See Battle of Le Mans for the battle here in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. The Battle of Le Mans was a combat in the Virée de Galerne, an operation during the War in the Vendée. It resulted in the rout of the Vendéen forces by Republican troops. Prelude Victorious at the Battle of La Flèche after their setback at Angers, where they were unable to cross the river Loire, the desperate Vendéens, always sporadically attacked by the Republican cavalry, continued their march towards Le Mans. Their numbers were greatly reduced: the Catholic and Royal Army now numbered less than 20,000 men, and had with it thousands of wounded, women and children. Of the 80,000 the Vendéens had at the start of the Virée de Galerne, only 40,000 remained. Suffering of famine and the cold, ravaged by gangrenous dysentery, typhus and putrid fever, they mostly tried to obtain supplies. The Vendéens had managed to repel 4,000 Republicans in a half-hour at Pontlieu, but still demoralized and having lost a great part of their weaponry, they took Le Mans on 10 December 1793 at 4:00 in the afternoon. They then spread out through the city and managed to find provisions, supplies and clothes. Nonetheless, morale was still low, sickness continued to ravage the army and the soldiers, disobeying their officers, didn't try to prepare the defenses of the town despite the fact that the Republican army, reorganized since its defeat at Dol, was marching towards the city. The battle On 12 December the first Republican troops under François-Joseph Westermann and François Muller appeared at the gates of the city. Henri de La Rochejaquelein and Talmont assembled 3,000 men, especially Chouans, and took on the Republicans. They managed to set a trap in the woods near Le Mans. Westermann's surprised cavalry had to pull back whereas Muller's division panicked and fled after the first shots fired. The Republican army was on the verge of being annihilated when Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly's Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg arrived as reinforcements on the battle field. This time it was the Vendéens who panicked and fled and hid in the city. La Rochejaquelein thus re-entered the city, but his forces were dispersed, most of the Vendéens not even realizing the Republicans were so close, and some soldiers were even drunk. Some time later, General François-Séverin Marceau arrived in turn at the battle