Prelude
The victory of the Chouans at the Battle of Saint James had brought them a reprieve, quickly Republican troops came in support to occupy massively the country of Fougères and the country of Avranches. On January 24, 1,200 men arrived in reinforcement from Rennes, at Saint James General Dumoulin also received reinforcements from Avranches.
Aimé du Boisguy therefore decided to evacuate the country of Fougères, leaving only four companies responsible for guerrilla warfare. Boisguy did not know at this time the submission of Anjou, he decided to go south to gather the troops of Vitré, La Guerche-de-Bretagne and Bas-Maine, he sent letters to the officers of these divisions, asking them to gather all their troops.
The battle
On 26 January, Boisguy's army assembled to set out. There was, however, a clash between 4 Chouan companies going to the rally and a Republican detachment who retreated to Fougères after losing 18 men. 4,500 men according to Pontbriand then went out of the city and repulsed the four companies, then arrived at the sight of the troops of Boisguy who came in reinforcement, however the two troops retreated without fighting. To their surprise, the Chouans, however, continued to hear Republican fire long after their departure. But Boisguy did not attach importance to these actions: he planned to go to Vitré bypassing the east, but he had to go to Parigné first, where he had ammunition made lacking his soldiers because of too many skirmishes. Boisguy therefore decided to postpone his departure until the next day and to camp at Parigné for the night. The chouans took the road to Vieuville for Parigné and arrived at the place called Tombettes. The Republicans commanded by General Dumoulin awaited them in excellent training and well positioned. Dumoulin, who was going to Fougères, had heard the shooting earlier in the day and had guessed the retreat of the Chouans. Soon, the Republicans began encirclement maneuvers.
Boisguy judged that it was impossible to avoid the fight and decided to try a breakthrough. The chouans launched the attack and the chouane avant-garde commanded by Bertrand de Saint-Gilles managed to push back the front lines of the Republicans and make their way. But the cartridges were missing from the Chouans and attacked on the flanks and behind, they were dislocated and routed, 50 of them were killed, hundreds scattered on all sides. According to the Republicans, the losses of the Chouans were 800 dead. However, Dumoulin chose not to pursue them and left for Fougères. Boisguy managed to get to Parigné, but could only gather 1,000 to 1,200 of his men.
Avranches is a commune in the Manche department, and the region of Normandy, northwestern France. It is a subprefecture of the department. The inhabitants are called Avranchinais.
Fougères is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department, located in Brittany, northwestern France. As of 2017, Fougères had 20,418 inhabitants. The Fougères area comprises approximately 88,000 inhabitants and is currently growing, unlike the town centre.
Chouan is a French nickname. It was used as a nom de guerre by the Chouan brothers, most notably Jean Cottereau, better known as Jean Chouan, who led a major revolt in Bas-Maine against the French Revolution. Participants in this revolt – and to some extent French anti-revolutionary activists in general – came to be known as Chouans, and the revolt itself came to be known as the Chouannerie.
The following is a list of the 27 cantons of the Ille-et-Vilaine department, in France, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:
Henri du Vergier, comte de la Rochejaquelein was the youngest general of the Royalist Vendéan insurrection during the French Revolution. At the age of 21, he served as commander-in-chief of the Catholic and Royal Army.
Charles Armand Tuffin, marquis de la Rouërie, also known in the United States as "Colonel Armand," was a Breton cavalry officer who served under the American flag in the American War of Independence. He was promoted to brigadier general after the Battle of Yorktown. He is also known as a founder and early leader of the Breton Association during the French Revolution. La Rouërie is less-remembered than Lafayette and others in writings of French participation in the Revolutionary war.
The Chouannerie was a royalist uprising or counter-revolution in twelve of the western départements of France, particularly in the provinces of Brittany and Maine, against the First Republic during the French Revolution. It played out in three phases and lasted from spring 1794 to 1800.
