Fighting the French Revolution- the Great Vendee Rising of 1793
Page 2
5
Sans-culotte invasion of the Convention. Terror becomes ‘the order of the day’.
CHANTONNAY (V); assaults on NAUDIÈRES and SORINIÈRES (R)
7
Érigné (R)
8
French victory at Hondschoote raises Seige of Dunkirk.
11
Martigné-Briand (V)
12
Le Quesnoy falls to the allies.
ÉRIGNÉ and LES PONTS-DE CÉ (inconclusive)
14
THOUARS (R); DOUÉ–LA–FONTAINE (R)
16
1st MONTAIGU (R)
17
‘Law of Suspects’ embraces all opposed to the Republic.
18
Seige of Toulon begins. Bordeaux recaptured by the Republic.
VIHIERS (V)
19
PONT-BARRÉ (V); TORFOU (V)
21
2nd MONTAIGU (V)
22
The Spanish Army breaks through the Pyrenees.
Pursuit of Canclaux (V); ST-FULGENT (V)
29
The ‘General Maximum’ decreed to control food prices and wages.
Noirmoutier (R)
28
The allies beseige Maubeuge.
30
Réaumur (inconclusive)
October
1
Barère calls once again for the destruction of the Vendée.
2
Policy of de-Christianisation accelerates under extreme factions.
6
TREIZE-SEPTIERS (R)
9
Lyons surrenders.
Bois-aux-Chèvres (R)
10
The French government declared ‘revolutionary until the peace’ handing absolute power to the CPS and suspending the constitution.
11
CHTILLON-SUR-SÈVRES twice (V/R)
12
NOIRMOUTIER (V)
13
French defeated at Weissenberg Lines, Landau beseiged.
Danton leaves Paris for his home town of Arcis-sur-Aube exhausted and sickened by developments in Paris.
15
LA TREMBLAYE (R)
16
Marie-Antoinette guillotined. French victory at Wattignies raises Seige of Maubeuge.
17
CHOLET (R)
23
LAVAL (V)
Night of 24-25
La Croix-Bataille (V)
26
ENTRAMMES (V)
28
Craon (V)
31
Leading Girondists executed in Paris.
Saint-Gilles (R)
November
2
Ernée (V)
3
FOUGÈRES (V)
6
Philippe Égalité (former Duke of Orléans) guillotined.
10
Festival of ‘Liberty and Reason’ celebrated.
14-15
SIEGE OF GRANVILLE (R)
17
Robespierre orders arrest of Danton’s supporters.
18
PONTORSON (V)
20
Danton returns to Paris and calls for restraint and ‘indulgence’ towards opponents.
20-23
DOL-ANTRAIN (V)
La Garnache (inconclusive)
28-30
Hoche defeated at Kaiserslautern.
December
3-4
SIEGE OF ANGERS (R)
4
The Law of Revolutionary Government increases power of CPS.
5
Beauvoir (R)
6
Bouin (R)
7
Lége (R)
7-8
LA FLÈCHE (V)
9
Clermont (V)
10
Pontlieue (V)
11
Les Quatre-Chemins (V)
12
Pontlieue (twice) (V/R); Arnage (R)
12-13
LE MANS (R)
13
Boupère (V)
19
Fall of Toulon.
Ancenis (R)
20
Réaumur and Pouzages (R)
21
Cerizay (V)
22-23
SAVENAY (R), the end of the ‘Great War of the Vendée’.
26
Austro-Prussian defeat at Geisberg liberates Alsace.
Pont-James (V)
31
General Biron guillotined.
Machecoul (V)
Introduction
On 1 October 1793, with republican armies massing on the borders of the Vendée, Bertrand de Barère, member of the Committee of Public Safety, called on the armies to strike hard and put an end to ‘this inexplicable war’.1 In August he had used similar language, believing it a duty of the new Republic to cut out this running sore, symbolic of all that the Revolution despised. His fresh call for the destruction of the Vendée was enthusiastically supported by the National Convention, and once again armies were on the march.
The year 1793 witnessed the near destruction of the new French Republic by external and internal enemies. The year had barely begun when Louis XVI was publicly executed and as the year progressed decrees poured out of the National Convention vying in their eloquence, ruthlessness and passionate appeals to La Patrie as the early victories of 1792 turned to a succession of defeats.
The Paris Commune dominated the brutal politics of 1793 and during this tumultuous year Maximilien Robespierre would rise to prominence and take control of the National Convention. But while life and death political struggles were underway in Paris, the west of France, centred on the Vendée, rose up en masse against the same revolution that had supposedly brought liberté, égalité and fraternité to the people.
