François Joseph Westermann

French First Republic state institutions Jacobins and French revolutionary radicals 1751–1794 ✕ Guillotined

Republican brigade general called “the butcher of the Vendée”, executed with the Dantonists

Born in 1751 at Molsheim in Alsace, he served in a hussar regiment and in 1790 became clerk of Haguenau. In Paris from 1792 he became an ally of Danton and commanded fédérés in the attack on the Tuileries on 10 August. On Dumouriez’s staff, he was arrested after the general’s defection in April 1793, cleared and sent to the Vendée as a brigade general. Leading the vanguard of the Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle, he took Parthenay in June and Châtillon on 3 July, but was routed at Châtillon on 5 July and suspended. Beaten repeatedly in the Virée de Galerne, he took part in the destruction of the Catholic and Royal Army at Le Mans and Savenay, after which his hussars shot 500 to 700 prisoners. The letter attributed to him beginning “There is no more Vendée” is of disputed authenticity. Proscribed as a friend of Danton, he was guillotined with the Dantonists on 5 April 1794.

Also known as: Francois Joseph Westermann