The arrondissement of Fougères-Vitré is an arrondissement of France in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in the Brittany region. It has 106 communes. Its population is 184,039 (2016), and its area is 2,173.2 km2 (839.1 sq mi).
Jean Chouan was the nom de guerre of the Frenchman, Jean Cottereau, who was born in Saint-Berthevin, near Laval, in the department of Mayenne on 30 October 1757 and died 18 July 1794 in Olivet, Mayenne. He was a counter-revolutionary, an insurrectionist and a staunch royalist.
Les Chouans is an 1829 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) and included in the Scènes de la vie militaire section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in the French region of Brittany, the novel combines military history with a love story between the aristocratic Marie de Verneuil and the Chouan royalist Alphonse de Montauran. It takes place during the 1799 post-war uprising in Fougères.
The Catholic and Royal Armies is the name given to the royalist armies in western France composed of insurgents during the war in the Vendée and the Chouannerie, who opposed the French Revolution.
The second Battle of Saint-Aubin du Cormier was a conflict between the anti-revolutionary Chouans and the French Republican forces during the Chouannerie. The First Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier took place in 1488.
The Invasion of France in 1795 or the Battle of Quiberon was a major landing on the Quiberon peninsula by émigré, counter-revolutionary troops in support of the Chouannerie and Vendée Revolt, beginning on 23 June and finally definitively repulsed on 21 July. It aimed to raise the whole of western France in revolt, bring an end to the French Revolution and restore the French monarchy. The invasion failed; it had a major negative impact, dealing a disastrous blow to the royalist cause.
The Armée des émigrés were counter-revolutionary armies raised outside France by and out of royalist émigrés, with the aim of overthrowing the First French Republic and restoring the monarchy. These were aided by royalist armies within France itself, such as the Chouans, and by allied countries such as Great Britain. They fought, for example, at the sieges of Lyon and Toulon.
Aimé Casimir Marie Picquet, chevalier du Boisguy, sometimes spelt Bois-Guy,, was a Breton chouan general during the French Revolution. He was nicknamed "the little general" by his men due to his youth. Still a child at the outbreak of the Revolution, he signalled his precocity to fight on the Royalist side, joining the Breton Association at 15 and becoming aide de camp to La Rouërie. At 17 he was made leader of the chouannerie in the pays de Fougères, and a general at 19. Boisguy made the north-east of the Ille-et-Vilaine one of the most active areas of the Breton chouannerie, and showed himself an excellent tactician. Rarely beaten, the chouans there were among the best organised and best disciplined. Fighting in uniform from the end of 1795 and made up of elite troops, even so they suffered from a lack of cavalry and a near-total lack of artillery. The Republicans had to raise major forces to defeat them, and then only with difficulty. In both 1796 and 1800, Boisguy was the last general to surrender, making him one of the main figures of the chouannerie.
The Virée de Galerne was a military operation of the war in the Vendée during the French Revolutionary Wars across Brittany and Normandy. It takes its name from French virée (turn) and Breton gwalarn.
Antoine Philippe de La Trémoïlle, Prince of Talmont was a French noble and royalist notable for his military involvement against the French Revolution.
Henri Victor Roulland, or Rouland was a French Brigadier General of the French Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars. He led the heroic defense of the fortress of Landrecies during the Siege of Landrecies (1794), but was forced to surrender after a devastating artillery bombardment that lasted three days.
The French–Breton War lasted from 1487 to 1491. The cause of this war was the approaching death of the Breton Duke Francis II of Brittany, who had no clear successor. If not resolved, this meant a resumption of issues from a previous War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364), which had rival claimants allying with England or France, resulting in an ambiguous peace treaty that failed to prevent future succession disputes.
The Avranches massacre took place on 21 November 1793 in the context of the savage "Vendée" civil war that broke out in the west of France between 1793 and 1796, during the French Revolution. It involved the killing by firing squad at Avranches of approximately 800 prisoners.
Republicans 
Chouans