French Revolution; session v. war

Aux Armes, Citoyens!
French Revolution
session v
war & counterrevolution

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Aux Armes, Citoyens! The Battle of
Varoux
November 1792
French Revolution
session v
war & counterrevolution


War never solves anything.

Well, perhaps not...


but it certainly changes things.

Following the French declaration of war on Austria in 1792, Rouget
de Lisle, a French oﬃcer stationed in Strasbourg, composed the
"Battle Song of the Army of the Rhine" during the night of April
25-26, in the home of citizen Dietrich, the Mayor of the city.


The song was taken up by the fédérés from Marseilles who took part in the
Tuileries insurrection on August 10, 1792. It proved so successful it was declared a
national song on July 14, 1795.

Following the French declaration of war on Austria in 1792, Rouget
de Lisle, a French oﬃcer stationed in Strasbourg, composed the
"Battle Song of the Army of the Rhine" during the night of April
25-26, in the home of citizen Dietrich, the Mayor of the city.

Rouget de Lisle singing the Marsei!aise for the ﬁrst time in his home


Aux armes, citoyens

Aux armes, citoyens, To arms, citizens,
Formez vos batai!ons, Form your battalions,
Marchons, marchons! March, march!
Qu’un sang impur May an impure blood
Abreuve nos si!ons! W ater our furrows!


A!ons enfants de la Patrie,
Come, children of the Fatherland,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
The day of glory has arrived!
Aux armes, citoyens
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
Against us about the tyrant,
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis)
The bloody banner is raised, (repeat)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Do you hear into the countryside,
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
of those ferocious soldiers wailing?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras Aux armes, citoyens, To arms, citizens,
They're coming right into your arms
Égorger vos ﬁls, vos compagnes !
Formez vos batai!ons, Form your battalions,
To slay your sons and wives! Marchons, marchons! March, march!


Le depart de
1792
(La Marsei!aise)


A!ons enfants de la Patrie,
Come, children of the Fatherland, Nous entrerons dans la carrière
We shall enter in the (military) career
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
The day of glory has arrived!
Aux armes, citoyens Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus,
When our elders are no longer there,
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
Against us about the tyrant, Nous y trouverons leur poussière
There we shall find their dust
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis)
The bloody banner is raised, (repeat) Et la trace de leurs vertus (bis)
And the trace of their virtues (repeat)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Do you hear into the countryside, Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre
Much less jealous to survive them
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
of those ferocious soldiers wailing? Que de partager leur cercueil,
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras Aux armes, citoyens, To arms, citizens, Than to share their coffins,
They're coming right into your arms Nous aurons le sublime orgueil
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes !
Formez vos batai!ons, Form your battalions, shall have the sublime pride
We

To slay your sons and wives! Marchons, marchons! March, march! Deavenging or following them
Of
les venger ou de les suivre


Le depart de
1792
(La Marsei!aise)


Major topics for this session

• Military Reforms before the Revolution

• Opening Engagements

• Counterrevolution in the Vendée

• Levée en Masse

• “Organizer of Victory”

• The Rush upon Europe


Military Reforms before the Revolution


Military Reforms before the Revolution

Canons Gribeauval au musée de l'armée Paris


The Gribeauval System
• 1776-as IG of artillery, he standardized cannons as
either 12, 8 or 4 pounders (weight of cannon ball)

• this ended a wasteful variation in sizes and
ammunition, thus easing supply problems

• guns were drawn by four horses in pairs instead of
ﬁles

• gun carriages were improved, built to a uniform
model with the “trail” lengthened and the
hardwood axle replaced by iron

• sighting methods and equipment were also
Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste improved
Vaquette de Gribeauval
(1715 – 1789)
• these improvements brought French artillery well
in advance of other armies as the Revolution began


“If the infantry is the king of battles, then artillery is the queen.”
proverb
Piece de 12
Piece de 8

Piece de 4


Gribeauval’s standardized ammunition
fuse

shell
(iron)

charge

musket
balls sabot
(wood)

propellant

A. anti-personnel (for use against troops)
B. general purpose, good on fortiﬁcations
C. counter battery ﬁre (against enemy artillery) or wagons


Gribeauval 12 pdr


The Writings of Guibert

In 1770, at the age of twenty-seven, he published his famous Essai general
de tactique, and within a few years [it] had been translated even into the
Persian. Europe’s salon intellectuals and professional soldiers alike
discussed a work which exploded a bomb under current ideas of warfare.
Nor did the author limit himself to military theory, for in his preface he
sounds one of the first notes of the Revolution:

In the midst of the general feebleness the various governments,
themselves feeble but prolific in petty methods, extend the dull weight of
their oppression. They seem to be engaged in a secret war against their
subjects, corrupting one faction only to tyrannize over another.

The armies of Europe, declared Guibert, were composed of “the most vile
and miserable class of citizens … onerous to those nations in time of
peace, insufficient to reassure them in time of war.” As for the conflicts of
the age, he dismisses them in several contemptuous sentences:


The Writings of Guibert (cont.)
Conquerors or conquered, it makes little difference. The mass of national
debt accumulates. Credit declines. Funds are lacking. The fleets cannot
recruit more sailors, nor the army more soldiers. The ministers, between
themselves, sense that it is high time to negotiate. Peace is made. Several
colonies or provinces change hands. Often the cause of the quarrel is not
mentioned, and each side remains seated on the debris, occupied by
paying its debts and whetting its dull sword.
In his very next paragraph, however, Guibert foresees a possibility which
became historical fact a generation later:
But suppose there were to arise in Europe one vigorous nation, of method
and genius and sound government: a people who combined simple virtues
and a national militia with a fixed plan of aggrandizement; who never lost
sight of system; who knew how to make war at small expense and subsist
on their victories; who were not reduced to sheathing their sword by
calculations of finance. We would see this people subjugating their
neighbors … as the north wind blows down the frail reed!

Nobody accomplished more than he to inspire the victories he had
predicted.

Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, quoted in Lynn Montross, War Through the Ages, p. 447


Bourcet, Guibert’s mentor
• as a petty noble he was not eligible for supreme commands,
but he has been called the first great chief of staff

• 1759-when Guibert was sixteen he accompanied his father
in the Seven Years War and came in contact with Bourcet
and his ideas:

• “The plan is to threaten the enemy at all other points of his
position….This will make him divide his forces, and we can
then take advantage of the geographical conditions to
reunite our own at the critical point before he can unite his”

• 1763-after the war Bourcet became director of a school for
staff officers where he taught the importance of map
reading, mountain warfare and skills which would later be
called “Napoleonic”

• Principes de la guerre de montagnes circulated among staff
officers in secret manuscript copies
Pierre-Joseph de Bourcet
1700-1780
• we will see them at work in Napoleon’s Italian campaigns

“...derived, but developed and enlarged…”
• “Coming within reach of the enemy, the general either draws
oﬀ or strengthens certain columns according to his judgment,
advancing one, leaving another in the rear, directing this
toward one point, that toward another….The troops...form for
battle in an instant, beginning their attack before the enemy
has had time to determine the point where the blow is being
aimed, or, even if he has discovered the point, before he has
time to change his dispositions to ward oﬀ the blow.”

• “What will the enemy be able to do if surprised by this new
kind of war?...Will he change his position? If so, he will lose
the advantages of the ground on which he has relied, and be
obliged to accept a battle wherever he can.”

• “We must unite the greatest number of troops and the
greatest masses of artillery on the points where we wish to
Comte de Guibert
force the enemy’s position, while creating the illusion of 1743-1790
attack on the others….The moment when our troops should
assault is determined by the ravages that the artillery has
made on the troops and defenses of the foe.”


the Revolution transforms the military
• 1789- 6,633 of the 9,578 army officers were noble. The navy was even more unbalanced with
nearly 1,000 noble officers there

• the navy was confronted by a rival in the merchant service, whose bourgeois captains
considered themselves every bit as skilled at ship-handling

• the nobility were faced by a serious threat to both their careers and to the prestige of the
sword if the Assembly should carry out its work of leveling in the armed forces

• 1787-the Army Council, with Guibert as its secretary, had continued the gradual abolition
of the purchase system (something the British wouldn’t attempt until 1871!) and the
establishment of military training colleges in the provinces. Napoleon would attend one
such.

• the elimination of superfluous officers had brought the number down from 35,000 to
below 10,000

• the provincial nobility welcomed the Revolution, hoping it would break the monopoly of
the noblesse de cour (Versailles nobles) on the top posts. Several of the leading generals of
1792-3, such as Kellermann, Wimpfen, Dillon and Dumouriez belonged to this class


the Revolution transforms the military

• September 1790-the Constituent opened the officer corps to commoners, one quarter of
the sub-lieutenants were to be promoted from the ranks, the remainder chosen by
competitive exam

• January 1791-the number of staff officers was reduced from 216 to 34,but there was no
attempt at a general purge. The majority of officers remained noble

• the rank-and-file was reformed by abolition of the hated militia drawn from the peasantry

• national conscription was rejected at this time and the regular army would be recruited by
voluntary enlistment (plus a lottery when vols fell short) until 1793 and the levée en masse

• July 1789-the role of militia was replaced by the National Guard, a semi-military police
force which was used to reinforce troops in dealing with civil disturbances and could form
a reserve in time of war


from 1789 onwards discipline in the armed forces tended to
break down
• regiments disobeyed their officers and crews mutinied. In ports the naval authorities often
found themselves at loggerheads with the new municipalities

• many of the officers were correctly suspected of being royalists

• they began to leave the services in considerable numbers, either to retire or to join the
émigré forces:

• Artois at Coblentz

• the much more serious army that the veteran Condé was raising at Worms

• the more officers emigrated the more the Assembly tended to suspect those that remained

• July 1791-after Varennes a new oath of loyalty was imposed, from which the king’s name
was dropped. This was refused by 1,500 army officers

• January 1792-3,500--more than half the noble officers in 1789--had left. The aristocracy was
not evicted from the armed forces; they chose to leave a cause which their consciences no
longer allowed them to support


Opening Engagements


Opening Engagements

Batai!e de Valmy. le 20 septembre 1792 Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, 1835


Revolutionary War Leader

• born in Flanders (Belgium), of noble (epée) rank, he
attended Lycée Louis le Grand and began his military
career in the Seven Years War

• 1789-after a long and distinguished military career
under the ancien régime, he joined the Jacobins and
attached himself to Mirabeau

• 1790-was appointed French military advisor to the
newly established independent Belgian government
and remained dedicated to the cause of an
independent Belgian Republic

• 15 March 1792-became minister of foreign aﬀairs,
supported the declaration of war against Austria, and
sent armies north expecting the Belgians to welcome
them and help expel Austria from the Netherlands
Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez
1739 – 1823


...the first campaign of the wars that would end twenty-three years and a
million and a half dead Frenchmen later, began as a pathetic fiasco.

This was all the more shocking because the commanders appointed to the
three major theaters of war were all famous veterans of France’s successful
campaign in America. Lafayette, the center; Luckner, Alsace; and
Rochambeau, the hero of Yorktown, the most immediately critical zone
of the Belgian frontier….The French armies were far from prepared to
face the Austrians [with regard to numbers], battle readiness and
discipline….The increasing rate of emigration among officers after
Varennes had...deepened suspicions among the rank and file that officers…
might be deliberately betraying the patrie

Schama, p. 599


• the Dillons were Irish Catholic Jacobite oﬃcers in France, the so-called “wild
geese,” enobled by Louis XIV


• the Dillons were Irish Catholic Jacobite officers in France, the so-called “wild
geese,” enobled by Louis XIV

• 29 April 1792-Theobald Dillon was sent on a modest expedition against
Tournai on the Belgian border

• to do this he was given a force of 5,000, mostly regular cavalry, supplemented
by volunteers

• when Austrian cannons opened up, his soldiers fled. He was accused of leading
them into a trap, taken under guard to Lille, where he was torn by the mob
from his carriage

• the townsmen, soldiers and National Guard slashed his face, bayoneted him to
death and hanged his body from a lanterne. His leg was severed as a trophy and
paraded around the town before the rest of the corpse was thrown on a
bonfire


The commanders-in-chief of the armies became political "suspects"; and before a serious
action had been fought, the three armies commanded respectively by Rochambeau,
Lafayette and Luckner had been reorganized into two commanded by Dumouriez and
Kellermann. Thus the disciplined soldiers of the Allies had apparently good reason to
consider the campaign would be easy.

Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Wars:_Campaigns_of_1792


For many of the King of Prussia’s advisors, and for some in Austria, the
whole French adventure was a diversion if not an error, and the important
front lay in Poland, where it was expedient to make a quick end to the
Polish revolution…. The two German powers therefore held many of their
best troops for use on their eastern borders, believing in any case that no
full-scale military eﬀort would be necessary against a France weakened by
internal anarchy.

R.R. Palmer, Democratic Revolution, vol. ii, The Stru%le, p. 12


• On the Rhine, a combined army of Prussians, Austrians, Hessians and émigrés under the Duke
of Brunswick was formed for the invasion of France

• In the Southern (Austrian) Netherlands, plans called for the Austrians to besiege Lille, just
over the French border. In the south the Piedmontese also took the ﬁeld

• 25 July 1792-with the incredibly slow pace of warfare, which Bonaparte would bring to an end,
nothing had happened until Brunswick issued the ill-fated manifesto. Expressing the views of
the Queen via Fersen, it was issued against the advice of Brunswick himself, whose signature
appeared on it; the duke, a model sovereign in his own principality, sympathized with the
constitutional side of the French Revolution, while as a soldier he had no conﬁdence in the
success of the enterprise.

• 19 August 1792-after completing its preparations in the leisurely manner of the previous
generation, his army crossed the French frontier. The Allies readily captured Longwy and
slowly marched on to Verdun, which appeared more indefensible even than Longwy




. .
Longwy
Verdun


Pied-
mont






• 3 September 1792-The commandant of Verdun, Col. Beaurepaire, shot himself in despair, and
the place surrendered


From this place and from this day forth commences a
new era in the world's history, and you can all say that
you were present at its birth.-- J. W. v. Goethe


the statue of Kellermann
at Valmy


Alsatian German, French hero

• his was a Saxon family, long settled in Strasbourg and ennobled
there

• 1757-63--served in the Seven Years War

• 1771-made a lieutenant-colonel in Louis XV’s Polish expedition

• 1784-made brigadier and in the following year marechal-de-camp

• 1789-enthusiastically embraced the revolution

• 1791-became general of the army in Alsace

• April 1792-made a lieutenant general, and in that fall came the
opportunity and the glory of Valmy
François Christophe Kellermann
or de Kellermann • twice challenged, imprisoned for thirteen months and acquitted
1st Duc de Valmy (under Napoleon) by the National Convention during the Terror, a period of
1735 –1820
heightened distrust of aristocratic oﬃcers


aftermath

This engagement was the turning point of the campaign. Ten days
later, without firing another shot, the invading army began its retreat.
Dumouriez's pursuit was not seriously pressed; he occupied himself
chiefly with a series of subtle and curious negotiations which, with
the general advance of the French troops, brought about the
complete withdrawal of the allied invaders from the soil of France.
The day after this first victory of the French revolutionary troops, on
21 September, in Paris, the French monarchy was abolished and the
First French Republic proclaimed. The battle of Valmy was really the
first victory of an army inspired by citizenship and nationalism, and
marked the death knell of the era of absolute monarchy

Wikipedia; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Valmy


more to celebrate
• instead of going into winter quarters,
Dumouriez followed the Austrians into
Belgium

• 6 November 1792-with a greatly superior
force, he attacked near the city of Mons

• the duc d’Orleans, Philippe Egalité, now
General Egalité, sent a massive column
against the enemy’s center

• his costly but eﬀective charges,
“bellowing the Marseillaise,” broke the
Austrian position Batai!e de Jemmapes
6 November 1792

• the excellent French artillery, once again,
proved the value of Gribeauval’s reforms

• Mons surrendered the day after the
battle and Brussels on the 14th


The decrees of 19 November and 15 December 1792

[The case of foreign radicals living in exile in France] came before the
Convention...which enacted as a temporary measure, pending further
review of the question of occupied territories during the war, the famous
decree of November 19, 1792, “according aid and fraternity to all peoples
wishing to recover their liberty….”

...the Convention, on December 15, issued its famous decree on policy to be
pursued in occupied countries during the war….The two together have been
commonly called the Propaganda Decrees, though mere propaganda was
hardly their purpose…. Its most immediate purpose was to arrange for
supply of the French armies in Belgium. French generals in the ﬁeld were
directed to seize the revenues of enemies of the Republic, that is to say, of
the enemy governments, the noble and feudal classes, and the church. The
decree was explained…Guerre aux châteaux, paix aux chaumières--war on the
castles and manor houses, peace to the cottages and cabins. The enemies of
the Revolution were to pay for its triumphs.

Palmer, The Stru%le, pp. 59, 61-62


the international revolution
• most colorful of the international revolutionary
immigrants to France during the Revolution

• born in Cleves, a Prussian city on the Dutch
border, a philosophe, heir to a great fortune, he
travelled the continent

• 1789-age 34, he came to Paris, attracted by the
ideals of the Revolution, took the name
Anacharsis

• 19 June 1790-he appeared before the
Constituent, the head of an “embassy” of 36
foreigners, announcing that the “human race”
adhered to the Declaration of the Rights of
Man

• 1792-contributed 12,000 livres to the arming of
Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce,
ﬁghters against tyranny, declared himself a
the “Orator ofde Cloots Race”
baron the Human “personal enemy of Jesus Christ,” elected to the
engraving by Levachez
1755 – March 24, 1794 National Convention


Counterrevolution in the Vendée


Counterrevolution in the Vendée Henri de La
Rochejacquelein au combat
de Cholet en 1793


The Vendée was only one, perhaps the major, military threat facing the Paris
government. After the defeat at Neerwinden [18 March 1793], Dumouriez had
to retreat from Belgium. He then made an agreement with the Austrians to
hand over to them several border fortresses in return for a truce where he
could march on Paris and restore the monarchy under the Constitution of
1791. However, he was unable to secure the loyalty of his troops, and he
defected to the Austrian lines rather than face arrest by the Jacobins.

At the same time, the increasing power of radicals in Paris incited revolt in the
provinces, with the people of Lyon and Marseille rebelling and the Vendée
raising an army to attack the central government and open communications
with Britain. Spanish armies crossed the Pyrenees, Sardinian armies the Alps,
and Austrian armies occupied Valenciennes and forced the northern armies
back on Paris. Britain ordered a naval blockade of France on 31 May.

wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Wars:_Campaigns_of_1793


• 11 March 1793-a Republican recruiting drive in Machecoul begins the civil war in the Vendée.
Out of the early morning mist toward this village, 12 miles from the Atlantic, came a peasant
mob of 3,000

• only a few old men and boys remained in the National Guard. Many of the young men had
gone off to join the army. So the local government had no force to resist the rebels

• Maupassant, the officer who had come to supervise the drawing of lots for the army, told the
Guard to stand their ground. Most broke and fled. He was killed with a single pike thrust.
Then the massacre began. First, in the streets, then, more methodically

• Local authorities and constitutional priests were rounded up and more than 500 were forced
to dig their own graves, then shot to fall into them. It was the bloodiest massacre perpetrated
by the Vendéan rebels.

• “They have killed our king; chased away our priests; sold the goods of our church; eaten
everything we have and now they want to take our bodies … no, they shall not have them.”


• 11 March 1793-a Republican recruiting drive in Machecoul begins the civil war in the Vendée.
Out of the early morning mist toward this village, 12 miles from the Atlantic, came a peasant
mob of 3,000

• only a few old men and boys remained in the National Guard. Many of the young men had
gone off to join the army. So the local government had no force to resist the rebels

• Maupassant, the officer who had come to supervise the drawing of lots for the army, told the
Guard to stand their ground. Most broke and fled. He was killed with a single pike thrust.
Then the massacre began. First, in the streets, then, more methodically

• Local authorities and constitutional priests were rounded up and more than 500 were forced
to dig their own graves, then shot to fall into them. It was the bloodiest massacre perpetrated
by the Vendéan rebels.

• “They have killed our king; chased away our priests; sold the goods of our church; eaten
everything we have and now they want to take our bodies … no, they shall not have them.”

• what began as a draft riot grew into the Grand Royal and Catholic Army


the army assembles, May 1793


a long, bitterly fought civil war

M
AU
G E



M
AU
G E

Thouars
5 May
MARSH
HI
LL
S
HEDGEROWS

But first, let’s begin with a little French vocabulary exercise...



M
AU
G E
Cholet
17 October

Thouars
5 May
MARSH
HI
LL
S
HEDGEROWS



Savenay
23 December

M
AU
G E
Cholet
17 October

Thouars
5 May
MARSH
HI
LL
S
HEDGEROWS



Batai!e de Thouars, 5 May 1793

.

Thouars


Batai!e de Thouars
17 Floreal 11
5 May 1793 Marquis de Lescure

Henri de La Rochejacquelein

pont de Vrine


Le saint du Poitou
• born at Versailles, educated at the École Militaire

• 1791 emigrated, but soon returned

• 10 August 1792-defended the Tuileries and was forced
to leave Paris

• March 1793-was arrested in the Vendée with all his
family as one of the promoters of the rising

• after being liberated by the Royalists, he became one
of their generals

• May-November-fought in most of the battles from
Thouars to Cholet

• 4 November 1793-was killed near the château of La
Tremblaye
Louis-Marie Joseph, marquis de Lescure
1766 – 1793


Le saint du Poitou
• born at Versailles, educated at the École Militaire

• 1791 emigrated, but soon returned

• 10 August 1792-defended the Tuileries and was forced
to leave Paris

• March 1793-was arrested in the Vendée with all his
family as one of the promoters of the rising

• after being liberated by the Royalists, he became one
of their generals

• May-November-fought in most of the battles from
Thouars to Cholet

• 4 November 1793-was killed near the château of La
Tremblaye
Louis-Marie Joseph, marquis de Lescure
1766 – 1793 •


"Mes amis, si j'avance, suivez-moi! Si je recule, tuez-moi! Si je meurs, vengez-
moi!" (My friends, if I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!)
• 10 Août 1792-with his cousin de Lescure, he fought for the
ﬁrst time, age 19, in the Constitutional Guard defending the
Tuileries, they then returned to Lescure’s estate in Poitou

• April 1793-joined the the Royal & Catholic Army

• 9 June-after Thouars, he led the capture of Saumur

• in August, in Luçon, he regrouped the Vendéan army, which
was on the verge of being disbanded, and won the battle of
Chantonnay in September. He had to retreat across the
Loire after being beaten in Cholet

• 20 October-elected commander of the armies. Brave but
lacking experience, he was defeated at Le Mans (12 Dec)
and more severely at Savenay (23 Dec)

• he saved the remains of his army by crossing the Loire, left
under the criticism of his companions
Henri du Vergier,
comte de la Rochejaquelein
• 28 January 1794-he was killed while waging guerilla war
1772 -1794


"Mes amis, si j'avance, suivez-moi! Si je recule, tuez-moi! Si je meurs, vengez-
moi!" (My friends, if I advance, de La Rochejacquelinkill me! If I die, avenge me!)
Mort follow me! If I retreat,
• 10 Août 1792-with his cousin de Lescure, he fought for the
ﬁrst time, age 19, in the Constitutional Guard defending the
Tuileries, they then returned to Lescure’s estate in Poitou

• April 1793-joined the the Royal & Catholic Army

• 9 June-after Thouars, he led the capture of Saumur

• in August, in Luçon, he regrouped the Vendéan army, which
was on the verge of being disbanded, and won the battle of
Chantonnay in September. He had to retreat across the
Loire after being beaten in Cholet

