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THE WAR OF THE SECOND
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THE See also:WAR OF THE SECOND See also:COALITION
In the autumn of 1798, while See also:Napoleon's See also:Egyptian expedition was in progress, and the See also:Directory was endeavouring at See also:home to reduce the importance and the predominance of the See also:army and its leaders, the See also:powers of See also:Europe once more allied themselves, not now against the principles of the See also:Republic, but against the treaty of Campo Formio. See also:Russia, See also:Austria, See also:England, See also:Turkey, See also:Portugal, See also:Naples and the See also:Pope formed the Second Coalition. The war began with an advance into the See also:Roman States by a worthless and See also:ill-behaved Neapolitan army (commanded, much against his will, by Mack), which the See also:French troops under See also:Championnet destroyed with ease. Championnet then revolutionized Naples. After this unimportant prelude the See also:curtain See also:rose on a See also:general See also:European war. The Directory which now had at its command neither See also:numbers nor See also:enthusiasm, prepared as best it could tomeet the See also:storm. Four armies, numbering only 16o,000, were set on See also:foot, in See also: This practically extended his army while Jourdan was closing his, and thus the French began the See also:battle of Stokach (See also: Here the French offensive was entrusted to two columns, one from Massena's command under Lecourbe, the other from the Army of Italy under Dessolle. Simultaneously with Massena, Lecourbe marched from See also:Bellinzona with 10,000 men, by the See also:San Bernadino pass into the Spliigen valley, and thence over the Julier pass into the upper See also:Engadine. A small Austrian force under See also:Major-General Loudon attacked him near Zernetz, but was after three days of rapid manoeuvres and bold See also:tactics driven back to Martinsbruck, with considerable losses, especially in prisoners. But ere See also:long the See also:country See also:people flew to arms, and Lecourbe found himself between two fires, the levies occupying Zernetz and Loudon's regulars Martinsbruck. But though he had only some 5000 of his See also:original force left, he was not disconcerted, and, by See also:driving back the levies into the high valleys whence they had come, and constantly threatening Loudon, ' The See also:assumption by later critics (See also:Clausewitz even included) that the " flank position " held by these forces relatively to the main armies in Italy and See also:Germany was their raison d'Etre is unsupported by contemporary See also:evidence. he was able to maintain himself and to wait for Dessolles. The latter, moving up the Valtelline, by now fought his way to the Stelvio pass, but beyond it the See also:defile of Tauffers (S.W. of Glurns) was entrenched by Loudon, who thus occupied a position midway between the two French columns, while his irregulars beset all the passes and ways giving See also:access to the Vintschgau and the See also:lower Engadine. In this situation the French should have been destroyed in detail. But as usual their See also:speed and dash gave them the See also:advantage in every manoeuvre and at every point of contact. On the 25th Lecourbe and Dessolles attacked Loudon at Nauders in the Engadine and Tauffers in the Vintschgau re-Lecourbe spectively. At Nauders the French passed See also:round and the flanks of the See also:defence by scrambling along the high Dessolles See also:mountain crests adjacent, while at Tauffers the in Tirol. assailants, only 4500 strong, descended into a deep See also:ravine, debouched unnoticed in the Austrians' See also:rear, and captured 6000 men and 16 guns. The Austrian See also:leader with a couple of companies made his way through Glurns to Nauders, and there, finding himself headed off by Lecourbe, he took to the mountains. His See also:corps, like Auffenberg's, was annihilated. This ended the French general offensive. Jourdan had been defeated by the archduke and forced or induced to retire over the Rhine. Massena was at a standstill before the strong position of Feldkirch, and the Austrians of Hotze were still massed at Bregenz, but the Grisons were revolutionized, two strong bodies of Austrians numbering in all about 20,000 men had been destroyed, and Lecourbe and Dessolles had advanced far into Tirol. A pause followed. The Austrians in the mountains needed See also:time to concentrate and to recover from their astonishment. The archduke See also:fell ill, and the See also:Vienna