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See also:MARENGO AND HOHENLINDEN
The disasters of 1799 sealed the See also:fate of the See also:Directory, and placed See also:Bonaparte, who returned from See also:Egypt with the See also:prestige of a See also:recent victory, in his natural See also:place as See also:civil and military
See also:head of See also:France. In the course of the See also:campaign the See also: Chambarlhac's, chiefly of See also:young soldiers, lost 5% of its See also:numbers on the way to Dijon from See also:desertion—a loss which appeared slight and even satisfactory after the wholesale debandade of the See also:winter months. Lechi's Italian See also:legion was newly formed from Italian refugees. Boudet's division was originally assembled from some of the See also:southern See also:garrison towns, but the See also:units composing it were frequently changed up to the beginning of May. The See also:cavalry was deficient in saddles, and many of its units were new formations. The Consular Guard of course was a corps d'i lite, and this and two and a See also:half See also:infantry divisions and a cavalry See also:brigade coming from the See also:veteran " Army of the See also:West " formed the real back-See also:bone of the army. Most of the newer units were not even armed till they had See also:left Dijon for the front.
Such was the first constitution of the Army of Reserve. We can scarcely imagine one which required more accurate and detailed See also:staff See also:work to assemble it—See also:correspondence with the district commanders, with the See also:adjutant-generals of the various armies, and orders to the civil authorities on the lines of See also: Between them See also:Switzerland, secured by the victory of See also:Zurich, offered a starting-point for a turning See also:movement on either See also:side—this See also:year the See also:advantage of the flank position was recognized and acted upon. The Army of Reserve was assembling around Dijon, within 200 M. of either See also:theatre of See also:war. The general plan was that the Army of Reserve should march through Switzerland to See also:close on the right wing of the Army of the Rhine. Thus supported to whatever degree might prove to be necessary, Moreau was to force the passage of the Rhine about See also:Schaffhausen, to push back the Austrians rapidly beyond the See also:Lech, and then, if they took the offensive in turn, to hold them in check for ten or twelve days. During this See also:period of guaranteed freedom the decisive movement was to be made. The Army of Reserve, augmented by one large corps of the Army of the Rhine, was to descend by the Spliigen (alternatively by the St Gothard and even by See also:Tirol) into the plains of See also:Lombardy. Magazines were to be established at Zurich and See also:Lucerne (not at Chur, lest the plan should become obvious from the beginning), and all likely routes reconnoitred in advance. The Army of Italy was at first to maintain a strict defensive, then to occupy the Austrians until the entry of the Reserve Army into Italy was assured, and finally to manoeuvre to join it. Moreau, however, owing to want of horses for his See also:pontoon See also:train and also because of the See also:character of the Rhine above See also:Basel, preferred to See also:cross below that place, especially as in See also:Alsace there were considerably greater supply facilities than in a See also:country which had already been fought over and stripped See also:bare. With the greatest reluctance Bonaparte let him have his way, and giving up the See also:idea of using the Splugen and the St Gothard, began to turn his See also:attention to the more See also:westerly passes, the St See also:Bernard and the Simplon. It was not merely Moreau's scruples that led to this essential modification in the See also:scheme. At the beginning of See also:April the enemy took the offensive against Massena. On the 8th Melas's right wing dislodged the French from the Mont Cenis, and most of the troops that had then reached Dijon were shifted southward to be ready for emergencies. By the 25th Berthier reported that Massena was seriously attacked and that he might have to be supported by the shortest route. Bonaparte's See also:resolution was already taken. He waited no longer for Moreau (who indeed so far from volunteering assistance, actually demanded it for himself). Convinced from thepaucityofnewsthatMassena's army was closely pressed and probably severed from France, and feeling also that the Austrians were deeply committed to their struggle with the Army of Italy, he told Berthier to march with 40,000 men at once by way of the St Bernard unless otherwise advised. Berthier protested that he had only 25,000 effectives, and the equipment and armament was still far from See also:complete—as indeed it remained to the end—but the troops marched, though their very means of existence were See also:precarious from the time of leaving See also:Geneva to the time of reaching See also:Milan, for nothing could extort