The War in the Vande

Traditionalist priests across rural france had been spreading the gospel of counter revolution for years now. They found ready recruits among the peasantry who were opposed to the government, living rough and dodging the authorities. The rebel forces grew from tiny bands of peasants in the wilderness into real armies of thousands of men capable of challenging republican forces in open battle. Like many civil wars, the von rebellion was a savage affair. Both the government and the rebels regularly engaged in massacres of civilians suspected of supporting the other side.