The War in the Vendée

Since the beginning of the Revolution there were concerns amongst many in France at the direction of the Revolution.  In conservative Catholic areas they were appalled at what had happened to their beloved King and Church.  With the advent of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy priest who would not swear an oath upholding the constitution and the revolution itself were removed.  The distrust of the Parisian government turned to hatred when they introduced conscription.  As the social gains of the revolution failed to materialise some areas began to protest and finally to revolt against the regime.  

Leaders emerged from the Vendée in the West of France to lead a guerrilla war against the revolution.  Soon there were areas that fell directly under control of the counter revolutionaries.  As they became more organised they scored victories against organised Republican armies in the field such as at Châtillon and Vihiers.  They lacked the organisation to siege Nantes.  Retribution followed from the Republican government armies were sent into the Vendée and whole areas were torched and thousands killed.  These ‘infernal columns’ under the direction of Representative on a Mission Carrier would kill women and children as they destroyed the region.  The counter revolutionaries lacking the strength of the central government and outraged by the atrocities used similar methods against Republicans real or otherwise.

Soon the numbers of the government forces began to tell.  They were defeated at the Battle of Cholet.  The rebels headed to Granville where they were to meet a British fleet and an army of French exiles.  On reaching Granville they found it surrounded by Republican forces their attempts to take the port were beaten back and they were forced to retreat under La Rochejacquelein.  They were picked off by the Revolutionary forces.  During this time period tens of thousands of Vendean civilians and soldiers who had surrendered were executed.  By February 1795 the war was declared over there would however be many flare ups through the Directory.

Germaine De Staël on the war in the Vendée .  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p364-365

It was about this time, also, that the war of La Vendee began, and nothing does more honour to the royalist party than the attempts at civil war which were then made.  The people of these departments were able to resist the Convention and its successors for nearly six years, being headed by some gentlemen who drew their principal resources from their own minds.

The republicans, as well as the royalists, felt a profound respect for these warrior citizens.  Lescure, La Roche Jacquelin, Charette, etc., whatever their opinion might be, fulfilled a duty to which all the French at the time might have thought themselves equally bound.  The country which was the theatre of the Vendean war was intersected by hedges intended to enclose the different estates.  These peaceful hedges served for bulwarks to the peasants become soldiers, who sustained one by one the most dangerous and daring struggle. The inhabitants of these parts of the country had much veneration for the priests, whose influence at that time did good.  But in a state where liberty had long subsisted, the public mind would not need to be excited except by public institutions.  The Vendeans, it is true, demanded in their distress some succours from England; but it was only auxiliaries, not masters, whom they accepted; for their own forces were much superior to those whom they borrowed from abroad.  They did not therefore compromise the independence of their country.  Accordingly the chiefs of la Vendee were held in consideration even by the opposite party, and they expressed themselves upon the revolution with more moderation than the emigrants beyond the Rhine.  The Vendeans having fought, so to say, man to man with the French, were not easily persuaded that their adversaries were but a handful of rebels, whom a single battalion could have brought back to their duty; and as they themselves had recourse to the power of opinions, they knew what they were, and acknowledged the necessity of compromising with them.

Letter of Carrier to Citizen Derieu, Envoy of the Primary Assemblies, and Member of the Committee of Public Safety of Saint-Brieuc.  Rennes September, 1793.   Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p21-23

Great operations in connection with numerous reforms will keep me in Rennes for several days.  I hope soon to visit Saint-Brieuc, where my presence is urgently desired and where I am exceedingly anxious to be among the numerous brave sans-culottes who, thanks to their energy and co-operation, are enjoying a complete triumph at the present moment.  I was very pleased with the highly satisfactory arrangements that have been made by Citizen Hamelin, whom I saw daily and always with pleasure when he was at Rennes. The brave defenders of our country of the regiment formerly Forest, and one of your cannoneers, confirmed this news. All those excellent patriots assure me that you have made the most effective preparations to facilitate my operations in your town. Continue, worthy Republicans, to watch and to work, and to mark out all counter revolutionists, moderates, royalists, feuillants, and conspirators both for their cure and the national vengeance.