supplies and See also:money from the sullen Swiss. At the beginning of May the First Consul learned of the serious See also:plight of the Army of Italy. Massena with his right wing was shut up,in_Genoa, See also:Suchet with the left wing Napoleon's driven back to the See also:Var. Meanwhile Moreau had won See also:camp an. a preliminary victory at Stokach, and the Army of Reserve had begun its movement to Geneva. With these data the plan of campaign took a clear shape at last—Massena to resist as See also:long as possible; Suchet to resume the offensive, if he could do so, towards See also:Turin; the Army of Reserve to pass the Alps and to debouch into See also:Piedmont by See also:Aosta; the Army of the. Rhine to send a strong force into Italy by the St Gothard. The First Consul left See also:Paris on the 6th of May. Berthier went forward to Geneva, and still farther on the route magazines were established at See also:Villeneuve and St-See also:Pierre. Gradually, and with immense efforts, the leading troops of the long columns were passed over the St Bernard, See also:drawing their artillery on sledges, on the 15th and succeeding days. See also:Driving away small posts of the See also:Austrian army, the advance guard entered Aosta on the 16th and See also:Chatillon on the 18th and the alarm was given. Melas, committed as he was to his See also:Riviera campaign, began to look to his right See also:rear, but he was far from suspecting the seriousness of his opponent's purpose. Infinitely more dangerous for the French than the small detachment that Melas opposed to them, or even the actual See also:Bard See also:crossing of the pass, was the unexpected stopping See also:power of the little fort of Bard. The advanced guard of the French appeared before it on the rgth, and after three wasted days the infantry managed to find a difficult See also:mountain by-way and to pass See also:round the obstacle. See also:Ivrea was occupied on the 23rd, and Napoleon hoped to assemble the whole army there by the 27th. But except for a few guns that with See also:infinite precautions were smuggled one by one through the streets of Bard, the whole of the artillery, as well as a detachment (under Chabran) to besiege the fort, had to be left behind. Bard surrendered on the 2nd of See also:June, having delayed the infantry of the French army for four days and the artillery for a fortnight. The military situation in the last See also:week of May, as it presented itself to the First Consul at Ivrea, was this. The Army of Italy under Massena was closely besieged in Genoa, where provisions were See also:running See also:short, and the See also:population so hostile that the French general placed his field artillery to sweep the streets. But Massena was no See also:ordinary general, and the First Consul knew that while Massena lived the garrison would resist to the last extremity. Suchet was defending See also:Nice and the Var by vigorous See also:minor operations. The Army of Reserve, the centre of which had reached at Ivrea the edge of the Italian plains, consisted of four weak army corps under See also:Victor, Duhesme, See also:Lannes and See also:Murat. There were still to be added to this small army of 34,000 effectives, Turreau's division, which had passed over the Mont Cenis and was now in the valley of the Dora Itiparia, See also:Moncey's corps of the Army of the Rhine, which had at last been extorted from Moreau and was due to pass the St Gothard before the end of May, Chabran's division left to.besiege Bard, and a small force under See also:Bethencourt, which was to cross the Simplon and to descend by See also:Arona (this place proved in the event a second Bard and immobilized Bethencourt until after the decisive See also:battle). Thus it was only the simplest See also:part of Napoleon's task to concentrate half of his army at Ivrea, and he had yet to bring 1 Only one division of the See also:main See also:body used the Little St Bernard.in the See also:rest. The problem was to reconcile the See also:necessity for time, which he wanted to ensure the maximum force being brought over the Alps, with the necessity for haste, in view of the impending fall of Genoa and the See also:probability that once this See also:conquest was achieved, Melas would bring back his 100,000 men into the Milanese to See also:deal with the Army of Reserve. As early as the 14th of May he had informed Moncey that from Ivrea the Army of Reserve would move on Milan. On the 25th of May, in response to Berthier's See also:request for guidance, the First Consul ordered Lannes (advanced guard) to push out on the Turin road, " in See also:order to deceive the enemy and to obtain See also:news of Turreau," and Duhesme's and Murat's corps to proceed along the Milan road. On the 27th, after Lannes had on the 26th defeated an Austrian See also:column near See also:Chivasso, the main body was already advancing on See also:Vercelli. . Very few of Napoleon's acts of generalship have been more criticized than this resolution to march on Milan, which abandoned