Battle Report:
Tragedy at Roquefort
Vendee Revolt - France 1794
by Eric Burgess
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The Royalist townsfolk of Roquefort had just begun the Celebration of the Fall Harvest when screams of horror could be heard from the edge of town. Quickly word spread throughout the crowd that Republican National Guard, and Parisian Brigades had attacked that North end of Roquefort. Dark pillars of smoke could be seen rising above the rooftops. The damned Republicans were burning the village!! The Royalist townsfolk quickly ran to their house to retrieve whatever weapons could be mustered. Matchlocks, blunderbusts, swords, pistols, scythes, pitchforks, and other various spears and pikes. The local constable, D'Autichamp, ordered his men to retrieve the brass three pounder from the town square and the old ammunition from the jail. Fearing the safety of their women and children the Royalist townsmen knew they would have to defeat the Republicans or face certain death. D'Autichamp, knowing he could not fight the Republicans and put out the fires decided to order the evacuation fo the town and have them citizens regroup about 1 mile away in the Church compound. The Church compound was a miniature walled town with the main Church, nunnery, printing press house, and grave yard. The south end of the compound was completely overgrown with brambles and swampland so they would only have to defend three sides of the compound. Once the women and children were secure in the Church and Nunnery, D'Autichamp began to organize his local townsfolk. He had enough men to form three militia battalions and one 3# artillery section. "Not much, but it will have to do." He was heard to say. He placed one battalion on each wall and the 3# gun section guarding the compound gate. The smoke from Roquefort blanketed the Northern sky. Many good citizens have lost their homes, belongings, and livelyhood today! Thirty minutes past and there was no sign of the enemy. Then with a jolt the Republicans emerged from the woodline about 300 yards from the compound. Four battalions of Republicans emerged. One National Guard unit, two militia type units, and one Parisian mob in their red toboggens. Worst of all they were commanded by the totally ruthless and equally incompetent Major Kleber. The Royalist knew they would be given no quarter... Then all the Royalist's hearts sank at the sight of 8 battalions of Republican Line infantry, one artillery battery, and two cavalry regiments approaching from Roquefort. In the name of King and Country could they hold against such odds?!!! THE BATTLEMajor Kleber and his staff rode continuously back and forth between his command and General Shablous (Overall French Republican commander). It appears that he has requested the honor of storming the Church compound and slaying the civilians. General Shablous has given his approval only to help if things became "unruly". Major Kleber and his "National Guard" advanced on the compound. The rabble was yelling and cursing at the defenders as they approached in their ragged ranks. Discipline was not a forte of this group. Their delayed advance allowed D'Autichamp's to move his last militia battalion away from the far wall and redeployed in front of the on-coming National Guard. The Republican's under Kleber advanced and maneuvered as to hit the walls with one battalion form the front and two from the side with a fourth battalion in reserve. When they got within 50 yards the Royalist civilians opened fire with their limited firepower. Several volleys were fired with little or no effect on the Republicans. This enbolded the Republicans to push to the walls and assault the Royalists. Two desparate melees began with two units of Royalist civilians, not use to fighting in any formation or collectively, routing! With 2/3rds of his force routed D'Autichamp was not pleased with the situation. The sound of bugle calls could be heard in the distance. Was Shablous committing the rest of the command? No, the Royalist Army had arrived on the field *behind* the Republican army. The Republican cavalry turned about and was attempting to stall the advancing Royalists. Major Kleber and his band of Brigades began to loot and massacre the wounded Roquefort civilians rather than take advantage of their momentary victory. D'Autichamp took maximum advantage of this lull and ordered his 3# gun to move to the flank of the Republican militia. They fired over and over again into the flank of the Republican National Guard only to have no effect. The power and ammunition was in such poor condition that they had little punch. The last civilian battalion preformed much better, wheeling on the flank of an oncoming Republican militia unit and blasting them. The Republican unit routed and was never seen again. This civilian battalion gracefully moved back under cover of the cemetary walls to await the inevitable Republican assault. Meanwhile, the Royalist Army was slowly making it's way onto the field with the two cavalry regiments leading the way. General Shablous dispatched his cavalry to stem the tide, but rather than turn about to face the Royalists, he ordered the army to advance on the Church compound putting more distance between his army and the Royalist army. This was not good news for D'Autichamp and his beleaguered command. By sending the gun section against the flank of the Republican National guard the crew and gun had to move *outside* the compound. Now the entire Republican army was bearing down on the flank of the artillery section. Wheeling to face their new threat the artillery unload at point blank range into the attack columns. The 6th Line was nearly destroyed by the fire, but all avenues of retreat for the artillery section were cut off as the Republican formations filed past them to get to the compound walls. With no threat to their front the gun section was free to wheel and fire into the flanks. [The manuever card was turned up by the Royalists with the last impetus point] General Shablous, set his two cavalry regiments smashing into the two Royalist regiments. What should have been a fairly even fight turned into a total Royalist route! The two Royalist cavalry units were smashed (one destoryed completely) by the Republican horse. The pursuit by the cavarly hit the Royalist infantry attempting to deploy from Road Column formation. Saber slashed fresh and the Royalist were finished. (Out of morale chips) The Tragedy at Roquefort was complete. The town was burned, the powder and food supplies in the Church compound, were "liberated" and the Royalist army limped away to fight another day. D'Autichamp and a small group of Royalist died on the Church steps in a rugged last defense. PIQUET OVERVIEW OF THE GAME: Royalist fire was extremely bad. They only inflicted 4 stands of damage the entire game despite at least four flank shots with artillery. The cavalry battle sealed the fate of the Royalist. They were completely destroyed and routed. The only thing we did wrong in the scenario was to make the Church Compound Royalist garrison share the Morale Chip pool of the Royalist army. With the units in the compound losing two melees the Royalist had lost half their morale chips before the main army even came onto the board. Next time we will have the garrison with 5 to 10 morale chips and the Royalist army will draw separately. The battle was still fun, but it ended so quickly. The Royalists losing four melees doesn't help! Hope you enjoyed the tale. Here is the Order of Battle Rating for units = Fire - Melee - Morale Royalist Army (If you can call it that)
D'Autichamp (Average) - Local Constable - A truly awful command group
2nd Battalion Roquefort Villagers 4 - 4 - 6 (8 for the game since they drew an UP1 on morale card) 3rd Battalion Roquefort Villagers 4 - 4 - 6 (8 for the game since they drew an UP1 on morale card) 3# gun section 6 - 4 - 6 Reinforcements General Stofflet (Average) - Royalist General
Landowner Cavalry 4 - 10 - 10 6# Gun Battery 6 - 4 - 6 Swiss Guard (3 stands) 12 - 12 - 12 1st Battalion 8 - 8 - 8 2nd Battalion 10 - 8 - 8 3rd Battalion 8 - 6 - 8 4th Battalion 8 - 6 - 6 Republicans
Major Kleber (Abysmal) Commanding the rabble (Brigade Command Indecision Card)
Rabble #1 4 - 6 - 4 Rabble #2 4 - 6 - 4 Parisian Mob 4 - 6 - 4 1st Brigade - General Marso (Average)
2nd Battalion Line 10 - 8 - 6 3rd Battalion Light 12 - 10 - 8 4th Battalion Line 10 - 8 - 6 8# Gun Battery 8 - 4 - 6 Le Big Horse Regt NA - 10 - 8 Le Poof Dragoon Regt 4 - 8 - 6 2nd Brigade - General Thionville (Abysmal) (Brigade Command Indecision Card)
Legion de Nord Battalion 8 - 6 - 8 6th Battalion Line 8 - 6 - 6 7th Battalion Line 8 - 6 - 6 As you can see there are hardly any good troops in either army. If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me directly via e-mail at ericandpaige@mindspring.com. - Eric Burgess Back to The Gauntlet No. 14 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
Time for another tale of the Vendee Revolt