Battle of Le Mans (1793)
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- See Battle of Le Mans for the battle here in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War.
Battle of Le Mans (1793) | |||||||
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Part of War in the Vendée | |||||||
The Battle of Le Mans, by Jean Sorieul | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Republican France |
Chouans | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Jean Moulin | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
20,000 soldiers |
15,000 soldiers, 30 guns 20,000 non-combatants | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
30 dead, 100 wounded | 15,000 dead |
The Battle of Le Mans was a combat in the Virée de Galerne, an operation during the War in the Vendée. It resulted in the rout of the Vendéen forces by Republican troops.
Prelude
Victorious at the
The Vendéens had managed to repel 4,000 Republicans in a half-hour at Pontlieu, but still demoralized and having lost a great part of their weaponry, they took Le Mans on 10 December 1793 at 4:00 in the afternoon. They then spread out through the city and managed to find provisions, supplies and clothes. Nonetheless, morale was still low, sickness continued to ravage the army and the soldiers, disobeying their officers, didn't try to prepare the defenses of the town despite the fact that the Republican army, reorganized since its defeat at Dol, was marching towards the city.
The battle
On 12 December the first Republican troops under
Some time later, General
The Republican army entered Le Mans by nightfall, overwhelmed all the Vendéen defences. The Vendéens were completely disorganized, chaos resulted in the city where all night long street skirmishes were taking place.
Henri de la Rochejaquelein, seeing that all was lost, sought only to protect the retreat towards Laval for the survivors. The Vendéens deployed 14 cannons at the gates of the city, managing to cover their retreat and stopping the Republicans.
Yet thousands of Vendéens, most of them non-combatants, were stuck inside the town, having taken refuge in the houses. Groups of resisting Vendéen soldiers were spread across the city. They resisted for a long while, standing their ground until the end of the day. Nonetheless, they were eventually destroyed by the Republican artillery under General François Carpentier, which opened fire on the buildings and houses from where shots were fired.
The battle then turned into a massacre, with the wounded, women and children who had taken refuge in the houses being forced out and massacred. Kléber and Marceau tried to save the prisoners, but could not hold back their troops.
Westermann assembled his
According to the Committee of Public Safety, 2,000 to 5,000 Vendéens, both combatants and non-combatants, died in Le Mans, while Republican losses totaled only 30 dead and approximately 100 wounded.
Adding to the Vendéen victims of the battle those killed south of Le Mans during the flight to Laval, the total deaths were approximately 15,000.