Battle Report #12 - Napoleon's Italian Campaign 1796.

[AUSTERLITZ]

The Lodi Campaign - Pursuit of Beaulieu.



Phase I - Alessandria to Lodi

With the defeat of Piedmont,the french now halted for a period of regrouping while bonaparte requested the directory to sanction the armistice with piedmont and also to send him 9,000 reinforcements from Kellerman's army of Italy.He didn't however wait for the directory's reply.Summoning troops under Macquert and Gamier till now garrisoning Fortresses along the french LoC,now freed up he intended to resume the offensive before the austrians had any time to recieve reinforcements.Beaulieu meanwhile was now in no position to attack and resolved to withdraw to the east bank of the Po river and set up a defensive line there with its fortresses and natural barriers,something Bonaparte ardently wished to prevent him from doing.

Laharpe began his movement towards Acqui and Alessandria on the 28th,but was stalled by a temporary mutiny among his troops who had not shared in the loot of Mondovi.The austrians abandoned Alessandria on the 28th and by the 30th when Laharpe got there were safely across the Po.Bonaparte now brought up the whole army swelled to 39,600 men and focused on breaching Beaulieu's defensive line on the Po manned by around 25,000 austrian troops.

For the first time,enjoying overall numerical superiority Napoleon now resorted to his favourite move and strategy of superiority for the first time - The Manuever sur les Derrieres.



Above - Bonaparte breaches the Po river defensive line with a manuever sur les derrieres.Events to be described in detail below.(Consult above diagram whenever following events are described)

Beaulieu established his centre of Operations at Valeggio with the divisions of Sebetendorff,Vukassovich and Liptay covering the river line and Colli[having been on loan to sardinia and now reverted back to austrian service] with a small contingent further deep covering Milan,the capital of Lombardy.Bonaparte identified 3 options to force a crossing.
1]Valenza was the closest,but could quickly be reinforced by nearby austrian troops as it was near the austrian main body and if the french were caught while crossing result would be a disaster.
2]He could attempt to ford the Po opposite Pavia east of valenza.This would place him on Beaulieu's flank,but again was within easy distance of austrian reinforcements to disrupt any crossing attempt.
3]The final option was to cross via the Piacenza.This was nearly fifty miles from valenza but bonaparte believed his hard marching troops could conceal their intentions and achieve surprise with their superior strategic mobility.Also the depth and width of the river at this point was great.But regardless it offered several key advantages.One,it would place him in Beaulieu's rear and across his LOC.As Bonaparte writes to the directory about his intentions on May 6 -
''This river is very large and difficult to cross over.My intention is cross over as close to Milan as possible,so as to be faced with no further obstacles before i reach that capital.By so doing,i shall turn three lines of defense that Beaulieu has prepared along the agogno,Lombro and the ticino.Today i march towards Piaceza,Pavia will find itself turned and if the enemy determines to defend that town,i will find myself between him and his depots''
Thus this daring manuever intended to at one stroke bypass the 3 possible river lines that beaulieu could fall back in succession incase of a crossing along the other 2 routes- that of the R.Agogno,R.Ticino and the river Lombri .Each a tributary of the Po.[Check the rivers on the map]


To distract the enemy from his true objective and buy time for the crossing Serurier and Massena massed near the Valenza crossing point appearing to prepare for a major attempt.This force thus acted as the 'Secondary force' of the Manuever sur les derrires[ If u read the napoleon's art of war -strategy section in earlier posts].
To act as the main assault force to effect the main crossing 3600 grenadiers gathered from the grenadier companies of the army were assembled into four battalions under rising star and future marshal Colonel Jean Lannes -'The future Roland of the army'.



Jean Lannes - One of Napoleon's greatest marshals and his friend.When napoleon became emperor he was one of the few allowed to address him by name rather than sire.

Except the 3600 grenadiers the assault force also included 2500 of the best cavalry.The whole force was commanded by General Dallemagne.Augereau and Laharpe were to follow this initial assault force closely and once a crossing had been secured Massena and part of serurier too would follow.Once the main french body was in the austrian rear,a strategic barrier would be formed along the river adda[by blocking the crossing points] cutting off Beaulieu from all supplies and reinforcements and then squeezing his army to death.

As Dallemagne and the bulk of the french began their move screened by a cavalry screen and the river itself acting as a natural barrier,Serurier and Massena held austrian attention at Valenza.At this juncture however Beaulieu's cautious nature acted to his advantage.Seeing no attack coming from Valenza on the 5th and 6th he began to retreat the bulk of the austrian army beyond the Ticinus river line and asked Liptay to keep an eye out for any crossing on the Pavia or further east.This move was to prove a very wise decision.
Meanwhile Lannes had seized a ferry and got across with his force on the Piacenza early on the 7th.But the alert austrian hussar patrols soon brought news of the crossing to Beaulieu who was in the process of withdrawing to the ticinus.Beaulieu adjusted his scheme and immediately ordered the closest austrian division under Liptay to eliminate the french bridgehead to be soon reinforced by 4500 men of Vukassovich marching from Valeggio.

The Battle of Fombio

Throughout the evening on the 7th Dallemagne's force clashed inconclusively with the austrian outposts and advance elements of Liptay's arriving division who fell back on Fombio village.[See first diagram for location]
Overnight Dallemagne was reinforced by Laharpe and Bonaparte in person.The french now had 11,500 men against austrain 6600.
On the morning of 8 May, Dallemagne's advance guard, supported by Laharpe's 6,500-strong division, assaulted the village of Fombio Colonels Lannes and François Lanusse led the advance guard's left and center columns while Dallemagne personally commanded the right column. At first Lipthay resisted stoutly, using his hussars to counterattack, but he decided to withdraw to avoid being trapped by the flanking columns. His Austrian and Neapolitan cavalry covered the retreat to Codogno. The French pursued hard and attacked Lipthay again in Codogno and the Austrians had to fight their way back to Pizzighettone, where there was a bridge over the Adda river. Lipthay's losses numbered over 568 men on 7–8 May. French suffered 450 casualities.

Meanwhile Augereau had crossed over and Serurier and Massena were on their way.

That evening, as Laharpe's 51st Line Infantry Demi-Brigade marched through Codogno, General-Major chobinin, with 1,000 foot soldiers and 580 lancers attacked the town from the west. In the chaotic street fighting in the dark, Laharpe was killed, possibly by friendly fire.


Laharpe -A promising officer he would surely have made marshal had he survived to the days of the empire.

Bonaparte's chief of staff, Berthier took charge steadying the wavering troops and rushed two more demi-brigades into the fight before Schübirz withdrew about dawn on the 9th. Cut off from the bridge over the Adda at Pizzighettone, Beaulieu directed his retreating units to make a desperate rush for the bridge at Lodi farther north,the only remaining escape route across Napoleon's trap.

The Battle of Lodi -



Bonaparte hurriedly assembled his arriving columns,more or less his entire force having now made the crossing and set off in pursuit to stop Beaulieu from escaping.He was already disappointed at Beaulieu's rapid retreat and escape.The crossing of the Po is nowadays considered as a classic River forcing operation.

On the 10th Bonaparte and his advance columns approached the town of Lodi.Beaulieu had left Sebetendorff with 10,000 men as a rearguard to stall the french as the rest of his army fled to the security of the river line at the Mincio where he could form a new and powerful defensive line with his flanks secured by the lake garda to the north and fortress of Mantua to the south to prevent another strategic turning move by napoleon.[This to be expanded on soon]



The French advance guard caught up with Vukassovich's Austrian rear-guard at about 9 am on 10 May and after a clash followed them towards Lodi. Vukassovich was soon relieved by Rosselmini's covering force near the town. The town's defences were not strong, the defenders were few, and the French were able to get inside and make their way towards the bridge. The span was defended from the far bank by nine battalions of infantry arrayed in two lines and fourteen guns. The Austrian general in command at Lodi, Sebottendorf, also had four squadrons of cavalry at his disposal, who were mostly completely exhausted after a hasty forced march. Sebottendorf decided that it was inadvisable to retire in daylight, and opted to defend the crossing until nightfall.

While the french had taken the town the advance guard was unable to move up the bridge.The bridge was covered by 12 guns.6 directly facing the bridge and 3 each on either side for flanking Enfilade fire.Bonaparte recognized the advance guard wouldn't be able to storm the bridge and awaited the arrival of massena's division.Meanwhile he sent cavalry detatchments both upstream and downstream to find fording points and began personally supervising the siting of a 24 gun battery to support the crossing.At about noon the French artillery sprung to deadly life, and unloaded a severe cannonade against the Austrian defenses.Napoleon’s plan called for the deadly barrage to be followed by a two pronged cavalry and infantry attack. For that to occur, Napoleon sent Marc Antione de Beaumont’s carabiniers to cross the Adda and take Mozanica, and follow that up by storming the Austrian right wing.



Napoleon sighting a cannon personally at Lodi.This is where his soldiers affectionately gave him his nickname -'La petit Corporal' or little corporal as this was usually the job of a corporal.This became part of napoleonic legend and bonaparte exposing himslef to the fire earned the admiration of his troops.
As french reinforcements arrived,grenadiers were formed into an assault column and stormed the bridge after a stirring speech by napoleon.They got halfway before being bundled back with heavy losses before the devastating austrian cannonfire,canister raking their ranks.
Bonaparte however would not be denied,a second wave of troops this time led by several high ranking french officers such as Masssena,Berthier,Cervoni and Dallemagne led the assault in person to the shouts of Vive'l' Republique.


This time the french broke through.The Austrian troops were already exhausted from hours of marching and fighting without food, demoralised by the French cannonade and gave way.Any final austrian attempts to counterattack were put to rest by the arrival of the french cavalry to the flanks.Sebetendorff's survivors retreated in disarray.The battle of Lodi was over.The french had lost 500-900 men,while the austrians over 2,000 ,plus 14 guns and their baggage.However large part of Beaulieu's army to bonaparte's utter frustration had managed to escape him.

The storming of the bridge of Lodi formed a central theme of later Napoleonic legend.Napoleon said later that it was at Lodi that he began to believe himself a 'superior being' destined for greater things.
''At lodi was struck the first spark of high ambition'' - Napoleon.

That evening he admitted to his confidant marmont-
''They have seen nothing yet,in our time no one has concieved anything great;it is for me to set the example''

That very evening however a dispatch arrived from paris ,with the directory's intention to split the command of the army of italy between Napoleon and kellerman -intended to cut the young and increasingly popular general down to size.A furious Bonaparte however adamantly refused stating it would be against the principle of unity of command and offered to resign,knowing full well the directory would never dare to sack the only successful french commander in the field.And the only one who was sending back money to the government.As if to emphasize the point,bonaparte's response was accompanied by a convoy of rich booty for the directors.By the time it reached Paris,the news of the victory of Lodi had created a sensation in Paris .The directory gave in to the inevitable and on their response in 21st also ratified the treaty with piedmont.

''Immortal glory to the conqueror of Lodi...yours is the only plan we follow''.
Bonaparte now knew as long as he maintained battlefield success,he could easily manipulate the corrupt government.



Meanwhile on the 14th Massena occupied Milan.Initial milanese enthusiasm at french 'liberation' soon dampened at the insatiable financial demands.However the millions of Livres taken from Milan enabled bonaparte to finally pay his army in hard cash,the first time in years.With the treaty with piedmont ratified and the directory agreeing to send reinforcements from Kellerman's army Bonaparte resumed his campaign On the 22nd with his lines of communication finally secure by the ratification of the treaty the french renewed their advance on Beaulieu's new defensive line on the mincio river.

Next: Phase 2 of the Lodi Campaign -From Milan to Mantua.

