 |
| "Joseph Agricole Vialla", 1793. Engraving by Charles-Melchior Descourtis after Joseph Swebach Desfontaines https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b69506180 |
In February 1794 Joseph Bara was belatedly compelled to share the laurels of the Republic with a second, even more obscure, "child martyr", the splendidly-named Joseph-Agricol Viala.
This Republican of thirteen years - even younger than Bara - had been killed in Avignon seven months previously attempting to cut the cable of a ferry that Federalist troops needed to cross the River Durance and take the town.
 |
| "Agricola Viala, aged 11" - anonymous early engraving http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6950627z |
Viala's story was first brought to attention of readers in Paris in an article in the Journal des Hommes libres de tous les pays, owned by Moureau's friend Charles Duval, for 16 Pluviôse (4th February 1794), and reprised two days later in the Journal universal of d'Audouin (See Readings).
Moureau then wrote directly to Robespierre to inform him of the heroic death of his "pupil and nephew". His letter, dated 19 Pluviôse (7th February 1794), was found among the Robespierre's papers at the time of his execution. Moureau, no doubt, hoped to benefit from his close association with Claude Payan, Robespierre's agent in the Commune and a native of Drôme.
If Robespierre intervened on receipt of the Moureau's letter, there was a long delay, for Moureau remained in prison for two more months. He was eventually liberated on 26 Germinal (15th April) and on 6 Floréal appeared at the Jacobins to thank his defenders. The recall of Rovère and Poultier from Vaucluze, and the arrival of Maignet, a strict Robespierrist, temporarily restored his political fortunes.
Commemorations are set in motion
Two weeks later Viala was rescued from oblivion. His heroic action was presented to the Convention in the famous session of 18 Floréal. Robespierre associated his name with that of Bara and lamented the fact that he had so far been denied the accolades of posterity. On the proposal of Barère, it was ordered his ashes were to be solemnly conveyed to the Panthéon with those of Bara, the date being fixed for 30 Prairial (later fatefully postponed to 10 Thermidor).
As Michel Vovelle notes, this was more than Moureau himself had hoped for. In his letter to Robespierre, he wrote that he did not expect his nephew to be treated on a par with Bara but wanted only a "pyramid" to be erected in his honour, in the public square in Avignon or else on the banks of the Durance.
By voting Viala the honours of the Panthéon, the Convention set in motion a whole series of symbolic gestures. On 3 Prairial Moureau was formally admitted to the Assembly hall with a delegation of Avignon patriots, and on 10 Prairial he appeared again, this time accompanied by Viala's mother, sister and younger brother. In a letter read to the Assembly, Viala's parents announced that one of their older sons had already avenged his brother at Toulon: if the country required further sacrifices, "let our children perish, and Vive la république!" A Précis historiques sur Agricol Viala was published under the aegis of the Commission of Public Instruction and, on 23 Messidor, David read his plans for the forthcoming ceremony to the Convention. Marie-Joseph Chénier included Viala alongside Bara, in the couplets of the Chant du départ
The Republican publicity machine made a brave effort, though, with little lead time, Viala was always a poor second to Bara. There are half a dozen different engravings in various French collections, mostly portraits. In the winter of 1793-94 calendars featured medallions of Bara along with those of the established "martyrs of liberty", Marat, Lepeletier and Chalier - in one at least Viala joins him:
 |
| https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b69498987 |
The illustration (left) is from Laval - I can't find a modern reference online, but the sculpture was clearly still in the Calvet's collections in 1989.
Models of Bara and Viala were also created by Branchard at the Sèvres factory; there are several examples of these busts on museum and auction sites, though majority are late 19th-century.
Finally, we learn from Wikipedia that a French ship-of-the-line was launched in 1795 as Le Vialla, though it rapidly metamorphosised into Le Voltaire (1795), Le Constitution (1795) and eventually Le Jupiter (1803).
