1758, where his father and mother carried on a considerable business as
tanners and soap manufacturers. On his father's death, when Andre was
still but a small boy, his mother at once married again. Thereon Andre
and two of his sisters were adopted by their uncle Augustine, who
proposed to give his nephew a place in his business. But Andre's
restless, fiery nature could not brook the idea of a perpetual
monotonous existence in the tanyard and soap factory, so at the age of
thirteen he ran away from home and shipped as a cabin boy; as such he
made several voyages in the Mediterranean, and on one occasion crossed
the Atlantic to Cayenne. But, in spite of his love of adventure, the
life of a sailor soon began to pall, and on August 18, 1775, at the age
of seventeen, he enlisted in the Royal Italian regiment in the French
service. There he came under the influence of his uncle Marcel, who was
sergeant-major of the regiment; thanks to his advice and care he made
rapid strides in his profession, and received a fair education in the
regimental school. In later years the Marshal used to say that no step
cost him so much trouble or gave him such pleasure as his promotion to
corporal; be that as it may, promotion came rapidly, and with less than
two years' service he became sergeant on April 15, 1777. For fourteen
years Massena served in the Royal Italians, but at last he retired in
disgust. Under the regulations a commission was unattainable for those
who were not of noble birth, and the officers of the regiment had taken
a strong dislike to the sergeant, whom the colonel constantly held up as
an example, telling them, "Your ignorance of drill is shameful; your
inferiors, Massena, for example, can manoeuvre the battalion far
better than any of you." On his retirement Massena lived at Nice. To
occupy his time and earn a living he joined his cousin Bavastro, and
carried on a large smuggling business both by sea and land; he thus
gained that intimate knowledge of the defiles and passes of the Maritime
Alps which stood him in such good stead in the numerous campaigns of the
revolutionary wars, while the necessity for keeping a watch on the
preventive men and thus concealing his own movements developed to a
great extent his activity, resource, and daring. So successful were his
operations that he soon found himself in the position to demand the hand
of Mademoiselle Lamarre, daughter of a surgeon, possessed of a
considerable dowry. When the revolutionary wars broke out the Massenas
were established at Antibes, where they did a fair trade in olive oil
and dried fruits; but a respectable humdrum existence could not satisfy
the restless nature of the ex-sergeant, and in 1791 he applied for a
sub-lieutenancy in the gendarmerie, and it is to be presumed that, on
the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief, he would have made an
excellent policeman. It was at this moment that the invasion of France
by the monarchs of Europe caused all patriotic Frenchmen to obey the
summons to arms. Massena gladly left his shop to serve as adjutant of
the volunteers of the Var. His military knowledge, his erect and proud
bearing, his keen incisive speech, and absolute self-confidence in all
difficulties soon dominated his comrades, and it was as
lieutenant-colonel commanding the second battalion that he marched to
the frontier to meet the enemy. Lean and spare, below middle height,
with a highly expressive Italian face, a good mouth, an aquiline nose,
and black sparkling eyes, from the very first Massena inspired
confidence in all who met him; but it was not till he was seen in action
that the greatness of his qualities could best be appreciated. As
Napoleon said of him at St. Helena, "Massena was at his best and most
brilliant in the middle of the fire and disorder of battle; the roar of
the cannon used to clear his ideas, give him insight, penetration, and
gaiety.... In the middle of the dead and dying, among the hail of
bullets which swept down all around him, Massena was always himself
giving his orders and making his dispositions with the greatest calmness
and good judgment. There you see the true nobility of blood." In the
saddle from morning till night, absolutely insensible to fatigue, ready
at any moment to take the responsibility of his actions, he returned
from the first campaign in the Riviera as major-general. During the
siege of Toulon he commanded the "Camp de milles fourches," which
included the company of artillery commanded by Bonaparte, and
distinguished himself by taking the forts of Lartigues and St.
Catharine, thus earning his step as lieutenant-general while his future
commander was still a major in the artillery. In the campaign of 1794 it
was Massena who conceived and carried out the turning movement which
drove the Sardinians from the Col de Tenda, while Bonaparte's share in
the action merely consisted of commanding the artillery. As the trusted
counsellor of Dumerbion, Kellermann, and Scherer, for the next two
years, the lieutenant-general was the inspirer of the successive
commanders of the Army of Italy. He it was who, amid the snow and
storms, planned and carried out the combinations which gained for
Scherer the great winter victory at Loano, and thus first taught the
French the secret, which the English had grasped on the sea and
Napoleon was to perfect on land, of breaking the enemy's centre and
falling on one wing with overwhelming force. The campaign of 1796 for
the time being altered the current of Massena's military life. Before
the young Corsican's eagle gaze even the impetuous Italian quailed, and
from being the brain of the officer commanding the army he had to revert
to the position of the right arm and faithful interpreter of orders. Two
things, however, compensated Massena for the change of role, for
Bonaparte gave his subordinate fighting and glory with a lavish hand,
and above all winked at, nay, rather encouraged, the amassing of booty;
and wealth more even than glory was the desire of Massena's soul.