 

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Phase 2 of the Lodi Campaign -From Milan to Mantua



Path of the 2 armies from lodi to the mincio line as the french breach the austrian defense and pursue.The events will be described in detail below.

With his rear secure by peace with piedmont bonaparte resumed his march on 22nd may,leaving behind 5000 men to siege the milan citadel which was still being held by a austrian garrison.

The austrian army under Beaulieu having recieved small numbers of reinforcements now 28,000 strong held a powerful defensive position on the mincio river.His right was guarded by the lake garda and the left flank by the greatest fortress in italy-Mantua.There would be no bypassing or turning this defensive barrier like napoleon had turned the Po.Napoleon had at his disposal around 31,000 men.Rest were guarding his LoC as garrisons and seiging the milan citadel.Kellerman's reinforcements promised had yet to arrive.



[consult above image for all events below]

Beaulieu had set up a cordon like defense,but had made a mistake of keeping no central reserve.Unable to use his general strategy of superiority the manuever sur les derrieres due to the topographical features,napoleon now intended to employ his third technique -The Strategic Penetration.

However before the operation could begin the french were faced with an uprising in pavia and milan[due to greed of french troops and officers] which were crushed severely but somewhat delayed affairs.Bonaparte returned to the main army on the 28th.

The Geography of the Mincio Line-

The Mincio River exits lake garda at Peschiera and winds its way south for 30 kilometers. At a point 8 km before it arrives at Mantua, it veers to the east. The river was a maximum of 40 meters wide, but in May the snow-melt from the Alps made it difficult to ford. Between Lake Garda and Mantua there were only four bridges, from north to south, at Peschiera, Borghetto, Goito, and at Rivalta near the bend in the river. Near Peschiera and Borghetto there are a series of moraines that form ridges, which can conceal troop movements. In the area of Goito and Mantua, the terrain is flat. To the north, Lake Garda extends about 50 km to its northern tip at riva del garda. Other noteworthy locations are the towns of Castelnuovo six km east of Peschiera,Valeggio on a hill one km east of Borghetto, Salionze six km north of Valeggio, Campagnola two km southwest of Valeggio, and Villafranca eight km east of Valeggio.

French forces - With Laharpe's death,Bonaparte reorganized his army into 3 main divisions.[See diagram] under serurier,augereau and Massena.[numbers given].Add to this around 6200 picked troops including the cavalry formed a reserve under General Killmaine.5000 troops besieged milan and 5500 garrisoned fortresses in the french LoC.

Austrian Forces -
To bring Mantua's large fortress up to a defensible level, Beaulieu assigned the brigades of Rosselmini,Rukavina and Vukassovich to defend the city. Altogether, Josef Canto d'Irles had 12,800 men in his garrison, though many of these soldiers soon became ill after their hard service in the Montenotte Campaignand the Lodi campaign.

Beaulieu posted Lipthay with 3,049 infantry and 779 cavalry at Peschiera. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Colli held the crossing at Goito with a 3,558-man division consisting of Rukavina's 2,583 infantry plus Austrian and cavalry. Canto d'Irles and his large garrison covered the Rivalta bridge. In the center, Melas and Sebottendorf jointly commanded 8,169 infantry and 2,086 cavalry to defend the Mincio near Valeggio.

Bonaparte determined to use the bridge at Borghetto for his crossing. To misdirect the Austrians, he ordered a Feint attack in the direction of Peschiera.He sent Rusca to Salo on the west shore of Lake Garda, where the French began to collect boats. To hide his true intentions, Bonaparte held his three combat divisions well to the west of the Mincio.

Beaulieu reacted as the French commander hoped. Instead of concentrating his forces at the bridges, the Austrian commander attempted to set up a cordon defense on the river between Peschiera and Goito. In the center, Beaulieu deployed 4,500 soldiers in the brigades of Peter Gummer and Beust at Salionze and Oliosi, General-major Franz Nicoletti's 2,600-man brigade at Campagnola and Pozzolo, and Dannenfelds 3,100-strong brigade in and around Valeggio.
On 29th beaulieu fell ill,causing further confusion in the austrian headquarters.On the 30th french began their sudden crash concentration intended to break through at borghetto.

Battle of Borghetto -



Napoleon ordered Kilmaine's advance guard to move rapidly via Solfireno on Borghetto.He was to be closely supported by Massena's division.Augereau and Serurier moved on 2 flanks attracting austrian attention,but also within supporting distance if necessary in a battalion carre.

Kilmaine's troops pushed back the Austrian cavalry outposts and reached the bridge about 9 am. When the retreating horsemen reached the bridge, there was a jam on the narrow span. A number of Austrians left the roadway and crossed the river, betraying the fordable points to the French. Only single battalions of the Strassoldo Infantry Regiment Nr. 27 and Jordis Infantry Regiment Nr. 59 were available to defend the span. Under the direction of Pittoni, the badly outnumbered Austrians put up a spirited fight. But, with Beaulieu's army in some disorder, few reserves arrived to help the defenders and soon French troops led by Chief of brigade Gaspard gardanne forded the river and pushed the defenders uphill toward Valeggio.

After some fighting, the French cleared Valeggio but the Austrian cavalry prevented them from advancing beyond the town. Meanwhile, Prince Hohenzollern rallied the defeated Austrians and even mounted a counterattack on the town. Sometime in the afternoon, some Austrian hussars rode into the town and nearly captured Bonaparte who was dining with massena and murat.All three fled by jumping over several garden walls.Bonaparte with one boot!This incident convinced napoleon to form a cavalry bodyguard called the Guides under future marshal Besseires Eventually, this unit would evolve into the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard.

The Austrians reacted slowly to the crisis. At nearby Campagnola, Sebottendorf's gaze remained riveted on some French troops[advance forces of serurier's division] in his front and he failed to send reinforcements to Valeggio. Farther north at Salionze, aggressive French patrols[augereau's division's elements] also distracted Melas from Bonaparte's true purpose. From distant Goito, Colli alertly marched his entire force to the north to help the center, but he arrived too late to help. Beaulieu ordered the army to retreat to the north.

Sebottendorf tried to recapture Valeggio, was repulsed, and retreated to Villafranca. Colli sent Rukavina's brigade back to rejoin the Mantua garrison and took his cavalry to Villafranca. Melas gathered up the troops of the right center and fell back to Castelnuovo. He was soon joined by Hohenzollern's force. Lipthay soon abandoned Peschiera, pursued by the French. When one of Augereau's units got too close, Lipthay's cavalry finally in the plains cut it to pieces, inflicting 100 casualties for a loss of only nine Austrians.Beaulieu's units marched north from Castelnuovo and Villafranca. By the next morning, most units reached safety in the Adige valley. The Austrians admitted 572 soldiers killed, wounded, or captured. French losses are estimated at 500.
Around 4500 austrian trtoops under Rukavina were cut off from beaulieu's main body and withdrew into the garrison at mantua.
The french conducted a rapid pursuit nonetheless.Peschiera,castelnuovo and Verona fell quickly to the frencha s the austrians withdrew in disarray from northern italy.Only Mantua remained.The french proceeded to surround and beseige the fort.An epic siege is about to begin.



Fortress Mantua.Accesible only by 4 narrow causeways,the strongest fortress in italy and almost impregnable to assault.

However the french strategic position was not as rosy as it may seem at first look.The speed of the defeat of the austro-sardinian armies had shocked europe and made bonaparte a sensation.However much of Beaulieu's army had managed to escape.Bonaparte's rear was in turmoil by uprisings.Mantua remained defiant with a huge garrison of 12,000 and 316 guns.It would eat up a considerable number of french soldiers to keep it under siege.Meanwhile austria was sure to make renewed attempts to retake its holdings in italy.The failure of french armies on the rhine frontier meant soon austrian force swould be transfered to italy.As long as mantua held out Bonaparte's forces were stretched thin.It would take all his skill on the defense,not the offense for the army of italy to survive.



Next: First Austrian Relief Attempt - Enter Wurmser.

 

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Keep going please.

 

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THE CASTIGLIONE CAMPAIGN - ENTER WURMSER​

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[In pic -Joubert,Bonaparte and Augereau left and Wurmser right]

With the remnants of Beaulieu's army driven out of italy Bonaparte concentrated on the problems at hand.Simultaneously rear areas had to be made safe and bonaparte sent several detatchements under lannes and even himself in person to suppress all rebellious activity promptly.Genoa which was funding and encouraging this was bullied into submission via a military mission headed by murat.Meanwhile Mantua with its impregnable fortress remained the center of attention.



Closeup of the fortress of Mantua.Three lakes protected its northern and eastern sides,and marshes on the south and west added to the problems.French attempts to storm the fortress and take it by coup de main failed and lacking siege guns the french settled down to besiege it.Meanwhile following the directory's instructions Augereau was sent into central italy to terrorize the Pope and tuscany both of which were in league with austria.The Pope got rid of the 'godless french revolutionaries' only at the cost of the better part of his treasury at the vatican -34 million francs!This massive booty and several art treasures seized made their way to Paris and to the pockets of the french officers alike.Militarily the French occupied Leghorn in Tuscany,which was a base for the Royal navy.A small force was also sneaked into Corsica across the waters to rise it in rebellion against the occupying british forces.The heavy guns taken from the castles of tuscany allowed Bonaparte to assemble a siege train.Finally the bombardment of Mantua could begin.



However a mere six weeks would pass from Beaulieu's defeat to the return of a reinforced and reinvigorated austrian army to northern italy.The Austrians war council had replaced Beaulieu with Marshal wurmser,recently commander of one of the 2 austrian armies on the Rhine frontier.Fresh from success on the german front,austrian reinforcements now poured into North italy.Wurmser linked up to take command of a joint force of 25,000 veteran troops sent from the Rhine frontier added to 8,000 more from austria to around 16000-17000 of Beaulieu's survivors.By around the last week of June he had assembled his whole force nearly 50,000 strong.Added to this was another 12,000 men garrison under Count D'Etres at mantua which tied down a significant portion of french troops.Wurmser was however unable actually begin the campaign until late july due to the low morale of beaulieu's survivors and general disorganization prevailing .Bonaparte in all had around 42,000 effectives to deal with the advancing austrian menace.



