I was just listening to an episode of the Revolutions podcast that discussed the
Infernal Columns.
With 80,000 soldiers, he ordered 12 "infernal columns" to sweep the Vendée, taking away all crops, burning farms and killing all suspected rebels. Not even women and children were spared from massacre. Turreau was encouraged in his horrible work by politicians such as Jean-Baptiste Carrier who said, "The women of La Vendée, it is from them that the race of enemies is reborn. The children, they are vipers to be crushed", and, "We will make a cemetery of France".[21]