A ceremony in Avignon
Whilst celebrations in Paris were abruptly halted by the events of Thermidor, an elaborate ceremony in honour of Viala went ahead in Avignon, on 30 Messidor (18th July 1794) as originally planned. The occasion is unusually well-documented - Laval reproduces the official account, the dossier of speeches and a number of patriotic songs and sententious epitaphs from the event (p.354-355). The most noteworthy of the orations was given by the young Citizen Avid, who had been Viala's aide-de-camp as leader of the National Guard cadet organisation in Avignon, known as L'Espérance de la patrie. This corps, which mirrored other children's battalions in the provinces, had featured prominently in local ceremonies and processions from end of 1792. Avid's college rhetoric reveals a quasi-military hierarchy among the youthful citizens; he evokes Viala as "a daring chief, brave commander and object of our love" and ends by enjoining the "soldiers of Agricol" to be prepared to die in their turn for the Republic. The event finished with a moving but altogether briefer declaration of patriotic loyalty from Viala's father.
 |
"Viala crowned by Equality", engraving of 1794 |
Who was Viala?
As Jean-Clément Martin notes, unlike that of Bara, Viala's death had witnesses, so that it is possible to get some idea of the degree of invention his story involved. According to the version given by his uncle, the thirteen-year-old Viala, commander of the children's National Guard, had volunteered to cut cable of the ferry at Bonpas /Noves in order to prevent the Federalist troops on the far side of the Durance from crossing. Despite efforts to restrain him, he rushed under fire to the exposed position where the ferry cable was attached to a pole on the bank. According to some accounts he fired several shots from his practice musket, then, arming himself with an axe, began to hack away violently at the cable. He survived several volleys of musket fire but on the sixth was hit by a ball in the head. The sources record his moving last words in the local patois: "M'an pas manquat: aquo es egaou, mori per la libertat" ("I have been hit, but it does not matter; I die for liberty"). The Federalists were said to have later callously plunged their bayonets into the corpse and tossed it into the water. The date given is vague - but some time in July 1793.
There were significant errors and ambiguities in this account:
Firstly, Moureau was mistaken, or guilty of deliberate falsification, over Viala's age. At the time of his death, the boy was not thirteen but already turned fifteen, and thus was older than Bara - by the standards of the time almost of an age to fight. Laval confirms: the birth date of Joseph-Agricol Viala is recorded as 22nd February 1778. He was the third son of François-Hilarion Viala, a shopkeeper with modest premises on the place de l'Horloge in central Avignon, and his wife, Honorade Moureau, the sister of the Revolutionary. (Laval, p.41-42)
There was also some confusion over the details of when events happened and what exactly took place.
It turns out that Viala did not die, as was generally assumed, on 6th July, when the Federalist troops from Marseilles arrived before Avignon, but on the 5th, the day before, when a small group of defenders went out in advance to disable the ferry at Noves. Laval assembles the available evidence (See Readings below) The manuscript diary of the Avignon lawyer Chambaud, states that Viala was shot in head on the 5th; his father wrongly assumed that a substantial enemy force had already assembled and falsely raised the alarm. Another witness reported seeing on the 5th, the body of a young man, identified as Viala, who had been killed near the ferry post by a ball "above the left nipple". This scenario detracts somewhat from Viala's heroism. Perhaps he had not after all braved volleys of fire, but been the victim of an isolated shot. More damning still, according to Chambaud he had simply been on guard duty by the ferry when he had provoked the armed men on the opposite bank by "some act of imprudence". His uncle's enemies took pleasure in spreading the rumour that he had been killed presenting his rear to the Federalists in an obscene gesture.
