Second battle at Cholet
| date | October 17, 1793 |
|---|---|
| place | Cholet |
| output | Republican victory |
| consequences | Virée de Galerne |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Commander | |
|
• Jean Léchelle |
• Maurice d'Elbée |
| Troop strength | |
| 26,000 | 40,000 |
| losses | |
|
2000 to 4000 killed or wounded |
7,000 to 8,000 killed or wounded / 12 cannons |
The Second Battle of Cholet took place on October 17, 1793 during the Vendée uprising . It ended in a victory for the Republican troops. It was the biggest battle of the entire conflict - it involved around 66,000 people.
prehistory
On the morning of October 15, 1793, the Armée catholique et royale de Vendée had been defeated in the battle of La Tremblaye . With no ammunition and no artillery, she had to evacuate Cholet and retreat to Beaupréau . The republican vanguard under the Général Michel de Beaupuy reached Cholet from the south, crossed the place and took up position in the north. Kleber deployed the rest of the troops and then positioned the divisions of Beaupuy and Nicolas Haxo on the left side of the castle of La Treille and those of Général Louis Antoine Vimeux on the right of the castle Bois-Grolleau. Meanwhile, François-Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, together with Général Marc Amand Élisée Scherb, occupied the center in front of la Papinière, where the site was cheapest.
Kléber then reported the situation to Jean Léchelle , the commander in chief of the Armée de l'Ouest , who merely approved the situation. Since Léchelle's military competence was nil, most of the representatives had agreed to give Kléber informal command.
In the evening, the commissioners Pierre Bourbotte, René-Pierre Choudieu, Joseph-Pierre-Marie Fayau and Antoine Dubois met de Bellegarde, which with the already present Antoine Merlin de Thionville, Jean-Baptiste Carrier , the number of those present in Cholet and Louis Turreau Représentant en mission also increased to seven. The Republican forces were still waiting to reinforce General Alexis Chalbos' 10,000 men before advancing further north and Beaupréau ; the latter finally appeared in the night.
Republican Army Strategy
On the morning of October 17, the Republican generals met for a council of war. Kléber proposed dividing the army into three columns and marching on Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, Gesté and Beaupréau to enclose the Vendée army and cut it off from the Loire and the road to Nantes. The plan was endorsed by the generals of the Armée de Mayence , Marceau and the Représentant en mission Merlin de Thionville , but several other officers, especially Chalbos, rejected it. The latter thought his troops were too tired and the other officers did not want to split up the army. Kleber's plan was rejected and the council finally decided on a concentrated march on Beaupréau.
Strategy of the Armée Catholique et Royale
In Beaupréau, the General Staff of the Vendée Army held a council of war at noon on October 16, which showed that there was just as much division here. Charles Artus de Bonchamps proposed that the Loire department be handed over to the Bretons of his division in order to increase the security of Brittany and to get reinforcements. Antoine-Philippe de La Trémoïlle, Charles Marie de Beaumont d'Autichamp and Guy Joseph de Donnissan wanted to cross the Loire with the whole army. On the other hand, the commander-in-chief Maurice Gigost d'Elbée, Henri de La Rochejaquelein and Stofflet refused to leave the Vendée. Charles de Royrand , however, wanted to try a breakthrough to the west in order to establish a connection with the army of François Athanase de Charette de la Contrie .
Eventually the attack on Cholet was decided and the army set out. However, Talmont managed to set off from Bonchamps to Saint-Florent-le-Vieil with 4,000 men from the army in order to take Varades .
On the march to Cholet, the officer Boutiller de Saint-André noted:
"Je ne vis dans ces hommes jadis si braves, si confiants, que de l'abattement et du désespoir, ils marchaient avec calme et résignation, comme des chrétiens au martyre, mais non plus comme des héros à la victoire. Je me dis: c'en est fait! La dernière heure de la Vendée est sun ... »
“I saw in these men, once so brave, so confident, nothing but discouragement and despair, they went with calm and resignation, like Christians to martyrdom, but no longer like heroes to victory. I said to myself: It's done! The last hour of the Vendée is dawning ...! "
The battle
In the early afternoon of October 17, the Vendée Army was grouped 40,000 men and attacked the 26,000 to 27,000 strong republican lines north of Cholet. La Rochejaquelein quickly succeeded the outposts of Beaupuy and Haxo on the grounds of the To push back Papinière. The Vendéers then set the local gorse on fire, the immense smoke that emitted from it prevented the Republican artillery from aiming precisely.