war See also:council forbade his army to advance lest Tirol should be " uncovered," though Bellegarde and Hotze still disposed of numbers equal to those of Massena and Lecourbe. Massena succeeded Jourdan in general command on the French side and promptly collected all available forces of both armies in the hilly non-Alpine country between See also:Basel, Zurich and Schaffhausen, thereby directly barring the roads into See also:France (Berne-See also:Neuchatel-See also:Pontarlier and Basel-See also:Besancon) which the Austrians appeared to See also:desire to conquer. The See also:protection of See also:Alsace and the See also:Vosges was left to the fortresses. There was no See also:suggestion, it would appear, that the Rhine between Basel and Schaffhausen was a flank position sufficient of itself to See also:bar Alsace to the enemy. It is now time to turn to events in Italy, where the Coalition intended to put forth its principal efforts. At the beginning of March the French had 8o,000 men in Upper Italy and some 35,000 in the See also:heart of the See also:Peninsula, the latter engaged chiefly in sup-porting newly-founded republics. Of the former, 53,000 formed the See also: He who dares to cavil against his high See also:duty (der Grosssprecher wider den hohen Dienst) is, as an egoist, instantly to vacate his command. Whoever is in See also:bad See also:health can stay behind. The so-called reasoners (raisonneurs) do no army any See also:good . . . ." One day later, under this unrelenting pressure, the advanced posts of the Allies reached See also:Cremona and the main See also:body, the Oglio. The See also:pace became slower in the following days, as many See also:bridges had to be made, and meanwhile See also:Moreau, Scherer's successor, prepared with a mere 20,000 men to defend See also:Lodi, See also:Cassano and See also:Lecco on the See also:Adda. On the 26th the Russian See also:hero attacked him all along the See also:line. The moral supremacy had passed over to the Allies. Melas, under Suvarov's stern orders, flung his battalions regardless of losses against the strong position of Cassano. The See also:story of 1796 repeated itself with the roles reversed. The passage was carried, and the French rearguard under See also:Serurier was surrounded and captured by an inferior corps of Austrians. The Austrians (the Russians at Lecco were hardly engaged) lost 6000 men, but they took 7000 prisoners, and in all Moreau's little army lost See also:half its numbers and retreated in many disconnected bodies to the See also:Ticino, and thence to See also:Alessandria, Everywhere the Italians turned against the French, mindful of the exactions of their commissaries. The See also:strange Cossack cavalry that western Europe had never yet seen entered See also:Milan on the 29th of April, eleven days after passing the Mincio, and next day the See also:city received with enthusiasm the old field See also:marshal, whose exploits against the See also:Turks had long invested him with a See also:halo of See also:romance and See also:legend. Here, for the moment, his offensive culminated. He desired to pass into Switzerland and to unite his own, the archduke's, Hotze's and Bellegarde's armies in one powerful mass. But the See also:emperor would not permit the execution of this See also:scheme until all the fortresses held by the enemy in Upper Italy should have been captured. In any See also:case, Macdonald's army in southern Italy, cut off from France by the rapidity of Suvarov's onslaught, and now returning with all speed to join Moreau by force or evasion, had still to be dealt with. Suvarov's See also:mobile army, originally 90,000 strong, had now dwindled, by See also:reason of losses and detachments for sieges, to half that number, and serious See also:differences arose between the Vienna See also:government and himself. If he offended the See also:pride of the Austrian army, he was at least respected as a leader who gave it victories, but in Vienna he was regarded as a madman who had to be kept within See also:bounds. But at last, when he was becoming thoroughly exasperated by this treatment, Macdonald came within striking distance and the active campaign re-commenced. In the second See also:week of See also:June, Moreau, who had retired into the See also:Apennines about Gavi, advanced with the intention of drawing upon himself troops that would otherwise have been employed against Macdonald. He succeeded, for Suvarov with his usual rapidity collected 40,000 men at Alessandria, only to learn that Macdonald with 35,000 men was coming up on the See also:Parma road. When this See also:news arrived, Macdonald had already