Wurmser supersedes Beaulieu--Jourdan and Moreau march into Germany,
and are forced to retreat again--The Austrians advance from the
Tyrol--Battle of Lonato--Escape of Napoleon--Battle near
Castiglione--Wurmser retreats on Trent, and is recruited--Battle of
Roveredo--Battle of Primolano--Battle of Bassano--Battle of St.
George--Wurmser shut up in Mantua.
The general was now recalled to the war. The cabinet of Vienna, apt to
be slow, but sure to be persevering, had at last resolved upon sending
efficient aid to the Italian frontier. Beulieu had been too often
unfortunate to be trusted longer: Wurmser, who enjoyed a reputation of
the highest class, was sent to replace him: 300,000 men were drafted
from the armies on the Rhine to accompany the new general; and he
carried orders to strengthen himself further, on his march, by whatever
recruits he could raise among the warlike and loyal population of the
Tyrol.
The consequences of thus weakening the Austrian force on the Rhine were,
for the moment, on that scene of the contest, inauspicious. The French,
in two separate bodies, forced the passage of the Rhine--under Jourdan
and Moreau; before whom the imperial generals, Wartensleben and the
Archduke Charles, were compelled to retire. But the skill of the
Archduke ere long enabled him to effect a junction with the columns of
Wartensleben; and thus to fall upon Jourdan with a great superiority of
numbers, and give him a signal defeat. The loss of the French in the
field was great, and the bitter hostility of the German peasantry made
their retreat a bloody one. Moreau, on the other hand, learning how
Jourdan was discomfited, found himself compelled to give up the plan of
pursuing his march further into Germany, and executed that famous
retreat through the Black Forest which has made his name as splendid as
any victory in the field could have done. But this reverse, however
alleviated by the honours of Moreau's achievement, was attended with
appearances of the most perilous kind. The genius of Carnot had devised
a great scheme of operations, of which one half was thus at once cut
short. He had meant Moreau and Jourdan, coalescing beyond the Rhine, to
march upon the Tyrol; while Buonaparte should advance from the scene of
his Italian conquests, join his brother generals on that frontier, and
then march in union with them to dictate a peace before the gates of
Vienna. All hope of this junction of forces was now at an end for this
campaign. The French saw themselves compelled to resume the defensive on
the western frontier of Germany; and the army of Italy had to await the
overwhelming war which seemed ready to pour down upon Lombardy from the
passes of the Tyrol.
Wurmser, when he fixed his headquarters at Trent, mustered in all
80,000; while Buonaparte had but 30,000, to hold a wide country, in
which abhorrence of the French cause was now prevalent, to keep up the
blockade of Mantua, and to oppose this fearful odds of numbers in the
field. He was now, moreover, to act on the defensive, while his
adversary assumed the more inspiriting character of invader. He awaited
the result with calmness.
Wurmser might have learned from the successes of Buonaparte the
advantages of compact movement; yet he was unwise enough to divide his
great force into three separate columns, and to place one of these upon
a line of march which entirely separated it from the support of the
others. He himself, with his centre, came down on the left bank of the
Lago di Guarda, with Mantua before him as his mark: his left wing, under
Melas, was to descend the Adige, and drive the French from Verona; while
the right wing, under Quasdonowich, were ordered to keep down the valley
of the Chiese, in the direction of Brescia, and so to cut off the
retreat of Buonaparte upon the Milanese;--in other words, to interpose
the waters of the Lago di Guarda between themselves and the march of
their friends--a blunder not likely to escape the eagle eye of Napoleon.
He immediately determined to march against Quasdonowich, and fight him
where he could not be supported by the other two columns. This could
not be done without abandoning for the time the blockade of Mantua; but
it was not for Buonaparte to hesitate about purchasing a great ultimate
advantage by a present sacrifice, however disagreeable. The guns were
buried in the trenches during the night of the 31st July, and the French
quitted the place with a precipitation which the advancing Austrians
considered as the result of terror.
Napoleon meanwhile rushed against Quasdonowich, who had already come
near the bottom of the Lake of Guarda. At Salo, close by the lake, and,
further from it, at Lonato, two divisions of the Austrian column were
attacked and overwhelmed. Augereau and Massena, leaving merely
rear-guards at Borghetto and Peschiera, now marched also upon Brescia.
The whole force of Quasdonowich must inevitably have been ruined by
these combinations, had he stood his ground; but by this time the
celerity of Napoleon had overawed him, and he was already in full
retreat upon his old quarters in the Tyrol. Augereau and Massena,
therefore, countermarched their columns, and returned towards the
Mincio. They found that Wurmser had forced their rear-guards from their
posts: that of Massena, under Pigeon, had retired in good order to
Lonato; that of Augereau, under Vallette, had retreated in confusion,
abandoning Castiglione to the Austrians.