Genoa to its. fate and gave Melas a week's leisure to The march assemble his scattered forces. The See also:account of his motives The 'See also:hatch he dictated at St See also:Helena (See also:Nap. Correspondence, v. 30, pp. 375-377), in itself an unconvincing See also:appeal to the rules of See also:strategy as laid down by the theorists—which rules his own practice through-out transcended—gives, when closely examined, some at least of the necessary clues. He says in effect that by advancing directly on Turin he would have " risked a battle against equal forces without an assured See also:line of See also:retreat, Bard being still uncaptured." It is indeed See also:strange to find Napoleon shrinking before equal forces of the enemy, even if we admit without comment that it was more difficult to pass Bard the second time than the first. The only incentive to go towards Turin was the See also:chance of partial victories over the disconnected Austrian corps that would be met in that direction, and this he deliberately set aside. Having done so, for reasons that will appear in the sequel, he could only defend it by saying in effect that he might have been defeated—which was true, but not the See also:Napoleonic principle of war. Of the alternatives, one was to hasten to Genoa; this in Napoleon's eyes would have been playing the enemy's See also:game, for they would have concentrated at See also:Alessandria, facing west " in their natural position." It is equally obvious that thus the enemy would have played his game, supposing that this was to relieve Genoa, and the implication is that it was not. The third course, which Napoleon took, and in this memorandum defended, gave his army the enemy's depots at Milan, of which it unquestionably stood in sore need, and the reinforcement of Moncey's 15,o00 men from the Rhine, while at the same time Moncey's route offered an " assured line of retreat " by the Simplon2 and the St Gothard. He would in fact make for himself there a " natural position " without forfeiting the advantage of being in Melas's rear. Once possessed of Milan, Napoleon says, he could have engaged Melas with a See also:light See also:heart and with confidence in the greatest possible results of a victory, whether the Austrians sought to force their way back to the See also:east by the right or the left See also:bank of the Po, and he adds that if the French passed on and concentrated See also:south of the Po there would be no danger to the Milan-St Gothard line of retreat, as this was secured by the See also:rivers See also:Ticino and Sesia. In this last, as we shall see, he is shielding an undeniable See also:mistake, but considering for the moment only the movement to Milan, we are justified in assuming that his See also:object was not the See also:relief of Genoa, but the most thorough defeat of Melas's field army, to which end,, putting all sentiment aside, he treated the hard-pressed Massena as a " containing force " to keep Melas occupied during the strategical deployment of the Army of Reserve. In the beginning he had told Massena that he would " disengage " him, even if he had to go as far east as See also:Trent to find a way into Italy. From the first, then, no See also:direct relief was intended, and when, on See also:hearing See also:bad news from the Riviera, he altered his route to the more westerly passes, it was probably because he See also:felt that Massena's containing power was almost exhausted, and that the passage and reassembly of the Reserve Army must be brought about in the minimum time and by the shortest way. But the object was still the defeat of Melas,'and for this, as the Austrians possessed an enormous numerical superiority, the assembly of all forces, including Moncey's, was indispensable. One essential condition of this was that the points of passage used should be out of reach of the enemy. The more westerly the passes chosen, the more dangerous was the whole operation—in fact the Mont Cenis column never reached him at all—and though his expressed objections to the St Bernard line seem, as we have said, to be written after the event, to disarm his critics, there is no doubt that at the time he disliked it. It was a is alter forced upon him by Moreau's delay and Massena's extremity, and from the moment at which he arrived at Milan he did, as a fact, abandon it altogether in favour of the St Gothard. Lastly, so strongly was he impressed with the necessity of completing the deployment of all his forces, that though he found the Austrians on the Turin side much scattered and could justifiably expect a See also:series of rapid
2 When he made his decision he was unaware that Bethencourt had been held up at Arona.
partial victories, Napoleon let them go, and devoted his whole See also:energy to creating for himself a " natural " position about Milan. If he sinned, at any See also:rate he sinned handsomely, and except that he went to Milan by Vercelli instead of by See also:Lausanne and Domodossola' (on the safe side of the mountains), his march is logistically beyond cavil.
