Second Battle of Châtillon

Battle context

At Châtillon-sur-Sèvre, Royalist Vendean forces under Lescure and Bonchamps routed a Republican column of 20,000 men drawn from the Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle. The defeat of so large a Republican force demonstrated the continued capacity of the Vendean insurgency to repel conventional military pressure in the autumn of 1793. However, the engagement was followed that night by a Westermann-led raid on the Royalist encampment that inflicted severe losses on rebel fighters and non-combatants before being repelled, complicating any straightforward Royalist claim to the field. The Vendeans subsequently withdrew toward Mortagne-sur-Sèvre, and the Republican commander René François Lecomte died of wounds sustained in the battle, underscoring the cost of the engagement on both sides.