The infernal columns ( Fr. , `` '' colonnes infernales '' ) were operations led by the French revolutionary Change_of_leadership general Louis Marie Turreau in the War Hostile_encounter in the Vendée , after the failure of the Royalist Virée de Galerne .

Following the passage on 1 August 1793 and 1 October 1793 by the National Convention of laws aimed Aiming at exterminating anti-Republican terrorists Terrorism in the area south of the Loire River ( the so-called Vendée ) , 12 army columns were formed Coming_to_be and sent Sending through the Vendée to exterminate the local anti-republican population .

Following the passage on 1 August 1793 and 1 October 1793 by the National Convention of laws aimed Aiming at exterminating anti-Republican terrorists Terrorism in the area south of the Loire River ( the so-called Vendée ) , 12 army columns were formed Coming_to_be and sent Sending through the Vendée to exterminate the local anti-republican population .

The Vendée is a coastal region , located immediately south of the Loire River in western France .

The departments included Cause_to_be_included in the uprising Change_of_leadership , called Name_conferral the `` Vendée Militaire '' , included Cause_to_be_included the area between the Loire and the Layon rivers : Vendée ( Marais , Bocage Vendéen , Collines Vendéennes ) , part of Maine-et-Loire west of the Layon , and the portion of Deux-Sèvres west of the River Thouet .

The departments included Cause_to_be_included in the uprising Change_of_leadership , called Name_conferral the `` Vendée Militaire '' , included Cause_to_be_included the area between the Loire and the Layon rivers : Vendée ( Marais , Bocage Vendéen , Collines Vendéennes ) , part of Maine-et-Loire west of the Layon , and the portion of Deux-Sèvres west of the River Thouet .

The historian François Furet concludes Process_end that the repression in the Vendée `` not only revealed Reveal_secret massacre and destruction Destroying on an unprecedented scale but also a zeal so violent that it has bestowed Giving as its legacy much of the region 's identity ...

The Machecoul massacre Killing is one of the first events of the War in the Vendée , a revolt Attack against mass conscription and the civil constitution of the clergy .