Contrary to their usual tactics, the Vendéer advanced like regular troops in three lines and in close formation.
Henri de La Rochejaquelein and Charles de Royrand commanded the right flank, Maurice Gigost d'Elbée and Charles Artus de Bonchamps the center, Stofflet and Gaspard de Bernard de Marigny the left flank. Marceau's troops were fired at by a dozen cannons and began to give way. Kléber had to mobilize the reserves, the troops of Chalbos were used to support Marceau. However, as soon as they got to the battlefield, the 4,000 men of General François Muller's brigade fled the Vendée at the sight of the mass of the constantly advancing fighters and withdrew to Cholet, causing great confusion there.
Jean-Baptiste Carrier had fled himself.
In Bois-Grolleau, Louis Antoine Vimeux and Marc Amand Élisée Scherb prevailed against Jean-Nicolas Stofflet and Bernard de Marigny. In La Treille, however, the troops of Nicolas Haxo and Michel de Beaupuy avoided the troops of Henri de La Rochejaquelein and Charles de Royrandund and withdrew to the suburbs of Cholet. Jean-Baptiste Kléber then pushed to this flank, regrouped some battalions of his reserves and the 109th e régiment d'infanterie de ligne and ordered them to bypass the lines of the Vendéer in order to attack them from behind. The order was carried out correctly; the Vendéers, seeing this force attacking them from the flank, believed that a new Republican army had come as reinforcements and they hesitated. They were able to resist the republicans' counterattack for a while, but when the forces of Jean-Baptiste Kléber, Antoine Bard and Michel de Beaupuy were overwhelming, they panicked and fled.
In the center Marceau had his artillery stationed behind the infantry. When the Vendéer began the attack, Marceau withdrew his infantry and unmasked his cannons at the last moment. The massed gunfire mowed down large numbers of Vendee soldiers. Surprised, the white center fled while the Republican infantry counterattacked. D'Elbée and Bonchamps knew that victory was within their grasp and with a few hundred horsemen and infantrymen tried to rally their troops, but to no avail. Eventually they found themselves almost surrounded by the Republicans. Beaten back and badly wounded, d'Elbée and Bonchamps fell out almost simultaneously. The last of the Vendées then fled, taking their wounded leaders with them. The escape finally became general and the screams "à la Loire" could be heard. In Pontreau, however, the troops of Lyrot and Piron de La Varenne managed to intervene in time to protect the army's retreat to Beaupréau.
Jean-Baptiste Kléber later commented:
«Les rebelles combattaient comme des tigres et nos soldiers comme des lions»
"(The rebels fought like tigers, our soldiers like lions)"
.
Crossing the Loire
However, when the Vendée generals arrived in Beaupréau, they decided not to stay in the city and the entire army moved on to Saint-Florent-le-Vieil to cross the Loire. Since the expedition of Antoine-Philippe de La Trémoïlle and Charles Marie de Beaumont d'Autichamp in Varades had no further success, the invasion of Brittany was free.
Only Maurice Gigost d'Elbée, seriously wounded, did not follow the army. A small number of soldiers from the Vendée led him west to the army of François Athanase Charette de La Contrie, where he had to take refuge in Noirmoutier-en-l'Île .
In the meantime, the Republican army had returned to Cholet. François-Joseph Westermann, on the other hand, who had remained as rearguard in Châtillon-sur-Sèvre during the battle , wanted to pursue the Vendéer. Followed by the troops of Michel de Beaupuy and Nicolas Haxo, he had a clash with the 8,000 men of the Vendée rearguard, but managed to penetrate Beaupréau. The city was deserted, however, with the exception of 400 wounded soldiers from the Vendée who were killed in retaliation for the massacre of wounded Republicans during the battle at Pallet .