The triumph of the sans-culotterie must not be incomplete; all places must be filled by brave sans-culottes; and every one not wishing to be sans'culottized must be rigorously excluded from them and reduced by the firmest measures to powerlessness to injure.  To prepare for the happy success of this I am sending you the most extended powers with an order for the arrest of Ruperon and Ducondic.  Kindly communicate all this to your brothers of the Committee of Public Safety of which you are a member, and concert with them so that the promptest execution may be given to the two mandates of arrest and the placing of such persons as these orders authorize, and that the most vigorous and immediate measures may lead effectively to the disarmament and arrests which I have authorized pending my arrival to put the finishing touch to the reforms.

Greeting and eternal fraternity to all the patriots.

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the Committee of Public Safety, September, 1793.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p25

Citizens my Colleagues…

Public spirit here is at revolutionary height. Last Sunday I made the garrison assemble at the Champ de Mars. I harangued the different bodies of the troops. I had only the most flattering things to say to them all, with the exception of the company of the gunners of Rennes. With the greatest publicity and all possible energy I pointed out to them the counter-revolutionary actions which have marked every step of their conduct since the last days of May. I addressed to them the most cutting reproaches; I announced to them that it was my intention to dissolve them with ignominy, had it not been for the order of General Canclaux, requesting them to go to him. I said they were to obey these orders and as, by a culpable complaisance, the municipality had issued passports to several of those who had already, at my approach, scattered into the towns and surrounding villages, I declared to them in the presence of the whole garrison and an immense multitude, that I should hold the relations of the fugitives responsible for their return.

This solemn declaration produced the effect that I had expected; already a flood of letters has been written urging the fugitives to join the contingent of the last recruiting and those who have returned to Canclaux. The municipality has given me its word to rally round me or Canclaux before long. Two of these gunners have been arrested at S. Malo and are going to be sent to me. You may count on my winning them all over. I am now taking the necessary steps to have them sent to Canclaux who, in accordance with the order he has received from the Minister of War on this matter, will send them to the Army of the North: that is their true destination; they all possess courage and know how to drill. I am confident that away from perfidious administrators and their counter-revolutionary municipalities, and when among our brave gunners, they will certainly efface from their minds all ideas of federalism and will valiantly defend their country.

I have dismissed their commander from his post, and have had him arrested; he has escaped, but the municipality which gave him a passport will answer to me for this and I shall well know how to force it to indicate to me the place of its concealment. I have already made some dismissals and some very good replacements. I would have had the general beaten, but the replacements are difficult, the workmen here being in full counter-revolution. The sans-culotterie is at revolutionary pitch.

Sunday's festival was very brilliant. On returning to the Champ de Mars we planted the tree of liberty amid acclamations of joy from a numerous people who passed the rest of the day and all the night in dancing. Shouts of the most patriotic mirth echoed continually from the walls of Rennes.

The people await with impatience the dismissal and punishment of traitors. This waiting will not be long. I am expected in every town and surrounding commune, but I can quit Rennes only when I have entirely stifled all hopes of the resurrection of federalism and counter-revolution. I have already prepared the measures necessary for public safety in several communes, but, nevertheless, the condition of Brittany is very disquieting. A large part of Brittany is in the same disposition as Toulon…. However, you may rely on my firm resolution to crush all conspirators: I shall only leave Brittany when I have delivered them up to the national vengeance, or when this evil is abolished by a flight that I cannot prevent.

Greeting and fraternity.

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the Committee of Public Safety, Rennes September 1793.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p34

Citizen Colleagues,

Brittany was the first to rise for the Revolution; it will be the first to move for a counter-revolution if it has any opportunity. It is inconceivable, it is even treason against national liberty, that no one of my colleagues, that no citizen should have given the National Convention an account of the political situation of former Brittany. It is high time it should be known that there are only a few communes going with the Revolution ; that it is only among the sans'Culotterie of the towns that good principles are to be found ; everywhere else there is open counter-revolution;

The town which above all others requires your attention and care is Nantes. You probably know, or at least my colleagues there ought to have informed you, that the town is filled with foreigners; that the merchants and gentlemen who practically compose the whole town are recognized counter-revolutionists and in communication with the rebels of the Vendee, whose rebellions they encourage and support  that the Nantais were the first to set the dire example of an advance to the ci-devant Comte d'Artois. I don't know what motives for circumspection there can be in the case of a town that might well become a second Lyons. From Nantes to Rennes there is a cordon of counter-revolution.

