ORDER OF BATTLE // December 23, 1793
Battle of Savenay
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 24,000 estimated
French Republic
18,000
Medium-confidence figure
Vendéens
6,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
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.
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