Here we stand, the day before the last major college football game of the season. It seems like as good a time as any for us to renew our study of military history, and look at the rest of Napoleon’s first Italian campaign to the Battle of Rivoli in January, 1797. If you missed our discussion of the first part of the campaign, to the Battle of Castiglione, click here. I’m going to assume that you’ve read that part, and jump right into the aftermath of Castiglione.
The Continued Siege of Mantua
Wurmser’s escape from Napoleon’s attempted envelopment at Castiglione allowed him to escape with the bulk of his army back to the Tyrol, across the Alps in Austria. With Wurmser back in Austria, and Mantua blockaded and safe, for the time being, Napoleon recommended to the Directory that he move across the Alps, and attempt to link up with Moreau’s army in Bavaria. Moreau was facing off against Archduke Charles of Austria, who was, once again, skillfully playing his army between Moreau’s Army of the Moiselle and Jourdan’s Army of the Sambre et Meuse. Napoleon’s troops could swing the balance, even though it would probably cost Napoleon his command.
Wurmser, however, had other ideas. Rather than waiting for Napoleon to cross the Alps, he decided to try another relief of Mantua. After all, the fortress still stood in Austrian hands, and, if he could drive Napoleon off and reopen the fortress, he could use it as a base to drive Napoleon back to Tuscany, and then, back into France.
Napoleon and Wurmser set off on the first of September, 1796. Napoleon advanced up the Adige River valley in the west, while Wurmser set off down the Brenta River valley in the east. Napoleon got word, after a few day’s match, that Wurmser was on his way to Mantua with more than enough troops to annihilate the blockade and reopen Mantua. Wurmser left behind enough troops in the fortresses of the Tyrol that Napoleon would still need to fight a major battle in the area to join up with Moreau- but, if Wurmser took Mantua, then Napoleon would be completely cut off in northern Italy, with an army to his front, an army to his rear, and no chance of resupply or reinforcement in the coming Alpine winter.
Under the circumstances Napoleon had two choices. 1) He could race Wurmser back to Mantua. If he won the race, he could fight Wurmser outside the fortress and hopefully drive him back. 2) He could split up his army, cross through narrow paths to the west, and fall on Wurmser’s army at the rear. However, if Wurmser caught wind of this, it would be easy to catch his army when it was all split up, and easily destroyed piecemeal in the narrow defiles he would need to move through. Napoleon went with option 2, and moved faster than Wurmser could match. The two armies met outside the town of Bassano, where Napoleon won the day. Wurmser, with his retreat cut off to the north, full back on the fortress at Mantua. His army blasted its way into the city, bringing reinforcement and supply to the fortress- and stuffing it nearly to overflowing.
Word of Wurmser’s army in the area, and the continued success of the Mantua garrison against the siege, encouraged a series of rebellions across northern Italy. Fortunately for Napoleon, the Austrians needed to scramble to find a new commander to try and organize another relief of Mantua. This allowed him to fall back, and organize a response to the rebellions in his rear. To do so, he relieved the military commanders in the area, and organize a series of republics in Northern Italy, coopting the local opposition to noble rule into his defense. With the support of the French government, and the brutal actions of French commissioners, these republics were able to put down the rebellions by the time the Austrians had reorganized themselves for the next relief effort.
The Austrians named Jozsef Alvinczi their new commander in the area. Alvinczi planned another attack to relieve Mantua. He decided to avoid the Adige Valley, and instead advanced in two columns- one marching to Bassano, the other down the Piave River, even further to the east. The Austrians met a blocking force outside Bassano, driving it off in late October, and, on November 2nd, Alvinczi’s army united outside Bassano and began a march on Mantua, hoping to catch the French in a battle while Wurmser broke out of Mantua to destroy French reserves, and another Austrian force began to push down the Adige. Napoleon rapidly reformed his army, and began a series of maneuvers between Verona and Acrole, culminating in a three day Battle of the Arcole, from 14-17 November. Napoleon personally intervened several times in the fighting to rally troops and lead attacks, as both sides fought a series of meeting engagements while trying to rush reinforcements into the fight. Ultimately, Napoleon had the last uncommitted troops, and forced Alvinczi’s army to break from the field and fall back on Trento in the north again.
However, Alvinczi wasn’t done yet. Wurmser still held Mantua, and, by God, someone was going to relieve him.