engaged an Austrian detachment at See also:Modena and driven it back, and Suvarov found himself between Moreau and Macdonald with barely enough men under his See also:hand to enable him to See also:play the See also:game of " interior lines." But at the crisis the rough energetic See also:warrior who despised " raisonneurs," displayed generalship of the first order, and taking in hand all his scattered detachments, he manoeuvred them in the See also:Napoleonic See also:fashion. On the 14th Macdonald was calculated to be between Modena, Reggio and See also:Carpi, but his destination was uncertain. Would he continue to See also:hug the Apennines to join Moreau, or The would he strike out northwards against Kray, who Trebbia. with 20,000 men was besieging See also:Mantua ? From Alessandria it is four See also:marches to See also:Piacenza and nine to Mantua, while from Reggio these places are four and two marches respectively. Piacenza, therefore, was the See also:crucial point if Macdonald continued westward, while, in the other case, nothing could See also:save Kray but the energetic conduct of See also:Hohenzollern's detachment, which was posted near Reggio. This latter, however, was soon forced over the Po, and Ott, advancing from Cremona to join it, found himself sharply pressed in turn. The field marshal had hoped that Ott and Hohenzollern together would be able to win him time to assemble at Parma, where he could bring on a battle whichever way the French took. But on See also:receipt of Ott's See also:report he was convinced that Macdonald had chosen the western route, and ordering Ott to delay the French as long as possible by stubborn rearguard actions and to put a garrison into Piacenza under a general who was to hold out " on peril of his See also:life and See also:honour," he collected what forces were ready to move and hurried towards Piacenza, the rest being left to See also:watch Moreau. He arrived just in time. When after three forced marches the main body (only 26,000 strong) reached See also:Castel San Giovanni, Ott had been driven out of Piacenza, but the two joined forces safely. Both Suvarov and Macdonald spent the 17th in closing up and deploying for battle. The respective forces were Allies 30,000, French 35,000. Suvarov believed the enemy to be only 26,000 strong, and chiefly raw See also:Italian regiments, but his temperament would not have allowed him to stand still even had he known his inferiority. He had already issued one of his See also:peculiar battle-orders, which began with the words, " The hostile army will be taken prisoners " and continued with directions to the See also:Cossacks to spare the surrendered enemy. But Macdonald too was full of energy, and believed still that he could annihilate Ott before the field marshal's arrival. Thus the battle of the Trebbia (June 17–19) was fought by both sides in the spirit of the offensive. It was one of the severest struggles in the Republican See also:wars, and it ended in Macdonald's See also:retreat with a loss of 15,000 men—probably 6000 in the battle and 9000 killed and prisoners when and after the See also:equilibrium was broken—for Suvarov, unlike other generals, had the necessary surplus of energy after all the demands made upon him by a See also:great battle, to order and to See also:direct an effective pursuit. The Allies lost about 7000. Macdonald retreated to Parma and Modena, harassed by the peasantry, and finally recrossed the Apennines and made his way to See also:Genoa. The battle of the Trebbia is one of the most clearly-defined examples in military See also:history of the result of moral force—it was a See also:matter not merely of energetic leading on the battlefield, but far more of educating the troops beforehand to meet the See also:strain, of ingraining in the soldier the determination to win at all See also:costs. " It was not," says Clausewitz, " a case of losing the See also: Dessolles' column (now under Loison) was forced back to See also:Chiavenna. Bellegarde drove Lecourbe from position to position towards the Rhine during April. There Lecourbe added to the remnant of his expeditionary column the outlying bodies of Massena's right wing, but even so he had only.8000 men against Bellegarde's 17,000, and he was now exposed to the attack of Hotze's 25,000 as well. The Luziensteig fell to Hotze and Chur to = Bellegarde, but the defenders managed to See also:escape from the converging Austrian columns into the valley of the See also:Reuss. Having thus reconquered all the lost ground and forced the French into the interior of Switzerland, Bellegarde and Hotze parted See also:company, the former marching with