Battle of Le Mans (1793)

The Battle of Le Mans, by Jean Sorieul

Date	12 and 13 December 1793
Location	Le Mans, France
Result	Decisive Republican victory

Belligerents

Republican France

Vendéens

Chouans

Commanders and leaders

Henri de La Rochejaquelein

Jean-Nicolas Stofflet

Charles d'Autichamp

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 battle during the Virée de Galerne, an operation during the War in the Vendée. It resulted in the rout of the Vendéen forces by Republican troops.

Victorious at the Battle of La Flèche after their setback at Angers, where they were unable to cross the River Loire, the desperate Vendéens, always sporadically attacked by the Republican cavalry, continued their march towards Le Mans. Their numbers were greatly reduced: the Catholic and Royal Army now numbered less than 20,000 men, and had with it thousands of wounded, women and children. Of the 80,000 the Vendéens had at the start of the Virée de Galerne, only 40,000 remained. Suffering of famine and the cold, ravaged by gangrenous dysentery, typhus and putrid fever, they mostly tried to obtain supplies.

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.

On 12 December the first Republican troops under François-Joseph Westermann and François Muller appeared at the gates of the city. Henri de La Rochejaquelein and Talmont assembled 3,000 men, especially Chouans, and took on the Republicans. They managed to set a trap in the woods near Le Mans. Westermann's surprised cavalry had to pull back whereas Muller's division panicked and fled after the first shots fired. The Republican army was on the verge of being annihilated when Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly's Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg arrived as reinforcements on the battle field. This time it was the Vendéens who panicked and fled and hid in the city. La Rochejaquelein thus re-entered the city, but his forces were dispersed, most of the Vendéens not even realizing the Republicans were so close, and some soldiers were even drunk.

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