Everywhere, I repeat, everywhere the Constituted Authorities are in open counter-revolution; everywhere there is an open traffic in separate markets in money and assignats this counter revolutionary action has only disappeared in the Department of Ille-et-Vilaine. Nowhere have the measures of the 4th of May relative to provisions been taken.  I can assure you that in Finistere and Morbihan, whither I intend to go as soon as possible, the counter-revolution is as strong as at Coblentz. Things had come to such a pass in Rennes that I had to spend eight days choosing patriots to fulfill administrative functions. I am going to work this change tomorrow; there are other secondary ones to follow, for I will not leave a single aristocrat in office. After that I will go where liberty seems most threatened by dangers.

Meanwhile, I have cleared the prisons in Rennes of all counter-revolutionists imprisoned in them; a great number had escaped, eight since I came here. I sent sixteen to the Revolutionary Tribunal……..

Letter of Carrier to the Committee of Public Safety, Nantes October 1793.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p69

I must warn you that there are in the prisons of Nantes people arrested as prime movers of the Vendee.  Instead of amusing myself by bringing them to trial, I shall send them to their own homes to be shot. These terrible examples will overawe the ill-disposed and will restrain those who might have a desire to swell the cohort of the brigands. They are believed to be alive as long as their punishment is not actually seen.

Greeting and fraternity.

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the National Convention, Cholet October 1793.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p80

Citizen Colleagues,

The Army of the West formed on the 14th in two columns ; one, composed of troops from Luçon, passed by Les Herbiers ; the other, of troops from Mayence, has marched from Montaigu on Tiffauges. This position was held by the brigands; they rang the tocsin on the approach of our Army and flung themselves into the woods, so that we entered Tiffauges without much trouble.  The next day (the 15th), after the column had set out, Turreau had this resort of brigands burnt. The vanguard was marching towards Mortagne by the Cholet road, when our colleague Merlin sent word to us that he was marching towards the brigands at La Romagne ; we learnt a moment afterwards that he had passed them with his mounted chasseurs and the legions of Cassel and the Franks.

Following the road to Mortagne we found only a few outposts; all had fallen before the blows of our brave Republicans. Arrived in sight of Mortagne with the body of our Army, we saw the town occupied by the vanguard and our colleague Turreau, who in order to effect an entry had set fire to the suburbs and charged the brigands with his mounted chasseurs, who made more than twenty bite the dust.  We learnt that the brigands had only evacuated

this well-known retreat of theirs to dispute the road to Cholet with us. We summoned a Council of War, consisting of the People's Representatives and Officers of the Staff, and there on a rock the order was issued to attack the enemy in two columns. Hardly was the order received when we heard the cannon. Merlin, with our colleague Cambon's brother, had gone to meet the enemy they found themselves surrounded. Cambon was unhorsed and slightly wounded they only returned to us by cutting their way through the midst of the enemy.

Turreau marched with the column from Lugon, led by the brave General Bard. They were at first frightened by the number of the enemy and the heavy fire of their artillery. Merlin was with the column from Mayence, and encouraged by his presence, they achieved prodigies of valour.  Seeing a movement on the enemy's right to pass over our left flank, General Beaupuy gave a bayonet charge from their rear, and took two pieces of cannon, which he caused to be pointed against them immediately, while General Kleber, whose coolness equals his bravery, and our colleague Turreau, were chasing the enemy to the very walls of Cholet, after having captured four pieces of cannon.

L'Echelle, the General-in-Chief, was at the head of Vimeux' division, and in his turn pursued the enemy on the right. The affair was very swift and hot. A few brave Republicans perished for the sake of their country. Among them was Tyrau, Commander of the Legion of Cassel; La Bruyere, Adjutant of General Besson, who himself sealed the people's cause with his blood; but they are avenged ; a number of brigands have bitten the dust, and many of their leaders have remained on the battlefield. All our wounded cried “Long life to the Republic” Of these are Generals Barge and Targe, (the latter) Chief of the Prankish Legion, who by his intrepid action at Port-Saint-Pere has already drawn upon himself the attention of the National Convention.

Every man did his duty; evening alone separated the combatants. Our cannon growled over Cholet all night. The attacking column remained in good order with the Army until dawn, but hardly had the light come than Targe, in spite of his wound, entered Cholet at the head of his Franks. The columns followed him soon after. This triumphant entry was only a passing through; we were careful not to let them stay there. They took up a position well to the fore.