• 20 October-elected commander of the armies. Brave but
lacking experience, he was defeated at Le Mans (12 Dec)
and more severely at Savenay (23 Dec)

• he saved the remains of his army by crossing the Loire, left
under the criticism of his companions
Henri du Vergier,
comte de la Rochejaquelein
• 28 January 1794-he was killed while waging guerilla war
1772 -1794


“le prince ﬁt de nouveaux prodiges de valeur…”

• 8th duc du Thouars, last count of Laval, his residence was the
12th century château de Laval

• 1791-emigrated to the Rhineland where he was aide de camp to
Artois. He sent him to the Vendée to raise a rebellion

• 1792-93-tried to raise a force to rescue the King without success

• March-June 1793-arrested, escaped to Saumur, where he was
made commander of the cavalry of the Royal and Catholic Army

• June-October-fought in all the battles, after the defeat at
Cholet, he protected the withdrawal and the Loire crossing

• participated in the Virée de Galerne, was captured, interrogated,
returned to Laval, where he was guillotined and his head
Antoine-Philippe de la Tremoille, paraded on a pike
Prince of Talmont
1765 - 27 January 1794


“le prince ﬁt de nouveaux prodiges de valeur…”

• 8th duc du Thouars, last count of Laval, his residence was the
12th century château de Laval

• 1791-emigrated to the Rhineland where he was aide de camp to
Artois. He sent him to the Vendée to raise a rebellion

• 1792-93-tried to raise a force to rescue the King without success

• March-June 1793-arrested, escaped to Saumur, where he was
made commander of the cavalry of the Royal and Catholic Army

• June-October-fought in all the battles, after the defeat at
Cholet, he protected the withdrawal and the Loire crossing

• participated in the Virée de Galerne, was captured, interrogated,
returned to Laval, where he was guillotined and his head
Antoine-Philippe de la Tremoille, paraded on a pike
Prince of Talmont
1765 - 27 January 1794
Interrogatoire Talmont


It was the kind of war with which we are all too familiar but for which the
army of the Republic, especially those troops who had been drawn from
the battlefields of Belgium or the siege of Mainz, was completely
unprepared. Uniformed troops in disciplined formation were tied down in
isolated garrisons. They were dispersed in small units of fifty or some
hundreds, numerous enough to provide a target for the infuriated rebels
but not substantial enough to overawe them.
They were able to control large towns on the perimeter of the war zone
but helpless to patrol the interior, where every wood might conceal a
murderous ambush, or to distinguish in villages between civilians and
combatants. When the French generals who had fought in the Vendée
discovered, to their dismay, similar conditions in the Peninsular War in
Spain fifteen years later, they referred to it as “la petite guerre,” which in
Spanish became rendered as guerri!a.

Schama, pp. 701,703


Cholet

Cholet
17 October


Cholet

• 16 October-the Vendéens, beaten two days earlier, lacking ammunition and artillery,
abandoned Cholet, yielding it to the Republican forces under General Kléber’s command.
He received 10,000 more troops that evening bringing their number up to 26,000

• 17 October-the Vendéens were divided on whether to move north to Brittany and gather
more recruits or to stand and ﬁght in the Vendée. Some left, but the majority agreed to
attack Cholet with their superior numbers, 40,000


Cholet



• the Vendéens pushed into the town center


Cholet



• the Vendéens pushed into the town center

• but superior discipline and generalship gave the advantage to the Republicans

• Vendéen generals D’Elbée and Bonchamps fell, severely wounded at practically the same
time. The last Vendéens ﬂed taking their wounded with them

• the retreat became a route, cries of “to the Loire!” could be heard


La déroute de Cholet, peinture de Jules Girardet, 1883.


Virée de Galerne (Adventure of the Northwest Wind)
18 October-23 December 1793

Le Général Lescure blessé passe la Loire à Saint-Florent, peinture de Jules Girardet, 1882

Batai!e du Mans

• 10 December-reduced to half their number, burdened with 20,000 non-
combatants (wounded, women & children), the army entered Le Mans

• morale was low, proper defenses weren’t set, soldiers foraged, got drunk
• 12 December-de La Rochejacquelein set a successful ambush with 4,000
men for the approaching armies of Westermann and Kléber, but had to
pull back due to superior Republican numbers

• Republican soldiers: 20,000 Vendéen soldiers: 15,000
• that evening and night the Republicans overwhelmed the Vendéen
defenses, only a few escaped, the rest, mostly non-combatants were
massacred

• Republican losses: 30 KIA 100 WIA Vendéen losses 15,000 dead, no
prisoners taken


Savenay
croix Vendéens


“There is no more Vendée, citizens, it has perished under our free sword
along with its women and children. I have just buried it in the marshes
and mud of Savenay. FOLLOWING THE ORDERS THAT YOU GAVE
ME [emphasis added, jbp] I have crushed children under the feet of
horses, massacred women who at least...will engender no more brigands. I
have no prisoners with which to reproach myself.

General Westermann’s report to the Committee of Public Safety
Schama, p. 788


“There is no more Vendée, citizens, it has perished under our free sword
along with its women and children. I have just buried it in the marshes
and mud of Savenay. FOLLOWING THE ORDERS THAT YOU GAVE
ME [emphasis added, jbp] I have crushed children under the feet of
horses, massacred women who at least...will engender no more brigands. I
have no prisoners with which to reproach myself.

General Westermann’s report to the Committee of Public Safety
Schama, p. 788
but Wikipedia points out:

Some historians believe this letter never existed.[2] The rebellion was still going on, and there were several thousand
living Vendéan prisoners being held by Westerman's forces when the letter was supposedly written.[3] The killing of
civilians would also have been an explicit violation of the Convention's orders to Westermann.[4]

2. Frédéric Augris, Henri Forestier, général à 18 ans, Éditions du Choletais, 1996
3. Jean-Clément Martin, Contre-Révolution, Révolution et Nation en France, 1789-1799, éditions du Seuil, collection Points, 1998, p. 219
4. Jean-Clément Martin, Guerre de Vendée, dans l'Encyclopédie Bordas, Histoire de la France et des Français, Paris, Éditions Bordas,
1999, p 2084, et Contre-Révolution, Révolution et Nation en France, 1789-1799, p.218.


