The First Battle of Châtillon during the War in the Vendée saw the Vendean Royalists defeat a French Republican raiding force led by François-Joseph Westermann. The rebel Catholic and Royal Army virtually destroyed the Republican column, only Westermann and a few hundred cavalrymen escaped the disaster. The Vendée revolt was a bitter civil war waged between those who supported the French Revolution and rural farmers who resented the new government's anti-Catholic laws and conscription decrees.