The siege of Angers was a siege of the French town of

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

on 3 December 1793 in the

War in the Vendée The war in the Vendée (french: link=no, Guerre de Vendée) was a counter-revolution from 1793 to 1796 in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loir ...

Background

Pushed back at Granville, the Vendéens hoped to reach the south of the

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

to which the path was open thanks to their victory in the

Battle of Dol The Battle of Dol was a succession of battles in the war in the Vendée. They lasted three days and two nights from 20 to 22 November 1793 around Dol-de-Bretagne, Pontorson Pontorson () is a commune in the Manche department in north-wester ...

. On 23 November, the Vendéen generals met at Antrain. The chief general Henri de La Rochejaquelein offered to march to Rennes where the republican army had sought refuge, in order to finish it off and free

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, the army could then attack Nantes to return to

Vendée Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.

while meeting with Charette's army. On the other hand, Stofflet wanted to return by the shortest road, thus attacking

. Finally, Antoine-Philippe de La Trémoille wanted to attack Granville again, the town's garrison was reduced and the English seemed more willing to intervene there. This last plan was chosen by the officers, but the Vendéen soldiers refused to obey and rather followed Stofflet's plan. The generals were forced to follow. The army thus marched to

. The Vendéens were no longer worried about the republican troops too busy reorganizing their forces, but they were ravaged by illnesses (

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and cholera) related to

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...

caused by their difficulties in supply and in protecting themselves from the cold of the upcoming winter.

The battle

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 "Faubourg" () is an ancient French term historically equivalent to " fore-town" (now often termed suburb or ). The earliest form is , derived from Latin , 'out of', and Vulgar Latin (originally Germanic) , 'town' or 'fortress'. Traditionally, thi ...

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 Marie Pierre Adrien Francastel (1761–1831) was a French politician. During the French Revolution, he was elected to the National Convention from Eure department, and joined the Mountain. Francastel took part, on the Republican side, in the ...

, 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 The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...

, following orders of Levasseur "made a lustral procession, and burnt the frankincense of the fatherland to purify the walls from royalist contact". {{DEFAULTSORT:Angers Conflicts in 1793 Battles of the War in the Vendée Battles in Pays de la Loire History of Maine-et-Loire Sieges involving France 1793 in France Sieges of the French Revolutionary Wars