The Republican troops, dispatched from Rochefort and La Rochelle to suppress the uprising, encountered significant impediments at this location due to the destruction of both bridges.

After three hours of sustained combat, the patriots were compelled to retreat in disorder towards La Rochelle, leaving several hundred men on the battlefield.

The news reached Paris and caused considerable astonishment among the deputies of the National Convention, who perceived themselves to be confronting a vast conspiracy.

In the opening days of March 1793, the introduction of universal conscription gave rise to a series of insurrections across a dozen departments in western France.

[9][10] On the same day, the National Guard of Fontenay-le-Comte was decisively defeated at the Quatre-chemins crossroads, in L'Oie, south of Saint-Fulgent,[11] and subsequently withdrew to Sainte-Hermine, resulting in the deaths of between 25 and 30 individuals.

However, during the night of March 13–14, he received a letter from Sainte-Hermine that indicated the route to Nantes was obstructed by approximately 10,000 rebels and that the bridges north of Chantonnay had been destroyed.

[2] However, the column was reinforced along the way by several hundred National Guardsmen, notably from Surgères, Chaillé-les-Marais, Luçon, Marans, and possibly from Niort and Saintes, with four cannons.

[2][27] This last number is cited by historians Jean-Clément Martin,[3] Alain Gérard,[18][28][9] Roger Dupuy [fr],[22] and Claudy Valin.

[2] The insurgents from the eastern part of the Vendée department were the first to adopt a military organization, establishing a precedent that was subsequently emulated by other groups.

Some troops suspected an enemy attack, while others believed they heard the singing of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, and thought reinforcements were arriving from Nantes.

[9][36][6][7][38] According to Colonel Henri de Boulard [fr], the battalions "were so panicked that they perceived enemies in every direction, even in the absence of any actual adversaries.

[6] The precise number of human casualties is uncertain, as no official record was kept and the death registers of the municipalities within the combat zone have been lost.

[5][7][6] Additionally, the Republicans left behind a cannon, a considerable quantity of rifles, 2,400 cartridges, and a thousand pounds of gunpowder in the hands of the insurgents.

[6] In contrast to the relatively low number of casualties reported by Amédée de Béjarry, which he attributes to the statements of an insurgent leader, Dominique Ussault, the figures provided by Deputy Martineau are considerably higher.

[43] On March 21, four priests[Note 3] who had been imprisoned since October 1792 for refusing to comply with the orders of the French Revolution were removed from the city hall [fr] prison and transferred to the Île de Ré.

[44][45][46][47] The following day, two religious men from Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre[Note 4] were disembarked in La Rochelle by a ship from Les Sables-d'Olonne and suffered the same fate.

[45][48][49] Following his dismissal, General Marcé was apprehended on the evening of March 20 and incarcerated in the La Rochelle City Hall [fr] by the representatives on mission.

"[52][55][54] Furthermore, they had his eldest son,[18] aged 18, arrested,[15] citing compelling evidence that both were complicit in the Marquis de La Rouërie's plot.

"[47] Barère petitioned for the convening of a court-martial in La Rochelle to try Marcé,[47] but Robespierre interceded, urging instead that the general be tried in Paris before the Revolutionary Tribunal.

[9] However, in his indictment, Fouquier-Tinville accused the general of "wickedly and deliberately betraying the interests of the Republic [...] by favoring the progress of the brigands' arms on his territory.

[64][65][66] In the view of the historian Jean-Clément Martin, the designation 'Vendée' was born from the characterization of the conflict as a 'war' following the battle lost on March 19, 1793, situated in the Vendée department.

In July and August 1793, the patriot inhabitants of the Vendée department petitioned the Convention to alter the designation of the war, thereby avoiding the stigmatization of their region.

Seeing himself attacked, he moved some battalions to the left flank of the column to line the hedges of a small plateau that overlooked the enemy's position.

He passed behind the one next to him, giving the same exhortation to the soldiers that he had given to the previous battalion; it was useless, they broke ranks, and the deponent was thrown into a ditch with his horse; he managed to get out through great effort.

An hour later, that is, around five o'clock, the enemy was announced, and indeed, it appeared, forming a large column that filled the path, on a height of thick woods, located about two leagues from the second bridge.

The retreat was made to the plain of Saint-Vincent, where the entire strength of the army could be deployed, and the artillery directed, was proposed in vain by Citizen Niou to General Marcé.

General Marcé ordered the work to be stopped and fired two 8-caliber cannon shots at the enemy column, which appeared to be 1,000 to 1,200 toises away from the army's position.

Commissioner Niou, having arrived, disapproved of this hostility, saying that if he had been there, he would not have allowed the shots to be fired, being very convinced, based on what he had just heard from various people in the column, that the troops facing the Republican army were not brigands, but rather the Nantes legion coming to join their brothers in arms.

The deponent observed to him that, having been in the presence of the brigands for two days, he could recognize their vedettes; however, he asked him if he had any information that this reunion was supposed to take place.

Nevertheless, the said commissioner insisted on his belief, based on his conviction of hearing the cherished cry of every good Republican pronounced by the troops who were the subject of the discussion.