Napoleon's immediate purpose, then, was to reassemble the Army of Reserve in a zone of manceuvre about Milan. This was carried out in the first days of June. Lannes at Chivasso stood ready to See also: Duhesme's corps forced that See also:river at See also:Lodi, and pressed on with orders to organize See also:Crema and if possible Orzinovi as temporary fortresses. Lechi's Italians were sent towards See also:Bergamo and See also:Brescia. Lannes meantime had passed Vercelli, and on the evening of the znd his cavalry reached Pavia, where, as at Milan, immense stores of See also:food, equipment and warlike stores were seized. Napoleon was now safe in his " natural " position, and barred one of the two main lines of retreat open to the Austrians. But his ambitions went further, and he intended to cross the Po and to establish himself on the other likewise, thus establishing across the plain a complete barrage between Melas and See also:Mantua. Here his end outranged his means, as we shall see. But he gave himself every chance that rapidity could afford him, and the moment that some sort of a " zone of manoeuvre " had been secured between the Ticino and the Oglio, he pushed on his main body—or rather what was left after the protective system had been provided for —to the Po. He would not wait even for his guns, which had at last emerged from the Bard See also:defile and were ordered to come to Milan by a safe and circuitous route along the See also:foot of the Alps. At this point the See also:action of the enemy began to make itself felt. Melas had not gained the successes that he had expected in Piedmont and on the Riviera, thanks to Massena's obstinacy and to Suchet's brilliant See also:defence of the Var. These operations had led him very far afield, and the See also:protection of his over-long line of communications had caused him to weaken his large army by throwing off many detachments to See also:watch the Alpine valleys on his right rear. One of these successfully opposed Turreau in the valley of the Dora Riparia, but another had been severely handled by Lannes at Chivasso, and a third (Vukassovich) found itself, as we know, directly in the path of the French as they moved from Ivrea to Milan, and was driven far to the eastward. He was further handicapped by the necessity of supporting Ott before Genoa and Elsnitz on the Var, and hearing of Lannes's bold advance on Chivasso and of the presence of a French column with artillery (Turreau) west of Turin, he assumed that the latter represented the main body of the Army of Reserve—in so far indeed as he believed in the existence of that army at all.3 Next, when ' This may be accounted for by the fact that Napoleon's mind was not yet definitively made up when his advanced guard had already begun to climb the St Bernard (12th). Napoleon's instructions for Moncey were written on the 14th. The magazines, too, had to be provided and placed before it was known whether Moreau's detachment would be forthcoming. 2 Six guns had by now passed Fort Bard and four of these were with Murat and Duhesme, two with Lannes. 2 It is supposed that the See also:foreign spies at Dijon sent word to their various employers that the Army was a bogy. In fact a great part of it never entered Dijon at all, and the troops reviewed there by Lannes moved away towards Pavia, Melas thought for a moment that fate had delivered his enemy into his hands, and began to collect such troops as were at See also:hand at Turin with a view to cutting off the retreat of the French on Ivrea while Vukassovich held them in front. It was only when news came of Moncey's arrival in Italy and of Vukassovich's fighting retreat on Brescia that the magnitude and purpose of the French column that had penetrated by Ivrea became evident. Melas promptly decided to give up his western enterprises, and to concentrate at Alessandria, preparatory to breaking his way through the network of small columns—as the disseminated Army of Reserve still appeared to be—which threatened to See also:bar his retreat. But orders circulated so slowly that he had to wait in Turin till the 8th of June for Elsnitz, whose retreat was, moreover, sharply followed up and made exceedingly costly by the enterprising Suchet. Ott, too, in spite of orders to give up the See also:siege of Genoa at once and to march with all See also:speed to hold the Alessandria-See also:Piacenza road, waited two days to secure the See also:prize, and agreed (June 4) to allow Massena's army to go free and to join Suchet. And lastly, the cavalry of O'Reilly, sent on ahead from Alessandria to the See also:Stradella defile, reached that point only to encounter the French. The barrage was complete, and it remained for Melas to break it with the See also:mass that he was assembling, with all these misfortunes and delays, about Alessandria. His chances of doing so were anything but desperate. On the 5th of June Murat, with his own corps and part of Duhesme's, had moved on Piacenza, and stormed the See also:bridge-head there. Duhesme with one of his divisions pushed out on Crema and Orzinovi and also