Throughout the day of October 17th and 18th, the Vendéer boats paced ceaselessly on the river to bring the Vendée army to safety, accompanied by tens of thousands of wounded, elderly, women and children. The Vendéer had also brought 4,000 to 5,000 republican prisoners with them, could not bring them across the Loire and the officers did not know what to do with them.
The grace of de Bonchamps
The wife of Général Louis de Salgues de Lescure, Victoire de Donnissan de La Rochejaquelein wrote in her memoir:
"Mr. Cesbon d'Argognes, an old Chevalier de Saint-Louis, had led them. He was a very tough man, he shot nine of them on the way while trying to escape. They could not be dragged any further, nor could they be made to cross the river. What should you do with the four to five thousand prisoners in Saint-Florent? That was the officers' concern; I was there and they all agreed that they should be shot immediately; that was the general opinion, but then they asked, "Who will go and give the order?" One said that these unfortunate people, most of whom were caught four or five months ago, were not the cause of the massacres, that this terrible, cold-blooded slaughter was beyond its power; another said that it would, so to speak, legitimize the atrocities committed by the blues; that it would double the anger of the patriots and prevent them from giving mercy to any living being in the Vendée, where more than half the population still lives. After all, since nobody wanted to enforce such a barbaric decision, every officer withdrew without an order. M. de Lescure had not been able to take part in any deliberations, he was lying on a mattress and I was sitting on her when they talked about the killing of the prisoners, only I could hear him saying between his teeth: "What a horror ... "
The presence of the republican prisoners imprisoned in the church and in the Abbey of Saint-Florent was not hidden from the soldiers of the Vendée. They gathered, pointing their cannons at the church, demanding reprisals for their wounded generals and the devastation perpetrated by Republican forces.
Charles de Bonchamps had been transported to a house in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil . Seriously wounded in battle, he was dying when he learned that the Republican prisoners were about to be executed. He turned to his representative, Charles Marie de Beaumont d'Autichamp, and asked him to obtain mercy for the prisoners. The Marquise de Bonchamps, wife of the general, wrote in her memoir:
“The wound was so severe that it left no hope. M. de Bonchamps recognized it by the dark sadness that reigned over everyone present; he tried to ease the pain of his officers; then he urged that the last orders he was about to give should be carried out and immediately gave orders that the prisoners in the abbey should be killed. Then he turned to d'Autichamp and added: "My friend, this is surely the last order I will give you, give me the assurance that it will be carried out."
Charles Marie de Beaumont d'Autichamp then went to the north of the city, addressed the soldiers of the Vendée and read the letter from de Bonchamps:
“Comrades, you have obeyed me to this day, that is the last order of my life; as your commanding officer, I order you to pardon my prisoners. When the command of a dying leader has no power over you, I ask you in the name of humanity, in the name of God for whom you are fighting! Comrades, if you disobey my command and my prayer, I will let myself be carried under my prisoners and your first blows will fall on me ”
.
Then he exclaimed: “Mercy the prisoners, de Bonchamps orders it, the dying de Bonchamps wants it”.
As de Bonchamps was loved by his soldiers, he was obeyed and the prisoners were released. De Bonchamps succumbed to his wounds on October 18, around 11 p.m. in La Meilleraie . His grave can be found in the abbey church of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil.
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Virée de Galerne
The Republicans cheered after the victory at Cholet, convinced that the war had definitely been won and that the last Vendéans cornered on the Loire could easily be destroyed. On October 21, the Angers representatives wrote to the Welfare Committee :
"The Convention a voulu que la guerre de la Vendée fût terminée avant la fin d'octobre, et nous pouvons lui dire aujourd'hui qu'il n'existe plus de Vendée [...] Une solitude profonde règne actuellement dans le pays qu'occupaient les rebelles [...] Nous n'avons laissé derrière nous que des cendres et des cadavres »
“The convention wanted the war in the Vendée to be over at the end of October and we can tell it today that there is no longer any Vendée [...] In the country occupied by the rebels, there is now a deep loneliness [...] We only left ashes and corpses ... "
.
On October 19, at 3:00 a.m., a detachement hussars penetrated under the Capitaine Hauteville in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil , but found the place deserted. All Vendéers had moved north to the Loire. The entire Republican army quickly followed, but since the area was empty, the Republican officers had to admit that the Vendeans had indeed managed to cross the river, which they had thought impossible in such a short time.