There is no means to verify the exact circumstances further. In a letter to the Convention dated 24th July 1793 - so long before Viala's rise to fame - the Representative Rovère, no friend of Moureau, reports simply that "a young Avignonnais aged sixteen was killed by gunshot at the moment when he was going to cut the rope of the cable ferry." (see Reading)
 |
| The Durance at Bonpas, with Noves to the right - traversed nowadays by two major road bridges |
Finally there was some misunderstanding over the strategic significance of Viala's action. Perhaps advisedly, Moureau left the context of his nephew's action imprecise. However, in fairness, he wrote again to Robespierre to correct his assumption in the speech of 18 Floréal that Viala had actually succeeded in his mission: Moureau confirms: "The cable was not cut, the rebels crossed the river and threw his body in the water" (See Readings).
In reality Viala's contribution had been marginal and ineffective. The whole episode also cast an unwelcome light on the ambiguities of local politics. Other cable ferries along the Durance had been disabled without difficulty. The Noves ferry remained intact only because the inhabitants of Noves themselves favoured the Federalist cause and had kept it in operation.
The capitulation of Avignon, though shortlived, was swift and ignominious. Rousselet's Marseillais troops arrived from Arles in the night of 5th/6th July and made camp in Noves in the early morning. By 10 o'clock they were ranged in battle formation along the Durance. On the near bank a small contingent from Avignon, equipped with two pieces of artillery, made ready to defend the crossing Rousselet first sent a proclamation inviting capitulation, but this was refused. Artillery and musket fire were then exchanged for an hour or so. However, the Avignonais, fearing the arrival of Federalist reinforcements at the nearby Charterhouse of Bonpas, subsequently retired.
The next day Avignon simply opened its gates to Rousselet.
The end of a cult
 |
| Musée d'Histoire Jean Garcin, Avignon: display for the exhibition "Memoires Républicaines en Vaucluse" in 2021. Facebook post, August 2021 |
After Thermidor, Moureau once again fell from grace, and his nephew's memory swiftly fell victim to the vagaries of Revolutionary politics. Courtois, in his report on Robespierre's papers read 16 Nivôse (5 January 1795), made public Poultier's view that Viala had died as the result of an ill-received rude gesture ("une simple polissonnerie mal prise"). In a letter to the Convention in February , the patriots of Avignon attacked Robespierre as a "French Cromwell" and demanded the withdrawal of the honours of Panthéon from "the memory of a child who merited nothing": in their view, it was a fable that young Viala had made even the slightest attempt to cut the cable across the Durance; the Representatives of the People alone had saved Avignon. In the event, the intervention was superfluous - eight days earlier the Convention had already voted to remove from the Panthéon all individuals who had died less than ten years previously.
A few months later, on 4 Messidor Year III (22nd June), Courtois read a new report to the Convention in which, to general applause from the assembly, he referred to Viala as the "héros fabuleux de la Durance".
As Michel Vovelle has emphasised, Viala also achieved little or no lasting place in popular Revolutionary consciousness. He was not, for instance, included among the Revolutionary martyrs commemorated in the new place names of Year II. The ceremony in Avignon found no echo elsewhere in the Midi, despite a well-established tradition of extravagant, often carnivalesque, Revolutionary festivals. (The only other event which coincided was an improvised affair by the "Comités maratistes" of Arles which focused entirely on Bara and ended in a rather raucous picnic.) (See Vovelle, p.354-355). In the years which followed, his name was perpetuated, if at all, largely through his association with Bara.
References
Jean-Clément Martin, "Bara, de l'imaginaire révolutionnaire à la mémoire nationale". In : Révolution et Contre-Révolution en France de 1789 à 1989 (1996)
Michel Vovelle, "Agricol Viala ou le héros malheureux", AHRF, 1980, 241: p.345-64.
https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahrf_0003-4436_1980_num_241_1_4213
https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahrf_0003-4436_1980_num_241_1_4213
Victorin Laval « J.A. Viala, sa naissance, sa mort et sa glorification », Mémoires de l’Académie du Vaucluse, 1903, n° 3, p. 41-58, 111-13
Part 1, p.41-58: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k55055185/f65.item
Part 2, p.111-39: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k55055185/f137.item
Many of the relevant documents are reproduced and discussed by James Guillaume in his edition of the papers of the Committee of Public Instruction: Vol.4 (1901), p.328ff.