French Order Of Battle :

Army of Italy: Napoleon Bonaparte (42,049)

• Division: General of Division André Masséna (15,391)
  • Brigade General of Brigade Barthelemou Joubert
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Antoine La Valette
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Antoine Guilleme Rampon[of monte legnano fame]
    
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Claude Victor
    
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Jean Pijon
    
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Paul Guillaume
• Division: General of Division Pierre Augereau (5,368)
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Martial Beyrand
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Jean Gilles André Robert
  • Brigade: General of Briagde Gaspard Gardanne
• Division: General of Division Pierre Sauret(4,462)
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Jean Guieu
    
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Dominique Rusca
• Division: General of Division Jean Phillipe Serurier later substituted by Pascal Fiorella (10,521)
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Louis Pelletier
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Charles François Charton
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Emmanuel Gervais de Roergaz de Serviez
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Claude Dallemagne
• Division: General of Division Joseph Despinoy(4,772)
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Nicolas Bertin
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Jean Baptiste Cervoni
• Cavalry: General of Division Charles Killmaine(1,535)
  • Brigade: General of Brigade Marc Antoine Beaumont

Austrian Order Of Battle:

Austrian Army: Feldmarschall Dagobert von Wurmser(60,690, 98 position and 94 light battalion guns)

• Right (I) Column: Feldmarschall Leutnant Peter Quasdanovich (17,621)
  • Brigade: General major Reuss Plauen
  • Brigade: General-major Johann Rudolph Sporck
  • Brigade: General-major Peter Ott
    
  • Brigade: General-major Joseph Ocskay
  • 17 battalions (15,272), 13 squadrons (2,349), 24 position guns
• Right-Center (II) Column: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Michael von Melas (14,403)
  • Brigade: General-major Peter Gummer
  • Brigade: General-major Adam Bajalics
  • Division: Feldmarschallleutnant Karl Sebetendorff
    • Brigade: General-major Franz Nicoletti
    • Brigade: General-major Philip Pittoni
  • 19 battalions (13,676), 4 squadrons (727), 24 position guns
• Left-Center (III) Column: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Paul Davidovich (9,892)
  • Brigade: General-major Anton Mittrowsky
    
  • Brigade: General-major Antone Lipthay
  • Brigade: General-major Leberecht Spiegel
  • 11 battalions (8,274), 10 squadrons (1,618), 40 position guns
• Left (IV) Column: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Johan Szoboslo (5,021)
  • Brigade: General-major Prince Hohenzollern
  • Brigade: General-major Ferdinand Minckwitz
  • 5 battalions (3,949), 7 squadrons (1,072), 10 position guns
• Mantua Garrison: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Joseph Canto d'Irles (13,753)
  • Brigade: General-major Gerhard Rosselmini (3,666 in 5 battalions)
  • Brigade: General-major Joseph Vukassovich (2,449 in 3 battalions)
  • Brigade: Major Karl Salisch (1,489 in 6 battalions)
  • Brigade: General-major Mathias Rukavina(2,443 in 5 battalions)
  • Brigade: Oberst Strurioni (2,298 in 2½ bns)
  • Unattached: 434 cavalry in 3½ squadrons, 96 sappers, 701 artillerists

[The main campaign map,follow the dates for the events below.Events will be described in detail]

The Austrian Plan :

A key terrain feature of the North italian theatre was Lake garda which lay along the route of the austrian advance.
Wurmser devised a four-column plan of attack. He retained direct control over the two central columns. Leading the Right-Center (2nd) Column, Melas struck south with 14,000 soldiers down the west bank of the Adige. Davidovich led the 10,000 men of the Left-Center (3rd) Column down the east bank. Operating west of Lake Garda, Quasdanovich commanded the Right (1st) Column's 18,000 men.von szoboslo lay at Vicenza, with the 5,000 troops of the Left (4th) Column. His orders were to occupy Verona and Legnago as soon as the French evacuated the two cities from the pressure of the other columns.

Check the troops with the austrian order of battle.Now see in the map the central austrian advance[red] is that of wurmser's main force of 2 center columns advancing down the rovereto-Rivoli road.The austrain advance on the left[for the reader] is that of Quasdanovich's column.And the wide movement on the far right[for the reader,for austrians left column] is Von szoboszlo's diversionary column.Wurmser planned to use his numerical superiority to launch a pincer attack that would converge on bonaparte's army and crush it.However till the time that quasdanovich on the west bank of the Garda and Wurmser with the main force on the east bank of the Garda could unite,Bonaparte had a small window of oppurtunity to attempt to defeat them in detail seperately before they could unite.If they united or caught bonaparte between their 2 converging forces a french defeat would be certain.

French Dispositions :

[Check order of battle when i describe any force if confused].Sauret held Brescia and the western side of Lake garda. Massena guarded the northern approaches with the bulk of his force in the upper Adige river valley on the east side of Lake Garda. Masséna also garrisoned Verona. Augereau covered the lower Adige on either side of Legnago. Serurier led the force besieging Mantua. Despinoy had one demi-brigade at Peschiera, another with Masséna and more troops on the march. Killmaine's cavalry reserve lay at Villafranca, southwest of Verona.
Note that only sauret 4500 men held the approaches west of lake garda due to terrain/logistics difficulties posed by the mountain roads which led bonaparte to believe that austrian forces in this sector would not be too large.
Quasdanovich's Attack :West bank of Lake Garda -

The austrian column on the west bank under Quasdanovich numbered around 18,000 and was subdivided into 4 composite brigades of infantry and cavalry and 2 advance guard detatchments.The 4 brigade commanders were Ocskay,Ott,Reussen and Sporck.Facing these were only 4500 men of Sauret's division spread out covering the area with garrisons at Brescia,Salo,Gavarado and finally further south at Desanzano.[see locations on map,both earlier campaign map and above]
French were taken by surprise as Ott's brigade attacked Salò while Ocskay's brigade moved against Gavardo.

At gavarado on the 29th Sauret retreated after losing 500 men towards Desanzano.At Salo ,His brigade commander Gieu however was surrounded and blockaded with 400 men at the citadel by Ocskay's men.
Meanwhile the austrian advance guards totally surprised the garrison at Brescia,now exposed from the flank and took the city by Coup de main under cover of fog taking 600 soldiers prisoner plus 2000 more recovering in the hospital.Among them were future luminaries such as Lannes,Murat and Kellerman[the younger,son of the kellerman commanding the alps frontier army]

Quasdanovich now arrived with his remaining brigades under reuss and Sporck at Brescia and united with his advance elements.Ocskay besieged Gieu at Salo.
Meanwhile Ott now advanced on Desanzano .
The campaign had only begun and already the french left flank had collapsed and bonaparte's LOC to milan was now cut with the fall of brescia.




Map for the locations.

Wurmser's Attack :East Bank of Lake Garda -

Meanwhile wurmser's main 2 center columns hit Massena's outnumbered division at Rivalta on the 29th.[See original campaign map]Result was another serious reverse for the french.For a loss of 800 men, the Austrian inflicted 1,200 killed and wounded, and captured 1,600 men and nine cannon.Massena later reported of this day -
''I have seen the austrians fight with such fury,they were all drunk with brandy''

Massena beat a hasty retreat towards the south end of the lake garda towards peschiera.Now the french centre too had been broken through.
Meanwhile von szoboslo's extreme left column[for austrians] moved unopposed towards verona.The french forces were in retreat.

Napoleon's Reaction:

Bonaparte's initial reaction as report after report came in of austrian successes was despondence.He nearly ordered a retreat ,but only when he realized that wurmser was being slow to follow massena he resolved to fight it out.It was here that napoleon called his first and last council of war.While the others advocated a retreat Augereau refused[see opening quote in the picture].
Infused by his subordinate's zeal and sensing an oppurtunity Bonaparte now decided to counterattack.Realizing he needed every man available against the superior austrian forces Serurier was ordered to abandon the siege of mantua,which the french did by on the 31st spiking the siege guns.The first siege of mantua thus ended in failure.
Augereau's division was ordered to withdraw from manning the adige river line and unite with massena's forces near lonato.[See moves in campaign map]

The french thus abandoned the east bank of the mincio river and shortened their front.Napoleon understood that if quasdanovich and Wurmser united,he wouldn't survive.He fell back on his strategy of inferiority -that of the Central position.As it stood the french already occupied the central position,the austrian columns being seperated by the lake garda.Bonaparte decided to first concentrate on Quasdanovich and secure the threat to his LoC.Then mass against wurmser.Accordingly Massena,Sauret,Kilmaine and Augereau force marched to retreat from their previous positions and begin to assemble for the assault on Quasdanovich.Wurmser's fixation with mantua,the objective he had been assigned by the austrian high council at vienna aided this concentration.[This illustrates the difference in mentality -Napoleon's objective is the new way -target the enemy army.The austrian way is the old one- Fortresses and strongpoints being the principal objectives]




[The french massing.Sauret falling back on Desanzano.French have abandoned the east bank of mincio and adige river is now occupied by austrian garrisons under meszeros.Wurmser advances on mantua.Despinoy,Massena,Kilmaine and augereau mass against quasdanovich and repulse ott's brigade at first lonato[events to be described below]

The First battle of Lonato -

Quasdanovich moved his 2 reserve brigades south towards ponte san marco centre to follow Ott's advance,Ott meanwhile was now pursuing the french towards Lonato.Vogel with quasdanovich's original advance guard was occupying brescia.

On the 31st a series of simultaneous actions took place.
Ott's brigade at San Marco advanced to the east on Lonato. The Austrian general led two battalions of the Kheul Infantry Regiment Nr. 10, four companies of the Johann Jellacic Infantry Regiment Nr. 53, two companies of the Liccaner Regiment Nr. 60, and one squadron of the Erdödy Hussar Regiment Nr. 11. The initial attack flushed part of General of Division Despinoy's division out of Lonato.
Yet now the heads of Despinois' and Massena's divisions were arriving in the area between Lonato and Desenzano. Napoleon ordered d'Allemagne to immediately retake Lonato. As the Hussars chased the fugitives to the east, they were repulsed by two waiting French artillery batteries. Immediately d'Allemagne with his own brigade and Rampon's of Massena's division attacked Lonato in several columns. . In a tough four-hour fight, the French drove Ott's outnumbered soldiers out of Lonato and pushed them back to San Marco.Napoleon himself directed the combat. GM Ott for a time defended the town against these superior numbers. Yet enveloped on both wings he was compelled to leave Lonato and to retreat to Ponte San Marco.

While this was occuring at Lonato, Sauret[whose division ott was actually pursuing] counterattacked via a different pass on the 31st northwards at Salo and managed to rescue Gieu's force by attacking ocskay's isolated brigade by surprise before promptly retreating back towards desanzano .He was however injured in the fighting.

French Counterattack :



On 1 August, Bonaparte assembled 12,000 men under augereau and kilmaine and moved northwest from goito toward Brescia, pushing Klenau and vogel's weak force before him.Quasdanovich was unaware that sauret had retreated back and this apparent new threat to his LoC coupled with the mauling at lonato and the loss of brescia convinced him to retreat . Quasdanovich ordered all of his troops north to Gavardo.Bonaparte recaptured Brescia without opposition, and was soon joined there by Masséna and Despinoy. Klenau moved northeast toward Gavardo to join Quasdanovich. Vogel retreated to caino in the mountains.
Meanwhile wurmser had been slow and from the 30th to 2nd august was still making sure the siege of mantua had indeed been lifted.
With Brescia now secure, Bonaparte ordered Masséna to San Marco, while Augereau and Kilmaine marched back to Montichiari -where they could act as a pinning force to intercept wurmser and delay him till napoleon finished with quasdanovich in classic central position style. [See locations on the earlier map]Despinoy held Brescia where he was joined by a demi-brigade from milan under lanusse. Bonaparte directed Guieu, who replaced the injured Sauret, to march from Lonato to retake Salò the next day. Forces under Despinoy from Brescia and Dallemagne from Lonato were sent to attack Gavardo-where quasdanovich's main strength was believed to be.Thus dallemagne would pin quasdanovich frontally and gieu would turn his left flank at salo and despinoy his right from brescia in a 3 prong pincer attack converging on gavorodo .Massena would be within supporting distance at ponte san marco.

Quasdanovich's Renewed attempt:

Upon Wurmser's letter "that he would cross the Mincio that day and operate against the enemy back" reaching him noon 2 August FML Quosdanovich decided to support the operations of his commander in chief: General Ott was reinforced and ordered from Goglione to advance upon Ponte San Marco in two columns. General Ocskay should march for Desenzano and join Ott at Ponte San Marco next morning. Together they were intended to attack Brescia still in before noon. To support the attack lieutenant-colonel Vogel from Caino was to advance against Brescia. - Colonel count Klenau with his force from Caino had had reached Gavardo. With him and brigades Reuss and Sporck, Quosdanovich the next morning wanted to march to MonteChiari there to await further orders from the fieldmarshall.Yet only general Ocskay would march to Desenzano because in the night at 22.30 a report of Ott from Goglione reached Gavardo: "At 4 o'clock in the afternoon I have been told that a strong enemy column is advancing through the mountains from Lonato to Salo. Having reconnoitered it I judge its strength at 4.000. Till dusk I expected it to bump into general Ocsky's position at Sojano. Yet it remained totally silent in that quarter, no combat ensued, no shot was heard. I thereby divine that general Osckay has already changed his position, that thereby Salo has been exposed and my position at Goglione as well as yours (FML Quosdanovich's) at Gavardo has already been turned." This report was confirmed by explorers and returning patrols making FML Quosdanovich cancel the advance planned for next day's morning. By midnight he had general Reuss with 2 bns Klebek and 1 sqn Wurmser hussars leave the camp at Gavardo ordering him to "advance against this French column, attack it wherever met and restore and keep the connection between brigades Ott and Ocskay.. General Ott was ordered to once more concentrate his brigade.

