Part 2 - A Time of Hope

5. Resistance Begins
Throughout the Vendée Militaire, the peoples of the countryside refused to denounce their priests, despite the searching of their homes and interrogations (even children were roughly questioned). Rewards offered for their capture generally failed to produce results. Angry peasants besieged local councils when they tried to implement search orders amid increasingly violent scenes.
By the middle of 1791, religious fervour and. mysticism had begun to grip many areas, particularly les Mauges. Large numbers (up to several thousand were recorded) of people went on candle-lit, night-time pilgrimages to holy sites in the area, including sacred oaks, as well as to the many new ones that began springing up.
Strange visions were reported, and miracles. At Chatillon a statue of the Virgin was said to have turned on its base. At Somloire a mentally retarded child began prophesying the future, discovering the past, whilst at Saint-Laurent-de-la-Plaine, the Virgin Mary appeared in an oak tree.
Deprived of their priest who had been captured and exiled to Spain, the faithful of Saint-Hilaire-de-Mortagne held des messes blanches (white masses). They gathered, (usually in the open), at a certain time and held a service on their own, as if the priest had been present, knowing that he was holding a service for them, at that time, in his exile.
Aware that religious fervour and mysticism were often the forerunners of serious social unrest, the authorities sent National Guards to break up the processions and to destroy many of the symbols that had drawn the crowds, often at the point of a bayonet. Others were taken forcefully to urban churches where the Guards could control access to them. The result was to exacerbate the situation.
Efforts to introduce the new priests met with less and less success and they often had to be accompanied to their new posts by National Guardsmen. The truts would often find that their church had been stripped, the ornaments carefully hidden, the presbytery defaced, even daubed with excrement or that the church doors had simply been nailed up against their entry. And that the congregation, generally so numerous, had evaporated.
On their arrival in a parish, most truts were met by angry, armed crowds, who either chased them off or gave them a thrashing. Many were stoned and a few killed.
Desperate, the National Guard attempted to force the people to be baptised, married or buried by the new priests. Non-compliance was punished with whipping and public humiliation such as making women strip and ride through the community sitting backwards on a donkey. These efforts also failed.
Tension mounted and bloodshed became inevitable.
The first serious episode seems to have been at Saint-Christophe-du-Ligneron at the beginning of May 1791 where a troop of three hundred National Guards fired on a group of about forty villagers protesting against the imposition of a new priest. The result was four killed, including one Barillon, whose last words have become a legend. Almost dead from his wounds and hanging onto a local cross for support, he was ordered to surrender
"Rends-toi" (Give Up)
He replied,
"Rendez-moi mon Dieu" (Give me back my God)
At about the same time, a group of nobles together with their families and a few retainers had gathered at La Proustiere near Les Sables d'Olonne to raise the country in revolt, but their plans, ill-conceived and confused, had been betrayed to the authorities. Their efforts were quickly defeated by republican troops. Most of those involved fled abroad but a few went into hiding and later joined the uprising.
In August 1792 the first major violence occurred in the region of Bressuire when a force of several thousand peasants from surrounding parishes, giving both religion and refusal to do military service as their excuse, rose up and sacked most of the government and municipal buildings in the area. Particular targets were recruitment centres and registers of the population as well as the homes of administrators and republican sympathisers.
Their revolt was put down with the loss of five hundred lives.
Many rebel prisoners were simply killed out of hand with unforgivable brutality by National Guards troops. The noses and ears of the dead were cut off and made into necklaces, worn publicly by the "victors" as souvenirs, a sad precursor of the barbarity to come.

6. Popular Uprising
The abolition of the Monarchy and the establishment of the Republic in September 1792 had been preceded by the massacre of 1200 prisoners (mainly priests and aristocrats) in the Paris gaols by the city mob, as the Revolution lurched towards an increasingly violent future. Yet neither these events, nor the guillotining of King Louis XVI on 21st January 1793 seem to have made any practical difference in the Vendee MilUtaire. However the long-term psychological effect was to persuade many rural folk that the threat to their lives could only be met with violence. There was no way back!
In 1793 the popular uprising began in earnest.
In January, groups of armed peasants began chasing away tax collectors and refusing to be considered for service in the National Guard.
In February the Government announced the military call up of 300,000 men to defend the eastern frontiers of the country against the alliance of Austria and Prussia. Several thousand of these were to be taken from the VendeeMiliiaire region. In the absence of sufficient volunteers, lots were to be drawn to see who would serve.
In the Departments of Western France this was the last straw. Why, it was reasoned, should the men be obliged to defend the new Republic, "La Nation", that was destroying their way of life and causing so much misery and to which there was no local loyalty? Besides married men, most National Guards and fonctionnaires were excused military service, a detail that only served to fan the embers of revolt in the region. These, after all were the very people who were oppressing the rural world.