the greater part of his forces to join Suvarov, the latter moving to his right to reinforce the archduke. Only a See also:chain of posts was left in the Rhine Valley between Disentis and Feldkirch. The archduke's operations now recommenced. Charles and Hotze stood, about the 15th of May, at opposite ends of the See also:lake of Constance. The two together numbered about 88,000 men, but both had sent away numerous detachments to the flanks, and the main bodies dwindled to 35,000 for the archduke and 20,000 for Hotze. Massena, with 45,000 men in all, retired slowly from the Rhine to the Thur. The archduke crossed the Rhine at See also:Stein, Hotze at Balzers, and each then cautiously See also:felt his way towards the other. Their active opponent attempted to take advantage of their separation, and an irregular fight took See also:place in the Thur valley (May 25), but Massena, finding Hotze close on his right flank, retired without attempting to force a decision. On the 27th, having joined forces, the Austrians dislodged Massena from his new position on the Toss without difficulty, and this See also:process was repeated from time to time in the next few days, until at last Massena halted in the position he had prepared for defence at Zurich. He had still but 25,000 of his 45,000 men in hand, for he maintained numerous small detachments on his right, behind the Zurcher See and the Wallen See, and on his left towards Basel. These 25,000 occupied an entrenched position 5 M. in length; against which the Austrians, detaching as usual many posts to protect their flanks and rear, deployed only 42,000 men, of whom 8000 were sent on a wide turning See also:movement and 8000 held in reserve 4 M. in rear of the battlefield. Thus the frontal attack was made with forces not much greater than those of the defence and it failed accordingly (June 4). But Massena, fearing perhaps to strain the See also:loyalty of the Swiss to their French-made constitution by exposing their See also:town to See also:assault and See also:sack, retired on the 5th. He did not fall back far, for his outposts still bordered the Limmat and the See also:Linth, while his main body stood in the valley of the See also:Aar between See also:Baden and See also:Lucerne. The archduke pressed Massena as little as he had pressed Jourdan after Stokach (though in this case he had less to gain by pursuit), and awaited the arrival of a second Russian army, 30,000 strong, under Korsakov, before resuming the advance, meantime throwing out covering detachments towards Basel, where Massena had a division. Thus for two months operations, elsewhere than in Italy, were at a standstill, while Massena See also:drew in reinforcements and organized the fractions of his forces in Alsace as a See also:skeleton army, and the Austrians distributed arms to the peasantry of See also:South Germany. In the end, under pressure from See also:Paris, it was Massena who resumed active movements. Towards the See also:middle of See also:August, Lecourbe, who formed a loose right wing of the French army in the Reuss valley, was reinforced to a strength of 25,000 men, and pounced upon the extended left wing of the enemy, which had stretched itself, to keep pace with Suvarov, as far westward as the St Gothard. The movement began on the 14th, and in two days the Austrians were driven back from the St Gothard and the Furka to the line of the Linth, with the loss of 8000 men and many guns. At the same time an See also:attempt to take advantage of Massena's momentary weakness by forcing the Aar at Dottingen near its mouth failed completely (August 16–17). Only 200 men guarded the point of passage, but the Austrian See also:engineers had neglected to make a proper examination of the See also:river, and unlike the French, the Austrian generals had no authority to See also:waste their expensive battalions in forcing the passage in boats. No one regarded this war as a struggle for existence, and no one but Suvarov possessed the See also:iron strength of See also:character to send thousands of men to See also:death for the realization of a See also:diplomatic success—for See also:ordinary men, the See also:object of the Coalition was to upset the treaty of Campo Formio. This was the end of the archduke's campaign in Switzerland. Though he would have preferred to continue it, the Vienna government desired him to return to Germany. An Anglo-Russian expedition was about to land in Holland,' and the French were assembling fresh forces on the Rhine, and, with the See also:double object of preventing an invasion of ' For this expedition, which was repulsed by Brune in the battle of Castricum, see See