Flushed with these successes, old Wurmser now resolved to throw his
whole force upon the French, and resume at the point of the bayonet his
communication with the scattered column of Quasdonowich. He was so
fortunate as to defeat the gallant Pigeon at Lonato, and to occupy that
town. But this great new success was fatal to him. In the exultation of
victory he extended his line too much towards the right; and this
over-anxiety to open the communication with Quasdonowich had the effect
of so weakening his centre, that Massena, boldly and skilfully seizing
the opportunity, poured two strong columns on Lonato, and regained the
position; whereon the Austrian, perceiving that his army was cut in two,
was thrown into utter confusion. Some of his troops, marching to the
right, were met by those of the French, who had already defeated
Quasdonowich in that quarter, and obliged to surrender: the most
retreated in great disorder. At Castiglione alone a brave stand was
made. But Augereau, burning to wipe out the disgrace of Vallette,[10]
forced the position, though at a severe loss. Such was the battle of
Lonato. Thenceforth nothing could surpass the discomfiture and disarray
of the Austrians. They fled in all directions upon the Mincio, where
Wurmser himself, meanwhile, had been employed in revictualling Mantua.
A mere accident had once more almost saved the Imperialist. One of the
many defeated divisions of the army, wandering about in anxiety to find
some means of reaching the Mincio, came suddenly on Lonato, the scene of
the late battle, at a moment when Napoleon was there with only his staff
and guards about him. He knew not that any considerable body of the
enemy remained together in the neighbourhood; and, but for his presence
of mind, must have been their prisoner. The Austrian had not the skill
to profit by what fortune threw in his way; the other was able to turn
even a blunder into an advantage. The officer sent to demand the
surrender of the town was brought blindfolded, as is the custom, to his
headquarters; Buonaparte, by a secret sign, caused his whole staff to
draw up around him, and when the bandage was removed from the
messenger's eyes, saluted him thus: "What means this insolence? Do you
beard the French general in the middle of his army?" The German
recognised the person of Napoleon, and retreated stammering and
blushing. He assured his commander that Lonato was occupied by the
French in numbers that made resistance impossible. Four thousand men
laid down their arms; and then discovered that, if they had used them,
nothing could have prevented Napoleon from being their prize.
Wurmser collected together the whole of his remaining force, and
advanced to meet the conqueror. He, meanwhile, had himself determined on
the assault, and was hastening to the encounter. They met between Lonato
and Castiglione. Wurmser was totally defeated, and narrowly escaped
being a prisoner; nor did he without great difficulty regain Trent and
Roveredo, those frontier positions from which his noble army had so
recently descended with all the confidence of conquerors. In this
disastrous campaign the Austrians lost 40,000: Buonaparte probably
understated his own loss at 7000. During the seven days which the
campaign occupied he never took off his boots, nor slept except by
starts. The exertions which so rapidly achieved this signal triumph were
such as to demand some repose; yet Napoleon did not pause until he saw
Mantua once more completely invested. The reinforcement and
revictualling of that garrison were all that Wurmser could show, in
requital of his lost artillery, stores, and 40,000 men.
During this brief campaign the aversion with which the ecclesiastics of
Italy regarded the French manifested itself in various quarters. At
Pavia, Ferrara, and elsewhere, insurrections had broken out, and the
spirit was spreading rapidly at the moment when the report of Napoleon's
new victory came to re-awaken terror and paralyse revolt. The conqueror
judged it best to accept for the present the resubmission, however
forced, of a party too powerful to be put down by examples. The Cardinal
Mattei, Archbishop of Ferrara, being brought into his presence, uttered
the single word _peccavi_: the victor was contented with ordering him a
penance of seven days' fasting and prayer in a monastery: but he had no
intention to forget these occurrences whenever another day of reckoning
with the Pope should come.
While he was occupied with restoring quiet in the country, Austria, ever
constant in adversity, hastened to place 20,000 fresh troops under the
orders of Wurmser; and the brave veteran, whose heart nothing could
chill, prepared himself to make one effort more to relieve Mantua, and
drive the French out of Lombardy. His army was now, as before, greatly
the superior in numbers; and though the bearing of his troops was more
modest, their gallantry remained unimpaired. Once more the old general
divided his army; and once more he was destined to see it shattered in
detail.
He marched from Trent towards Mantua, through the defiles of the Brenta,
at the head of 30,000; leaving 20,000 under Davidowich at Roveredo, to
cover the Tyrol. Buonaparte instantly detected the error of his
opponent. He suffered him to advance unmolested as far as Bassano, and
the moment he was there, and consequently completely separated from
Davidowich and his rear, drew together a strong force, and darted on
Roveredo, by marches such as seemed credible only after they had been
accomplished.