We found in Cholet six pieces of cannon, twenty powder carts, a well-furnished arsenal, and the correspondence of the rebels, which we are forwarding to the Committee of Public Safety. At present we are taking the most effective measures to finish the extermination of the hordes of scoundrels who are bringing desolation to the heart of the Republic. Those who fought under my eyes love her as sincerely as they defend her bravely.

Greeting and fraternity,

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the Committee of Public Safety 12 November, 1793).  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p114

Brave Colleagues, the Revolution marches with giant strides: prejudice and fanaticism crumbles beneath the irresistible force of right the torch of philosophy brightens everything and consumes her enemies; the Convention enjoys the greatest confidence; circumstances look well for us, the wind of Revolution blows strong. Now is the appointed time; the French people have delivered into your hands the thunderbolt of vengeance let it roar; shatter it in lightning upon counterrevolutionary heads; be terrible as it is when in anger! Despotism must make liberty's foundations sure. Her earliest benefits and the trials she has undergone when in her cradle, can only be appreciated by patriots. The Republican rod must descend pitilessly on those who disdain to bend their haughty heads beneath equality's yoke.  Strike, and strike hardily; track to earth every prejudiced person; the time has come. The vicissitudes of a Revolution are only too great large measures have saved Liberty; they will give her firm and lasting support.   With these principles engraven on my heart, I practise them with that Republican steadfastness which only sees the image of a shattered Fatherland and strives boldly to piece it together again. ^ I have every suspect arrested and disarmed; the greatest and most  wealthy of them are in the cells. I have further measures to mature of which I shall inform you; you shall judge if they be revolutionary! I promise not to leave a single counter-revolutionist, not one monopolist, at large in Nantes in a few days' time, and this in spite of the swarms of them in the commune.

Greeting, fraternity,

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the Committee of Public Safety 21st November, 1793 from Nantes.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p120

Citizen Colleagues,

At length Reason triumphs and prejudice disappears. The last decade of Brumaire was Celebrated at Nantes with that touching simplicity and stirring enthusiasm inspired by a love of liberty.  Veterans carrying fasces of pikes, headed the procession; then came the Declaration of the Rights of Man, borne aloft by sans-culottes and followed by bands playing military and national music; several women holding horns of plenty, surrounded by children, who seemed to receive their gifts, offered a simple and touching sight. In a plough was seated an old man carrying a sheaf of corn, while small sans-culottes beside him trod under foot all those bonds of antique lies, titles of nobility, fanaticism, and aristocracy other children carried agricultural implements round the plough. The old man held in his hand the end of a long tri-coloured ribbon which entwined the Presidents of all the Administrations and the Vincent-la-Montagne Club; the consul of an allied people, our Anglo-American brothers, held the other end of the streamer; this symbol of union followed and surrounded the plough. Marat's bust, carried by a country Municipal Council, accompanied by the people, marching promiscuously, followed immediately after. Le Pelletier's bust was carried in the same fashion. One group, representing the destruction of fanaticism, came next; sans-culottes carried bishops, madonnas, saints of every shade, upside down

Members of one of the Administrations marched, without any distinction of rank, arm-in-arm with a sans-culotte officer and soldier. Here and there the procession was diversified by little groups of saints turned upside down and surrounded by drums. Then came the people. The sans-culottes surrounded the Column of Liberty on the arrival there, and sung the Hymn ^ to the tune of the national music. On the public square of the Department a stake had been prepared, and the old man descending from his plough, surrounded by little children, lit this new auto-da-fe, which received saints, bishops, madonnas, and all the paper-rubbish of the ancient regime which the sans-culottes vied with one another in throwing in. As the fire was devouring the last remains of tyranny, the people gathered round a mountain which was raised opposite the stake. Here all revolutionary emblems used in the fete were displayed; especially did the people steadfastly regard the assassination of Marat on one side of the Mountain and that of Le Pelletier on the other. Speeches in memory of Marat were pronounced by the Presidents of the People's Club and the Department. The morning's celebration ended in a general carmagnole.

Letter of Carrier to General Avril 30th November, 1793.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p136

Liberty. Equality.

Department of Morbihan.

Nantes. 10th Frimaire,

Year 2 of the French Republic,

One and Indivisible.

