François Joseph Westermann

Brigadier-General François Joseph Westermann (5 September 1751Template:Snd5 April 1794) was a French Army officer. He is best known as one of the main French Republican commanders in the initial stage of the War in the Vendée.

Early career

Westermann was born on 5 September 1751 in Molsheim, Alsace (today department of Bas-Rhin).<ref name=Six>Template:Cite Six</ref> He enlisted in Count Esterhazy's regiment of hussars in 1767, retiring six years later as a non-commissioned officer.<ref name=Six/> In 1788, he was briefly employed at the Count of Artois' stables in Paris, then returned to Alsace to work in the city government of Strasbourg.<ref name=Six/> Westermann was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution, and in 1790 became greffier of the municipality of Haguenau.<ref name=Six/> After a short imprisonment on a charge of inciting riots in Haguenau, Westermann moved to Paris in May 1792, where he became an ally of revolutionary leader Georges Danton.<ref name=Six/>

Westermann played an leading role in the overthrow of the French monarchy on 10 August 1792, where he commanded a unit of fédérés in the attack on the Tuileries Palace.<ref name="EB1911">{{#if: |

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  }}{{#ifeq:  ||}}</ref> Afterwards, Westermann rejoined the army and accompanied General Charles François Dumouriez on his campaigns with the Army of the North and the Army of the Ardennes, and assisted him in his negotiations with the Duke of Brunswick.<ref name=Six/> He served under Dumouriez in the invasion of the Netherlands, most notably at the Siege of Breda (21–27 February 1793), but was arrested as an accomplice after the general's defection in April 1793.<ref name=Six/> Denounced by Jean-Paul Marat to the National Convention, Westermann succeeded in proving his innocence, and was sent with the rank of general of brigade to quell the Revolt in the Vendée.<ref name="EB1911"/>

War in the Vendée

Westermann distinguished himself by his extraordinary courage, daring maneuvers, and severe treatment of the insurgents.<ref name="EB1911"/> Appointed commander of the vanguard of the Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle on 18 May 1793, he defeated the rebels at Parthenay on 20 June, then captured Châtillon on 3 July.<ref name=Six/> After suffering a defeat at the First Battle of Châtillon, Westermann was suspended and brought before the National Convention, only recovering his command on 29 August.<ref name=Six/>

After serving in the Second Battle of Châtillon, Westermann received a command in the Army of the West.<ref name=Six/> Beaten at the battles of Croix-Bataille and Entrames, he defeated the Vendéens at Beaupréau, Granville, and in December 1793 annihilated the Catholic and Royal Army at the Battle of Le Mans and the Battle of Savenay.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In a controversial document, the authenticity of which is disputed, Westermann supposedly wrote to the Committee of Public Safety:

"There is no more Vendée, Republican citizens. It died beneath our free sword, with its women and its children. I have just buried it in the swamps and the woods of Savenay. Following the orders that you gave to me, I crushed the children beneath the horses' hooves, massacred the women who, those at least, will bear no more brigands. I do not have a single prisoner to reproach myself with. I have exterminated them all..."<ref>Secher, Reynald. A French Genocide: The Vendee. University of Notre Dame Press, (2003). p. 110 Template:ISBN</ref>

Some historians believe this letter never existed.<ref>Frédéric Augris, Henri Forestier, général à 18 ans, Éditions du Choletais, 1996</ref> The rebellion was still going on, and there were several thousand living Vendéan prisoners being held by Westermann's forces when the letter was supposedly written.<ref>Jean-Clément Martin, Contre-Révolution, Révolution et Nation en France, 1789-1799, éditions du Seuil, collection Points, 1998, p. 219</ref> The killing of civilians would also have been an explicit violation of the Convention's orders to Westermann.<ref>Jean-Clément Martin, Guerre de Vendée, dans l'Encyclopédie Bordas, Histoire de la France et des Français, Paris, Éditions Bordas, 1999, p 2084, et Contre-Révolution, Révolution et Nation en France, 1789-1799, p.218.</ref>

After his victory, in January 1794 Westermann was summoned to Paris, where, as a friend and partisan of Danton, he was proscribed and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal.<ref name=Six/> He was guillotined along with the Dantonist party on 5 April 1794.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He is depicted by Jacques Villeret in the 1983 film Danton and by Eduard von Winterstein in the 1921 movie of the same name.