The war was sparked when the National Convention introduced enforced conscription by lottery, as France had been haemorrhaging men and volunteer numbers had dwindled. Yet the Vendée region chose to fight against the Revolution and all that it represented rather than fight the nation’s enemies on the country’s frontiers.
The Vendée Rising is a complex war and contemporary accounts, written in the heat of the moment, are often couched in politicised and extreme language. Napoleon called it a ‘War of Giants’ and in this ferocious conflict some of his future elite began their rise to fame, including men such as Grouchy, Cambronne, Kléber, Berthier and Marulaz. Yet this war also led many to an appointment with the ‘national razor’.
The largely rural population of the region was faced with a brutal policy of repression and some would argue even one of genocide. The Revolutionary Tribunal, declaration of death to rebels without mercy, and Terror becoming the order of the day were all, in part, a direct response to the Vendée Rising. The near anarchy in government led to the suspension of the constitution ‘until the peace as the Committee of Public Safety slowly and ruthlessly sought to save the French Revolution. In this titanic struggle both sides fought with armies that grew to tens of thousands of men, of all arms, and of remarkable resilience. Yet few battles are mentioned in military histories and, inexplicably, the conflict is generally overlooked or sidelined in books on the French Revolutionary Wars. I hope this book helps to redress the balance and introduce an English-speaking audience to a largely forgotten yet pivotal struggle.
Area affected by the Vendée Rising.
I have endeavoured to take the reader chronologically through the period known as the ‘Great War’ that continued relentlessly from March to December 1793, and have set out to combine into the narrative a clear appreciation of the fighting capabilities of the republican and royalist armies that appeared and disappeared through that tumultuous period.
I have retained French spellings for all place names and officer ranks which do not have direct English counterparts. As many army and unit titles are long, I have felt it necessary to abbreviate them to save on space. So, for example, the Grande Armée Catholique
et Royale has largely been abbreviated to the Grand Army, and battalions (notably the Departmental Volunteers) have been shortened from titles such as 9th Bataillon de la Gironde to 9th Gironde.
Commonly known as the Vendée Rising, the area of the troubles also embraced large parts of Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sevrès and Loire-Inférieure, and the area controlled by the rebels became known as the Vendée Militaire. For simplicity, and following common contemporary practice, the people of the region that rose up against the Republic are generally referred to as royalist, rebels or Vendéens (using the French spelling).
Only a few years before 1793 the region had largely fallen within Poitou and Anjou and the Vendéen armies often identified themselves with these older names. Many also used more localised names, examples being: the Maraichains (for those from the coastal marshland called the Marais) or the Paydraits (for the area south-west of Nantes known as the Pays-de-Retz). Where relevant, such titles are occasionally used.
It is important to be clear that the Vendée Rising is completely different to, and mostly separate from, the Chouan Risings north of the Loire. In essence the Vendée Rising was much more effective at inspiring a wide area to rise up en masse and was far more of a threat to the Republic as a result.
Chapter 1
Fighting the Revolution, a Brief
Background to the Vendée Rising
On 21 January 1793 Louis XVI was led by tumbrel to the Place de la Révolution in Paris. As he attempted to address the crowd his voice was drowned out by a drum roll ordered by General Berruyer.
With a swift drop of the blade the King of France was dead. This single act pushed several European powers to war with France. Indeed France, in a heightening of tension, declared war on Britain and the Low Countries in February, and Spain in March.
The Girondist faction within the National Assembly had enthusiastically led France into war in 1792 and the early victories secured their power base. Following a series of defeats their more extreme opponents, the Montagnards, gained significant influence and gradually pushed the country towards a period of dictatorship led by the Committee of Public Safety (hereafter referred to as the CPS).
The vast majority of people in the Vendée region, indeed in much of France, were deeply shocked by the attacks on the monarchy and also by attacks on the Catholic Church. As early as July 1790 all parish priests were ordered to swear an oath of loyalty to the nation and the constitution. That same November those failing to take the oath were considered to have resigned their posts. With the Pope speaking out against the Revolution and this Civil Constitution, priests were placed in an unenviable position: choose between loyalty to the Republic or loyalty to the Church. The Republic stigmatised the Pope as a foreigner and had decided that they would appoint the bishops and the clergy, not the Pope.
By November 1791 ‘non-juring’ priests, as those refusing to sign the Civil Constitution were known, were put under surveillance and placed under threat of imprisonment or exile if they attempted to hold services. By August 1792 many priests were emigrating and numerous religious houses closing and in September of that year the infamous massacres in the Paris prisons included over 200 priests and 3 ex-bishops. From expulsion of priests, the Revolution now appeared to be sanctioning their murder.