Was it genocide?
In 1986 Reynald Secher wrote a controversial book entitled: A French Genocide: The
Vendée, in which he argued that the actions of the French republican government
during the revolt in the Vendée … was the ﬁrst modern genocide.

Peter McPhee roundly criticizes Secher.... McPhee does this by pointing to what he
considers to be a number of dubious assumptions and ﬂawed methodology on
Secher's part. Namely, (1) The war was not fought against Vendeans but Royalist
Vendeans, the government relied on the support of Republican Vendeans; (2) the
Convention ended the campaign after the Royalist Army was clearly defeated - if the
aim was genocide, then they would have continued and easily exterminated the
population; (3) Fails to inform the reader of atrocities committed by Royalist against
Republicans in the Vendée; (4) Repeats stories now known to be folkloric myths as
fact; (5) Does not refer to the wide range of estimates of deaths [for the Vendéens, range
between 117,000 and 450,000, out of a population of around 800,000] suffered by both sides, and that
casualties were not "one-sided"; and more.

for the whole debate, see wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_the_Vendée


Levée en Masse


The term Levée en masse denotes a short-term requisition of all able-bodied men to
defend the nation and has to be viewed in connection with the political events in
revolutionary France, namely the new concept of the democratic citizen as opposed to
a royal subject.
Central to the understanding of the Levée is the idea that the new political rights given
to the mass of the French people also created new obligations to the state. As the
nation now understood itself as a community of all people, its defense also was
assumed to become a responsibility of all. Thus, the Levée en masse was created and
understood as a means to defend the nation for the nation by the nation.
Historically, the Levée en masse heralded the age of the people's war and displaced
prior restricted forms of warfare as the cabinet wars (1715 - 1792) when armies of
professional soldiers fought without general participation of the population
Wikipedia


Of all the innovations of 1793, then, the levée en masse---the creation of a
national conscript army---was by far the most important. Its success
would determine the ability of the Republic to retake Lyon and the
Vendée and to prevent the French rebels from linking up with foreign
armies. It also provides another instance of an institution created in a ﬁt
of Romantic enthusiasm evolving into a professionally organized and
highly disciplined arm of the state. The levée was born in desperation: an
attempt to mobilize the population in areas immediately threatened with
being overrun by the invader.

Schama, p. 760


National Guard
oﬃcer
The para-military civil guard and
adjunct to the royalist army
developed during the summer of
1789


1793 recruits
the Phrygian cap, or bonnet rouge,
with tricoleur cockade (all);
sans-culotte oﬃcer with
tricoleur sash,
drummer boy,
soldier


Réprésentant en
mission
A representative (member of the
National Convention) sent to the
armies to oversee their leadership.
Compare this practice to the
Soviet commissars.

General Milhaud
by Jacques-Louis David


the original concept

• July 1793-at Lille it was suggested that general conscription would produce
citizen-soldiers who would “fall en masse like the Gauls on the brigand
hordes”

• August--réprésentant-en-mission Milhaud had the tocsin sounded in
Wissembourg in the Moselle. Peasants were given rudimentary drill and
armed with pitchforks, hunting knives and occasionally ﬁrearms, then
thrown against Austrian regulars

• the ﬁrst proposal for the levée was a spontaneous explosion of martial
enthusiasm involving large numbers of men, loosely organized and
separated from the professional army

• 23 August-Danton demanded a more rational, organized, and properly
supported policy in the National Convention

• all bachelors and childless widowers between 18 and 25 were conscripted


National Convention Decree of 23 August 1793

“From this moment on, until the enemies have been chased from the
territory of the Republic, all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for
the service of the armies. The young men will go to combat; married men
will forge weapons and transport food; women will make tents and
uniforms and will serve in the hospitals; children will make bandages from
old linen; old men will present themselves in public places to excite the
courage of the warriors, to preach hatred of kings and the unity of the
Republic.”

Schama, p. 762


...in its origin the term meant much more. A “mass rising” in 1793, could
be a general rising of the people for any purpose, with or without the
assistance of official persons who did not command much public
conﬁdence. It could be a swarming of citizen soldiers to defy the regular
armies of Prussia and Austria. It could be a rising of the sections of Paris
against the Convention or some of its members. It could be an armed
insurrection or an unarmed demonstration in the streets. It could be the
wandering of a band of sans-culottes from one part of France to another,
self-organized as an armée révolutionnaire, in pursuit of aristocrats or in
search of food. There was something inherently anarchic in the whole
idea.

Palmer, p. 104


Negotiation with the enemy was abandoned. Even diplomatic relations
virtually ceased.Ministers and ambassadors were recalled…,except those
in Switzerland and the United States, the Committee henceforth dealing
formally only with supposedly democratic republics.

Schama, p. 762


national workshops
• 5 September-the government itself entered into producing munitions. Danton proposed a
resolution for 100,ooo,ooo livres for defense, part of which went to the building of
workshops, the hiring of men and the purchase of materials

• the industry was centralized in Paris for two reasons:
• many of the outlying regions were untrustworthy

• this gave employment to the sans-culottes

• men produced weapons, munitions and boots; women, uniforms

• great shops were erected in the gardens of the Tuileries and the Luxembourg


On November 3 the first batch of muskets was completed and presented
to the Convention…. In the public shops the number of workers rose
from only 633 on November 3 to more than two thousand at the end of
the year, and more than five thousand in the following summer. At that
time, in Thermidor, about five hundred muskets a day were produced….
In the summer of 1794 the nationally owned workshops of Paris were
probably the greatest arsenal of small arms in the world.

Palmer, p.238


...in its most militant phase [1793-94, jbp], the Revolution did invent a
new kind of politics, an institutional transference of Rousseau’s
sovereignty of the General Will that abolished private space and time, and
created a form of patriotic militarism more all-embracing than anything
that had yet been seen in Europe. For one year it invented and practiced
representative democracy; for two years, it imposed coercive
egalitarianism (though even this is a simpliﬁcation). But for two decades
[till 1815] its enduring product was a new kind of militarized state.