This column between the Austrian brigades was division Sauret with which general Guieu according to his orders had left Lonato to take Salo and then attack the Austrians at Gavardo together with d'Allemagne and Despinois. Guieu had chosen a rarely used and almost forgotten causeway leading over the heights between lake Garda and the Chiesa river. Neither had he noticed general Ocskay's column moving south to Desenzano to his right nor had this column realised his march. As it happened also general Reuss on his search for Sauret had taken a different route so that these French and two Austrian columns must have passed each other quite close without noticing each other.



[ events leading to the second battle of Lonato.See Guieu and Ocksay's column's marching in opposite directions almost parallel.The rest of the movements described below.This map will be called 'from 3rd august' to avoid confusion]

3rd August and Second battle of lonato:

With Ocksay now nearing Desanzano ,Bonaparte released his central reserve of massena's division on them.[Meanwhile guieu moved on salo and despinoy and dallemagne on gavorodo.]However ocksay prempted by attacking Lonato.This was occupied by massena's hitherto rearguard brigade under Pijon which had retreated from the Mincio before wurmser and now formed his advance guard.Taking the outnumbered french by surprise ocksay routed them and took pijon prisoner.The remnants of this demi-brigade fortunately found shelter behind the Fossa Lonata, an irrigation canal, and other obstacles presented by the terrain which prevented Ocskay's further advance.However now napoleon arrived in person with the rest of massena's division.



1.Napoleon immediately forms up the french into columns with a small cavalry contingent for exploitation and advances on Lonato to assault the austrians.
2.Ott understands that his center won't be able to withstand the shock of such a superior force and deploys his second line to the sides to overlap and outflank the french columns.
3.Bonaparte counters .He redeploys his rear 2 columns into massed bodies of skirmishers even as the forward columns continue their march.
4.The french skirmishers pin down the austrian flanks with constant fire,preventing them from outflanking the center columns .
5.Bonaparte's center columns break through Ocskay's weak centre.Forcing Ocskay to order a full retreat.
The battle was a 'penetration of the centre' operation.

Ocskay orders a retreat towards desanzano.But Napoleon has already expected such a escape.Understanding that ocskay's presence at desanzano would cut off Gieu he orders junot and the french cavalry to use their superior mobility to seize desanzano first.

When ocskay and his survivors reach desanzano they find the french blocking their path.Hemmed in between bonaparte coming up behind him and his route blocked by the french occupying the village the whole brigade is forced to surrender after brief resistance.With the total destruction of Ocskay's brigade,the second battle of lonato thus ended in decisive success for the french.The tide was turning.
Reuss's brigade arrived too late to aid him.When he did he was forced to retreat immediately against bonaparte's superior forces.A rapid french pursuit meant he lost considerable numbers of prisoners.

The Defeat of Quasdanovich -

Moving from Rezzato, Despinoy attacked Ott piecemeal and was repulsed. After some fighting, the French general withdrew toward Brescia. [see 3rd august map] Doggedly, Dallemagne moved around Ott's east flank and even reached Gavardo twice, but each time the Austrians drove him back. Dallemagne retreated to Brescia, where he reported sick. Casualties and other details of these fights are unknown. Because of the French attacks, Ott did not advance farther south than Paitone, south of Gavardo. At some time during the day, Klenau reinforced Ott. Reuss was sent cross-country to establish contact with Ocskay.[this was how reuss arrived later at 2nd lonato].

Meanwhile, Guieu reached Salò, found it unoccupied, and turned west to menace Gavardo. The French soon came upon and captured Quasdanovich's artillery park. But Sporck counterattacked and recaptured the guns. The day ended with Sporck holding the heights west of Salò while the French controlled the town. That evening, Quasdanovich ordered Ott to join him on the heights. Reuss turned up with his brigade during the night with the tidings of Ocskay's disaster.With ocskay's brigade destroyed and both the advance guards and ott's brigade having suffered a mauling,Only Reuss and Sporck's brigades remained truly combat effective. A council of war determined to retreat.Bonaparte had succeeded in fulfilling first part of his plan -The western austrian pincer had been smashed.But what had happened to Wurmser?


Next: Wurmser and the battle of Castiglione[the first 'strategic battle']

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Castiglione campaign Phase II -The Battle of Castiglione :
​

Wurmser's 2 centre columns had advanced steadily breaking through massena on the rivalta on the 28th who retreated and then took part in lonato as described in the above post.Wurmser meanwhile reached peschiera on the 31st,the day when the french abandoned mantua and left a detatchment under bajalich to siege the small garrison left behind.With his main force he proceeded towards mantua,which he erroneously believed on the verge of surrender.His preoccupation with the fortress[assigned primary objective by austrian war council] however had one serious effect.Bonaparte had vital time to regroup and concentrate on Quasdanovich without serious interference by Wurmser who was busy evacuating the sick ,reequipping the garrison and supplying it from 31st july to 2 august-3 days.His center columns reached Mantua where they spent time demolishing the French siege lines and dragging the abandoned siege guns into the city.


On the late 2nd Wurmser resumed his advance this time to join quasdanovich.However it was too late.Bonaparte had acted rapidly and with vigour to eliminate quasdanovich.On 2 August, Wurmser's 4,000-man advance guard under GM Lipthay drove (BG) Antoine Valette's brigade out of Castiglione. The next day, Augereau attacked Lipthay with 11,000 troops. In a bitter fight, the French forced Lipthay back to Solfireno where he was reinforced by Davidovich. At length, Wurmser came up with his entire field army and stopped Augereau's drive. The Austrians suffered 1,000 casualties and GM Franz Nicoletti wounded. French losses may have exceeded 1,000 men, including BG Martial Beyrand killed. At the time, Wurmser and Quasdanovich's forces were about eight kilometers apart.However Augereau's dogged stand prevented wurmser from joining Ocskay while he was fighting at Lonato.Napoleon never forgot Augereau's glorious conduct during this battle and would ever later retort his detractors with -
''Ah,but remember what he did for us at castiglione''
Augereau under the empire became duke of castiglione.

On 3 August, the French inflicted crippling defeats on the Austrian Right Column in the 2nd battle of lonato. Quasdanovich finally ordered a retreat to the north. Sending Sauret to watch the withdrawing Right Column, Bonaparte now massed against Wurmser.



1.Wurmser advances.Bajalich sieges peschiera.
2.Wurmser advances towards Mantua as meszeros[Szoboslo] secures the bridges with garrisons in rear.He spends 3 days in the vicinity of mantua .
3.Quasdanovich defeated in the battles of lonato.Augereau holds off wurmser at castiglione.
4.Serurier's division[now commanded by fiorella,serurier returned to france from illness]Which had retreated from mantua towards marcaria now ordered to arrive on wurmser's rear.
5.Guieu pursues quasdanovich,bonaparte concentrates the whole french army against wurmser at castiglione.


The Battle of Castiglione -


On 4 August, both armies skirmished. Wurmser arranged for Bajalics to send him a reinforcement of four battalions under Franz Weidenfeld. He also directed Mészáros to block Sérurier from joining Bonaparte [ however he was too far away to do so]On this day, the French captured 2,000 Austrians of Quasdanovich's column in Lonato.

On 5th august Wurmser with 25,000 austrians holds the castiglione salfireno heights.Massena has joined augereau's exhausted division to stabilize the french line but the french are still outnumbered 21,000 to 25,000.However if napoleon's projected reinforcements arrive he will achieve a decisive numerical superiority on the battlefield .Napoleon has summoned despinoy from brescia and serurier from marcaria.



Napoleon's Plan :

The battle of castiglione marks the first use of napoleon's favourite battle tactic- the 'strategic battle' or the 'battle of manuever'[For details scroll back pages and see napoleon's art of war section on this thread].Bonaparte devised his plan as he observed the austrian positions.Wurmser's right is anchored at solfireno and left at monte medolano protected by a battery.

Massena and augereau would launch attacks and pin the austrians in front along the line.
Despinoy arriving from brescia could support this attack if it faltered or alternatively launch a flanking attack on the austrian right at solfireno.Meranwhile Fiorella leading serurier's division would march from marcaria and fall on wurmser's left from the rear.Wurmser would no doubt hastily construct a new line from his second line reserves ,thus bending his line to face fiorella frontally.Meanwhile 3 battalions of grenadiers,supported by killmaine's cavalry and marmont's 'grand battery' would be massing behind the french right.This is the 'Mass de decision'.As soon as wurmser expended his reserves by bending his line to confront fiorella,and with his front pinned down by augereau and massena..Marmont's grand battery would be unleashed on this hinge followed by kilmaine/beaumont's cavalry and 3 chosen battalion of grenadiers which would smash wurmser's left at monte medolano and sever his Loc to mantua.A ruthless pursuit would then ensue to mop up the rest of wurmser's army.

The conception of the plan was bold and brilliant.It aimed at the total annihilation of wurmser's army.

In order to draw Wurmser further into his trap, Bonaparte ordered Masséna and Augereau to retreat. When he suddenly pulled the two divisions back, the Austrians obligingly followed.Wurmser was drawn in by bonaparte's feigned withdrawal tactic.Wurmser swung his right flank around to crush massena.This is the movement shown in the last map.



French attack -
Bonaparte's feigned withdrawal had succeeded in drawing the austrians down from the heights.Meanwhile Fiorella had arrived in the vicinity ably screened by french light cavalry and undetected by wurmser.The trap was set.
However here things went wrong for the french.First Fiorella attacked prematurely,before wurmser's whole first line had been committed giving a shocked wurmser just enough time to halt his moving divisions and recall them to form a new line.
Secondly the exhausted french troops of augereau were unable to properly pin down wurmser's front line.
Thirdly part of the french troops under joubert didn't understand their role and stayed back thus allowing wurmser to pull back without being fully pinned in the front line.These men were harried into combat only by a shouting bonaparte.This lack of co-ordination and timing would rob napoleon of his 'annihilation battle.'

Nonetheless at this juncture the mass de decision was unleashed on the austrian right supported by marmont's guns and kilmaine's cavalry.



The austrians were thrown into total confusion as the french overran monte medolano.Meanwhile despinoy's advnace elements under Leclerc arrived and stormed solfireno.Assaulted on both sides and nearly captured ,a shaken wurmser ordered a full retreat.Here however bonaparte was disappointed.Bajalich's reinforcements from peschiera arrived just in time for the austrians to cover their retreat..The poor quality of the french cavalry and the exhaustion of the troops who had force marched and fought non stop prevented a total pursuit and wurmser was able to save his army from destruction.In total the french lost over 1100 men.Austrians suffered 2,000 killed and wounded, plus 1,000 men and 20 cannons captured.



The austrian army was thus defeated but not annihilated which it easily could have been.There were some factors behind this
1)The position of Fiorella's force meant that napoleon could attack with him only along wurmser's secondary line of communications to mantua,not his primary one towards austria itself as is the norm with the general strategic battle.This allowed wurmser to escape destruction as he could retreat safely along his main LoC.
2]Failure of part of french front line to fully pin down wurmser's first line which enabled him to fall back and face fiorella without committing all his reserves.
3]The timing was off.Fiorella's attack came before wurmser's front line was fully committed.
4]The size of the mass de decision was too small to allow large exploitation after the breakthrough after breaking through the austrian left.
5]The poor quality of french cavalry and exhaustion of troops prevented a proper pursuit.