As the news spread, the response was immediate and violent throughout the Vendee Militaire. Military recruiting centres were immediately attacked by groups of several hundred, often young, men wielding mainly stout sticks or simple farm implements. Public records were destroyed and the few National Guards who tried to resist were chased away after being disarmed. Those unwise enough to open fire were killed.
The new bourgeois were again a target, particularly those holding public office or known to hold republican sympathies, their homes being pillaged and property stolen.
In Cholet, for example, a mob disarmed the few National Guards present, but only after three Vendéens bad been shot, several badly wounded. At St. Florent-le-Vieil, faced with cannon fire from a determined National Guard unit, the mob simply kept advancing. Four were killed, 48 badly injured, but the town was taken, republican homes sacked and 20,000 livres (pounds, but worth much less than the modern British pound), stolen from the public treasury. The attacks over, the peasants returned to their homes.

7. The Vendéen "Army" Is Born
Initially there were no leaders of what was a spontaneous uprising in the whole region. At the sound of the tocsin, the men simply left their fields, their villages, their families and occupations, marching together as a parish, usually following their traditional leaders, called parish captains. Many hunted priests also came out of hiding to join their flocks who often carried with them crosses or holy vases. On the road, psalms and hymns were sung, prayers said.
Sometimes, none too gently at the point of a bayonet, reluctant villages or even whole parishes were forced to join in the march.
Mobs of thousands began to assemble as the parishes came together, carrying lethal, razor-sharp scythes with the blades reversed, hunting spears, knives attached to sticks and a few old hunting rifles, whatever was available.
Republican sympathisers fled for their lives, mainly to the illusory sanctuary of the large towns. Leaving their property to the mercy of the angry peasants, they spread tales of mayhem and murder that terrified the bourgeois and quickly reached Paris.
But by now the initial, spontaneous outpouring of anger was turning into a CRUSADE as the Vendéens realised that their only hope was to chase Republicanism out of the region.
The rebels began searching for leaders, preferably former soldiers who had the experience to organise them into a fighting force. For these they turned to the aristocracy, many of whom had served in the royal armies and had either retired or resigned their commissions at the time of the Revolution.
In addition the Vendéens also sought out charismatic leaders whom they were prepared to follow blindly if necessary.
To Gigost d'Elbee they went and to Charles-Melchior de Bonchamps. Both minor aristocrats, the former a retired cavalry lieutenant, the latter a retired infantry officer who had fought campaigns in Europe and India. Reluctantly they agreed to join the fight "unto death" - both were to die.
To Henri, comte de La Rochejaquelein they went. Aristocrat and former sub-lieutenant of Polish cavalry and the King's guard who was only twenty years old and whose family was to give so much to the revolt. He was threatened. He shed tears of anguish, but agreed to lead. His legendary motto:
Si j'avance, suivez-moi,
Si je recule, tuez-moi,
Si je meurs, vengez-moi.
(If I attack, follow me,
If I retreat, kill me,
If I die, avenge me.)
To Francois Athanase de Charette they went. Aristocrat and former naval officer, he hid under his bed when the peasants came to find him. He was to fight longest of all, earning an almost mythological status in Europe, then bravely faced a firing squad. To the peasants he said:
Soit! Mais je commande et on m 'obeit! Celui qui n 'obeit pas, je lui casse la tête.
(I will agree to lead you, but I give the orders and you obey. If you don't I'll break your heads.)
And others like the Marquis de Lescure and Rene Bernard de Marigny, or Sapinaud de la Rairie, a former infantry officer who was threatened with death twenty times if he did not join. He was to be the only senior Vendéen general to survive the wars. Danguy, aged 63, almost blind, who was forcefully lifted onto his horse.
More sinister was the Prince de Talmond who returned from exile to lead the cavalry. Did his self-interest lead to the destruction of the Vendéen army?
Some non-aristocrats were chosen like Jean Nicolas Stofflet, former soldier and then gamekeeper to an aristocratic family, one of the first to join the revolt. Proud, stubborn and tough, an excellent soldier who fought to the bitter end but was eventually betrayed.
And Jean Cathelineau, called the "Saint of Anjou". A hawker and carter who was approached whilst making bread for his large family. Not a soldier but a charismatic leader whose death was to be a sad turning point for the Vendée Militaire.
Even a fervent Republican, citizen Gelligné of Saint-Aignan was forced to lead, under the threat of long knives taken from a grape press.
Amongst these men there was often fierce rivalry so that effectively a unified high command was seldom possible. Each was prone to act on his own initiative, his men loyal to their region and reluctant to move out of it because it meant leaving women, children, villages and farms defenceless.
And within each army there were dozens of minor local leaders again jealous of their commands and reluctant to cede any of their authority, whom the peasant soldiers knew and trusted and to whom they gave their loyalty.