Readings
Initial reports:
Letter of Representative Rovère to the Convention, Avignon, 24th July 1793.
The patriots of Avignon, reduced to very small numbers and almost devoid of ammunition, nevertheless assembled with courage on the banks of the Durance to prevent the troops from Marseilles from crossing... But the inhabitants of l'Isle and some other neighbouring communes, who had sold themselves to the Marseillais and the aristocracy, had already seized an advantageous position called Bonpas. They held the Avignon troops in check, exposing them to fire from two sides. A young Avignonnais aged sixteen was killed by a gunshot at the moment when he was going to cut the rope of the cable ferry.
In spite of the disadvantage of their position, the loyal troops opened fire on the Marseillais hoard, who replied in kind. They then withdrew in good order and without losses to Avignon, where the gates had been closed. The mayor and his accomplices had the cowardice to deliver up the town the next day, though it could have resisted for several days more.
Text in Aulard, Actes du Comité du Salut public, t.v. p.360 (See Laval, p.50)
Article signed by the poet Joseph Lavallée, Journal des hommes libres de tous les pays ou le Républicain, no.56. 16 Pluviose II (4th February 1794)
...The rebels from Marseilles wanted to cross the Durance. A Republican column from Avignon went out to the right bank to force the Federalists to remain in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône; they had to capture the ferries and cut the cables. A terrible musket fire defended the approach; the most courageous men hesitated; a child undertook the task; this was Agricol Viala; he was only thirteen years old: he put himself forward; it was futile to refuse him: he seized an axe, escaped their grasp, threw himself forward and ran; in the blink of an eye he was at the foot of the post and already hacking away with all his feeble strength at the cable which was attached: five rounds of musket fire did not deter him: at the sixth a ball found its mark and he fell.
"M'an pas manqua," he said, "aquo es egau, moré per la liberta."
I will not translate this phrase; this child has made it sacred. "Moré per la liberta," and with that he died.
"M'an pas manqua," he said, "aquo es egau, moré per la liberta."
I will not translate this phrase; this child has made it sacred. "Moré per la liberta," and with that he died.
The grace and charms of youth and beauty adorned the face of this child; his mother adored him; she learned of his death: He died for the country, she said, and her tears dried.
Procès-verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique, vol. 4, p.362-3.
Procès-verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique, vol. 4, p.362-3.
Letter from Agricol Moreau to Robespierre, dated 19 Pluviôse II (7th February 1794)
Learn to know the blood that flows in my veins, through the heroic death of my pupil and nephew. You must have read the account of his death in Number 16 of Duval or yesterday in d'Audouin...I invite you in the name of public good, not to ask that he be put alongside young Bara, but that a pyramid be decreed in the middle of the public square in Avignon, or on the banks of the Durance, on which should be engraved a tableau of his death and his last works....The name of my nephew is Agricol Viala: he was the first martyr of unity and indivisibility, killed with arms in his hands.
Procès-verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique, vol. 4, p.361. Originally published by Courtois in his Report of 16 Nivôse, p.389.
Official accounts
Robespierre's speech of 18 Prairial
By what fatal chance or ingratitude has a hero been forgotten who was even younger [than Bara] and worthy of the homage of posterity? The rebels of Marseilles, assembled on the banks of the Durance, prepared to cross this river in order to slaughter the feeble and disarmed patriots of these unfortunate areas. A small troop of Republicans gathered together on the opposite bank had no other recourse but to cut the cables of the ferries which were in the power of their enemies; but to attempt such an enterprise in the presence of the numerous battalions which covered the bank, within range of their guns, appeared a forlorn hope even to the boldest man. Suddenly an infant of thirteen threw himself on an axe, flew towards the banks of the river and struck at the cable with all his might. Several rounds of musket fire were directed towards him; he continued to strike. Finally he was delivered a mortal blow: he cried out "I die, it is the same to me; it is for liberty" He fell down dead! Respected child, how the country swells with pride to have given birth to you! With what pride Greece and Rome would have honoured your memory, if they had produced a hero such as you!
