The Battle of Noirmoutier was a confrontation in the War in the Vendée which took place on 3 January 1794 between the Republicans and the Vendeans for control of the island of Noirmoutier. Situated in the Bay of Bourgneuf and linked to the mainland by the Gois causeway, the island was occupied on 12 October 1793 by General Charette's Vendean troops. This capture immediately alarmed the Committee of Public Safety, which feared Britain intervening on behalf of the royalists. However, Charette did not attempt to send a schooner to Britain until December to make contact with the British government, and he received no reply for several months.
The republicans landed on Noirmoutier on the morning of 3 January 1794 and took the whole of its southern part after fighting at Pointe de la Fosse and the village of Barbâtre. They then marched in the afternoon towards the town of Noirmoutier, where they received the capitulation of the Vendeans, who laid down their arms against the promise of their lives. Accepted by General Haxo, the capitulation was not respected by the representatives on a mission, Prieur de la Marne, Turreau and Bourbotte, who had 1,200 to 1,500 prisoners shot in a few days, including Maurice d'Elbée, the former generalissimo of the Catholic and Royal Army.
The recapture of Noirmoutier followed the battle of Savenay a few days later, which saw the destruction of the Vendean forces engaged in the Galerne's campaign. After these two victories, which were considered decisive, the Republican commanders believed that the War in the Vendée was on the point of being over. The Vendeans no longer control any territory and the last insurgent bands are numbered by only a few hundred or a few thousand men, hunted down in the woods and in the countryside. In mid-January, Turreau launched his infernal columns with the intention of giving the final blow to the Vendean insurrection.
Context
Capture of Noirmoutier by the Vendeans
The island of Noirmoutier changed hands several times during the War in the Vendée. Located in the Bay of Bourgneuf not far from the island of Bouin, accessible from land by the Gois causeway, a 5 kilometres long submersible road that can be walked on during low tides, which connects the island to the mainland by the port of Cronière, in the commune of Beauvoir-sur-Mer. Noirmoutier is divided into two parishes: to the north, the town of Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, also called Saint-Philbert de Noirmoutier, with a population of 3,675 in 1791, and to the south the village of Barbâtre, with a population of 2,221 in 1791. The north of the island, from La Guérinière to l'Herbaudière, consists of salt marshes. The south, from La Guérinière to Pointe de la Fosse, is covered with sand, arable land and Vines.
Noirmoutier first fell to the insurgents on 19 March 1793, when peasant farmers led by Joseph Guerry de La Fortinière crossed the Gois causeway and occupied the island without resistance.
However, in April, the republicans retook the towns of Challans and Machecoul and reached the outskirts of the island. After summons from General Beysser and the landing of 200 men from the ship Le Superbe, from the squadron of the Rear Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse, the inhabitants of Noirmoutier made their submission on 29 April. The insurgent leaders René Augustin Guerry and Rorthais des Chataigners were arrested and sent to Nantes, but Guerry de la Fortinière, Tinguy and the knight of Régnier managed to escape.
However, in June, the Vendeans recaptured Challans and Machecoul and were once again able to threaten Noirmoutier. After a first unsuccessful attempt on 30 September, General Charette's army, aided by the inhabitants of Barbâtre, took the island on 12 October. The weak Republican garrison offered little resistance and capitulated. Charette formed a royalist administration in Noirmoutier and left some of his troops there before leaving after three days. The Republican prisoners were sent to Bouin where the local chief, François Pajot, had several hundreds of them massacred on 17 and 18 October.
Republican attack against Charette
In October 1793, the military situation in the Vendée was to the advantage of the Republicans. The army of the west concentrated its efforts on the army of Anjou and Haut-Poitou, commanded by the generalissimo Maurice d'Elbée, which was defeated on 17 October at the battle of Cholet. The "Galerne campaign" then began: the bulk of the royalist and republican forces moved north of the Loire and clashed until December in Maine, Brittany and Normandy. Despite the several appeals for help sent by d'Elbée, Charette and the other chiefs of Pays de Retz and Bas-Poitou remained aloof from these events.
