Haitian Military Figure. He received notoriety as a Haitian military leader during the United States occupation of Haiti. Being a member of the rebel guerrilla fighters, the Caco, he is considered a Haitian hero, yet according to formal citations issued for the Medal of Honor for two United States Marines, Péralte was called “the Supreme Bandit Chief.” Since Haiti was heavy in debt to other countries, the International Bank asked in 1914 for the United States to bring their gold, which had been invested in the Haitian economy, back to New York City. This was Haiti's national treasury. The Haitian banks had been controlled by the International Bank since 1910, thus this was the reason the United States military came to Haiti. In 1915 United States President Woodrow Wilson deployed 330 Marines along with the Navy to Haiti after a serious civil strife had started and the government had been overthrown again. From 1911 to 1915, there were six different presidents, each of whom was killed or forced into exile. One of these was Péralte's brother-in-law, President Emmanuel Oreste Zamor, who was executed in 1915. Upon the arrival of the United States forces, he, as an army officer, refused to surrender his weapons and national flag, and told the Marines he would obey only orders from his nation's president. In October of 1917, he was implicated in a robbery of a United States officer's home in Hiche. He was arrested, brought to trial and sentenced to five years of hard labor in Cap Haitien but escaped in September of 1918. His home was burnt to the ground and his brother was executed. At this point, he announced his intentions to “drive the invaders into the sea and free Haiti.” Self-appointing himself as the leader, he formed a provisional government in northern Haiti with several thousands of peasants as irregulars in his army, who were called “bandits” and “highwaymen.” He attacked the United States military establishments including Port-au-Prince on October 7, 1919, and because of his actions, an upgrade of force was made by the American military with the order to stop him. He was betrayed by one of his own men, Lt. Baptiste Conze , who led the United States Marines to his camp for a $2,000 award. In the middle of the night on October 31, 1919 with their face blackened, the United States military raided his camp. He was shot twice in the back in a successful raid while another 1,200 of his followers were machine gun to death in this surprise attack. A photograph of his remains draped in his nation's flag was circulated throughout the country to degrade him. He was buried in an unmarked grave. After another leader was killed in 1920 by the United States military, the armed opposition to the occupation dwindled. Born Charlemagne Massena Peralte to a seamstress Marie-Claire Emmanuel and General Remi Massena Peralte, he came from a rural, middle-class family in Hinche. His father had held a national parliament seat in the past. He was educated in Roman Catholic schools in Port-au-Prince before entering a military career. He quickly rose to the rank of commanding officer by 1914. Protesting occupation from any foreign country, he made a non-violent, yet unsuccessful, effort to make Haiti an independent nation by writing to President Wilson and others such as the French and German governments, who also had heavy financial investments in Haiti. With this failure, his violent opposition began and in the end, Peralte became a martyr for Haiti’s sovereignty. After loud calls by Haitians for the United States departure were echoed by United States organizations such as suffragettes and the NAACP, President Herbert Hoover sent a fact-finding group to Haiti to invest the relationship of the United States military with the Haitian people, thus a plan for a military redraw was made.Following the end of the American occupation in 1934, President Sténio Vincent and other Haitian dignitaries officiated at a state funeral for General Charlemagne Péralte on November 26th of that year. In 1988 a Haitian commemorative postage stamp with his image was issued. A Haitian 50 centime coin was issued in 1991 with his image on it. A larger-than-life-sized bust is on display in his hometown of Hiche, and throughout the years, celebrations have been held in his honor.