Accepted by General Haxo, the capitulation was not respected by the representatives on a mission, Prieur de la Marne, Turreau and Bourbotte, who had 1,200 to 1,500 prisoners shot in a few days, including Maurice d'Elbée, the former generalissimo of the Catholic and Royal Army.

[2] Noirmoutier first fell to the insurgents on 19 March 1793, when peasant farmers led by Joseph Guerry de La Fortinière crossed the Gois causeway and occupied the island without resistance.

After summons from General Beysser and the landing of 200 men from the ship Le Superbe, from the squadron of the Rear Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse, the inhabitants of Noirmoutier made their submission on 29 April.

[19] On 21 October, the Committee of Public Safety enjoins the representatives on a mission, Prieur de la Marne and Jeanbon Saint-André "to take again the island or to swallow it in the sea".

[15][20][21] On 2 November 1793, the council of war of the army of the West charged Brigadier General Nicolas Haxo with forming a corps of 5,000 to 6,000 men to retake the island of Noirmoutier.

[27] In the days that followed, Haxo and Jordy took Port-Saint-Père, Sainte-Pazanne, Bourgneuf-en-Retz, Machecoul and Legé, while Dutruy and Aubertin took La Roche-sur-Yon, Aizenay, Le Poiré-sur-Vie, Palluau and Challans.

[25][28][29] Defeated by Aubertin at La Garnache on 27 November,[25] Charette tried to take refuge in Noirmoutier, but he found the Gois causeway impracticable because of the high tide and was forced to lock himself in the island of Bouin, where he was soon surrounded.

[42] LaNymphe, a 26-gun frigate commanded by Lieutenant Pitot,[41] the corvette Le Fabius and the gunboat L'Île-Dieu engaged in combat in the early afternoon, but it turned out badly for the Republicans.

[61] The Vendean garrison left by Charette to defend the island of Noirmoutier was 1,500 men strong according to the royalists Lucas de La Championnière and Le Bouvier-Desmortiers,[62][63] 1,800 for General Turreau[64] and 2,000 according to the anonymous memoirs of the military administrator.

[65] These numbers are variously taken up by historians: Jean-Joël Brégeon and Gérard Guicheteau give 1,500,[66] Yves Gras and Jean Tabeur 1,800,[40][51] Émile Gabory and Lionel Dumarcet 2,000.

[58][56] About half a league north of the tip of the point, Jordy placed his barges in line, facing the shore: those in the centre responded to the fire of the Vendeans in order to attract their attention, while those on the wings began to unload the troops.

[61] According to the memoirs of François Piet: "peaceful people, fathers of families, old men who had stayed in their houses, millers who had not wanted to leave their mills, became the victims of the soldier's fury".

[33][46] On the evening of 3 January, the representatives on mission, Prieur de la Marne, Turreau and Bourbotte, stated in a letter to the National Convention that the expedition had only cost the Republic two men killed and ten to twelve wounded, including "the brave Jordy".

He was soon accused of treason, especially as a letter he had written to Commandant Pineau du Pavillon indicated that he had maintained good relations with the royalist staff during the occupation of the island by the Vendeans.

On 29 January, d'Elbée's wife, Marguerite-Charlotte Duhoux d'Hauterive, and Victoire Élisabeth Mourain de L'Herbaudière, née Jacobsen, were shot after being sentenced to death by the military commission.

[104] In 1950, on the initiative of Abbé Raimond, a chapel called Notre-Dame de la Pitié, or "Chapelle des Martyrs", was built on the site of the Banzeau shootings.

The resumption of the important port of Noirmoutier, which was the last entrenchment and the last hope of the rebels of the Vendée, gives us the insurance to see soon completely finished this infamous war; it removes to the brigands any communication by sea with the perfidious English; it makes the Republic mistress of a country fertile in subsistence".

[116] In Anjou, the few hundred men gathered by Henri de la Rochejaquelein and Jean-Nicolas Stofflet are dispersed on 1 January at Les Cerqueux by the troops of General Grignon.

On 11 December 1793, the representative on a mission, Jean-Baptiste Carrier, had written to the Committee of Public Safety: "As soon as the news of the capture of Noirmoutier reaches me, I will send an imperative order to Generals Dutruy and Haxo to put to death in all the insurgent countries all the individuals of all sexes who are found there, without distinction, and to complete the burning of everything".

[120] give a few deck boats; and French emigrants with 17 pilots who have come from Noirmoutier, shall drive them with what we shall have loaded on themOn 23 February 1794-, La Robrie's companions were released and he received a letter stating only that: For the moment, we cannot discuss in a precise manner what to do until a port is in the hands of the Vendean leaders.

The Vincent de Tinténiac emissary was then sent to the Vendée with dispatches signed by the Count d'Artois, the King of Great Britain George III, and the British minister Henry Dundas.

As for La Robrie, after an unsuccessful attempt in June 1794, he could not return to France until February 1795, but he drowned in the Bay of BourgneufIn the evening, at ten o'clock, we embarked on barges within gun range of the island.

Our gabarre, which was called Marie-Thérèse, a name that brings bad luck, was hit by two twenty-four ball shells; one went right through it, broke three rifles, the kidneys and the shoulder of a grenadier, and took away the head of the one who touched me; I had my face all smeared with his brains.The village of Barbâtre was surrounded.

He was well punished for his treason: all the men there were killed.The resentment aroused by the wounds received by Jordy and some of the republicans of his division was not the only motive that led our troops to take revenge; unfortunately they were made to remember the part that the inhabitants of Barbâtre had taken in the cause of the Vendeans; they showed no mercy towards them.

It was in vain that these unfortunate people protested, in front of him, of their attachment to the Republic, that they held out their hands in supplication, that they kissed his knees, asking for mercy; insensitive to their pain, he seemed, on the contrary, to triumph over it; without wanting to distinguish the innocent from the guilty, and as if he had entered a city taken by storm, he indiscriminately put to death all the men he found.The republican column arriving by the charraud was at a short distance from the great bridge, when royalist officers presented themselves in front of it, declared that the garrison submitted to the Republic and promised not to serve against it any longer, if they wanted to give it their lives.

The men, numbering about three thousand, were shut up in the churches.– Logbook of André Amblard At this aspect, terror seized the inhabitants of the city of Saint-Pierre; the combatants themselves believed that a considerable landing had taken place.

The frank and loyal manner in which Haxo was accustomed to waging war had encouraged them to attempt this step; but as he had beside him overseers who forced him to be circumspect, he sent the parliamentarians back to the commissioners of the Convention, who, far from welcoming them, dismissed them with these despairing words: "Go and tell those who have sent you, that no pardon is given to brigands, and that we want to cement the republic with their blood."

This answer caused consternation among the inhabitants and the royalists; however, they did not lose all hope: they believed that if their first words of peace had not been well received, it was because their deputies had not made enough efforts with general Haxo.

[...] The general felt that the slightest resistance could keep him in check for a long time, and perhaps make him miss the goal of his expedition; he judged it appropriate to receive the two new parliamentarians favorably.

The leaders only appeared and disappeared before a military commission charged with collecting their names and surnames, and obtaining from them some declarations relative to the later projects of their party.– Memoirs ofFrançois Piet