The War in the Vendée was a counter-revolution in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the Loire River in western France. Initially, the war was similar to the 14th-century Jacquerie peasant uprising, but quickly acquired themes considered by the Jacobin government in Paris to be counter-revolutionary, and Royalist. The uprising headed by the newly formed Catholic and Royal Army was comparable to the Chouannerie, which took place in the area north of the Loire.
Maurice-Joseph-Louis Gigost d'Elbée was a French Royalist military leader. Initially enthusiastic about the Revolution, he became disenchanted with the disestablishment of the Catholic Church and retired to his estates in Beaupreau. He was the second commander in chief of the Royal and Catholic Army formed by Royalist forces of the Vendean insurrection against the Republic and the French Revolution.
The city of Hamburg was one of the most powerful fortresses east of the Rhine. After being freed from Napoleonic rule by advancing Cossacks and other following Coalition troops it was once more occupied by Marshal Davout's French XIII Corps on 28 May 1813, at the height of the German Campaign during the War of the Sixth Coalition from French rule and occupation. Ordered to hold the city at all costs, Davout launched a characteristically energetic campaign against a similar numbered Army of the North made up of Prussian and other Coalition troops under the command of Count von Wallmoden-Gimborn, winning a number of minor engagements. Neither force was decidedly superior and the war ground to a halt and resulted in a rather stable front line between Lübeck and Lauenburg and further south along the Elbe river, even after the end of the cease-fire of the summer 1813. In October 1813 a French column's movement towards Dannenberg resulted in the only major engagement in the North of Germany, the Battle of the Göhrde. The defeated French troops retreated back to Hamburg.
The [First] Battle of Stockach occurred on 25 March 1799, when French and Austrian armies fought for control of the geographically strategic Hegau region in present-day Baden-Württemberg. In the broader military context, this battle constitutes a keystone in the first campaign in southwestern Germany during the Wars of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.
The Battle of Tournay (1794) or Tournai was fought on 22 May 1794 as part of the Flanders Campaign in the Belgian province of Hainaut on the Schelde River between French forces under General Pichegru and Coalition forces under Prince Josias of Coburg, in which the Coalition forces were victorious.
The Battles of Fontenay-le-Comte were fought on 16 May 1793 and on 25 May 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between forces of the French Republic under Alexis Chalbos and Royalist forces under Marquis de Lescure and Charles de Bonchamps. The battle was fought near the town of Fontenay-le-Comte in Vendée, France, and ended in a Royalist victory. The first battle resulted in the town's successful resistance to the insurgent army; the second battle resulted in the Vendean victory.
The Second Battle of Cholet was fought on 17 October 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French Republican forces under General Jean Léchelle and French Royalist Forces under Maurice d'Elbée. The battle was fought in the town of Cholet in the Maine-et-Loire department of France, and resulted in a Republican victory. D’Elbée was wounded and captured; he was later executed by Republican troops in Noirmoutier. The Royalist insurgent, Charles Melchior Artus de Bonchamps, was fatally wounded in the battle.
In the Siege of Almeida, the French corps of Marshal Michel Ney captured the border fortress from Brigadier General William Cox's Portuguese garrison. This action was fought in the summer of 1810 during the Peninsular War portion of the Napoleonic Wars. Almeida is located in eastern Portugal, near the border with Spain.
The Army of the Coasts of Brest was a French Revolutionary Army formed on 30 April 1793 by splitting the Army of the Coasts into this army and the Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg. The formation was first put under the command of Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux and charged with fighting the War in the Vendée, combatting the Chouannerie and protecting the coasts of Brittany against a British invasion. After successfully defending Nantes and suffering setbacks at Tiffauges and Montaigu, Canclaux was recalled on 5 October 1793 and many of the army's soldiers were absorbed into the Army of the West. Over the next few years, Jean Antoine Rossignol, Jean-François-Auguste Moulin, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Lazare Hoche and Gabriel Venance Rey led the army in turn. In June–July 1795 the army crushed a Royalist invasion at Quiberon. On 5 January 1796 the formation and two other armies were merged into the Army of the Coasts of the Ocean and placed under the command of Hoche.
The Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle was an army of the French Revolution which was created on 30 April 1793 and responsible for defending a region from the mouth of the Loire River south to the Gironde. Despite its relatively short existence, the army fought numerous battles during the War in the Vendée including Thouars, Fontenay-le-Comte, Saumur, First Châtillon, Vihiers, Luçon, Chantonnay, Coron and Saint-Fulgent. Many of the battles resulted in Republican defeats at the hands of the Vendean Royalists. Of the two principal army commanders, Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duke of Biron was dismissed and later executed by guillotine while Jean Antoine Rossignol was a political appointee who was generally acknowledged to be incompetent. The army was absorbed by the Army of the West on 5 October 1793.