The Battle of Rivoli
With the French armies on the Rhine in winter garrison, Alvinczi pulled troops from Archduke Charles’ army, and raised new regiments. To support recruiting, the Empress herself sewed the colors of several new regiments in November and December. With the Mantua garrison running low of food and growing sicker by the day, Alvinczi decided he couldn’t wait for spring to make a move, and planned a winter campaign to relieve Mantua- with any luck, he’d catch Napoleon trying to prepare for winter himself.
Alvinczi decided to proceed down the fasted route he had- the Adige Valley with his main force. He also sent a sizeable army down the Brenta Valley. Whichever force Napoleon committed against would hold, while the other would fall on Napoleon’s rear, defeating him. Or, if Napoleon slipped away, one of the armies could relieve Mantua. Failing that, Wurmser would break out of Mantua himself, and support the armies.
To counter this plan, Napoleon established himself in the middle of the two forces, and deployed blocking detachments to cover both Austrian armies- one at Rivolta under Joubert, the other under Massena at Verona. The action began in earnest on 12 January, when both Austrian forces engaged their French blocking forces. At Verona, Massena won a major victory against the eastern Austrian column, driving them into retreat. However, at Rivolta, Alvinczi outflanked Joubert, forcing him to withdraw to Rivoli. However, with one Austrian army in play, Napoleon could begin moving his forces to reinforce Joubert outside Rivoli.
Napoleon found a strong, defenseable position outside Rivoli, and prepared to defend on January 14th, on top of a tall hill that commanded a view of the valley, Adige River and the main road through the area. Alvinczi decided to attack in several columns: three against the main French position, one on a long flank march to fall on Napoleon’s rear, the other on the other side of the Adige to make a flank attack as needed. Because of the speed of their advance, and the narrow mountain roads, the Austrians moved without their artillery. However, Alvinczi decided to not wait for his guns, since the French were still reinforcing their army- the longer the Austrians waited, the stronger the French would get.
The initial Austrian attack against Joubert’s forces went well, kicking off around 9 in the morning. Heavily outnumbered, Joubert began to give way, while on the far bank of the Adige, the Austrians pushed aside Napoleon’s pickets and began bombarding the French flank. However, as the situation began to fall apart, Massena, who had marched through the night to get to Rivoli, arrived. Napoleon quickly moved him to stabilize Joubert’s position. This drove back the Austrian central attack.
However, this left two columns falling on Napoleon’s flank and rear. Napoleon committed part of his reserve to try and slow down the Austrian column moving on his rear, but the Austrians overwhelmed this force. However, by the time the Austrians were in position, further French reinforcements were coming up the road from the south, and began deploying to fight the Austrians. Meanwhile, the Austrians on the far bank found it rough going to get up the hill to Napoleon- the Adige River had cut a gorge along the hill Napoleon held, with only a narrow defile marking the way up. Napoleon moved his artillery and some men to the head of this defile, and began pouring canister and musket fire down it. This broke the Austrian attack. Meanwhile, in the center, the French organized a counterattack, pushing the Austrians back further, while reserves from the central formation joined in an attack against the Austrians in the French rear, supported by the reiforcements coming up the road. Trapped between two French forces, this column effectively disintegrated. By midafternoon, the battle was over, and Napoleon stood victorious.
This time, Napoleon was free to launch a pursuit of the Austrians, allowing him to keep Alvinczi from reforming his army. The Austrians fled through treacherous Alpine passes in the winter, inflicting even more casualties. Of the 25,000 men Alvinczi started out with, he only brought back 12,000. French losses were much lighter: about 1,000 killed and another 2200 wounded. Napoleon also took numerous prisoners and captured many cannon as well.
Rivoli ended the Austrian effort to relieve Mantua. With the snows falling to block the Alpine passes, his men dying of disease and starving, Wurmser opened negotiations with Napoleon to surrender the fortress. He and Napoleon agreed to let the garrison march out with full honors of war, and return to Austria, where the survivors would serve one year of parole before being able to rejoin the war against France. Wurmser would not live to the end of his parole- he died later in 1797. With Mantua under his control, Napoleon quickly forced an armistice with the Papal States, who had supported the Austrians and harassed his rear area, and prepare to cross the Alps in the springtime. The threat of three strong French armies- Italy, Sambre et Meuse and Moselle- forming together outside of the gates of Vienna was too much, even for the able generalship of Archduke Charles. The Austrians opened peace negotiations, which would lead to the Treaty of Campo Formio, and the end of the War of the First Coalition. Since we’ve already had a lot to say today, we’ll talk about Campo Formio when we talk about Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition, sometime in a couple of weeks.
If you’re new to the series, but enjoy reading about military history, please find an archive of previous posts by clicking here.
