Battle of Savenay 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 . A Republican force of approximately 18 , 000 decisively defeated the Armée Catholique et Royale force of 6 , 000 at Savenay . Prelude . After a crushing defeat at the battle of Le Mans on 12 December 1793 , a few thousand Vendéens fled to Laval and then to Ancenis , hoping to cross the Loire back into Vendée . Without boats , crossing the river was impossible . Hence the Vendéens built small boats and approximately 4 , 000 people , including Henri de La Rochejaquelein and Jean - Nicolas Stofflet , managed to cross before the arrival of Republican ships . The Vendéen rear guard was stranded to the north of the Loire , and tried another way around . They went to Blain , 35 km north of Nantes , but had to go back towards Savenay , 30 km west of Nantes . The eve of the battle . Savenay was taken by the Vendéens early morning of 22 December , with practically no fighting . The 150 republican soldiers quickly pulled back after a small skirmish with the Vendéen first line and the town ' s population was evacuated . At 9 : 00 , the royalists prepared the defenses of the town . The republicans under Westermann were the first to arrive , at 11 : 00 . They attacked but were pushed back after a small skirmish . At noon , Kléber and Marceau arrived with the greater part of the Republican army . Another skirmish was fought for the control of the Touchelais woods , to the north - east of Savenay , which the Republicans won . Those were the last skirmishes of the day because a fog rose during the afternoon ; the Republicans kept their positions . At nightfall some " représentants en mission " , Pierre - Louis Prieur , Louis Marie Turreau , and Pierre Bourbotte , arrived at the Republican camp . Surprised at the troops ' inaction , they ordered military engagement so as to not allow the enemy to rest ; Westermann agreed . A war council was held at which Kléber insisted they had to wait for sunrise before attacking ; Marceau sided with Kléber and managed to convince Pierre - Louis Prieur . The Republicans took advantage of the night to deploy . At 2 : 00 in the morning , Tilly ' s division , which came from Vannes , arrived and deployed in time . Simon Canuel commanded the left flank , Kléber the middle - left , Marceau the middle - right and Tilly the right . Apart from a few passages to the south of the town , the Vendéens were surrounded . The battle . At sunrise the battle started , but surprisingly it was the Vendéens and Chouans who launched it in order to take the Touchelais woods and not be surrounded . The attack was commanded by Lyrot and saw success : they captured two cannons and 40 prisoners . Soon after , Kléber launched a counter - attack with his Gendarmes regiment , charging with bayonets and forcing the Vendéens to pull back to the gates of Savenay . In the center , Marceau , commanding the " légion des Francs " and " Chasseurs de Kastel " , encountered difficulties and was for a moment restrained by the Vendéen artillery . On their respective fronts , Canuel , Tilly and Westermann also launched attacks , putting pressure on the royalists on all sides . Soon , the Republicans entered the town despite the resistance of Marigny ' s artillery . Street combat took place amid great confusion , house by house ; numerous Vendéen families participated in the fighting . The Vendéen artillery deployed in front of the church and managed to hold their ground for a while . Fleuriot tried an ultimate counter - attack , he picked 200 to 300 cavalrymen , commanded by Cadoudal , with Pierre - Mathurin Mercier and a few infantrymen . They attacked and pierced Tilly ' s lines and tried to attack Republican lines along their flank , but the Republican reserves arrived and forced the cavalrymen to retreat . During that time , on the church square , the Republicans took control of the cannon and turned it against the Vendéens . They fled , pursued by the Republicans , retreating out of Savenay and regrouping to the west of the town ( the battle ' s commemorative cross marks that place ) . The Vendéens took their last two remaining cannons , which Marigny had kept in reserve , and tried to cover the retreat of the wounded and non - combatants . During this engagement , Lyrot was killed . Marigny retreated again , west to the Blanche - couronne woods , with his two cannons and what was left of his men . He held his position for an hour , then cheered with his men in the marsh for he had managed to escape . To the north - west , a group of 600 Vendéens managed to hold at the Butte des Vignes , and retreated later to the Blanche - couronnes woods but they were encircled mid - way by a corps of the Armagnac regiment and were massacred . Inside Savenay , the town was searched and hundreds of elders , women and children were taken out of their houses and locked in the church before their trials . The wounded of both sides were brought to the Saint - Armel hospital and taken care of . By 2 : 00 in the afternoon , the battle was over . The flight and massacres . After the battle , Kléber marched in Nantes to celebrate the victory with most of the troops . Yet the republican cavalry under Marceau and Westermann chased the Vendéens , searching the neighboring villages and the countryside , killing or capturing those left behind . During the search , the brigadier general Alexis Antoine Charlery attacked a position held by 500 Vendéens but failed to defeat them . He proposed that they surrender in exchange for the right to go home unimpeded , a proposition that they accepted and signed . The prisoners were sent to Nantes for ratification of the arrangement by a " Représentant en mission " , but he refused and had the prisoners shot and general Charlery arrested . He was later freed and reassigned . The Bignon Commission which arrived during the day was given the task of judging the prisoners . The commission worked for 3 days and ordered the execution of all the Vendéen combatants caught bearing arms . The executions started that same evening and lasted 8 days , but the number executed is unknown . According to official statistics , they numbered 662 , but there are doubts as to whether or not this number only reflects those executed during the 3 first days . The " représentant en mission " Benaban wrote that more than 2 , 000 were shot . Similarly , General François Carpantier boasted that he had 1 , 500 people executed . The 1 , 679 women and children were sent to prisons in Nantes . Some officers , such as Kléber and Savary , asked Carrier to spare them , but Carrier refused to listen and had them all shot or drowned . Other massacres took place in the countryside . Westermann and his hussards shot 500 to 700 prisoners , men , women and children , at the Sem forest near Prinquiau . Westermann , nicknamed the " butcher of the Vendéens " supposedly wrote to the Committee of Public Safety : Nonetheless , some Vendéens were lucky enough to manage to escape , helped by the local population . Jean Legland , ferryman on the Loire , declared in 1834 that he helped 1 , 258 escapees pass in the days following the battle of Savenay . This was confirmed by written testimonies by the Abbé Bernier . In total , 2 , 500 people might have survived the battle . Consequences . The battle marked the end of the Virée de Galerne , and definititively ended the threat of Vendée to the Republic . Yet the war did not stop then and there : fighting continued in Vendée . General Marceau , outraged by his soldiers ' behavior , asked to be transferred . Marceau was soon replaced by Kléber as general of the Army of the West , and thereafter by Louis Marie Turreau . Guerrilla fighting continued for some time between the Vendéens and the Republican infernal columns . In popular culture . Jules Verne described the battle in the beginning of his historical novel Le Comte de Chanteleine ( 1862 ) .