Digby Smith is a British military historian. The son of a British career soldier, he was born in Hampshire, England, but spent several years in India and Pakistan as a child and youth. As a "boy soldier," he entered training in the British Army at the age of 16. He was later commissioned in the Royal Corps of Signals, and held several postings with the British Army of the Rhine.
The Battle of Orbaizeta was fought from 15 to 17 October 1794 during the War of the Pyrenees, between the French Army of the western Pyrenees led by Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey and Spanish forces under the command of Pedro Téllez-Girón, 9th Duke of Osuna. Part of the wider French Revolutionary Wars, this engagement was fought over a wide area to the northwest and northeast of Pamplona in Navarre and ended in a French victory. The Spanish defenders gave up territory to the north of Pamplona, including a number of strategic locations.
The Battle of Puente Sanpayo or Battle of San Payo took place at Ponte Sampaio, Pontevedra, between 7–9 June 1809 during the Peninsular War. The Spanish forces commanded by Colonel Pablo Morillo defeated the French forces of Marshall Michel Ney. Ney and his forces were forced to retreat and the French offensive to re-capture the cities of Vigo and Pontevedra was a failure. The battle marked the final evacuation of Galicia by the French army and the creation of a new front.
In the Battle of Castalla a small Spanish army commanded by Joseph O'Donnell advanced to attack an Imperial French division under the leadership of Jean Isidore Harispe. O'Donnell's battle plan was poorly conceived and the outnumbered French smashed his center column before his right and left wings could intervene. The engagement occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was fought near Castalla, 32 kilometres (20 mi) north-west of Alicante, Spain.
The Battle of Sans Culottes Camp saw a Spanish Royal army commanded by José de Urrutia y de las Casas attack part of the Republican French Army of the Western Pyrenees under Jean-Henri-Guy-Nicolas de Frégeville. The Spanish assault seized two key positions behind the Bidasoa River but was unable to overrun the main position, called Sans Culottes Camp after an eight-hour contest. The War of the Pyrenees action was fought at a location described as being "in front" of Saint-Jean-de-Luz near the modern border between Spain and France.
Augustin Tuncq, born in Conteville (Somme) on 27 August 1746 and died in Paris on 9 February 1800, served in the French military during the reign of the House of Bourbon and was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars. Most notably, he commanded Republican forces during the War in the Vendée and successfully defended Chalot from Vendean attack. He was a severe critic of his commander, Jean Antoine Rossignol, who later had him arrested and returned to Paris for trial. Accused by Jacques Hébert, he was saved from conviction only by the fall of the Hébertists, and the execution of Hébert himself. He subsequently commanded the coastal defenses at Brest, and was a divisional commander in Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino's column of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle during the Rhine Campaign of 1796. After the campaign he tried several times to retire; he died of injuries from a carriage accident in Paris in 1800.
René François Lecomte, born 14 May 1764 in Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée), died on 15 October 1793 in Bressuire (Deux-Sèvres), was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars, and, in particular, the War in the Vendée.
Charles Aimé de Royrand became a Vendean leader in the War in the Vendée, a revolt against the French Revolution. He joined the French Royal Army and served in an infantry regiment during the American Revolutionary War before retiring to his estates in 1780. When the Vendean insurrection broke out in 1793 he was chosen as the leader of the southern army. He led rebel forces at Luçon, Cholet and Entrames. He was fatally wounded at Entrames on 26 October and died at Baugé-en-Anjou.
The Battle of Chantonnay saw Royalist and Republican French forces clash at Chantonnay during the War in the Vendée. In the wake of his victory at Luçon, Augustin Tuncq sent 7,000 Republican troops under René François Lecomte to occupy an exposed position at Chantonnay. Reacting to the threat, 25,000 Vendeans rebels with 21 cannons led by Maurice d'Elbée and Charles de Bonchamps attacked and crushed the Republicans in a four-hour struggle in which François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers distinguished himself. Only 2,500 out of 7,500 Republicans escaped the disaster.
The Battle of Saint-Fulgent saw Royalist and Republican French forces clash at Saint-Fulgent during the War in the Vendée. The 11,000 Vendean rebels led by Henri de La Rochejaquelein defeated a 6,000-man Republican division commanded by Jean Quirin de Mieszkowski belonging to the Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle. Half of the Republican force was killed, wounded or captured while rebel losses were only one-tenth as high. In mid-September the Republican Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle led by Jean Antoine Rossignol advanced into the Vendée from the south and east while the Army of the Coasts of Brest and the Army of Mainz under Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux advanced from the west. In a series of battles at Coron, Pont-Barré, Tiffauges, Montaigu and Saint-Fulgent, the Royalist rebels concentrated against and defeated each Republican column in turn.