Schama, p.184


“Organizer of Victory”


Carnot at the
battle of
“Organizer of Victory” Wattignies
October 1793


soldier, engineer, mathematician, politician
• educated in Burgundy at an artillery and engineering prep
school, the the Mezieres School of Engineering

• 1773-commissioned a lieutenant in the Prince of Condé’s
engineer corps. Noted for his work in fortiﬁcation and his
writings on physics

• 1784-published Essay on Machines. This led to his admission
to the Arras Literary Society and promotion to captain

• 1791-elected to the Legislative. Appointed to the
Committee on Education. His views on universal education
were too ambitious for the times

• 1792-elected to the Convention, representative-on-mission
to Bayonne to review the defenses against Spain

• 14 August 1793-elected to the Committee of Public Safety
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot
to provide military expertise as one of the de facto Ministers
of War
1753 – 1823


The Beginning of Victory

• 5 September 1793-Carnot received a
discouraging report from one of his generals

• the Army of the North was outside the
Flemish town of Hondschoote

• its orders were to break the siege of Dunkirk






• a British army commanded by the Duke of
York was besieging the French garrison,
hoping to gain this port for the Allies






• a British army commanded by the Duke of
York was besieging the French garrison,
hoping to gain this port for the Allies

• the French general was Jean Nicholas
Houchard, “...the ﬁrst and most unhappy of
the commoners that the Committee of
Public Safety called to high command.”-Palmer

• though 10 million livres had just arrived
from Paris, Houchard was not at all sure
how his army was going to eat


“He looked like a royalist’s nightmare vision of a sans-culotte.”

• 1755-an Alsatian, he began his career at age ﬁfteen
in the Royal German Regiment

• six feet tall, crude and gruﬀ, spoke French poorly,
“...face was hideous with three saber cuts and a
bullet wound.”-Palmer

• not noble, but well-born enough to make acting
captain before the Revolution

• after the betrayal of several noble generals he was
brought up from command of a company
through the ranks of colonel and brigadier

• a modest man, he leaned heavily and frankly
upon the shoulders of his subordinates

• still, the more extreme “patriot” Jacobins didn’t
trust him and demanded proof of his loyalty
1739-17 November 1793


In the south the Spaniards and Sardinians threatened invasion. Toulon
was occupied by the English on August 29. Lyons and Bordeaux were
unsubdued. Blood ﬂowed freely in the Vendée. But the chief menace was
in the north and east, along the borders that separated France from the
Austrian Netherlands and the German Rhineland. The Prussians had
taken Mainz and pushed the Army of the Rhine back into Alsace. The
Austrians and British, led respectively by the Prince of Coburg and the
Duke of York, had captured Condé and Valenciennes. The Army of the
North stood by seemingly powerless to resist.

Palmer, p. 87


snatching defeat from the jaws of victory



• Condé and Valenciennes were fortiﬁed towns about ﬁve miles apart, just
within the frontier and about a hundred miles north of Paris

• Austrian cavalry patrols rode through the northern departments as far
south as St. Quinten



• Condé and Valenciennes were fortiﬁed towns about ﬁve miles apart, just
within the frontier and about a hundred miles north of Paris

• Austrian cavalry patrols rode through the northern departments as far
south as St. Quinten

• the Allies had a force of 160,000 men on the Netherlands border, the
French had far fewer opposing them

• York and Coburg could drive south to Paris in a few days, disperse the
Convention, annihilate the Committee of Public Safety and dictate such
peace terms as they chose

• they did no such thing
• York was under orders from London to take Dunkirk and so settled down
to a leisurely siege


snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

• it was not Carnot and the Committee who devised the winning strategy
• rather it was the military staﬀ oﬃcers under Houchard
• they recommended stripping the garrisons from the other French border
fortresses and concentrating them against York’s army

• rather than take the riskier option of trying to encircle York completely,
Houchard left him an escape route

• and so the victory was less than complete
• with fatal results for the unfortunate general


The Battle of Hondschoote; 6-8 September 1794

At Hondschoote, 40,000 Frenchmen defeated 24,000 British and Hanoverian soldiers, capturing 6 ﬂags and all of the Duke of York's
artillery. This strategic victory resulted in the British lifting the Siege of Dunkirk. Despite his triumphant entry into the city, General
Houchard was later tried and guillotined.


The Committee of Public Safety congratulated Houchard on his “brilliant
success.” ...for two weeks Hondschoote was celebrated in Paris as a
victory….until September 20, when Hentz, who was a representative on
mission, arrived in the capital to accuse Houchard of treachery. The
Committee issued the order for his removal two days later.

So Houchard went to prison where he found twenty-four other generals.

...on the 15th of November he appeared before the Revolutionary
Tribunal, and on the next day he went to the guillotine.

He had commanded in the north for only six weeks. The ﬁrst brief
experiment with a non-noble general had ended in tragedy and failure.

Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled, pp. 95-96


In a world where generalship had been the business of aristocrats, could a
régime that denounced aristocracy conduct a successful war? Was it
possible to find commoners who could lead armies? Could the middle
class, which had replaced the aristocracy in so many other ways, now
replace it on the battlefield? If it could, then aristocracy...would have lost
still another reason for existence. If not, democratic ideas would remain a
dream.

The right men were soon found. Representatives on mission sometimes
commissioned promising young officers tentatively as generals, like
medieval kings knighting the valiant on the field…. Somehow they
discerned the men of ability…. It may be doubted that any other
government in an equal time, has matched their record, for before the
end of 1793 they raised to the rank of general (among others) Bonaparte,
Jourdan, Hoche, Pichegru, Masséna, Moreau, Davout, Lefèvre, Perignon,
Serrurier, Augereau and Brune. One of these became an emperor, eight
others marshals of his empire; the remaining three (Hoche, Pichegru and
Moreau) rose to be distinguished commanders under the Republic.