Thus ended bonaparte's first manuever battle.Not as succesful as it could have been,but then again napoleon was only learning his trade.

Wurmser retreats -

After his mauling at castiglione,Wurmser fell back to the Mincio line like beaulieu had done before him.Again bonaparte feinted at borghetto and launched his real attack at peschiera.[against beaulieu napoleon had fiented at pesciera and attacked at borghetto -see battle of borghetto top post in this page]With his LoC threatened Wurmser fell back to Trent again abandoning North italy.The french moved to besige mantua for a second time.The castiglione campaign was at an end.The french had lost 6000 killed and wounded and 4000 prisoners but inflicted 16,700 losses on the austrians.
Through rapid manuevering bonaparte had again managed to concentrate superior numbers on the actual battlefield while inferior overall.However Wurmser would try again,and soon.

Next: The Bassano Campaign - Second austrian relief attempt.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

THE BASSANO CAMPAIGN - SECOND AUSTRIAN RELIEF ATTEMPT​

The first relief of Mantua failed at the battles of lonato and castiglione in early August. The defeat caused Wurmser to retreat north up the adige river valley. Meanwhile, the French reinvested the Austrian garrison of mantua.

Ordered by Emperor Francis II to relieve Mantua at once,Wurmser and his new chief-of-staff Franz von Lauer drew up a strategy.
Though defeated in the last campaign,the austrians had not yet despaired.They had come within a hairsbreadth of destroying the french and lifted the siege of mantua.Lauer however drew an overoptimistic conclusion from the tidings of the last campaign.Lauer noted that the French army, "had suffered badly during the recent combats, and had not properly recovered, nor received significant reinforcements.He thus predicted that the french would take time to recover and this would give time for the austrians to attempt a new relief attempt from the eastern side while leaving behind a smaller force to defend trent.
Unknown to him however,Bonaparte had recieved instructions from the directory to carry out their own plan.To attack wurmser and drive him into the alps then follow and link up with the french armies in germany,trapping the austrian armies in between them.It was a wildly overoptimistic plan,and despite his doubts Napoleon obliged to follow.What this meant was that there would be no passive french recovery that lauer had counted on.

Army of Italy:Napoleon Bonaparte(45,000)

• Division: General of Division Massena (13,000)
• Division: General of Division Augereau (9,000)
• Division: General of Division Vaubois (10,000)
• Division: General of Division Sahuguet (10,000)
• Reserve: General of Division Kilmaine (3,000)

Feldmarschall Von Wurmser(48,800 available)

• Main Army: Feldmarschall Dagobert Von Wurmser (19,348)
  • Division: Feldmarschallleutnant Quasdanovich (4,589)
    • 3,742 in 6 battalions, 847 in 6 squadrons
  • Division: Feldmarschallleutnant Sebetendorff(4,086)
    • 3,787 in 6 battalions and 5 companies, 299 in 2 squadrons
  • Division: Feldmarschallleutnant Meszeros Von Szoboslo(10,673)
    • 7,365 in 10 battalions and 3 companies, 3,308 in 23 squadrons
  • Brigade: General Major Von Chobinin
    • 2 battalions, 2 squadrons (at Pontebba)
• Corps: Feldmarschallleutnant Davidovich (~19,000 )
  • Brigade: General-major Reuss(5,229)
    • 5,011 in 7 battalions, 218 in 2 squadrons (at Trent)
  • Brigades: General-major Johann Rudolf Sporck and General-major Vukassovich (8,466)
    • 7,840 in 12-1/2 battalions, 626 in 4 squadrons (at Rovereto)
  • Brigade: General-major Johann Loudon (2,409)
    • 1,841 in 2 battalions, 568 in 4 squadrons (in Valtellina)
  • Brigade: General-major Johann Graffen (3,451)
    • 3,451 in 4-2/3 battalions (in Voralberg)
• Mantua Garrison: Feldmarschallleutnant Joseph Canto de Irles (17,259, fit for duty: 10,271)
  • Brigade: General-major Ferdinand Minckwitz
    • 6 battalions
  • Brigade: General-major Leberecht Spiegel
    • 4 battalions
  • Brigade: Colonel/Oberst Sola
    • 3 battalions
  • Brigade: Oberst Joseph Sturioni
    • 4 battalions, 4 squadrons
  • Brigade: Oberst Philipp Brentano
    • 6 battalions

[Above -Bonaparte's pursuit of wurmser.Kilmaine covers the river line.Sahuget sieges mantua]

The armies were thus more or less equal.A large part of austrian strength was however locked up at mantua.On the other side Sahuget really had around 6000 effectives from his paper strength of 10,000 besieging mantua and possibly vaubois had lower number of effectives as well.When the campaign began thus both armies approached each others presumed position assuming they were the attackers.Wurmser's main force headed for mantua by a wide route,while bonaparte aimed to concentrate his bulk strength on trent.

The Austrian Plan:

In 1796, there were only three practicable routes between Trento and the Po river basin. The first route lay west of Garda.[this was the route attempted by quasdanovich's column in the castiglione campaign that ended in his defeat at lonato] The second route was the road down the Adige valley east of Lake Garda and north of Verona. [The route taken by wurmser's main army in the centre in the castiglione campaign]The third route went east through Levico[see map] and Borgo then followed the Brenta river valley (Valsugana) southward to Bassano An army that held both Trento and Bassano could move troops and supplies between the two places free from French interference.[ see above map for locations]

Leaving FML Davidovich with around 20,000[only 13,700 ready,divisions of Laudon and Graffen still massing some distance away] to defend Trento and the approaches to the Tyrol, Wurmser directed two divisions[sebettendorff and quasdanovich -see map] east then south down the Brenta valley. When he joined the large division of Meszeros Szoboslo at Bassano, he would have 20,000 men. From Bassano, Wurmser would move on Mantua, while Davidovich probed the enemy defenses from the north, looking for a favorable opportunity to support his superior.Wurmser calculated that by his wide turning approach he would face bonaparte at a dilemma.If napoleon approached trent and davidovich,wurmser would be in a position to wheel west and place himself in napoleon's rear cutting off his LoC.Bonaparte could never ignore such a threat to his rear as he might find himself trapped between wurmser and davidovich.Thus he would have to retreat south towards mantua.In this second case too Wurmser would be at an advantage as he would have a headstart and be already halfway to mantua before bonaparte could fall back.In all probability he could sweep aside sahuget's weak division and relieve mantua for a second time,joining his forces with that of the garrison and then engage bonaprte on the field while davidovich supported from the north.

The French Plan:

Bonaparte posted Vaubois with 10,000 men on the west side of Lake garda. Massena defended the Adige river valley with 13,000 troops and Augereau covered Verona with 9,000 more. Kilmaine maintained the blockade of Mantua with Jean Sahuguet's division of 10,000[6,000 effectives] soldiers and held a 3,000 man reserve at Verona.Bonaparte planne dto leave kilmaine and sahuget to prosecute the siege while he massed Vaubois,Massena and Augereau in a field army of over 30,000 to attack trent from two directions -Vaubois from the west and augereau and massena from the south.

The Battle of Rovereto -

On 1st September Wurmser led the divisions of quasdanovich and sebetendorff to join meszeros's advance guard near bassano.Davidovich controlled 19,555 troops, but only 13,695 of these were immediately available. He deployed the brigades of vukassovich and Sporck near Rovereto, while the brigade of Reuss held Trento and some positions west of the Adige. The brigades of Laudon and Graffen were not within supporting distance.

On 3rd september Bonaparte struck davidovich's surprised troops.At Ala, Massena attacked and overran davidovich's advance guard driving them back to marco while Vaubois struck from Riva in the west.[see map for movements].
At dawn, Masséna's division attacked Vukassovich's Austrians at Marco. General of Brigade Victor[future marshal]led one Demi brigade straight up the main road, while General of Brigade Pijon seized the high ground to one flank. After sturdy resistance, the Austrians pulled back to avoid being cut off. Masséna pursued vigorously, breaking up a number of Austrian formations. When he reached Rovereto, Vukassovich stood firm again until noon-time. Then he fell back toward Calliano with the remnant of his brigade and Sporck's troops. By this time, Vaubois had captured Mori on the west bank.

Davidovich placed Oberst Weidenfeld and the Preiss Infantry Regiment 24 in a formidable position in the Adige gorge to cover the retreat of his forces. However, the regiment's morale was poor after suffering casualties and being hustled out of several defensive lines. Aided by artillery fire directed by General of Brigade Dommartin.Masséna's troops attacked in heavy columns and broke through. Believing themselves well-covered by Weidenfeld's force, Vukassovich and Spork allowed their troops to cook dinner when they arrived in Calliano. Without warning, the French interrupted the proceedings by storming into the camp in the late afternoon. The result was a rout of the surviving Austrians.

Thus ended the Battle of Roveredo.Bonaparte had concentrated 20,000 men from Vaubois and Massena's divisions and routed Davidovich's 10,000-13,000.The French lost 750 casualties during the day. Austrian losses included 3,000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, plus 25 cannon and 7 colours captured.
During the night, Davidovich evacuated Trento and fell back to Lavis[see map], a village at the river Avisio and southern frontier of Austrian territory, where he joined Reuss. Masséna entered Trento on the morning of 5 September, followed by Vaubois. On 5 September, Vaubois crossed the bridge of the river Avisio,attacked Davidovich at Lavis and drove him farther north. Satisfied that Davidovich was no longer a threat Bonaparte turned on wurmser.

By this time, Bonaparte had found out Würmser's plan of marching east into the Brenta valley. He discarded the strategy of joining Moreau and adopted a very bold plan.

The Road to Bassano -



Far from withdrawing down the way he came with his army like the austrians expected to prevent wurmser getting into his rear.Bonaparte totally shocked all with his unconventional move.Leaving Vaubois with 10,000 to watch davidovich's remnants,he turned the divisions of Augereau and Massena 22,000 in all on wurmser's tail down the same route in a hell for leather pursuit.This was on the face extremely reckless,as bonaparte was simply abandoning his supply line and the troops would be dependant wholly on what they could seize enroute from the countryside.And halt or repulse would lead to starvation in the mountains.However was it really as reckless?We see that bonaparte's move was essentially a improvised Manuever sur les derrires.It just so happened that he was already in wurmser's rear just as wurmser was about to get into his.

Here Kilmaine's 3500 men holding the bridges and the river line at the adige with sahuget nearby represented the secondary force.Massena and augereau the main body.Bonaparte calculated if the river bridges could be held just long enough,he could sever wurmser's retreat and descend upon him from the rear.As is the norm with this technique of napoleon's [see napoleon's art of war section early in this thread]Wurmser could hardly ignore such a rapidly advancing threat from his rear.He would either have to turn round all his advancing formations and retrace his steps,which would cause considerable disorganization and chaos and then face bonaparte on a place not of his choosing.Even here the fast marching french could catch up with him before he had even the chance to unite his formations and turn them.Or he could withdraw altogether towards the adriatic and away from north italy.Both cases suited napoleon as the siege of mantua would not be disturbed.

The Battle of Bassano -



[Massena urges his troops forward]

On 6th september augereau's division stormed the primolano heights[see map] and broke through the austrians surprised rear division taking 1500 prisoners for trifling losses after having marched 60 miles in 2 days.Wurmser was left dumbfounded by this french movement and hurriedly attempted to recall his divisions to assemble at bassano.