towards Pizzighetone. Moncey's leading regiments approached Milan, and Berthier thereupon sent on Victor's corps to support Murat and Lannes. Meantime the half abandoned line of operations, Ivrea-Vercelli, was briskly attacked by the Austrians, who had still detachments on the side of Turin, waiting for Elsnitz to rejoin, and the French artillery train was once more checked. On the 6th Lannes from Pavia, crossing the Po at See also:San Cipriano, encountered and defeated a large force, (O'Reilly's column), and barred the Alessandria-See also:Parma main road. Opposite Piacenza Murat had to spend the day in gathering material for his passage, as the pontoon bridge had been cut by the retreating garrison of the bridge-head. On the eastern border of the " zone of manceuvre " Duhesme's various columns moved out towards Brescia and See also:Cremona, pushing back Vukassovich. Meantime the last divisions of the Army of Reserve (two of Moncey's excepted) were hurried towards Lannes's point of passage, as Murat had not yet secured Piacenza. On the 7th, while Duhesme continued to push back Vukassovich and seized Cremona, Murat at last captured Piacenza, finding there immense magazines. Meantime the army, division by division, passed over, slowly owing to a sudden See also:flood, near Belgiojoso, and Lannes's advanced guard was ordered to open communication with Murat along the main road Stradella-Piacenza. " Moments are See also:precious " said the First Consul. He was aware that Elsnitz was retreating before Suchet, that Melas had left Turin for Alessandria, and that heavy forces of the enemy were at or east of See also:Tortona. He knew, too, that Murat had been engaged with certain regiments recently before Genoa and (wrongly) assumed O'Reilly's column, beaten by Lannes at San Cipriano, to have come from the same See also:quarter. Whether this meant the deliverance or the surrender of Genoa he did not yet know, but it was certain that Massena's holding action was over, and that Melas was gathering up his forces to recover his communications. Hence Napoleon's great object was concentration. " Twenty thousand men at Stradella," in his own words, was the See also:goal of his efforts, and with the accomplishment of this purpose the campaign enters on a new phase. On the 8th of June, Lannes's corps was across, Victor following as quickly as the flood would allow. Murat was at Piacenza, but the road between Lannes and Murat was not known to be clear, and the First Consul made the See also:establishment of the Bonaparte were only conscripts and details. By the time that the veteran divisions from the west and Paris arrived, either the spies had been ejected or their news was sent off too See also:late to be of use. Melas's movements. connexion, and the construction of a third point of passage See also:mid-way between the other two, the See also:principal See also:objects of the day's work. The army now being disseminated between the Napoleon's Alps, the Apennines, the Ticino and the Chiese, it eons st was of vital importance to connect up the various parts into a well-balanced system. But the Napoleon of 1800 solved the problem that lay at the See also:root of his strategy, " concentrate, but be vulnerable nowhere," in a way that compares unfavourably indeed with the methods of the Napoleon of 18o6. Duhesme was still absent at Cremona. Lechi was far away in the Brescia country, Bethencourt detained at Arona. Moncey with about 15,000 men had to See also:cover an See also:area of 40 M. square around Milan, which constituted the See also:original zone of manceuvre, and if Melas See also:chose to break through the flimsy cordon of outposts on this side (the See also:risk of which was the See also:motive for detaching Moncey at all) instead of at the Stradella, it would take Moncey two days to concentrate his force on any battlefield within the area named, and even then he would be outnumbered by two to one. As for the main body at the Stradella, its position was wisely chosen, for the ground was too cramped for the deployment of the See also:superior force that Melas might bring up, but the strategy that set before itself as an object 20,000 men at the decisive point out of 50,000 available, is, to say the least, imperfect. The most serious feature in all this was the injudicious order to Lannes to send forward his advanced guard, and to attack whatever enemy he met with on the road to See also:Voghera. The First Consul, in fact, calculated that Melas could not assemble 20,000 men at Alessandria before the 12th of June, and he told Lannes that if he met the Austrians towards Voghera, they could not be more than io,000 strong. A later order betrays some anxiety as to the exactitude of these assumptions, warns Lannes not to let himself be surprised, indicates his line of retreat, and, instead of ordering him to advanceonVoghera, authorizes him to attack any corps that presented itself at Stradella. But all this came too late. Acting on the earlier order Lannes fought the battle of Montebello on the 9th. This was a very severe running fight, beginning