Carrier, People's Representative, attached to the Army of the West, to Citizen Avril, Adjutant-

General, Chief of Brigade.

Continue, Citizen, to carry terror and death to all the counter-revolutionists" of Morbihan and the surrounding communes. Let every individual suspected of incivism or of having dabbled in counter-revolutionary plots be instantly incarcerated in safe prisons. Let every individual whom you may find armed against the Republic or taking part in counter-revolutionary assemblages be instantly put to death and their property consigned to the flames. Summon before you the inhabitants of each commune, and if by means of information upon which you can rely you obtain the names of absentees or of counter revolutionists, or of persons bearing arms against the Republic, deliver their property to the flames forthwith and see that the Constituted Authorities cause their goods to be confiscated. These orders I delegate to you with confidence, and I hope you will carry them out with as much firmness as zeal. Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to General Haxo 13th December 1793 in Nantes.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p156

I learn at this instant, my brave General, that the Commissioners of the Department of La Vendee wish to share with those of the Department of the Lower-Loire the provisions or forage which may be found in Bouin or Noirmoutier. It is very astonishing that La Vendee dares to  demand such provisions after having rent the country by the most sanguinary and cruel war.  My projects and the orders of the National Convention are to remove all provisions, commodities, forage, everything, in a word, from this accursed country; to burn all the buildings, and to exterminate all the inhabitants. I am passing on the order to you at once, for they still wish to starve the patriots after having caused them to perish by thousands! Set yourself to prevent the Vendeans from keeping their grain and from obtaining new supplies. Make them deliver it to the Department Commission sitting at Nantes. I give you the most precise, the most imperative order. You will answer to me from this moment for its execution. In a word, leave nothing in this country of proscriptions; as for the provisions, commodities, forage, everything—absolutely everything must be transported to Nantes.

The People's Representative,

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the National Convention 24th December 1793 in Nantes.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p178

All the brigands on the right bank of the Loire are at last exterminated. There is no longer a Catholic-Royalist Army in this part of the Republic. We attacked them on the 2nd and 3rd and made such a slaughter of them that we have not heard a word about them since. There were few who escaped and these we shall destroy by beating the woods. The two combats took place at Savenay; we took from them cannon, powder-carts, and various appointments, and pursuing them as far as the Vilaine, where the bridges had been destroyed and the crafts broken up by my orders, we killed about six thousand of them, the sum total of their fugitive horde.

On the left bank we have once more beaten Charette, at Les Herbiers, and killed three to four thousand of his brigands. He fled to the woods in disorder with about three hundred men.  Nantes is illuminated. Cries of ''Long life to the Republic! Her Defenders! The Mountain!" resound on all sides. Joy is universal and inexpressible. Oh yes! How long our dear country will live! Her triumph is assured.

Carrier.

Letter of Carrier to the National Convention 1st December 1794.  Taken from Correspondence of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (People’s Representative to the Convention) During his mission in Brittany, 1793-1794, John Lane: The Bodley Head, London (1920) p237

(Carrier writes) that the Commission established at Nantes which declared it had condemned only four to five hundred brigands, acknowledges already one thousand eight hundred. Moreover, it is certain that in calculating the days it was in function and the number of brigands it had sentenced to execution, there were at least four thousand of them put to death; it tried one hundred and fifty to two hundred of them per day. He concludes from this that the depositions contradict each other, and he asks in consequence the deposit at the record-office of the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Registers of the Military Commission of Nantes. The Revolutionary Tribunal has refused him this just request under pretence that he wished to gain time by this method.

Gabriel Brute recounts what happened when his mother took in refugees from the conflict in the Vendee.  Taken from Memoirs of the Right Reverend Simon WM. Gabriel Brute, The Catholic Publication Society, New York (1876) p193

My mother pitied and respected them, and did all that was in her power to protect and aid them. It was the more sad for them, for at the same time no less than fourteen soldiers were billeted upon us a party of those very men who had just been committing such horrors in La Vendee, and amidst their riotings their chief occupation was to boast of what they had done, taking pleasure apparently in rehearsing their basest and most abominable deeds, so that these poor Vendean exiles, notwithstanding all the care of my mother, were obliged, more or less, to listen to these heart-rending details, and to have their wounds opened afresh, for nothing made these monsters worse than the sight of their victims.