It was all too late.Meszeros's advance guard of 10,000 men never managed.Wurmser only managed to gather 11,000 men of sebetendorff and quasdanovich's contingents when 20,000 french under bonaparte assaulted him at bassano.This is a classic case of a succesful manuever sur les derrires- enemy scattered and forced into battle at an inoppurtune time and place with all cards stacked against him right from the beginning.
First, they attacked the 3,800-man Austrian rearguard under Quasdanovich and Bajalics.Bonaparte sent Masséna down the west bank of the Brenta and Augereau down the east bank.[See map] Overwhelmed by repeated two-prong attacks and pursued by Murat's cavalry, the rearguard collapsed and Bajalics was captured. Wurmser deployed one brigade on the west bank, a second brigade on the east bank, and a third in Bassano. Colonel Jean Lannes led a successful charge which broke the Austrian lines and burst into the town.The result was disaster for the austrians.
Quasdanovich with a group of survivors around 3500 men fled in total disarray east after being seperated from wurmser's main body.In the battle itself The French suffered 400 killed, wounded, and missing. Wurmser lost 600 killed and wounded. Between 2,000 and 4,000 Austrians, eight colors and 30 artillery pieces were captured.
Wurmser retreated towards meszeros with just 3500 soldiers of his originally 11,000 left to him.
The vigorous French pursuit also seized a bridging train plus 200 limbers and ammunition wagons.

The Race for Mantua -



Wurmser having united with meszeros at vicenza[see map] for a total of around 15,000 men,unexpectedly decided to continue a desperate advance towards mantua.Immediately, Bonaparte sent his two divisions after the Austrians, hoping to cut them off. Masséna advanced southwest from Vicenza while Augereau moved south to Padua to close the Austrian escape route to the east.Here however fortune saved Wurmser from total immediate annhilation.
Part of Kilmaine's force which was garrisoning the bridges on the adige river,especially the Garrison at legnano were withdrawn prematurely giving wurmser free passage to the other side before napoleon's main body could close in from his rear and crush him.Leaving behind 1500 men at legnano to delay the french wurmser headed for mantua.Augereau and massena's exhausted soldiers despite pursuing very rapidly were held off barely in 3 rearguard actions -prominently at cerea and legnano.At legnano french overran the austrian force left behind .However the prey had escaped.Wurmser brushed aside Sahuget's weak outposts and entered mantua on the 12th-13th of september.



[An overview of the bassano campaign]

Battle of La Favorita :

However old wurmser was still not done.The garrison of mantua having raised his effective force to 23,000 he arrayed his army for battle.On the 15th when bonaparte approached mantua with the main body of the french,he found wurmser waiting for him.Wurmser awaited the French on the east bank of the Mincio in line of battle, with his right flank on the San Giorgio suburb and his left on La Favorita Palace. The Austrian left wing under Ott held off Sahuguet's attacks all day. But the Austrian line gave way before the attacks of Masséna on the center and Louis Bon (leading Augereau's division) on the right. The French succeeded in capturing the San Giorgio suburb and driving the Austrians into Mantua. During this fight, 2,500 Austrians became casualties and 11 cannon and 3 colors were captured. The French lost 1,500 killed and wounded, plus 9 guns captured.[ see previous 2 maps for la favorita]



[The battle of la favorita.Ott holds sahuget on the left,massena and Bon break through in centre and right]

Mantua's garrison was thus swollen to nearly 30,000 men. But, within six weeks, 4,000 Austrians died of wounds or disease in the crowded fortress.


Result -
The bassano campaign thus ended in total disaster for the austrians-nearly her whole field army in italy had been neutralized and the general sent to relieve mantua found himself locked up in the very fortress he was sent to succor.

''The second attempt to relieve Mantua had therefore come to a rather sorry conclusion for the Austrians. Their army commander had managed to get himself shut inside the very place he was trying to liberate, losing more than 11,000 men in the process. The French had failed to make the link between their armies in Italy and Germany, and Bonaparte was, in a sense, back to square one, still faced with the problem of reducing Mantua, which now had a much more powerful garrison''.

Bonaparte's bold manuever sur les derrires had again turned the tables and brought a briliant success.But the mantua still a fruit that needed further ripening before it could be eaten -and austria was not done.Another austrian army,another new austrian general would come....

Next: The Arcole Campaign-Arrival of Alvintzy and 3rd Austrian relief attempt.

 

[Koovie]

Awesome mate, simply awesome!

Great work, looking forwards for more stuff !

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

THE ARCOLE CAMPAIGN -ALVINTZY STRIKES​

''Arcola,...the most dangerous moment'' -Napoleon [on the greatest crisis of the Italian campaign]
​

AUSTRIA TRIES AGAIN

The second relief of the Siege of mantua having ended dismally for the Austrians ,Emperor Francis II appointed a new commander - General Alvintczy assemble a new field army and mount the third relief of Mantua.By this time the french armies on the rhine frontier were again in full retreat and thus austria could again pump veteran reinforcments into italy and basically field a completely new army.

French Army - Order of Battle

Napoleon Bonaparte

• Army of Italy: Napoleon Bonaparte (41,560)
  • Division: Andre Massena (9,540 including 2 cavalry regiments)
    • Brigade: Philippe Romaine Ménard
    • Brigade: Rampon
    • Brigade: Honoré Vial
    • Brigade: Pijon
    • Brigade: Leclerc
  • Division: Pierre Augereau (8,340 including 1 cavalry regiment)
    • Brigade: Verdier
    • Brigade: Bon
    • Brigade: Lannes
  • Division: Claude Vaubois (10,500)
    • Brigade: Guieu
    • Brigade: Fiorella
    • Brigade: Gardanne
  • Division: Charles Killmaine (8,830 including 1 cavalry regiment)
    • Brigade: Louis Chabot
    • Brigade: Dallemagne
    • Brigade: Thomas Sandos
    • Brigade: Claude Lebley
    • Brigade: Nicolas Bertin
  • Division: Macquard (2,750 including 1 cavalry regiment)
  • Cavalry Reserve: Alexandre Dumas (1,600 in 6 cavalry regiments)

Austrian Army - Order of Battle


Feldzeugmeister Joszef Alvinczi (74,000 including wurmser)

• • Friaul Corps: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Quasdanovich (28,699)
    • Advance Guard and Reserve:
      • Advance Guard: General-major Hohenzollern (4,397)
      • Reserve Brigade: General-major Pittoni(4,376)
    • Main Body, 1st Line: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Provera (9,380)
      • Brigade: General-major Rosselmini
      • Brigade: General-major Lipthay
    • Main Body, 2nd Line: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Provera (8,279)
      • Brigade: General-major Chobinin
      • Brigade: General-major Adolf Brabeck
    • Independent Brigade: General-major Mittrowsky (c. 3,000)
  • Tyrol Corps: Feldmarschall-Leutnant Davidovich(19,476)
    • Brigade 1: General-major Loudon (4,277)
    • Brigade 2: General-major Ocskay (4,663)
    • Brigade 3: General-major Johann Sporck (2,560)
    • Brigades 4 & 5: General-major Vukassovich (6,880)
    • Brigade 6: Oberstleutnant Seulen (1,096)
• Mantua Garrison: Feldmarschall Wurmser. (23,708 of whom only 12,240 were fit for service)

From the above its clear of the scale of austrian preparations.The french were outnumbered very badly with a paper strength of 41,000 pitted against 74,000.One thing to note here is that 10,000 of this number from austrians maybe discounted as the sick of mantua garrison.On the other hand however french weren't faring too well either.Constant battles and attrition had reduced the number of effectives to well below actual paper strength of 41,000 and morale was increasingly lower that were to reveal itself throughout the campaign.On top of this the strain of guarding 3 approaches into north italy plus blockading mantua meant the army was stretched thin and in a hostile neighbourhood as the local populace was fed up with french financial rapacity.



Above.The french and austrian deployments.Austrians in yellow.Three important riverlines[from east to west -the piave river,the brenta river and the adige river ]marked in blue.The black boxes represent the location of main french forces.Crosscheck below details with order of battle above.
1.Vaubois deployed around lavis,north of trent with a 10,500-man division to guard this northern approach east of lake garda.
2.Massena's division with 9500 men holding the brenta river line and guarding this eastern approach at Bassano.

3.Central reserve at verona with 1,600 cavalry troopers under alexandre dumas[highest ranking black officer in european history and father of the great author Alexander dumas of three musketeers and count of monte cristo fame - french revolution allowed promotion and equality of treatment due to liberty and equality principle].A fascinating story -
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .
Plus General of Division macquard's reserve of 2,800 foot soldiers.Supported by part of Augereau's division.Pivot of Adige river line.

4.Rest of augereau's division covering the adige from verona to legnano.
5.Mantua besieged by Kilmaine's 8800 men.These are unavailable for field operations.

About the austrian forces.On the extreme right on the Piave river alvinczty assembled 28,000+ men .Here FC denotes Friul Corps[friul being name of the area].Facing Vaubois north of trent is Davidovich's Tyrol Corps of 19,000+ men.
Finally the small force in between in the north brenta valley is mittrowsky's detatchment of 3000.This formed the link between the 2 and could support either or harass the french as a diversion.


The french dispositions were well known to austrian intelligence,with no shortage of sympathisizers in north italy.Bonaparte however had little idea about the true strength of the austrian attack force.Austrian intelligence made great attempts to conceal davidovich's strength and manged to decieve the french completely.The plan rested on a two prong offensive by alvinzti and davidovich to converge on verona and then to mantua.The initial objectives set were Trent for davidovich and bassano for alvinzi.Mittrowsky was to support alvinzi for a secondary attack at bassano.


Northern Sector - Davidovich vs Vaubois



The start of Davidovich's offensive led to a series of clashes beginning on 27 October. On 2 November the French attacked the Austrians at Cembra[see map]. Although Vaubois inflicted 1,100 casualties on his enemies at the cost of only 650 Frenchmen, he decided to pull back his forces now outnumbered 2 to 1 to Calliano when Davidovich resumed his forward movement the next day. The French 85th Line Infantry Demi-Brigade was roughly handled,losing 250 men alone[1/3rd its strength].The Austrians occupied Trento on 5 November and waited as davidovich brought up his full force

Eastern Sector - The Main Austrian assault


[Deep blue represents movements of massena's division.Sky blue augereau's reinforcements arriving from verona with bonaparte in person.grey blue unified french retreat.Stars battle sites.Deep yellow marks initial austrian attack.The skin colour marks austrian pursuit.Events described below.Crosscheck with above map]

Meanwhile alvinczy's main army approached the brenta river line in 2 bodies early november.Faced with this overwhelming threat,massena pulled out his 3 to 1 outnumbered division from bassano.Hohenzollern's advance guard occupied bassano soon after.Meanwhile the second austrian column forded at fontaniva near Citadella[see citadella on map] and proceeded to establish a bridgehead.
Bonaparte reacted promptly to these movements.Augereau's division with part of macquard's reserve force marched from verona via vicenza to attack the austrians at bassano.Meanwhile massena was ordered to to swing south[see movement in map] and attack the bridgehead at fontaniva.This set the stage for the 2 subsequent battles.

Second Battle of Bassano & Fontaniva -

Fontaniva -

Masséna took a more southerly road and clashed with the Austrian left wing at Fontaniva late on 5 November. Lipthay pulled his troops back to the east side of the river. This set the stage for the battle, which began on 6 November.At 7 a.m. Masséna attacked Lipthay's brigade at Fontaniva. From morning until 6 p.m., the French mounted as many as ten assaults on the Austrian general's four battalions, with heavy losses on both sides. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of Splényi Infantry Regiment Nr. 51 gallantly defended the river crossing, losing 9 officers and 657 men out of 2,000 soldiers during the fighting before they were replaced in line by the Infantry Regiment Nr. 4. Injured when his wounded horse fell on him, Lipthay resolutely remained at his post. In the afternoon, Provera reinforced him with troops from the brigades of Generals-major Chobinin and Adolf Brabeck as the Austrians successfully held their ground against the French attacks.Outnumbered and worn out -massena was forced to retreat.