The battle of Roveredo (Sept. 4) is one of Napoleon's most illustrious
days. The enemy had a strongly entrenched camp in front of the town; and
behind it, in case of misfortune, Calliano, with its castle seated on a
precipice over the Adige, where that river flows between enormous rocks
and mountains, appeared to offer an impregnable retreat. Nothing could
withstand the ardour of the French. The Austrians, though they defended
the entrenched camp with their usual obstinacy, were forced to give way
by the impetuosity of Dubois and his hussars. Dubois fell, mortally
wounded, in the moment of his glory: he waved his sabre, cheering his
men onwards with his last breath. "I die," said he, "for the
Republic;--only let me hear, ere life leaves me, that the victory is
ours." The French horse, thus animated, pursued the Germans, who were
driven, unable to rally, through and beyond the town. Even the gigantic
defences of Calliano proved of no avail. Height after height was carried
at the point of the bayonet; 7000 prisoners and fifteen cannon remained
with the conquerors. The Austrians fled to Levisa, which guards one of
the chief defiles of the Tyrolese Alps, and were there beaten again.
Vaubois occupied this important position with the gallant division who
had forced it. Massena fixed himself in Wurmser's late headquarters at
Trent; and Napoleon, having thus totally cut off the field-marshal's
communication with Germany, proceeded to issue proclamations calling on
the inhabitants of the Tyrol to receive the French as friends, and seize
the opportunity of freeing themselves for ever from the dominion of
Austria. He put forth an edict declaring that the sovereignty of the
district was henceforth in the French Republic, and inviting the people
themselves to arrange, according to their pleasure, its interior
government.
The French general made a grievous mistake when he supposed that the
Tyrolese were divided in their attachment to the Imperial government,
because he had found the Italian subjects of that crown to be so. The
Tyrol, one of the most ancient of the Austrian possessions, had also
been one of the best governed; the people enjoyed all the liberty they
wished under a paternal administration. They received with scornful
coldness the flattering exhortations of one in whom they saw only a
cunning and rapacious enemy; and Buonaparte was soon satisfied that it
would cost more time than was then at his disposal to republicanise
those gallant mountaineers. They, in truth, began to arm themselves, and
waited but the signal to rise everywhere upon the invaders.
Wurmser heard with dismay the utter ruin of Davidowich; and doubted not
that Napoleon would now march onwards into Germany, and joining Jourdan
and Moreau, whose advance he had heard of, and misguessed to have been
successful, endeavour to realise the great scheme of Carnot--that of
attacking Vienna itself. The old general saw no chance of converting
what remained to him of his army to good purpose, but by abiding in
Lombardy, where he thought he might easily excite the people in his
emperor's favour, overwhelm the slender garrisons left by Buonaparte,
and so cut off, at all events, the French retreat through Italy, in case
they should meet with any disaster in the Tyrol or in Germany. Napoleon
had intelligence which Wurmser wanted. Wurmser himself was his mark; and
he returned from Trent to Primolano where the Imperialist's vanguard
lay, by a forced march of not less than sixty miles performed in two
days. The surprise with which this descent was received may be imagined.
The Austrian van was destroyed in a twinkling. The French, pushing
everything before them, halted that night at Cismone--where Napoleon was
glad to have half a private soldier's ration of bread for his supper.
Next day he reached Bassano where the aged Marshal once more expected
the fatal rencounter. The battle of Bassano (Sept. 8) was a fatal
repetition of those that had gone before it. Six thousand men laid down
their arms. Quasdonowich, with one division of 4000, escaped to Friuli;
while Wurmser himself, retreating to Vicenza, there collected with
difficulty a remnant of 16,000 beaten and discomfited soldiers. His
situation was most unhappy; his communication with Austria wholly cut
off--his artillery and baggage all lost--the flower of his army no more.
Nothing seemed to remain but to throw himself into Mantua, and there
hold out to the last extremity, in the hope, however remote, of some
succours from Vienna; and such was the resolution of this often
outwitted but never dispirited veteran.
In order to execute his purpose, it was necessary to force a passage
somewhere on the Adige; and the Austrian, especially as he had lost all
his pontoons, would have had great difficulty in doing so, but for a
mistake on the part of the French commander at Legnago, who, conceiving
the attempt was to be made at Verona, marched to reinforce the corps
stationed there, and thus left his proper position unguarded. Wurmser,
taking advantage of this, passed with his army at Legnago, and after a
series of bloody skirmishes, in which fortune divided her favours pretty
equally, was at length enabled to throw himself into Mantua. Napoleon
made another narrow escape, in one of these skirmishes, at Arcola. He
was surrounded for a moment, and had just galloped off, when Wurmser
coming up and learning that the prize was so near, gave particular
directions to bring him in alive!
Buonaparte, after making himself master of some scattered corps which
had not been successful in keeping up with Wurmser, re-appeared once
more before Mantua. The battle of St. George--so called from one of the
suburbs of the city--was fought on the 13th of September, and after
prodigious slaughter, the French remained in possession of all the
causeways; so that the blockade of the city and fortress was henceforth
complete. The garrison, when Wurmser shut himself up, amounted to
26,000. Before October was far advanced the pestilential air of the
place, and the scarcity and badness of provisions, had filled his
hospitals, and left him hardly half the number in fighting condition.
The misery of the besieged town was extreme; and if Austria meant to
rescue Wurmser, there was no time to be lost.
[Footnote 10: Vallette was cashiered. Augereau was afterwards created
Duke of Castiglione, in memory of this exploit.]