A sizeable minority of priests decided to defy the government and remain. The Vendée region retained many non-juring priests who held services in secret, while the state-sponsored priests faced endless problems and even direct threats.
The anti-Catholic policy, a product of the more extreme influences within the Convention, was undoubtedly a fundamental factor in provoking the Vendée Rising, and the emblem of the Sacre-Coeur, ‘the Sacred Heart of Christ’, became the universal badge under which the rebels fought.
Across the region, as priests were being imprisoned or thrown out of their parishes, so the initial murmuring began to spill into localised troubles. These took on a much more serious form in August 1792 when the civil authorities sought to recruit volunteers to fight for the Republic. On 22 August, in the Bressuire area towards the east of the region, Baudry d’Asson, a former army officer, gathered 6,000 peasants. The vast majority were armed with pitchforks or clubs and they marched on and seized Châtillon–sur–Sèvre, the focus of the recruitment. On the following day they headed for Bressuire, but national guards and local detachments reached the town first and frustrated attempts by the rebels to seize the town. On 24 August the rebels were routed at a place called Moulin-Cornet and a period of repression followed.
While attacks on the Church were a focus of anger there were other contributory factors. This overwhelmingly rural region was witnessing a new, largely urban, bourgeoisie exploiting the nationalisation of church property. These ‘outsiders’ were seen to be benefitting from the Revolution while the more isolated communities, tied to the land, experienced incessant interference and increasing attacks on their traditional way of life.
Perhaps unusually, the area seems to have retained a strong bond between a paternalistic local gentry closely engaged and identified with their local communities in the rhythms of seasonal and religious life. As a consequence there seemed to be little open animosity between the rural communities and the gentry often associated with the French Revolution.
Attacks on the church, monarchy and gentry were seen in this region as attacks on the community as a whole. Fundamentally, however, the rebels fought under the dual banner of Church and King and for their own liberty and freedom of conscience. It would be wrong to assume, however, that the area was entirely antagonistic to the Republic, as it had furnished volunteers in 1791 and 1792, and there were ‘patriots’ in evidence across the area.
The Conscription of 300,000 men
The opportunity to challenge the regime presented itself in March 1793 when the Convention, in desperate need of troops, resorted to the conscription of 300,000 men. These were to be gathered by drawing lots from all eligible males (i.e. healthy single men aged between 18 and 40). Replacements could be purchased and national guards were excluded.
The Vendée was ordered to raise 4,197; the Loire-Inférieure 7,372, and Maine-et-Loire 6,202.
Officials immediately set about organising the lottery and instructions trickled down from the Department to the local administrators, with notice given to each area as to when and where the lottery would be enacted. General Verteuil, in command of the 12th Military District, was ordered to send fifty national guards to Fontenay, La Châtaigneraie and Montaigu, and one hundred to Les Sables d’Olonne and Challans. ‘to maintain the peace and assist with the recruitment’.1 Ominously, however, the region had been stripped of line regiments and in the Vendée Department there were only 1,300 thinly spread troops.2
In February 1793 efforts had been underway to recruit to the National Guard in anticipation of a repeat of the previous year’s troubles. This met with a violent reaction in the coastal area and the administrators of the district of Challans were expressing concern that the region seemed to be on the verge of rising up en masse.3
With news that enforced conscription was coming, many young men from a wide area, focused on the Vendée, were determined to oppose the lottery and, if deemed necessary, were quite prepared to take up arms against the French Republic.
Many areas across France would react to the increasing extremism of the Republic but, while numerous disturbances were quickly suppressed, the Vendée Rising spiralled out of control.
The Region and its People
Royalists idealise the Vendée rebels as noble and devout peasants fighting for God and the imprisoned boy-king Louis XVII, while republicans prejudge them as ignorant, misguided fanatics, led by priests and aristocrats.
It is true to say that the majority of the people were tied to their region and very much influenced by their traditional rural way of life. There were very few towns of note. The largest, Cholet, had a population of only 8,500 and a handful of towns were over 5,000 strong.4 The population of the entire region o
f the Vendée Militaire totalled around 755,000, including patriotic towns and villages in its fringes.5
Economically this fertile and relatively isolated region focused mainly on small scale cattle or crop farming, with vineyards towards the Loire, salt marshes towards the sea, and few local industries of note. The region had few well-maintained roads, with only that from Nantes to La Rochelle, through Montaigu and Luçon, considered good. The main route connecting Saumur to Cholet, La Roche-sur-Yon and La Mothe-Achard (where it joined the Nantes to Les Sables d’Olonne road) was only good for short stretches.6 Many other roads were little better than tracks and, for those unfamiliar with the area, could become an impenetrable maze.