by Rob Harper
Ventaron, J.S. de: Jacques Cathelineau (Lenore-Sorlot:1988).
Williaume, R: Luçon dans le Guerre de Vendée (CVRH:2009).
The Abbey of St Florent-le-Vieil. The Rising officially began in the square adjacent to this abbey.
The sacre-coeur: the emblem under which the rebels fought.
Fonteclose. Home of Charette, from where he reluctantly joined the Rising. Now a museum.
Pont Neuf, Thouars. Marigny and Donnissan attacked across this bridge.
Châtillon-sur-Sèvre (modern day Mauléon). The Royalist administrative and military headquarters and symbolic capital of the Rising.
Diorama of the Assault at Coron, September 1793. The rebels frequently ambushed columns in this manner. Courtesy of Josh Harper.
Windmill at Alouettes, Haut-Bocage. The rebels used windmills to signal the presence of the enemy by setting the sails at different angles.
The battlefield of La Tremblaye looking south from the Vendéen centre towards the Republic positions. The terrain is typical of many of the battlefields.
Torfou battlefield looking from Kléber’s positions towards Tiffauges, with its church visible in the distance.
A column built after the Restoration to commemorate the Vendéen victory at Torfou. It is located on the main road east of Torfou where it joins the road to Cholet.
Detail from a plaque commemorating the Battle of Cholet located to the north of the battlefield.
The Loire at St-Florent-le-Vieil, where the Royalists and thousands of refugees crossed the river after their defeat at Cholet.
The bridge at Château-Gontier. Although a more recent bridge, it was at this point that La Rochejaquelein led the assault after defeating the Republicans at Entrammes.
Laval: occupied by the rebels twice during the campaign north of the Loire.
Granville. The Grande Porte at the western end of the Rue-de-Juifs and the focus of fierce fighting during the siege.
Old buildings in Dol. The Royalists faced a critical few days here in November 1793.
Memorial to Battle of Dol-Antrain. Located at the centre of critical fighting east of Pont Galou. The Republicans and Royalists are commemorated by the Phrygian Cap (popular with the Republicans) and the Sacre-Coeur respectively.
The bleak landscape of the coastal Marais, cut up with many waterways, hindered Republican marches.
The settlement of Bouin from where Charette escaped in December.
La Rochejaquelein leads the assault into Cholet on 17 October. From a painting by Paul-Emile Boutigny, 1854. By courtesy of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Cholet.
The tomb of General Bonchamps, located in St Florent-le-Vieil, with its famous epitaph ‘Grace aux Prisonniers!’. The sculptor, David d’Angers, was the son of a Republican soldier, one of several thousand spared by order of Bonchamps in October 1793 as he lay mortally wounded.