[Illustration: ANDRE MASSENA, PRINCE OF ESSLING]
At the very commencement of the campaign Massena committed a fault which
almost ruined his career. After defeating the enemy's advance guard near
Cairo, hearing by chance that the Austrian officers had left an
excellent dinner in a neighbouring inn, he and some of his staff left
his division on the top of a high hill and set off to enjoy the good
things prepared for the enemy. At daybreak the enemy attempted a
surprise on the French position on the hill, and the troops, without
their general and staff, were in great danger. Fortunately, Massena had
time to make his way through the Austrian skirmishers and resume his
command. He was greeted by hoots and jeers, but with absolute
imperturbability he reorganised his forces and checked the enemy. But
one battalion was isolated on a spur, from which there seemed no way of
escape save under a scorching flank fire. Massena made his way alone to
this detached post, scrambling up the steep slope on his hands and
knees, and, when he at last reached the troops, remembering his old
smuggling expedients, he showed them how to glissade down the steep part
of the hill, and brought them all safely back without a single casualty.
This escapade came to Bonaparte's ears, and it was only Massena's great
share in the victory of Montenotte which saved him from a court-martial.
Bonaparte, at the commencement of the campaign, had ended a letter of
instructions to his lieutenant with the words "Watchfulness and bluff,
that is the card," and well Massena learned his lesson. Montenotte, the
bridge of Lodi, the long struggle at Castiglione, the two fights at
Rivoli and the marshes of Arcola proved beyond doubt that of all the
young conqueror of Italy's lieutenants, none had the insight, activity,
and endurance of Massena. But empty flattery did not satisfy him, for as
early as Lonato, greedy for renown, he considered his success had not
been fully recognised. In bitter anger he wrote to Bonaparte: "I
complain of your reports of Lonato and Roveredo, in which you do not
render me the justice that I merit. This forgetfulness tears my heart
and throws discouragement on my soul. I will recall the fact under
compulsion that the victory of Saintes Georges was due to my
dispositions, to my activity, to my sangfroid, and to my prevision."
This frank republican letter greatly displeased Bonaparte, who, since
Lodi, had cherished visions of a crown, and to realise this desire had
begun to issue his praise and rewards irrespective of merit, and to
appeal to the private soldier while visiting his displeasure on the
officers. But Massena's brilliant conduct at the second battle of
Rivoli, for the moment, blotted out all rancour, for it was Massena who
had saved the day, who had rushed up to the commander of the shaken
regiment, bitterly upbraiding him and his officers, showering blows on
them with the flat of his sword, and had then galloped off and brought
up two tried regiments of his own invincible division and driven back
the assailants; from that moment Bonaparte confirmed him in the title of
"the spoilt child of victory." In 1797 Bonaparte gave his lieutenant a
more substantial reward when he chose him to carry the despatches to
Paris which reported the preliminary treaty of Leoben; thus it was as
the right-hand man of the most distinguished general in Europe that the
Italian saw for the first time the capital of his adopted country.
In choosing Massena to carry to Paris the tidings of peace, it was not
only his prestige and renown which influenced Bonaparte. For Paris was
in a state of half suppressed excitement, and signs were only too
evident that the Directory was unstable; accordingly the wily Corsican,
while despatching secret agents to advance his cause, was careful to
send as the bearer of the good news a man who was well known to care for
no political rewards, and who would be sure to turn a deaf ear to the
insidious schemes of those who were plotting to restore the monarchy, or
to set up a dictatorship, and were searching for a sovereign or a Caesar
as their political views suggested. It was for these reasons and because
he was tired of Massena's greed and avarice that Bonaparte refused to
admit him among those chosen to accompany him to Egypt. Massena saw
clearly all the secret intrigue of the capital, and found little
pleasure in his newly gained dignity of a seat among the Ancients, for
he was extremely afraid of a royalist restoration, in which case he
feared "our honourable wounds will become the titles for our
proscription."
Tired of Paris, in 1798, he was glad to accept the command of the French
corps occupying Rome when its former commander, Berthier, was called
away to join the Egyptian expedition. On his arrival at Rome, to take
over his new command, he found himself face to face with a mutiny. The
troops were in rags and badly fed, their pay was months in arrear, and
meanwhile the civil servants of the Directory were amassing fortunes at
the expense of the Pope, the Cardinals, and the Princes of Rome.