Meanwhile, in Paris, the news of the capture of the island of Noirmoutier aroused the concern of the Committee of Public Safety, which feared that it would allow the Vendeans to receive help from the British. On 18 October, the executive council received a decree signed by Barère, Prieur de la Côte d'Or, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varenne, Robespierre and Hérault de Séchelles ordering it to "take all necessary measures to attack the island of Noirmoutier as soon as possible, to chase away the brigands and to ensure possession of the island by the Republic". On 21 October, the Committee of Public Safety enjoins the representatives on a mission, Prieur de la Marne and Jeanbon Saint-André "to take again the island or to swallow it in the sea".
On 2 November 1793, the council of war of the army of the West charged Brigadier General Nicolas Haxo with forming a corps of 5,000 to 6,000 men to retake the island of Noirmoutier. He was ordered to attack and defeat Charette "wherever he might encounter him, pursuing him into Noirmoutier itself". Haxo planned his offensive and left Nantes on 21 and 22 November with two columns commanded by himself and his second-in-command, Adjutant-General Nicolas Louis Jordy. At the same time, another column commanded by General Dutruy and Lieutenant-Colonel Aubertin set off from Les Sables-d'Olonne. In the days that followed, Haxo and Jordy took Port-Saint-Père, Sainte-Pazanne, Bourgneuf-en-Retz, Machecoul and Legé, while Dutruy and Aubertin took La Roche-sur-Yon, Aizenay, Le Poiré-sur-Vie, Palluau and Challans. Defeated by Aubertin at La Garnache on 27 November, Charette tried to take refuge in Noirmoutier, but he found the Gois causeway impracticable because of the high tide and was forced to lock himself in the island of Bouin, where he was soon surrounded.
On 4 December, Charette embarked for the island of Noirmoutier. He entrusted his aide-de-camp, Joseph Hervouët de La Robrie, with the mission of going to England to request for help. La Robrie embarked on a 60 barrels schooner, Le Dauphin, commanded by Louis François Lefebvre. But because of unfavourable winds or the presence of republican ships, he can only set sail during the night of 23 to 24 December.
On 5 December, Charette returned to Bouin. On the 6th, the columns of Jordy and Aubertin launched the assault on the island. In a few hours, the Republicans broke through the Vendean defences and freed several hundred patriot prisoners, but Charette only just escaped annihilation by fleeing through the marshes with some of his men.
He then joined the forces of Jean-Baptiste Joly and Jean Savin, with whom he unsuccessfully attacked the town of Legé on 8 December, but crushed the garrison of the camp of L'Oie on the 11th. On 12 December, at Les Herbiers, Charette was elected general-in-chief of the "Catholic and Royal Army of Bas-Poitou". He then decided to go to Anjou and Haut-Poitou to revive the insurrection there. In a few days, he crossed Le Boupère, Pouzauges, Cerizay and Châtillon, then reached Maulévrier.
Meanwhile, the Vendean forces engaged in the Galerne's campaign approached the Loire with the intention of regaining the Vendée. On 3 and 4 December, they attacked Angers, without success. On the 16th, a thousand Vendeansled by Generalissimo Henri de la Rochejaquelein, the successor of Maurice d'Elbée, used boats to cross the river at Ancenis, but the arrival of Republican gunboats prevented the rest of the army from crossing. These events forced Haxo to suspend the attack on Noirmoutier and to loosen the stranglehold on Charette. He sent reinforcements against La Rochejaquelein and was only able to send 2,400 men in pursuit of Charette under the command of Adjutant-General Dufour.
However, Charette's expedition was unsuccessful because with the return of Henri de la Rochejaquelein, the insurgent regions of Anjou and Haut-Poitou came back under his authority. After meeting La Rochejaquelein at Maulévrier on 22 December, Charette turned back and returned to Les Herbiers.
Prelude
On 29 December 1793, General Louis Marie Turreau arrived in Nantes to take command of the Army of the West. Six days earlier, the Vendée army north of the Loire had been destroyed at the battle of Savenay. Turreau then gave the order to Haxo to launch the attack against the island of Noirmoutier.