east of Casteggio and ending at Montebello, in which the French drove the Austrians from several successive positions, and which culminated in a See also:savage fight at close quarters about Montebello itself. The singular feature of the battle is the disproportion between the losses on either side —French, Soo out of 12,000 engaged; Austrians, 2100 killed and wounded and 2100 prisoners out of 14,000. These figures are most conclusive See also:evidence of the intensity of the French military spirit in those days. One of the two divisions (Watrin's) was indeed a veteran organization, but the other, Chambarlhac's, was formed of young troops and was the same that, in the march to Dijon, had congratulated itself that only 5% of its men had deserted. On the other side the soldiers fought for " the See also:honour of their arms "—not even with the courage of despair, for they were ignorant of the " strategic barrage " set in front of them by Napoleon, and the loss of their communications had not as yet lessened their daily rations by an See also:ounce. Meanwhile, Napoleon had issued orders for the main body to stand fast, and for the detachments to take up their definitive covering positions. Duhesme's corps was directed, from its eastern foray, to Piacenza, to join the main body. Moncey was to provide for the defence of the Ticino line, Lechi to See also:form a " flying camp " in the region of Orzinovi-Brescia and Cremona, and another mixed brigade was to See also:control the Austrians in Pizzighetone and in the citadel of Piacenza. On the other side of the Po, between Piacenza and Montebello, was the main body (Lannes, Murat and part of Victor's and Duhesme's corps), and a flank guard was stationed near Pavia, with orders to keep on the right of the army as it advanced (this is the first and only hint of any intention to go westward) and to fall back fighting should Melas come on by the left bank. One division was to be always a day's march behind the army on the right bank, and a flotilla was to ascend the Po, to facilitate the speedy reinforcement of the flank guard. Farther to the See also:north was a small column on the road Milan-Vercelli. All the protective troops,except the division of the main body detailed as an eventual support for the flank guard, was to be found by Moncey's corps (which had besides to watch the Austrians in the citadel of Milan) and Chabran's and Lechi's weak commands. On this same day Bonaparte tells the See also:Minister of War, See also:Carnot, that Moncey has only brought half the expected reinforcements and that half of these are unreliable. As to the result of the impending contest Napoleon See also:counts greatly upon the See also:union of 18,000 men under Massena and Suchet to crush Melas against the " strategic barrage " of the Army of Reserve, by one or other bank of the Po, and he seems equally confident of the result in either See also:case. If Genoa had held out three days more, he says, it would have been easy to See also:count the number of Melas's men who escaped. The exact significance of this last notion is difficult to establish, and all that could be written about it would be merely conjectural. But it is interesting to See also:note that, without admitting it, Napoleon felt that his " barrage " might not stand before the flood. The details of the orders of the 9th to the main body (written before the news of Montebello arrived at headquarters) tend to the closest possible concentration of the main body towards Casteggio, in view of a decisive battle on the 12th or 13th. But another idea had begun to form itself in his mind. Still believing that Melas would attack him on the Stradella side, and hastening his preparations to meet this, he began to allow for the contingency of Melas giving up or failing in his See also:attempt to re-establish his communication with the advance. Mantovese, and retiring on Genoa, which was now in his hands and could be provisioned and reinforced by See also:sea. On the loth Napoleon ordered reserve See also:ammunition to be sent from Pavia, giving Serravalle, which is south of Novi, as its probable destination. But this was surmise, and of the facts he knew nothing. Would the enemy move east on the Stradella, north-east on the Ticino or south on Genoa? Such reports as were available indicated no important movements whatever, which happened to be true, but could hardly appear so to the French headquarters. On the 11th, though he thereby forfeited the reinforcements coming up from Duhesme's corps at Cremona, Napoleon ordered the main body to advance to the Scrivia. Lapoype's division (the right flank guard), which was observing the Austrian posts towards Casale, was called to the south bank of the Po, the zone around Milan was stripped so bare of troops that there was no escort for the prisoners taken at Montebello, while See also:information sent by Chabran (now moving up from Ivrea) as to the construction of See also:bridges at Casale (this was a feint made by Melas on the loth) passed unheeded. The crisis was at hand, and, clutching at the reports collected