Bassano -

Early in the morning Hohenzollern crossed the Brenta, followed by Quasdanovich's right wing. This wing included General-Major mittrowsky's brigade, which recently joined the army by descending the Brenta valley.[see movement on map,northern attack on bassano] The Austrians anchored their right flank in the Alpine foothills while their left flank curved back to touch the Brenta. Augereau's division began to arrive in the area in mid-morning and attacked Bassano in the early afternoon before all the Austrians crossed the river. After severe fighting, in which the village of Nove changed hands several times, the action ended at 10 p.m. One battalion of the Samuel Gyulai Infantry Regiment Nr. 32 suffered 390, or nearly 50 percent casualties. Battle was fierce with the french increasingly outnumbered but no side was able to gain an advantage by nightfall.Bonaparte was also informed of massena's failure at fontaniva[which meant he could be cut off by an austrian attack to the rear from verona] and coupled with growing austrian strength and inability to force a decision ordered a retreat.

French casualties in the two encounters totalled 3,000, including 508 men and 1 howitzer captured. Austrian losses numbered 2,823 and two cannons captured. Provera's left wing lost 208 killed, 873 wounded, and 109 captured. Quosdanovich's right wing suffered 326 killed, 858 wounded, and 449 captured. Though Alvinczi ordered a pursuit, the fast-marching French successfully broke contact and retreated to Verona.[ see map]Bonaparte's gambit to halt alvinczi at the Brenta had failed to austrian resilience and sheer numbers.


Northern sector - French Collapse



Battle of Calliano -

After occupying trent on the 5th on the 6th davidovich attacked vaubois at calliano even as the battles of fontaniva and bassano were ongoing far east.Vaubois repulsed Davidovich's attacks on his position at Calliano, inflicting losses of 753 men. That night the French general detached several units to cover key positions in the area, weakening his main line. At dawn, the Austrians launched a new attack that was resisted all day, Calliano changing hands several times. Some Croatian Grenzers worked their way into the rear of the French line and this caused a panic-stricken flight from the field beginning at 4 pm. The second day of fighting at Calliano cost Davidovich another 1,523 men for a total of 3,567 for the campaign. These heavy losses kept the Austrians from vigorously following up the fleeing Frenchmen.Vaubois suffered 4,400 casualties at Cembra and Calliano.However his army's morale had hit rock bottom and the survivors were in total rout.Bonaparte's northern front had collapsed and the 2 austrian pincers were now homing in on verona.

With this potential disaster,coupled with the reverses on the brenta bonaparte abandoned for the time being a renewed strike on alvintzi.Both Augereau and Massena were united around verona 'the central position' that seperated the austrian armies.
During the day of 8 November, the French soldiers retreated to Rivoli Veronese where they finally rallied.To shore up vaubois,joubert was ordered to join him with whatever detatchments that could be withdrawn from the garrisons on the adige river line and 2 brigades from the siege of mantua.Still skeptical bonaparte ordered massena to be ready to support vaubois rapidly.Meanwhile he made a personal visit to this sector and gave the troops whose performance had been uninspiring a vicious tongue-lashing to restore morale-
"Soldiers: I am not satisfied with you; you have shown neither bravery, discipline, nor perseverance; no position could rally you; you abandoned yourselves to a panic-terror; you suffered yourselves to be driven from situations where a handful of brave men might have stopped an army. Soldiers of the 39th and 85th, you are not French soldiers. Quartermaster-general, let it be inscribed on their colors, 'They no longer form part of the Army of Italy!'"



[above - see joubert reinforcing vaubois,numbers here are inconsistent.And vaubois's retreat towards rivoli.The french renewed advance towards caldiero from verona will be described below]

Poor communications continued to plague the Austrian effort. It took two days for dispatches to pass between Davidovich and Alvinczi's seperated forces. Davidovich refrained from attacking the Rivoli position because he believed that Massena was present with his division. Massena was on a recoinnetering mission, he did not bring any troops with him.Now reassured that the northern flank was quiet for a limited period,bonaparte again switched the main french strength onto alvintzi.

Battle of Caldiero 12th november-

Meanwhile alvintzi had resolved not to repeat wurmser's mistake in the castiglione campaign and unite with davidovich first and then attack mantua.By 11 November, Alvinczi's advance elements reached Caldiero, east of Verona. Believing that Verona was being evacuated, Hohenzollern leading the advance guard moved forward. Simultaneously Bonaparte beginning his renewed attack,sent the divisions of Masséna and Augereau across the adige to engage the Austrians. Hohenzollern lost 400 men and pulled back to a ridge running north of Caldiero. Bonaparte determined to attack the Austrians the next day.



Bonaparte sent a total of 13,000 men to attack Hohenzollern's position. Masséna drove against the Austrian right and Augereau attacked the Austrian left, The Austrians, who had fortified themselves in several villages, sturdily resisted the French assaults. A violent rain and hail storm blew in the faces of the French troops, making it difficult for them to prime their muskets. At mid-day, Masséna began making headway on the Austrian right. In the afternoon, the brigades of Generals-major Adolf Brabeck and Chobinin arrived on the field. Soon the Austrians forced back Masséna. Provera also appeared and drove back Augereau. The arrival of nightfall allowed the French to pull safely back into Verona.Caldiero marked Bonaparte's first defeat though it was later overshadowed by the victory at arcole almost immediately afterwards.The French suffered 1,000 killed and wounded, plus 800 men and two artillery pieces captured. The Austrian lost 950 killed and wounded, and 350 captured.

Road to Arcola -

After 3 setbacks and both fronts on verge of collapse,bonaparte was despondent about his chances.Writing to the directory -

''Perhaps the hour of the intrepid augereau,the brave massena,my own death is at hand.We are abandoned in the depths of Italy ''

The situation for the french was indeed desperate.They were heavily outnumbered on both sectors and morale had plummeted.Austrians were brimming with confidence after their successes and were about to converge on verona from 2 directions.Once the 2 pincers met it was endgame.Bonaparte contemplated raising the siege of mantua ,but discarded the idea.Such action would release 15,000 new austrian troops on his rear.He resolved for 'one last effort'.But no amount of clever manuevering could this time offset the decisive austrian numerical superiority.
Vaubois reinforced to 8,000 men outnumbered by davidovich's 14,000 barely held the north and could be overrun anytime.
Kilmaine barely contained wurmser at his cage in mantua with 6600 men left after sending every available man as reinforcements to other commands.No more could be released without lifting the siege.
Meanwhile massena,augereau and the reserve mustered around 18,000 men centred at verona.All that could be spared to face alvintzy's 24,000.Time too was not on his side.He had to beat alvintzy before vaubois was overwhelmed.Unknown to the French, Alvinczi planned to throw a pontoon bridge across the Adige below Verona at Zevio [see caldiero map or next map] on 15 November at nightfall

''Like a juggler keeping three balls in the air at once, Bonaparte had to balance the dangers of the three sectors against each other, keeping them in clear relative perspective. Although he had singled out Alvinczi as his main target, it was only too clear that an aggressive move on the part of Davidovich or even by Wurmser might compel the French to abandon their operations against the main Austrian army and move every available man to reinforce the threatened area. Defeat on any sector could well spell catastrophe and the destruction of the Army of Italy'' - Historian D.Chandler


In this hour,his greatest crisis - Bonaparte's subsequent movements revealed some of his highest genius.Italian historian C.Botta ,no fan of napoleon writes-
''His movements and tactics on this occasion were those of a consummate master of the art of war,they were concieved and executed with the rapidity of lightning,nor had the austrians any notion of what he was doing until Bonaparte had chosen his own ground and changed the state of the entire campaign''

Next : The Battle of Arcola .

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Arcole Campaign - The Bridge of Arcola​

The basis of Napoleon's riposte was his favourite - La manuever Sur les Derrieres.This was napoleon's strategy of superiority not inferiority.But he had no choice.It was do or die at arcole.The plan was extremely bold,he would rush all available troops from verona with a wide strategic turning movement to seize villanova - the focal point of the austrian Line of communications.The adige river would act as the natural barrier to cover his advance .If he managed to seize villanova he could cut off alvinczi from supplies and even take his artillery park.Alvintzi would be forced into retreat and thus abandon his advnace on verona and design to unite with davidovich.Villanova was not however just randomly chosen among the many points where bonaparte could attack alvintzy's rear.On the far bank was an area of marshy land that troops could not penetrate, which meant that all movement was limited to the causeways or dikes on the banks of the river Adige, and the causeways on the banks of a small tributary called the Alpone River that flowed into it from the north. The Alpone was only 20 yards (18 m) wide and 5 feet (1.5 m) deep. In the difficult terrain, the French soldiers far better at skirmishing and open order combat would have an advantage. Further, the Austrians would not be able to use their superior numbers in the restricted battlefield .This is a classic example of choosing his battlefield ,so that the manuever sur les derrieres forces an enemy into an inoppurtune battle at a place not of his choosing.Nonetheless outnumbered as he was it was a gamble.For to muster enough force for this operation bonaparte could only leave behind 3000 men at verona.(the secondary force sheltered behind a barrier).If verona fell before the operation could be completed all was lost as then alvintzy and davidovich would unite crushing vaubois's handful in between them.

Bonaparte set off with the bulk of 17,000 men intending to cross the adige at Ronco.[see map]By dawn on 15 November, Bonaparte's troops reached the intended crossing, and soon afterward Andreossy's engineers had a pontoon bridge in operation. Augereau's division crossed first and headed east and north toward Arcole. Masséna's soldiers followed and, to cover the left flank, took a causeway leading north and west towards Belifore.

''It became of the greatest importance of seizing arcola and then falling on the enemy's rear,taking the bridge over the alpone at villanova which provided his only retreat,and beyond which lay the only place where he could deploy'' - Napoleon.



Day 1 : 15th November

Alvintzy had posted 4 battalions in the area under Colonel Brigido.2 battalions and 2 cannons guarded the crossing of the alpone at arcole.These croatian troops repulsed Augereau's leading demi-brigade under Bon attempting to force the bridge. Before long, most of the French soldiers were lying in the lee of the causeway to shelter from the searing fire.[See augereau's attack in above map].Augereau threw in his other 2 demi brigades under verdier and verne to no avail.Brigido was reinforced by mittrowsky whose forces began to arrive.[see map].Vernier,verde,bon,lannes were all wounded attempting to lead by example with unenthusiastic response from the ranks and attack completely stalled.The french generals from napoleon to massena and berthier lamented the show of the rank and file.

''The weakness and exhaustion of the army causes me to fear the worst.We are perhaps on the eve of losing italy''



[ An idea of the terrain,and the bridge at arcole.Those large circular patches are dikes-bodies of water in embankments surrounded by marshes.Only the zig zag solid causeways were stable ground for movement and limited deployment of troops.The french packed columns had to approach the bridge from a narrow causeway and were excellent targets.You can see marshy terrian depicted in the earlier map by dots]

On the western flank, Alvinczi -now alerted to this threat,sent the brigades of Gavasini and General-Major Adolf Brabeck ,nominally under Provera to seize the French pontoon bridge. They collided with Masséna near Bionde, midway between Belfiore and Ronco. Initially successful, the Austrians were soon driven back beyond Belfiore after Brabeck's troops accidentally fired on Gavasini's men, causing a panic. From the outskirts of Belfore massena could see the austrian supply and baggage tarins moving east in safety -just out of reach.[See massena vs provera on the map]

Attempting to break the stalemate near Arcole, Bonaparte ordered General of Brigade Guieu with two demi-brigades to boat across the Adige below its confluence with the Alpone at Albaredo. He also sent a French battalion across the Alpone by boat near its mouth. The latter unit fought its way north along the east bank dike.These moves however would take time to materialize.[See them in map].Meanwhile more austrian reinforcements were reaching Provera and mittrowsky had joined the defense of arcola town.The chances of cutting off alvintzy were slipping away by the moment,already bulk of his force was withdrawing from the approaches of verona under the cover of the battle.