From the end of December, exchanges of fire opposed the Republican ships and the Vendean coastal batteries. On 29 December, three frigates were hit. On 30 December, a cannonade took place on the Bois de la Chaize side. LaNymphe, a 26-gun frigate commanded by Lieutenant Pitot, the corvette Le Fabius and the gunboat L'Île-Dieu engaged in combat in the early afternoon, but it turned out badly for the Republicans. The Vendeans fired red balls, and one of them hit the mizzen mast of the Fabius. La Nymphe, with on board the representatives on a mission Prieur de la Marne, Turreau and Guermeur, received seven balls and ran aground after three hours of cannonade. The yard of grand hunier was cleanly broken, and the crew counted two dead and two to five wounded. As for the hull, it remains submerged. The remains of the wreck were discovered in the Bay of Bourgneuf in 2014.
On 31 December, the movements of the barges between Bouin and Barbâtre alerted the besieged who expected an imminent attack. Throughout the end of December, the Vendeans fortified the various artillery batteries scattered around the island. Hyacinthe Hervouët de La Robrie and Dubois de La Guignardière developed a system of lights to warn the town of Noirmoutier in case of an attack. The stones and the beacons of the Gois causeway were destroyed. A messenger was also sent to Charette to ask for help.
On 31 December, the troops of Adjutant-General Carpantier left Machecoul and moved on to Challans to secure General Haxo's rear during the attack on Noirmoutier. But the same day, Charette stormed Machecoul, where only 200 to 300 men had been left. Informed, Haxo proposed to delay the expedition but Turreau refused and gave the order to continue. On 2 January 1794, a thousand men commanded by Carpantier retook Machecoul and put Charette's troop to flight. The latter attempted a counter-attack the following day, but was repulsed and retreated to La Copechagnière.
Opposing forces
Republican Army
The Republicans mobilised 5,000 men for the operation, but only 3,000 to 3,200 took part in the fighting on the island. La Gazette de France of 22 Nivôse Year II (11 January 1794) gave the precise strength of 3,112 men, made up of 322 men from a battalion of volunteers from the Meurthe, 460 men from the 109th infantry regiment, 400 men from the 11th battalion of the Orleans formation, 200 men from a detachment from the Bec d'Ambès, 68 men from a detachment from the Charente, 46 men from a detachment from Ille-et-Vilaine, 60 men from a detachment of the 77th infantry regiment, 420 men from the 57th infantry regiment, 146 men from the Grenadiers réunis, 201 men from a battalion of grenadiers from the Ardèche, 100 men from a battalion from the Marne, 153 riflemen from the Loire-Inférieure, the Deux-Sèvres, Challans, Beaulieu and Apremont, 386 men from the 39th infantry regiment and 150 men from the 3rd battalion of volunteers from Lot-et-Garonne.
Adjutant-General Jordy, at the head of 1,500 men transported by 19 barges, led the first wave of the assault. In his "Précis historique", he indicated that his troop was made up of the 3rd Battalion of Vosges Volunteers, the 10th Battalion of Meurthe Volunteers, the 38th, the 57th and a detachment of the 109th Infantry Regiment, as well as a company of foot artillery, which had no guns with it but had to use those that would be taken at Noirmoutier. General Haxo, with 700 to 900 men, and nine gabares, was at the head of the second assault wave at the port of La Cronière, in Beauvoir-sur-Mer. A third force, made up of seven barges, was to move to the north of the island to create a diversion. A column was also in reserve under the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Aubertin. In his memoirs, Aubertin states that his column was made up of 455 men from the 11th battalion of the Orléans formation, detachments from the 109th and 110th infantry regiments, as well as some other corps, Mayençais grenadiers and artillerymen from the 1st battalion of Bas-Rhin volunteers.
The operations were supervised by Turreau, commander-in-chief of the army of the West, who had arrived in Beauvoir-sur-Mer on 1 January, and by three representatives on a mission: Prieur de la Marne, who was also a member of the Committee of Public Safety, Louis Turreau, the cousin of the general in chief, and Pierre Bourbotte.