Note: The name of this hero is Agricola Viala. The Republic is shown two examples of very different sorts. When the mother of young Viala learned of the death of her son, her sorrow was as profound as was justified. But when they told her that he died for the country, she said that it was true and her tears dried. On the other hand, the Marseilles rebels, having crossed the Durance, had the cowardice to insult the remains of the young hero and throw his body into the water.
The treatment of Viala in this speech is a good example of Robespierre's careful redaction of his work for publication. Moureau was present in the Convention for the session of 18 Floréal, and afterwards wrote a letter offering corrections, which was also found among Robespierre's papers after Thermidor.
In original version Robespierre had stated that Viala was aged eleven. This was now corrected to thirteen which, however, still made him younger than Bara. The paragraph "Several rounds of musket fire were directed towards him, he continued to strike" is an amendment. In his speech Robespierre had claimed that the cable was actually cut: "And so the Midi was saved"
The original text, with notes of the corrections, is given by Guillaume in Procès-verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique, vol. 4, p.343-44; text of Moureau's letter: p.363-4.
Historical Summary concerning Agricole [sic]Viala, dated 13 Messidor II (1st July 1794) Printed for the Commission of Public Instruction.
The exact and precise details of the heroic devotion and touching death of this imitator of Bara are not yet well known.
Although Robespierre threw the first flowers on his tomb...the flow of the orator did not allow for didactic detail.
The Commission, instructed on the spot, by the parents of young Viala, now hastens to spread the full account, to render justice to this martyr of liberty, to earn for him the gratitude of the nation, above all to teach young Frenchmen that love of country is a rich source of glory and virtue; that in risking death, a Republican seeks not to live through posterity but to save his country and safeguard public happiness.
In the course of the month of July 1793, the brigands who had escaped from Marseilles, united with all the partisans of aristocracy in the Midi. They entertained the insane plan of marching on Paris, destroying the national representation, raised the flag of civil war and rebellion. Aix, Lambesc, Arles, Tarascon had felt the efffects of their counter-revolutionary rage; already they threatened the shores of the Durance; the patriots of Avignon, faithful to the cause of the people, were at the ready. Resolved to oppose their passage, they occupied the right bank of the river.
The rebels were superior in numbers and in artillery; the ferry positions were in their power; to cut the cables by which they crossed the river, was the only resort which remained to the Republicans; to attempt it was certain death, for enemy fire rained down on anyone who approached. Joseph-Agricole Viala, thirteen years of age, volunteered for the mission. His courage, greater than his years, and his patriotism had already elevated him to the grade of commander general of the children's National Guard, known as l'Espérance de la patrie.
That day he had removed his epaulettes and slipped, without being noticed, into the ranks of civilians. The guards at the gates of the town, were instructed not to let women or children leave; he presented himself and was refused. Indignant at this affront, he threw himself on an axe, pulled loose from those who tried to stop him and marched quickly towards the riverbank. His axe hung from his belt; and, as he crossed the space between the stone path where the republicans were positioned and the post where the cable was attached, he took out his light musket and opened fire on the enemies.