by Lapoype as to the quietude of the Austrians toward Valenza and Casale, Bonaparte and Berthier strained every See also:nerve to bring up more men to the Montebello. Voghera side in the See also:hope of preventing the See also:prey from slipping away to Genoa. On the 12th, consequently, the army (the ordre de bataille of which had been considerably modified on the 11th) moved to the Scrivia, Lannes halting at Castelnuovo, Desaix (who had just joined the army from Egypt) at Pontecurone, Victor at Tortona with Murat's cavalry in front towards Alessandria. Lapoype's division, from the left bank of the Po, was marching in all haste to join Desaix. Moncey, Duhesme, Lechi and Chabran were absent. The latter represented almost exactly half of Berthier's command (30,000 out of 58,000), and even the concentration of 28,000 men on the Scrivia had only been obtained by practically giving up the " barrage " on the left bank of the Po. Even now the enemy showed nothing but a rearguard, and the old questions reappeared in a new and acute form. Was Melas still in Alessandria ? Was he -marching on Valenza and Casale to cross the Po ? or to See also:Acqui against Suchet, or to Genoa to See also:base himself on the See also:British See also:fleet? As to the first, why had he given up his chances of fighting on one of the few cavalry battlegrounds in north Italy—the plain of Marengo—since he could not stay in Alessandria for any indefinite time? The second question had been answered in the negative by Lapoype, but his latest information was See also:thirty-six See also:hours old. As for the other questions, no See also:answer whatever was forthcoming, and the only course open was to postpone decisive See also:measures and to send forward the cavalry, supported by infantry, to gain information. On the 13th, therefore, Murat, Lannes and Victor advanced into the plain of Marengo, traversed it without difficulty and Marengo. carrying the villages held by the Austrian rearguard, established themselves for the See also:night within a mile of the fortress. But meanwhile Napoleon, informed we may suppose of their progress, had taken a step that was fraught with the gravest consequences. He had, as we know, no intention of forcing on a decision until his See also:reconnaissance produced the information on which to base it, and he had therefore kept back three divisions under Desaix at Pontecurone. But as the day wore on without incident, he began to fear that the reconnaissance would be profitless, and unwilling to give Melas any further start, he sent out these divisions right and left to find and to hold the enemy, whichever way the latter had gone. At See also:noon Desaix with one division was despatched southward to Rivalta to head off Melas from Genoa and at 9 A.M. on the 14th,' Lapoype was sent back over the Po to hold the Austrians should they be advancing from Valenza towards the Ticino. Thus there remained in hand only 21,000 men when at last, in the forenoon of the 14th the whole of Melas's army, more than 40,000 strong, moved out of Alessandria, not southward nor northward, but due west into the plain of Marengo (q.v.). The extraordinary battle that followed is described elsewhere. The outline of it is See also:simple enough. The Austrians advanced slowly and in the See also:face of the most resolute opposition, until their attack had gathered See also:weight, and at last they were carrying all before them, when Desaix returned from beyond Rivalta and initiated a series of counterstrokes. These were brilliantly successful, and gave the French not only See also:local victory but the supreme self-confidence that, next day, enabled them to extort from Melas an agreement to evacuate all Lombardy as far as the Mincio. And though in this way the chief prize, Melas's army, escaped after all, Marengo was the birthday of the First See also:Empire. One more See also:blow, however, was required before the Second See also:Coalition collapsed, and it was delivered by Moreau. We have seen that he had crossed the upper Rhine and defeated Kray at Stokach. This was followed by other partial victories, and Kray then retired to See also:Ulm, where he reassembled his forces, hitherto scattered in a long weak line from the See also:Neckar to Schaffhausen. Moreau continued his advance, extending his forces up to and over the See also:Danube below Ulm, and winning several combats, of which the most important was that of See also:Hochstadt,
' On the strength of a See also:report, false as it turned out, that the Austrian rearguard had broken the bridges of the Bormida.fought on the famous battlegrounds of 1703 and 1704, and memorable for the See also:death of La Tour d'See also:Auvergne, the " First See also:Grenadier of France " (June 19). Finding himself in danger of envelopment, Kray now retired, swiftly and skilfully, across the front of the advancing French, and reached See also:Ingolstadt in safety. Thence he retreated over the See also:Inn, Moreau following him to the edge of that river, and an See also:armistice put an end for the moment to further operations.
