughton, 1st West India Regiment. This was effected by Captain O'Connell, although wounded, in four days, by the mountain paths, while Brigadier-General Prevost arrived at the same place by the Carib Trail.[30]
In the meantime the town of Roseau had been set on fire, and the whole of it destroyed, except a few small houses belonging to free negroes. The French, after blowing up the fortifications, embarking some guns and spiking others, re-embarked; taking with them such of their prisoners as were regulars, and levying a contribution of £5500 upon the inhabitants, and on February 27th the force set sail for Guadaloupe.
The French in their attack on Point Michell had lost over 300 men, and in selecting that spot for landing they had displayed a most astonishing ignorance of the locality, for, if a force had at once been put ashore between Point Michell and Fort Young at Roseau, the British could hardly have ventured upon a serious defence. The loss sustained by the British regulars was 21 killed, 21 wounded, and 8 prisoners. The loss of the militia is not stated, but was considerable, the French accounts fixing it at 200.
The following despatch addressed to Earl Camden, K.G., one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, by Lieutenant-General Sir William Myers, Bart., commanding the troops in the Windward and Leeward Islands, gives the official account of this affair: