Come on have you ever heard of the Quiberon Campaign of 1795?

Or perhaps  you might have heard of them  in Hornblower book and TV series, Frogs and Lobsters!

A bit Of Back Ground

The spectacular Quiberon peninsular is in the Department of Morbihan in southern Brittany. At its narrowest, the peninsular is little more than a wide sand bank, as the peninsular juts out in southerly direction, the west of the peninsular is hammered by the Atlantic sea, and this west coast has huge, savage and large cliff faces, caves and reefs. (Known as the La Côte Sauvage, literally the wild coast).

The eastern side of the peninsular is the bay of Quiberon(Labaie de Quiberon) the sea is calmer, sheltered and protected by this jutting land mass. On this western coast is the important Port d’Orange and Port Haliguen, there is also many beautiful sandy beaches. At the narrowest point the statically vital le fort de Penthièvre dominates the landscape and controls the passage. To the south of the peninsular is the small Fort Neuf.

To the north of the Peninsular is the villages of Sainte-Barbe and Glevenay, further to the south east of the mainland is the village of Carnac(famous for its thousands of Megalithic stones).

On the 23rd June the landing fleet under the Command of admiral Hood and Warren set sail. On the ships was two divisions of émigrés with a strength of about three and half thousand men. The fleet also carried forty thousand guns to arm the locals with firearms-red infantry jackets, shoes, food and money- after brushing aside some French boats the fleet anchored three days later anchored of the Peninsular..

On the 27th June Republican forces spotted the British ships, whilst the British unsuccessfully tried to get a Island of the mainland to surrender. In the mean time Georges Cadoudal who had organized the local Bretons into Chouans waited  for the still illusive Anglo-Émigré Army. the Chouans had not already gained the imitative and captured Carnac, Land évant, Locoal-Mendon and the town of Auray. Landing for the fleet at Carnac was now safe and the campaign had began.

On the 3rdJuly Fort Sans-culotte (as the republicans called it) surrendered, with the capture of seven hundred Republicans, to the émigré army. The Peninsular was captured and all it would now require was a combined assault of émigrés and Chouans on the nearby town of Vannes, once again disagreements and an apparent lack of any detailed plan preventing this to happen.

General Lazare Hoche, commander of the Republican forces, left Vannes with only small force, but with good planning within days he had amassed an army of 13,000 men. Hoche drove back serial Chouans columns and recaptured Auray and some of the villages they had recently captured. By the 7th July a strong force of Chouans under the command of Joseph de Puisayes himself was crushed, this helped to prove to d’herviilly that these troops were useless. The campaign was starting to fall apart for the Royalists and a counter attack was required.

On the 15thJuly, Charles Eugene Gabriel de Sombreuil reinforced the army with a division of 2,000 more émigré troops and disembarked at the southern end of the Peninsular. ( these models are on the stretch Goal)

The situation had really became grim for the Émigré and Chouans, they needed some inspiration. Hoche had continued to drive the Chouan forces out of the village of Sainte Barbe had not been idle, and had built a line of three redoubts armed with many cannons each, presumable with trenches into linking them across the Quiberon Peninsular, thus dividing his adversaries and preventing them from uniting.

At one o’clock on the 16th July d’hervilley marched his division north to attack the Republicans earth works, by six in the morning and with his regiment leading the way in skirmish order, he formed his forces up for attack.

 Émigré Army List

1st Division (d’Hervilly)

Hector  700 men

D’Hervilly   1318 men

Loyal-Émigrant  200 men

Du Dresney 560 men

RotalierArtillerie 566 men 10 cannons

Stretch Goal is built the second Division

2nd Division (Sombreuil)

Périgord 150 men

Rohan 875 men

Salm 150 men and horses

Beon  234 men

Damas 666 men

Total strength 5437 men

Chouans Forces 12000 men ?