The two banks vomited fire. The balls whistled and crossed each other; Viala, still alone, arrived at the post. There he threw down his gun, seized his axe and struck with great blows at the enormous cable. During this time, he was swept by five discharges of musketry. At the sixth, a ball hit him in the chest. The axe escaped from his hands, he went forward a few paces, staggered and fell, pronouncing these sacred words: M'an pas mancat, aco es egaou; more per la libertat (They have not missed me, but it is all the same; I die for my country".) He expired. The brave Guinaud, his neighbour and young friend, had followed him from a distance; stretched out in a ravine a few steps away, he heard these last words: he wanted to rescue the body but death rained down all around him, and he was forced to leave. A priest from Saint-Remi claimed to have assassinated him, an honour disputed with a young fanatic from Noves. The rebels, when they crossed the Durance, had the cowardice to insult the remains of the young hero; as though they plunged their bayonets into his corpse as if to find some vestige of life, then threw it into the river.
We will not try to describe his mother's grief: let us simply note that in her sublime simplicity, she adored her Agricol. Let mothers judge the bitterness of her regrets. After her first rending cries of nature and sentiment, it was said to her, "Citoyenne, you are a patriot, and it will sweeten your sorrow to think that he died for our country". Ah! It is true, he died for the country" and her tears dried up.
The report is signed by Joseph Payan du Moulin, Commissaire of the Committee of Public Instruction and elder brother of Claude Payan, the agent of the Commune.
Procès-verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique, vol. 4, p.732-44.
Other eye-witnesses
Statement of Leclerc, a Federalist courier who had arrived from Paris, to the provisional administration of the commune of Noves, 5th July 1793.
[Citizen Leclerc testified that] when he arrived at the banks of the Durance from Avignon, he met several detachments of troops whose language he did not understand. After he had passed them, he heard three gun shots. [The ferry, which was on the Noves bank came to fetch him]...On the landing the courier, his postilion and the inhabitants of Noves who were with them noticed a man on lying on the ground, wearing a uniform; when they came closer they saw that he had been killed by a gunshot wound just above the left nipple. The body appeared to be that of a youth aged 15 or 16 years, with blond hair cut round and short ....[The postilion reported] that a man from the detachments had told him that one of their number, a certain Viala, had been wounded near the landing. The postilion had been asked to fetch him on his spare horse but he had refused.
From the archives of Bouches-du-Rhone. Quoted in Laval (1903), p.48-49.
From the journal of the Avignon lawyer Chambaud.
On the 5th July, young Viala, who was aged about 15, was on guard duty at Bonpas, opposite the Noves ferry, when he committed some act of imprudence toward the armed men on the other side of the Durance, and was shot in the head and killed outright. His father, who immediately went out there, saw several people on the opposite bank; he shouted that there were three or four thousand men and that they were the Marseillais. On his return to Avignon, he raised the alarm; general quarters were beaten and everyone assembled at the Saint-Michel Gate. When they realised their error, they all withdrew.
On Saturday 6th July at 9 o'clock in the morning, general quarters were beaten; at 10 o'clock, the tocsin sounded in the Cathedral and the Carmelite church. The sound of cannon could be heard; the firing was from the banks of the Durance.
Marginal note: On the 5th troops were sent to the ferry at Noves to prevent the Marseillais from crossing. On the 6th these latter set up camp on the left bank near the Noves chain ferry. Other troops, from L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, took possession of the Charterhouse of Bonpas to cover the passage of the Marseillais. This was the position when a gendarme crossed the Durance and brought the following proclamation......
MS. in the Bibl. d'Avignon, quoted Laval, p. 49-50
Other revisions
I came across a note in Gabriel Constant's Pages vauclusiennes, a book originally published in 1926. Constant lists two further sources which question the heroism of Viala - neither of which, unfortunately, seem to be available on the internet.
- Viala's death certificate, which had finally been found by Victorin Laval in the communal archives of Noves and published by him.
- .A further manuscript account, which had recently discovered in the Library in Avignon: discussed in Pansier, "Note sur la mort de Viala, Annales d’Avignon et du Comtat, 1925, page 156).
Pages vauclusiennes on the website, "Le petit saumanais":
http://petit.saumanais.free.fr/vaucluse/pages_vauclusiennes_historiques.pd
No comments:
Post a Comment