Battle of Savenay

Overview

The Battle of Savenay took place on 23 December 1793, and marks the end of the Virée de Galerne operational phase of the first war in the Vendée after the French Revolution. A Republican force of approximately 18,000 decisively defeated the Armée Catholique et Royale force of 6,000 at Savenay.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Savenay on 23 December 1793 marked the end of the Virée de Galerne, the major operational phase in which the Armée Catholique et Royale had crossed the Loire and fought a prolonged campaign across Brittany and Maine before being driven back. A Republican force of approximately 18,000 crushed the remaining Vendéen army of around 6,000, inflicting between 4,000 and 6,000 casualties. The scale of the defeat effectively destroyed the Armée Catholique et Royale as a coherent fighting force. By ending the Virée de Galerne, Savenay stripped the royalist insurrection of its capacity for large-scale conventional operations, though guerrilla resistance in the bocage continued into subsequent years of the War in the Vendée.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (16)