​

Augereau to inspire his men charged forward tricolour in hand,but met with scant response and had to withdraw promptly.Drawing on this,Bonaparte in desperation grabbed a flag and stood in the open on the dike "about 55 paces" from the bridge- a few brave soldiers were ashamed into following him,but by and large again the response was hesitant. He remained miraculously untouched, but several members of his staff were hit by the intense fire and his aide-de-camp, Jean-Baptiste Muiron, was killed. An unknown officer dragged Bonaparte out of the line of fire and the commanding general ended up in the muddy ditch.This charge flag in hand is immortalized in napoleonic legend and made napoleon a household name in europe.However in sober fact it failed miserably.

Adding to the confusion, the Austrians launched a sortie from Arcole and defeated the French battalion on the east bank. In the evening, at length Guieu crossed at Albaredo and eventually managed to flush the Austrian defenders out of Arcole.[see map]It was however too late.Half of alvintzy's army had withdrawn and were drawn up at villanova to defend the town.That night however misinformation arrived that vaubois was in retreat and bonparte worried that davidovich was about to assault his rear decided to abandon arcole and fall back on the west bank of the adige near ronco to be ready to aid vaubois.He left a garrison on the Austrian side of the river to hold his bridgehead.It was all back to square one.

Thus ended the first day of the battle of arcole.Though the french had failed to cut off alvintzy,napoleon had succeeded in halting his drive on verona and prevented him from joining davidovich.

Day 2 : 16th November 1796.



[Note map understates provera's strength]


Next day with no further news of vaubois,napoleon decided to renew the contest.Naturally the austrians had reoccupied arcole during the night.
Alvinczi left Hohenzollern's troops near Verona to guard against an attack from that city. The Austrian leader ordered Provera with six battalions to attack from Belfiore. Alvinczi reinforced Mittrowsky to a total of 14 battalions, including the brigades of Schübirz and Oberst Franz Sticker, and instructed him to advance south from arcole. The two forces would march at dawn on 16 November and converge on the French bridgehead. Alvinczi sent two battalions to guard Albaredo against a repetition of Guieu's attack.Provera's effort came to grief when he ran into Masséna. Brabeck was killed during the encounter and the Austrians were chased back to Belfiore with the loss of five cannons. During the morning, Mittrowsky and Augereau engaged in a see-saw battle that ended when the Austrians fell back to Arcole.[see augereau and massena's attacks on last map]
Mittrowsky positioned Sticker's four battalions on the western dike, lined the eastern dike with four battalions under Brigido, and packed the rest of his troops into Arcole. These intelligent dispositions blocked Bonaparte's repeated attempts to seize the village during the day. French attempts to cross the Adige at Albaredo and the Alpone near its mouth both failed. At nightfall, Bonaparte withdrew Masséna and Augereau toward the bridgehead, but sizable forces stayed on the Austrian side of the Adige.The former slave Hercule dominigue was promoted and given a sword by napoleon for distinguished bravery here.

The actions of the second day had not been won by the french,however the battle for attrition was going decidedly in their favour.The broken chaotic fighting in the marshes was out of the austrian infantry's element and alvintzy was increasingly shaken by the mounting losses.He sent an urgent message to davidovich to renew his offensive the next day at all costs as he himself 'had enough forces for one more attack on the french'.



[An overview of first 2 days combat.See how the dikes channel troops of both sides along the causeways preventing a superior army from using its numbers.Precisely why napoleon chose this area as his battlefield.The austrians were forced into a battle here as not defending it would result in bonaparte taking their rear base at villanova and supplies.The water however as shown is not continous but interrupted by marshy land]

Day 3: 17th November



On 17 November, Alvinczi withdrew Hohenzollern closer to his main body. Again, Provera held Belfiore while Mittrowsky defended Arcole. During the night, Bonaparte's engineers floated some pontoons into the Alpone where they built a bridge near its mouth. Augereau's division crossed the bridge and began fighting its way along the eastern dike. A French battalion and some cavalry of Kilmaine also set out from Legnano and joined Augereau later in the day.

Alvintzy's situation had detoriorated.His army was divided in 2 unconnected parts -one at arcole and the east bank of the alpone and the other under provera and hohenzollern fighting in the marshes near belifore.This meant Bonaparte could now pick and choose to concentrate on each wing seperately and defeat them piecemeal in detail.He had manuevered alvintzi into a poor position on alien ground.Bonaparte planned to pin provera at belifore with part of massena's division under robert and send the other part frontally against arcole.Meanwhile augereau would ford near alberado and take arcole from the rear.

Massena's recrossing the adige near ronco was contested by the austrians.[ see austrian detatchment in red near ronco in map] but massena overwhelmed them.By early afternoon, part of his division drubbed Provera near Belfiore again. [see in map combat near belifore] Alvinczi recalled both Provera and Hohenzollern toward the east and began feeding some of the latter's troops into the combat at Arcole. There, the battle went back and forth all day.

Here massena revealed some of his tactical acumen that was to earn him the title 'The Dear child of victory' from napoleon.He placed one lone demibrigade under robert on the causeway between arcole and belifore in full view of the austrian forces in the town of arcole on the other bank.He hid the rest of his forces among the marshes and dykes.The austrians took the bait and counterattacked across the river hoping to decimate this isolated force and relieve pressure on belifore porcile.They were ambushed from 3 sides and sent reeling back in total disarray with heavy casualities.[see in map]Massena gave them no respite and promptly crossed the river with under the cover of this chaos and took part of the town of arcole at bayonet point.

Meanwhile Augereau's division's attack had stalled to heavy austrian resistance to a crossing.Here Bonaparte came up with a ingenious plan to break the deadlock.With the fighting at its fiercest and both sides having put every man into the fight,he ordered 25 guides horsemen of his bodyguard[created remember as an escort to avoid the repeatation of the incident where he was almost captured by austrian cavalry and fled with one boot]-basically the only cavalry he had left,with four trumpeters to ford the river a little upstream being undetected due to very small numbers and then proceed to the austrian rear where they sounded their trumpets loudly and created huge amounts of noise shouting' here come the french cavalry'.[see guides written in map]

The austrians already exhausted from non stop fighting thought the whole french cavalry force was about to descend on their rear and wavered,augereau's men heartened by this as well as massena's successful ambush poured over and swept the austrians away,pursuing them and joining massena's men in arcole town.During this last phase kilmaine's handful reinforcements from legnano also arrived and alvintzi having lost all will for further combat ordered a complete withdrawal.The Battle of Arcole was over.



[Map of 3rd day.Clearly shows massena's ambush of mittrowsky from 3 sides on the causeway.The arrival of the column from leganno on the bottom right,the 2 long lines of blue and red on the right depict the armies after the end of the battle as the rest of the austrians withdrew to st stefano as can be seen]

Losses - Austrians lost 7000 men at arcole for about 4500 french.Alvintzy had to give up all designs of uniting with davidovich for the time being.Generals Robert on the french side and Rosselemini on the austrian side were killed.

Northern Sector -

On the 17th of November,just as the final day of the battle of arcole was raging,Davidovich finally attacked vaubois at Rivoli.After resisting all morning the French troops stampeded in the afternoon. Again, the 85th Line was among the first units to panic.The French lost 800 killed and wounded, plus 1,000 captured including Generals of Brigade Fiorella and Antoine Valette. Austrian casualties were 600.Vaubois retreated with his remnants to peschiera and davidovich pursued till castelnuovo.

[see locations on map.It doesn't show the alpone river as its a small tributary]

However it was too late.Bonaparte had defeated alvintzi on arcole on the 17th and could now turn on davidovich.Bonaparte sent his cavalry to watch Alvinczi's retreat, while turning the bulk of his forces toward Davidovich.On 19 November, Davidovich heard of the Austrian defeat at Arcole and detected signs that Bonaparte was about to fall upon him in full force. The Austrian pulled back to Rivoli on the 20th and began to fall back farther the next morning. At this moment, he received an encouraging note from Alvinczi and halted his retreat. But the French caught up with him at Rivoli. In the ensuing clash, the French suffered 200 casualties while inflicting losses of 250 killed and wounded. An additional 600 Austrians, three guns and a bridging train fell into French hands. Davidovich hastily fell back north. Altogether, Davidovich's retreat from Rivoli cost him as many as 1,500 men and nine guns.

Alvintzi meanwhile had held a war council and decided to resume his movement with teh 15,000-16,000 troops he had left,but he got as far as caldiero before learning of Davidovich's flight.He retired to the brenta.
Wurmser had a good chance to breakout of mantua while the battle for arcole was ongoing and the french besiegers were almost denuded,but he believed it to be trap and hesitated.When he did attack at the 23rd he caused minor mayhem before being driven back into mantua with 800 losses for 200 french.


[The entire arcole campaign.See the initial actions at calliano,bassano,fontaniva.Then caldiero and arcola.Joubert's reinforcement of vaubois.Finally french attack on davidovich.The one movement unaccounted for is bearavoir's cavalry u see on the extreme left.He with small numbers of cavalry scouts were deployed on the west side of lake garda early in the campaign to provide bonaparte with intelligence in case of an attack from that quarter.He later rejoined the main french forces.As these small cavalry detatchments were insignificant in number and solely for scouting none of the earlier maps depicted them as a seperate body.]

Thus the third austrian relief attempt too had ended in failure.Napoleon proved himself a master of the strategic defensive,and showed his eye for terrain,His perseverance in face of continous reverses leading up to arcole won through in the end.Instead of switching to a pure defense he constantly sought to keep the austrians off balance and succeeded at arcole.It was indeed as he said his most dangerous moment.

Alvintzi would try again and the greatest battle of the italian campaign was still to be fought.But never again would austria come so close to victory in italy.It was perhaps at arcole that austria threw away all her advantages .. and maybe the battle for italy itself.

Next: The Rivoli Campaign - The first glorious victory.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

French guides light escort.

 

[Alpha1]

Marvelous @AUSTERLITZ , we are glad to have you on board,please continue

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Marvelous @AUSTERLITZ , we are glad to have you on board,please continue

Thanks mate.Encouragement of a few dedicated readers makes all the work worth it.Speeding up now,will finish this report by tommorrow.

 

[SQ8]

Interesting thing I noticed is that the tables seemed to turn when the campaign took to the highlands and mountain passes. Perhaps Napoleons berating of his soldiers was a bit shortsighted considering that they were being asked to fight in somewhat difficult terrain.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Interesting thing I noticed is that the tables seemed to turn when the campaign took to the highlands and mountain passes. Perhaps Napoleons berating of his soldiers was a bit shortsighted considering that they were being asked to fight in somewhat difficult terrain.

No actually the mountanous terrian suited the french.It kept the superior austrian cavalry at bay.However in mountanous terrain the defender usually had an advantage as u saw at caldiero and cembra.The collapse in the northern sector was due to 3 factors - 1)overwhelming numbers,2)Shaky morale and leadership.The 85th demi brigade routed 3 times -thats bad by any standard.And 3)somewhat uninspiring leadership.After this campaign as we will see Bonaparte replaced vaubois with joubert.

 

[SQ8]

1)overwhelming numbers,
2)Shaky morale and leadership.The 85th demi brigade routed 3 times -thats bad by any standard.
And 3)somewhat uninspiring leadership.After this campaign as we will see Bonaparte replaced vaubois with joubert.

2&3 perhaps played a more critical role. After all.. the french elan(fighting spirit) was their claim to fame.