also:Fortescue's Hist. of the See also:British Army, vol. iv., and Sachot's Brune en Hollande. See also:Action of Zurich. South Germany and of inducing the French to See also:augment their forces in Alsace at the expense of those in Holland, the archduke left affairs in Switzerland to Hotze and Korsakov, and marched away with 35,000 men to join the detachment of Sztarray (20,000) that he had placed in the See also:Black See also:Forest before entering Switzerland. His new campaign never rose above the level of a war of posts and of manceuvres about See also:Mannheim and Philipps-See also:burg. In the latter See also:stage of it Lecourbe commanded the French and obtained a slight advantage. Suvarov's last exploit in Italy coincided in time, but in no other respect, with the skirmish at Dottingen. Returning swiftly from the battlefield of the Trebbia, he began to drive back Moreau to the See also:Riviera. At this point See also:Joubert succeeded to the command on the French side, and against the See also:advice of his generals, gave battle. Equally against the advice of his own subordinates, the field marshal accepted it, and won his last great victory at Novi on the 13th of August, Joubert being killed. This was followed by another rapid march against a new French " Army of the See also:Alps " (Championnet) which had entered Italy by way of the Mont Cenis. But immediately after this he left all further operations in Italy to Melas with 6o,000 men and himself with the Russians and an Austrian corps marched away, via See also:Varese, for the St Gothard to combine operations against Massena with Hotze and Korsakov. It was with a heavy heart that he left the See also:scene of his battles, in which the force of his personality had carried the old-fashioned " linear " armies for the last time to See also:complete victory. In the See also:early summer he had himself suggested, eagerly and almost angrily, the concentration of his own and the archduke's armies in Switzerland with a view, not to conquering that country, but to forcing Jourdan and Massena into a See also:grand decisive battle. But, as we have seen, the Vienna government would not See also:release him until the last Italian fortress had been reoccupied, and when finally he received the order that a little while before he had so ardently desired, it was too late. The archduke had already left Switzerland, and he was committed to a resultless warfare in the high mountains, with an army which was a mere detachment Suvdrov and in the See also:hope of co-operating with two other detach-ordered to ments far away on the other side of Switzerland. As Switzer- for the reasons which led to the issue of such an order, l°°d' it can only be said that the bad feeling known to exist between the Austrians and Russians induced England to recommend, as the first essential of further operations, the See also:separate concentration of the troops of each See also:nationality under their own generals. Still stranger was the reason which induced the See also:tsar to give his consent. It was alleged that the Russians would be healthier in Switzerland than the men of the southern plains! From such premises as these the Allied diplomats evolved a new See also:plan of campaign, by which the Anglo-Russians under the See also:duke of See also:York were to reconquer Holland and See also:Belgium, the Archduke Charles to operate on the Middle Rhine, Suvarov in Switzerland and Melas in See also:Piedmont—a plan destitute of every merit but that of simplicity. It is often said that it is the duty of a commander to resign rather than undertake an operation which he believes to be faulty. So, however, Suvarov did not understand it. In the simplicity of his loyalty to the formal order of his See also:sovereign he prepared to carry out his instructions to the See also:letter. Massena's command (77,000 men) was distributed, at the beginning of See also:September, along an enormous S, from the Simplon, through the St Gothard and See also:Glarus, and along the Linth, the Ziiricher See and the Limmat to Basel. Opposite the lower point of this S; Suvarov (28,000) was about to advance. Hotze's corps (25,000 Austrians), extending from Utznach by Chur to Disentis, formed a thin line roughly parallel to the lower See also:curve of the S, Korsakov's Russians (30,000) were opposite the centre at Zurich, while Nauendorff with a small Austrian corps at Waldshut faced the extreme upper point. Thus the only completely safe way in which Suvarov could reach the Zurich region was by skirting the lower curve of the S, under protection of Hotze. But this detour would be long and painful, and the ardent old