Dressed as men, a number of women also joined the fighting bands. Most famous was Renée Bordereau who already had a reputation as a smuggler of that precious commodity, salt. She fought in four of the uprisings and was one of the few survivors of the Virée de Galerne, eventually dying on 20th July 1822. Often leading her own troops, she was famous for her ferocity and her sang-froid in battle, even chopping off the head of her uncle who was fighting for the republican side, because she believed him responsible for the death of her father. She was reputed to have been seriously wounded three times and to have had three horses shot from under her. Following an interrogation in September 1809, a gendarme wrote:
"This woman is both ferocious and dangerous and should be locked up!"

Four major "armies" established themselves, each very regional in character and identity:
l'Armée du Marais in the west (up to 10,000 men); (under Charette)
l'Armée du Centre (up to 5,000); (under Sapinaud)
l'Armée d'Anjou (up to 15000) (under d'Elbee and Bonchamps)
l'Armée du Poitou called la Grande Armée (up to 40,000). (under la Rochejacquelein and Stofflet)
And there was a subtle change in the aims of the war as the aristocrats infiltrated their own agenda. The new battle cry, inscribed in gold on their white battle banners was
Mon Dieu et Mon Roi (My God and My King)
This loose alliance of forces became known as
La Grande Armee Catholique et Royale.
(The Grand Catholic and Royal Army)
But how to organise and train this mass of men from scratch, how to set up this army and supply it with weapons, munitions, food, clothes - the list was endless.
Money had to be raised quickly. At first the problem solved itself as the Republican Treasuries in each town were seized. From Fontenay-le-Comte for example over 900,000 livres were taken.
It was symptomatic of the "unworldlyness" of many Vendeen peasant soldiers that they did not initially recognise the value of this paper money, as they began using it for lighting fires and even wrapping pilfered sweets. Had most been able to read, they might have realised what was in their hands. Fortunately the officers were able to intervene before too much damage was done.
There was even a serious suggestion that a loan of 300,000 francs might be raised in Nantes!
But shortages of money were to be a problem throughout the uprising, eventually replaced with promissory notes and simple promises in good faith.
Food, particularly bread, and other items were requisitioned. Republican supply columns were easy targets.
After disastrous experiments with wooden-barrelled cannon, quickly abandoned, the artillery was almost all stolen or captured from the Republicans. In the first two months of the uprising, the Republicans lost 300 artillery pieces, many of which were stored in fields, unusable until appropriate ammunition could be procured.
Unfortunately the lack of skilled artillerymen on the Vendéen side mean that their guns had little effect. And many of the peasants, scared stiff by the noise of artillery had to be trained not to run away when the guns were fired.
Some of the larger guns took on an almost mystic symbolism for the superstitious peasants who believed they would bring victory just by their presence. Drawn by oxen, these went into battle garlanded with flowers and were given names like Missionaire, Marie-Jeanne, Brutal.
The need for adequate small arms was urgent - republican armouries were emptied, National Guards relieved of their muskets, bayonets, ammunition and swords. Many peasant soldiers "won" their arms on the field of battle.
Ammunition factories sprung up in many locations, notably Cholet, manned amongst others, by captured artificers and artillerymen working under guard, using lead stripped from church buildings, old bits of metal, old nails, even stone to make shot.
When desperately short of ammunition the Vendéens even exchanged food and wine with the starving enemy for powder and shot.
However ammunition always remained in short supply, most again being captured from the opposing armies. In 1794 Stofflet even went so far as to steal ammunition held in reserve by his fellow general, Sapinaud.
A chaotic and largely ineffective cavalry was born, using horses taken from the Republicans, called the marchands de cerises - The Cherry-Sellers. Apart from those owned by the wealthy and those used for coaches, there were few horses in private hands amongst rural folk who had little use for them. For saddles, saddlebags; for stirrups, ropes made from wheat straw; for boots, wooden sabots (clogs). And instead of a cavalry sabre, a clog-makers knife.
And at the heart this army, the people of the Vendée Militaire, not soldiers but labourers, farmers, tradesmen, journeymen, deliverymen, artisans, craftsmen, drawn from the whole region.
A relic from the past perhaps, deeply tied to the land, religious yet deeply superstitious. Loosely bound together by a wish to be apart.
There were no uniforms, so they wore what they had - a simple jacket of country cloth and baggy breeches, crude leggings and clogs or bare feet. Their headgear, rough felt hats with enormous brims to keep off the elements when working outdoors or a simple red handkerchief from Cholet. Around the necks often a cross or rosary.
But determined, tough and totally fearless in their cause, not afraid of death or hardship and when necessary, ruthless. With one eye always for families left behind, their crops, the harvest.
They received no pay, marched on a pocketful of bread or what could be scavenged, lay down and slept in the fields, covered only by an old blanket - and when any eau de vie or wine was captured, drank themselves senseless or danced the whole night (and then fought all the next day).
Sewn on the clothes of almost every man was the enduring symbol of their struggle for liberty, a red heart surmounted by across on a light brown background, Le Sacré Coeur.