Houchard’s successor
• 1778-not quite 16, enlisted in the army, fought in America

• 1782-after service in the West Indies he returned home
with malaria which would recur throughout his life

• 1792-93--fought in the victory at Jemappes, the defeat at
Neerwinden, with great skill at both

• 27 May 1793-promoted to brigadier, and division two
months later

• 8 September led his division at Hondschoote, wounded
in the chest

• 22 September-named to lead the Army of the North. All
three of his predecessors were under arrest and later
executed
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
(under Napoleon, 1st Comte Jourdan)
1762 – 1833


Houchard’s successor
• 1778-not quite 16, enlisted in the army, fought in America

• 1782-after service in the West Indies he returned home
with malaria which would recur throughout his life

• 1792-93--fought in the victory at Jemappes, the defeat at
Neerwinden, with great skill at both

• 27 May 1793-promoted to brigadier, and division two
months later

• 8 September led his division at Hondschoote, wounded
in the chest

• 22 September-named to lead the Army of the North. All
three of his predecessors were under arrest and later
executed
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
(under Napoleon, 1st Comte Jourdan)
• his ﬁrst assignment was to relieve the 20,000 man
1762 – 1833 garrison at Maubeuge under siege by Coburg


conditions were desperate
• the 160,000 Allies were well established on French soil, already holding Valenciennes,
Condé and Le Quesnoy. If Maubeuge fell to them, it might topple the government

• opposing them were 130,000 mixed forces, from veterans to boys just oﬀ the farm, spread
from the Ardennes to the sea and led by a thirty-one year old ex-private

• food was hard to get. Paris had its food battalions competing with the army’s buyers and
the Commune usually won

• horses were urgently needed for cavalry and transport. They were dying almost as fast as
new ones could be gotten. New mounts arrived without harnesses

• soldiers were short of uniforms, weapons and ammunition. Carnot sent for 15,000
bayonets

• artillery was immobilized by the lack of horses, crippled for the want of munitions

• Carnot arrested the general responsible who cut his own throat while in prison

• Carnot reported that three-quarters of the men were barefoot. Two days later 8,000 pairs
of shoes arrived


Battle of Wattignies; 15-16 October 1793
• 30 September-Coburg began the siege of Maubeuge with
Dutch troops under William V, Prince of Orange. Austrian
regulars covered them under Coburg’s command



• Carnot, “on mission,” took personal charge of the ﬁrst day’s
battle plan



battle plan

• he attempted a double envelopment plus a frontal attack and
thus “carefully [dispersed] the French numerical superiority”



battle plan


• 15 October-the disciplined Austrian troops pushed back the
French skirmisher swarms. Their cavalry ﬁnished the work



battle plan


• 15 October-the disciplined Austrian troops pushed back the
French skirmisher swarms. Their cavalry ﬁnished the work

• 16 October-Jourdan concentrated his forces on the right,
opposite the village of Wattignies and drove oﬀ the
Austrians. This compelled the Dutch to lift the siege

• the French forces in Maubeuge failed to join the attack

• Carnot returned to Paris with his version of who had gained
the victory and little love for Jourdan


Even Carnot, to say nothing of Jourdan, had looked upon the abyss into
which Houchard had been swallowed. These men walked precariously
upon a brink, living in mortal danger; but the most immediate danger was
from their fellow revolutionists…. The Jacobins had to win victories in
order to protect themselves from each other.



Jourdan feels the pressure
• a week after Wattignies the Committee sent him an impracticable set of orders:
• pursue Coburg, but don’t take unnecessary risks; surround the enemy, but don’t divide
your forces; conduct a vigorous offensive, but don’t advance too far into Belgium

• he argued with Paris. He was supported by the representative on mission
Duquesnoy. He listed all his problems:

• desertions, dysentery, hospitals overflowing, unshod soldiers wit feet wrapped in straw,
rains, stores damp, roads impassable

• 17 November-the Committee authorized him to go into winter quarters
• when they ordered him to send 15,000 men from the north to the Vendée, he was
slow to comply

• when he reported that he had nowhere near the 140,000 men that the war office
claimed, they charged him with “padding his books”

• 10 January 1794-he was arrested but allowed to retire, told he might be used later

A colonial interlude
with tragic future consequences

• The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was
a period of brutal conﬂict in the French
colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the
elimination of slaver y and the
establishment of Haiti as the ﬁrst republic
ruled by people of African ancestry.

• Although hundreds of rebellions occurred
in the New World during the centuries of
slavery, only the revolt on Saint-Domingue,
which began in 1791, was successful in
achieving permanent independence under a
new nation. The Haitian Revolution is
regarded as a defining moment in the
history of Africans in the New World.


Battle on Santo Domingo, a painting by
January Suchodolski depicting a
struggle between Polish troops in
French service and the Haitian rebels


A colonial interlude with tragic future consequences

• Although an independent government was created in
Haiti, its society continued to be deeply aﬀected by
the patterns established under French colonial rule.
The French established a system of minority rule
over the illiterate poor by using violence and threats.
Because many planters had provided for their mixed-
race children by African women by giving them
education and (for men) training and entrée into the
French military, the mulatto descendants became the
elite in Haiti after the revolution. By the time of war,
many had used their social capital to acquire wealth
and some already owned land. Some had identiﬁed
more with the French colonists than the slaves, and
associated within their own circles.

• In addition, the still-new nation's future was literally
mortgaged to French banks in the 1820s as it was
forced to make massive reparations to French
slaveholders in order to receive French recognition
and end the nation's political and economic isolation.
These payments permanently affected Haiti's
economy and wealth.


The Rush upon Europe


The Rush upon Europe

Batai#e de Fleurus, victoire $ançaise du général Jourdan, le 26 juin 1794, contre
l'armée autrichienne menée par les princes de Cobourg et d'Orange.


The French Revolution...was...a menace to the constituted order of
Europe. It threatened everything held dear by beneﬁciaries of the old
order, the familiar balance of power in Europe, the respect paid to
monarchy and aristocracy, the privileges of class, church, town, and
province, the deferential obedience of inferiors to their betters. The
Committee of Public Safety in its last Hundred Days opened those
onslaughts upon the old Europe which ended only with another Hundred
Days, at Waterloo.

Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled, p. 335


French Revolution; session v. war

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