See also:man preferred to See also:cross the mountains once for all at the St Gothard, and to follow the valley of the Reuss to See also:Altdorf and See also:Schwyz—i.e. to strike verticallyupward to the centre of the S—and to force his way through the French See also:cordon to Zurich, and if events, so far as concerned his own corps, belied his optimism, they at any See also:rate justified his choice of the shortest route. For, aware of the danger gathering in his rear, Massena gathered up all his forces within reach towards his centre, leaving Lecourbe to defend the St Gothard and the Reuss valley and See also:Soult on the Linth. On the 24th he forced the passage of the Limmat at Dietikon. On the Battle of 25th, in the second battle of Zurich, he completely zurkh. routed Korsakov, who lost 8000 killed and wounded, large numbers of prisoners and See also:loo guns. All along the line the Allies fell back, one corps after another, at the moment when Suvarov was approaching the foot of the St Gothard. On the 21st the field marshal's headquarters were at Bellinzona, where he made the final preparations. Expecting to be four days en route before he could reach the nearest friendly suv6rovl° See also:magazine, he took his trains with him, which inevitably the Alps. augmented the difficulties of the expedition. On the 24th Airolo was taken, but when the far greater task of storming the pass itself presented itself before them, even the stolid Russians were terrified, and only the passionate protests of the old man, who reproached his " See also:children " with deserting their See also:father in his extremity, induced them to See also:face the danger. At last after twelve hours' fighting, the See also:summit was reached. The same evening Suvarov pushed on to Hospenthal, while a flanking column from Disentis made its way towards Amsteg over the Crispalt. Lecourbe was threatened in rear and pressed in front, and his engineers, to hold off the Disentis column, had broken the See also:Devil's See also:Bridge. Discovering this, he left the road, threw his guns into the river and made his way by fords and See also:water-meadows to Goschenen, where by a furious attack he cleared the Disentis troops off his line of retreat. His rearguard meantime held the ruined Devil's Bridge. This point and the See also:tunnel leading to it, called the Urner See also:Loch, the Russians attempted to force, with the most terrible losses, See also:battalion after battalion crowding into the tunnel and pushing the foremost ranks into the chasm left by the broken bridge. But at last a See also:ford was discovered and the bridge, cleared by a turning movement, was repaired. More broken bridges See also:lay beyond, but at last Suvarov joined the Disentis column near Goschenen. When Altdorf was reached, however, Suvarov found not only Lecourbe in a threatening position, but an entire See also:absence of boats on the Lake of the Four Cantons. It was impossible (in those days the Axenstrasse did not exist) to take an army along the precipitous eastern See also:shore, and thus passing through one trial after another, each more severe than the last, the Russians, men and horses and See also:pack animals in an interminable single See also:file, ventured on the path leading over the Kinzig pass into the Muotta Thal. The passage lasted three days, the leading troops losing men and horses over the precipices, the rearguard from the See also:fire of the enemy, now in pursuit. And at last, on arrival in the Muotta Thal, the field marshal received definite See also:information that Korsakov's army was no longer in existence. Yet even so it was long before he could make up his mind to retreat, and the pursuers gathered on all sides. Fighting, sometimes severe, and never altogether ceasing, went on day after day as the Allied column, now reduced to 15,000 men, struggled on over one pass after another, but at last it reached Ilanz on the Vorder Rhine (See also:October 8). The Archduke Charles meanwhile had, on See also:hearing of the disaster of Zurich, brought over a corps from the See also:Neckar, and for some time negotiations were made for a fresh combined operation against Massena. But these came to nothing, for the archduke and Suvarov could not agree, either as to their own relations or as to the plan to be pursued. Practically, Suvarov's retreat from Altdorf to Ilanz closed the campaign. It was his last active service, and formed a gloomy but grand See also:climax to the career of the greatest soldier who ever wore the Russian See also:uniform. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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