This not resulting in a treaty of See also:peace, the war was resumed both in Italy and in See also:Germany. The Army of Reserve and the Army of Italy, after being fused into one, under Massena's command, were divided again into a fighting army under Brune, who opposed the Austrians (See also:Bellegarde) on the Mincio, and a See also:political army under Murat,which re-established French See also:influence in the See also:Peninsula. The former, extending on a wide front as usual, won a few strategical successes without See also:tactical victory, the only incidents of which See also:worth recording are the gallant fight of See also:Dupont's division, which had become isolated during a manoeuvre, at Pozzolo on the Mincio (See also:December 25) and the descent of a corps under See also:Macdonald from the See also:Grisons by way of the Splugen, an achievement far surpassing Napoleon's and even See also:Suvarov's exploits, in that it was made after the winter snows had set in.
In Germany the war for a moment reached the See also:sublime. Kray had been displaced in command by the young See also:archduke See also: The See also:weather was appalling, See also:snow and See also:rain succeeding one another until the roads were almost impassable. On the 2nd of December the Austrians were brought to a standstill, but the inherent mobility of the Revolutionary armies enabled them to surmount all difficulties, and thanks to the See also:respite afforded him by the archduke's See also:halt, Moreau was able to see clearly into the enemy's plans and dispositions. On the 3rd of December, while the Austrians in many disconnected columns were struggling through the dark and muddy See also:forest paths about Hohenlinden, Moreau struck the decisive blow. While See also:Ney and See also:Grouchy held fast the head of the Austrian main column at Hohenlinden, Richepanse's corps was directed on its left flank. In the forest Richepanse unexpectedly met a subsidiary Austrian column which actually cut his column in two. But profiting by the momentary See also:con-See also:fusion he See also:drew off that part of his forces which had passed beyond the point of contact and continued his march, striking the flank of the archduke's main column, most of which had not succeeded in deploying opposite Ney, at the See also:village of Mattempost. First the baggage train and then the artillery See also:park See also:fell into his hands, and lastly he reached the rear of the troops engaged opposite Hohenlinden, whereupon the Austrian main body practically dissolved. The rear of Richepanse's corps, after disengaging itself from the Austrian column it had met in the earlier part of the day, arrived at Mattempost in time to head off thousands of fugitives who had escaped from the carnage at Hohenlinden. The other columns of the unfortunate army were first checked and then driven back by the French divisions they met, which, moving more swiftly and fighting better in the broken ground and the See also:woods, were able to combine two brigades against one wherever a fight See also:developed. On this disastrous day the Austrians lost 20,000 men, 12,000 of them being prisoners, and qo guns. Marengo and Hohenlinden decided the war of the Second Coalition as Rivoli had decided that of the First, and the Revolutionary See also:Wars came to an end with the armistice of Steyer (December 25, 1800) and the treaty of See also:Luneville (See also:February 9, 18oI). But only the first See also:act of the great See also:drama was accomplished. After a short respite See also:Europe entered upon the Napoleonic Wars. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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