The French Revolution had promised liberty, equality, and fraternity. It had promised religious freedom too, but this eroded quickly. Soon the revolutionary state had created its own religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being. This cult became increasingly hostile towards other organised religions. This caused significant discontent amongst many, especially Catholics. In March 1793, this tension came to a head when open insurrection erupted in the Catholic and Royalist leaning Vendée region in the western part of the country.
Despite early success and British support, the rebellion was defeated by Republican forces in December of 1793. Continued tensions, fuelled by the Reign of Terror and the excesses of the Committee of Public Safety, lead to more risings during 1794 and 1795. Each was defeated in turn, but unrest did not abate. When the Comte d’Artois landed with a force of Emigré and British troops, the Royalists started to march on Paris. Their numbers grew quickly, and alarm spread through France.
The immediate effect of the rebels marching on Paris was to fan the embers of resentment amongst several groups in the city – in particular the jeunesse dorée ("gilded youth") also called Muscadins ("wearers of musk"). These were Royalist supporters who had fought the Revolution in the streets of the capital for years. As their expectations of success grew, so did their activities. They started cutting down trees to create obstructions and barriers. They also spread rumours that some or even all of the Paris National Guard was going to defect to the rebels. The National Convention now realised that they, and France, were facing an existential threat, with Royalist forces marching on Paris and as many as 25,000 rebelling within the city itself. Republican forces numbered less than 5,000 within the capital, and there were legitimate worries about their trustworthiness.
On 12 Vendémiaire An IV (4th October 1795), National Guard units made a poorly executed attempt to disperse the Royalist mobs. This only emboldened the rebels. Realising their mistake, the Guard executed a cavalry charge. This temporarily dispersed the rebels, but it was too little too late. The National Convention sacked the Guard commanders and appointed Paul François Barras to command the Republican forces in the city. Despite his military and naval background, Barras was a political creature who had managed to survive the Revolution as well as subsequent governments, and he recognised the peril – especially to himself.
In 1793, at the siege of Toulon, Barras had met a young Napoleon Bonaparte. Barras asked for Bonaparte to join him, and he agreed with the proviso that he, Bonaparte, be given complete freedom of command and be free from political interference. This was agreed, and Bonaparte quickly got to work. He found a young sous-lieutenant Joachim Murat of the 12ème Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval and instructed him to take his two squadrons and ride to the plain of Sablons and return with 40 artillery pieces that were stored at a magazine there.
Setting out at 1:00 am of 13 Vendémiaire, Murat completed the round trip of 10 kilometres in a little under 2 hours, returning with the artillery – and just in time for Bonaparte to deploy them. The Royalist rebels had decided that rather than waiting for the National Guard to take action, they would seize the initiative and march on Tuilleries Palace where the National Convention met. Their leaders had decided to to drive back the Republican forces and force a change of government.
With large numbers of rebels coming down many streets toward Rue Saint-Honoré, the National Guard focussed its positions opposite Église Saint-Roch, while the Royalist forces secured a significant stretch along the north side of the road. In the meantime, Barras had 2,000 or so of the National Guard south of the river. While they would play next to no part in the subsequent action, they did prevent 5,000 Royalists from attacking Bonaparte from the rear. One regular infantry battalion and one ‘Patriots’ battalion were in reserve behind Bonaparte’s position.
At 5:00am, the rebels launched an attack on the National Guard positions, but they were easily repulsed. They were essentially an armed mob with little tactical control. At 10:00am, they launched their major assault with 7,000 men attacking Bonaparte and his force of around 2,000.
Here, we are using roughly a 20:1 ratio for units, and artillery batteries are abstracted to single guns.
Republican
Bonaparte has inspired leadership, so he automatically raises the morale of any unit he is with by one level. He is lucky, so any shot that wounds him has to be rolled again, and if it wounds him again, only inflict the wound on a subsequent roll of 4+ on a d6.
The artillery may be set up on any of the side streets on the south side of Rue Saint-Honoré. There are 7 batteries in total, with 1 gun representing a battery. Place 4 figures in each gun crew – these represent the number of guns in the battery.
Infantry
Horse
Troops may be deployed anywhere along the south side of Rue Saint-Honoré or down any of the side streets. They may be broken into companies of 5 figures each. Cavalry must be behind the front line on Place du Carrousel. All buildings provide hard cover.
Royalists
At best, the Royalist forces can be described as a well-armed mob. So, to approximate this, their forces at this point are as follows:
Royalist units have fewer than half their figures carrying firearms – so they fire at half-strength but carry out close combat at full-strength.
All units have high morale until they suffer casualties; then their morale drops to average. They mostly have poor training, although one unit, representing army deserters, may be average. Overall, the Royalist units’ morale is fragile, so if one unit breaks then any unit beside them or behind them automatically drops to poor morale.
Units may occupy any of the buildings, but the Église Saint-Roch is the only one one of these that a unit can fire from at full effect. All other buildings containing units may only fire at half-effect. The Église Saint-Roch provides hard cover to half the figures standing in front of it, while all other buildings provide hard cover on the north side of Rue Stanton-Honoré. The church also has a large balcony above its entrance which can allow a unit to be deployed at elevation.
The Royalists launched several massed attack on the Republican line, but were met with canister rounds fired at close range. After 45 minutes, all the fight had been knocked out of them. The next day, Vachot and Murat made a decisive charge. The Royalist revolt was ended with a ‘whiff of grapeshot’ and Bonaparte has made his name. WS&S
This article was featured in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine 128. Discover this issue, and others, in our webshop:
