Siege of Angers - The Battle

The Battle

Angers was defended by 4,000 republican soldiers commanded by generals Louis Michel Auguste Thévenet and Jean-Pierre Boucret. The general Michel de Beaupuy, who was still recovering from wounds of the Battle of Entrames, was also present and wished to participate in the battle nonetheless.

On 3 December the Vendéens attacked, but the initial assault wasn't better planned than at Granville, they spread into the faubourgs abandoned by the republicans but without siege weapons they were unable to pass the fortifications.

All day long, the Vendéen artillery of Gaspard de Bernard de Marigny bombarded the town gates with very limited success.

On 4 December, the Vendéen tried another attack, on the verge of taking the Cupif gate the republican troops led by general Jean Fortuné Boüin de Marigny arrived as reinforcements. These troops were the avant-garde of the Army of the West, their arrival provoked panic in Vendéen lines who abandoned the siege and fled back to the North-East, towards Le Mans.

Although victorious, the general Boüin de Marigny was killed at the end of the battle, hit by a cannon ball.

After the battle, following the orders of Marie Pierre Adrien Francastel, the decapitated heads of the Vendéens and Chouans killed during the fighting were exposed on the fortifications.

Pitre-Chevalier also wrote that the sans-culottes, following orders of Levasseur "made a lustral procession, and burnt the frankincense of the fatherland to purify the walls from royalist contact".