It is bordered to the north by the Vendée department, to the east by the Deux-Sèvres department, to the south by the "arrondissement" of Rochefort, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
After the reorganisation of the cantons in France, cantons are not subdivisions of the "arrondissements" so they could have "communes" that belong to different "arrondissements".
In the "arrondissement" of La Rochelle, there are only two cantons where not all their "communes" are in the "arrondissement": the Châtelaillon-Plage and La Jarrie cantons. The following table shows the distribution of the "communes" in the cantons and "arrondissements":
The "arrondissement" of La Rochelle has 58 "communes"; they are (with their INSEE codes):
The "communes" with more inhabitants in the "arrondissement" are:
St. Stephan
St. Stephan is a municipality in the administrative district of Obersimmental-Saanen in the canton of Berne in Switzerland.
Stettlen
Stettlen is a municipality in the administrative district of Bern-Mittelland in the canton of Berne in Switzerland.
Studen, Bern
Studen is a municipality in the administrative district of Seeland in the canton of Berne in Switzerland.
Sumiswald
Sumiswald is a municipality of the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Berne in Switzerland.
Sutz-Lattrigen
Sutz-Lattrigen is a municipality in the administrative district of Biel/Bienne in the canton of Berne in Switzerland.
It is on the southern shore of Lake Biel.
It is home to a number of Neolithic and Bronze Age lake shore archeological sites, including one that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tägertschi
Tägertschi is a former municipality of the administrative district Bern-Mittelland in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipality of Tägertschi merged into the municipality of Münsingen.
Siege of Petersburg
The Richmond–Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865. Fought during the American Civil War, it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg. But it was not a classic military siege, in which a city is usually surrounded and all supply lines are cut off. Nor was it strictly limited to actions against Petersburg. The campaign consisted of nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully. Then the Union Army constructed trench lines that eventually extended over . They ran from the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg. Petersburg was critical to the supply of Confederate Lieutenant General Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Numerous raids were conducted and battles fought in attempts to cut off the railroad supply lines through Petersburg to Richmond. Many of these caused the lengthening of the trench lines, overloading dwindling Confederate resources.
Lee finally gave in to the pressure and abandoned both cities on April 3, 1865. This led to Lee's final surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The trench warfare of Petersburg became common in World War I, earning it a prominent position in military history. Of the 4,000 African American troops of the 4th Division, IX Corps, who fought at the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, over half were killed, wounded or captured.
On March 10, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general. He was given command of all Union troops. Grant planned a coordinated strategy to apply pressure on the Confederacy from many points. This was something President Abraham Lincoln had urged his generals to do from the beginning of the war. Grant put Major General William T. Sherman in immediate command of all forces in the West. He moved his own headquarters to be with the Army of the Potomac (still commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade) in Virginia. Grant intended to maneuver Lee's army to a decisive battle. His secondary objective was to capture Richmond (the capital of the Confederacy). But Grant knew that the latter would happen automatically once the former was accomplished. His coordinated strategy called for Grant and Meade to attack Lee from the north, while Major General Benjamin Butler drove toward Richmond from the southeast. Major General Franz Sigel was to control the Shenandoah Valley. Sherman was ordered to invade Georgia, break up the Confederate Army of Tennessee, and capture Atlanta. Brigadier Generals George Crook and William W. Averell were to operate against railroad supply lines in Tennessee and Virginia. Finally, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks was assigned the task of capturing Mobile, Alabama.
Most of these initiatives failed. Many of the assignment of generals to Grant were for political rather than military reasons. Butler's Army of the James bogged down against inferior forces under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard before Richmond in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Sigel was soundly defeated at the Battle of New Market in May. At Lincoln's request, Banks was sent to Louisiana for the Red River Campaign and his move on Mobile was cancelled. However, Crook and Averell were able to cut the last railway linking Virginia and Tennessee. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign was a success, although it dragged on through the fall.
Grant and Meade's Army of the Potomac crossed the Rappahannock River and entered the area known as the Wilderness. On May 5, 1864, Grant was met by an undersize Confederate force of 60,000 soldiers led by Lee. At the bloody but tactically inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7) and Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21), Grant failed to destroy Lee's army. But, unlike his predecessors, Grant did not retreat after the battles. He repeatedly moved his army leftward to the southeast in a campaign that kept Lee on the defensive and moved ever closer to Richmond. Grant spent the remainder of May maneuvering and fighting minor battles with the Confederate army as he attempted to turn Lee's flank and lure him into the open. Grant knew that his larger army and base of manpower in the North could sustain a war of attrition better than the Confederacy could. This theory was tested at the Battle of Cold Harbor (May 31 – June 12) when Grant's army once again came into contact with Lee's near Mechanicsville. He chose to engage Lee's army directly, by ordering a frontal assault on the Confederate fortified positions on June 3. This attack was repulsed with heavy losses. Cold Harbor was a battle that Grant regretted more than any other and Northern newspapers thereafter frequently referred to him as a "butcher". Although Grant suffered about 45% casualties. Lee lost about 50% his forces. These were losses that Lee could not replace.
On the night of June 12, Grant again advanced by his left flank, marching to the James River. He planned to cross to the south bank of the river, bypassing Richmond, and isolate Richmond by seizing the railroad junction of Petersburg to the south. While Lee remained unaware of Grant's intentions, the Union army constructed a pontoon bridge and crossed the James River. What Lee had feared most of all was about to happen. Petersburg was the main supply base and rail depot for the entire region, including Richmond. The taking of Petersburg by Union forces would make it impossible for Lee to continue defending Richmond.