Since spring 1793 the National Convention had been split by rivalry between the
Montagnards and
Girondins, reaching the point of no return on 2 June, when the Montagnards (under pressure from the
sans-culottes of Paris) voted for the arrest of the 29 Girondin deputies, who fled Paris and tried to start an uprising against the convention. Most of the departments simply sent a written anti-Montagnard protest to Paris, with only the Mediterranean coast, parts of
Calvados (
Caen) and
Eure in Normandy (the rest of Normandy procrastinated or opted for a wait-and-see approach) and the areas around
Lyon and
Bordeaux opting for open revolt. The Girondins placed
Georges Félix de Wimpffen and
Joseph de Puisaye in command of their forces. In early July their expedition set out from
Caen for Paris, accusing the latter of being under the sans-culottes' control. Wimpffen was not with the small force (there were few volunteers since the harvest was imminent), mainly consisting of
Bretons, leaving it under Puisaye's command. It passed via Eure's main town of
Évreux - Puisaye had commanded that town's
National Guard and still had some support there. The force then headed for
Vernon, Eure, a town of 4,500 people on the
Seine, to cut off Paris' food supply. On 13 July Puisaye stopped in his nearby castle of
Ménilles but ordered the army to continue. The inhabitants of Vernon were worried by the federalist advance, even more so as they had few troops or supplies to defend the town. Before the assault the federalists decided to stop off at the
château de Brécourt 8 kilometres from Vernon. == Course ==