Napoleon I will say:
«Mes ingénieurs sont des hommes habiles, mais à Saint-Florent les Vendéens furent des Sylphes. »
"My engineers are skilled men, but in Saint-Florent the Vendéers were like the sylphs "
The released Republican prisoners were brought back as quickly as possible. Merlin de Thionville wrote to the Welfare Committee:
"D'Elbée est blessé à mort. Bonchamps n'a plus que quelques heures à vivre. Ces lâches ennemis de la Nation ont, à ce qui se dit ici, épargné plus de quatre mille des nôtres qu'ils tenaient prisonniers. Le fait est vrai, car je le tiens de la bouche même de plusieurs d'entre eux. Quelques-uns se laissaient toucher par ce trait d'incroyable hypocrisie. Je les ai pérorés, et ils ont bientôt compris qu'ils ne devaient aucune reconnaissance aux Brigands… Des hommes libres acceptant la vie de la main des esclaves! Ce n'est pas révolutionnaire… N'en parlez pas même à la Convention. Les Brigands n'ont pas le temps d'écrire ou de faire des journaux. Cela s'oubliera comme tant d'autres choses. »
“D'Elbée is wounded to death. Bonchamps only has a few hours to live. These cowardly enemies of the nation, it is said here, have spared more than four thousand of the people they held captive. That is true because I have heard it from the mouth of many of them. Some of them were touched by this incredible hypocrisy trait. I spoke to them and they soon realized that they owed no thanks to the robbers ... Free people who accept life through slaves! It's not revolutionary ... don't even mention it in front of the convention. The robbers don't have time to write or keep records ... They, like so many other things, will be forgotten. "
But contrary to the hopes of the Republicans, the Vendée War was not over, a new campaign that began Virée de Galerne threatened to upset Brittany and the Comté du Maine and to prolong the war north of the Loire - Général Kléber declared:
«Vive la République! La guerre de la Vendée est finie ... Hélas! Elle n'avait fait que changer de théâtre »
“Long live the republic! The Vendée War is over ... Oh! He just changed the theater. "
Coordinates: 47 ° 3 '36 " N , 0 ° 52' 42" W.
literature
- Émile Gabory "Les Guerres de Vendée" Editeur Robert Laffont 2009 pp. 276–285.
- Charles-Louis Chassin “La Vendée Patriote (1793-1800)” Editeur Paul Dupont 1893–1895 pp. 206–219.
- Yves Gras “La Guerre de Vendée (1793-1796)” Éditeur Economica 1994 pp. 85–95.
- Jean Tabeur “Paris contre la Province, les guerres de l'Ouest Éditeur” Economica 2008 pp. 147–150.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ernest Colon: Cartes de lieux de batailles durant la guerre de Vendée
- ↑ Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , pp. 85–86
- ↑ Emile Gabory, Les Guerres de Vendée , pp. 276-277.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Émile Gabory, Les Guerres de Vendée , pp. 277–278.
- ^ Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , pp. 86-87.
- ^ Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , p. 87
- ↑ a b c d Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , p. 89.
- ↑ Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , pp. 88–89.
- ↑ Jean Tabeur, Paris contre la Province, les guerres de l'Ouest , S. 148th
- ↑ Emile Gabory, Les Guerres de Vendée , p. 282.
- ^ Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , p. 94.
- ^ Charles-Louis Chassin, La Vendée Patriote (1793-1800) , p. 215.
- ^ Yves Gras, La Guerre de Vendée , p. 90.
Footnotes
-
↑ According to Gabory, 15,000 men were in poor condition
* according to the Vendée officer Poirier de Beauvais 40,000 men
* according to Kléber 40,000 men
* according to Berthre de Bourniseaux 38,000 infantrymen, 7,500 cavalrymen and 18 cannons -
↑ * 10,500 men of the Armée de Mayence
* 1,200 men of the 1st battalion of the 79 e régiment d'infanterie de ligne and the 119 e régiment d'infanterie de ligne
* 3,500 men of the Colonne de Luçon
* 11,000 to 12,000 men of the Chalbos division