Discontent was so widespread that the new general at once ordered all
troops, save some three thousand, to leave the capital. Unfortunately
Massena's record was not such as to inspire confidence in the purity of
his intentions. Instead of obeying, the officers and men held a mass
meeting to draft their remonstrance to the Directory. In this document
they accused, first of all, the agents who had disgraced the name of
France, and ended by saying, "The final cause of all the discontent is
the arrival of General Massena. The soldiers have not forgotten the
extortions and robberies he has committed wherever he has been invested
with the command. The Venetian territory, and above all Padua, is a
district teeming with proofs of his immorality." In the face of such
public feeling Massena found nothing for it but to demand a successor
and throw up his command.
But with Bonaparte in Egypt and a ring of enemies threatening France
from all sides, the Directors, whose hands were as soiled as Massena's,
could ill spare the "spoilt child of victory." Accordingly, early in
1799 the general found himself invested with the important command of
the Army of Switzerland. This was a task worthy of his genius and he
eagerly accepted the post, but refused to abide by the stipulations the
Directors desired to enforce on him, as, according to their plan, the
Army of Switzerland was to form part of the Army of the Rhine commanded
by Joubert. Massena had obeyed Bonaparte, but he had no intention of
playing second fiddle to any other commander, and, after some stormy
interviews and letters, he at last had his way. As the year advanced it
became more and more evident that on the Army of Switzerland would fall
the full brunt of the attack of the coalition, for Joubert was defeated
by the Archduke Charles at Stockach and thrown back on the Rhine,
Scherer was defeated in Italy at Magnano, and by June the Russians and
Austrians had begun to close in on Switzerland. It was clear that, if
the French army were driven out of Switzerland, both the Rhine and the
Maritime Alps would be turned, and the enemy would be in a strong
position from which to invade France. On Massena, therefore, hung all
the hopes of the Directory. Fortunately for France, the general was
admirably versed in mountain warfare. Well aware of the difficulty of
keeping up communication between the different parts of his line of
defence, Massena skilfully withdrew his outposts, as the enemy pressed
on, with the intention of concentrating his troops round Zurich, thereby
covering all the possible lines of advance. But early in the summer his
difficulties were further increased by the rising of the Swiss
peasantry; luckily, however, the Archduke Charles advanced most
cautiously, while the Aulic Council at Vienna, unable to grasp the vital
point of the problem, stupidly sent its reserve army to Italy to
reinforce the Russians under Suvaroff. By June 5th the Archduke had
driven in all the outlying French columns, and was in a position to
attack the lines of Zurich with his entire force. Thanks, however, to
Massena's courage and presence of mind, the attack was driven off, but
so overwhelming were the numbers of the enemy that during the night the
French army evacuated Zurich, though only to fall back on a strong
position on Mount Albis, a rocky ridge at the north end of the lake,
covered on one flank by the lake and on the other by the river Aar. The
two armies for the time being lay opposite to each other, too exhausted
after the struggle to recommence operations. The Archduke Charles
awaited the arrival from Italy of Suvaroff, who was to debouch on the
French right by the St. Gothard Pass. But fortune, or rather the Aulic
Council at Vienna, once again intervened and saved France. The Archduke
Charles was ordered to leave fifty-five thousand Russians under
Korsakoff before Zurich and to march northwards and across the Rhine.
Protests were useless; the Court of Vienna merely ordered the Archduke
to "perform the immediate execution of its will without further
objections." But even yet disaster threatened the French, for Suvaroff
was commencing his advance by the St. Gothard. But Massena at once
grasped the opportunity fortune had placed in his power by opposing him
to a commander like Korsakoff, who was so impressed by his own pride
that he considered a Russian company equal to an Austrian battalion. On
September 26th, by a masterly series of manoeuvres, the main French
force surprised Korsakoff and drove him in rout out of Zurich. Suvaroff
arrived just in time to find Massena in victorious array thrust in
between himself and his countrymen, and was forced to save himself by a
hurried retreat through the most difficult passes of the Alps.
The campaign of Zurich will always be studied as a masterpiece in
defensive warfare. The skilful use the French general made of the
mountain passes, the methods he employed to check the Archduke's advance
on Zurich, the care with which he kept up communications between his
different columns, the skilful choice of the positions of Zurich and
Mount Albis, his return to the initiative on every opportunity, and his
masterly interposition between Korsakoff and Suvaroff, alone entitle him
to a high place among the great commanders of history, and Massena was
rightly thanked by the legislature and hailed as the saviour of the
country.
Six weeks after the victory of Zurich came the 18th Brumaire, and
Napoleon's accession to the consulate. Massena, a staunch republican,
was conscious of the defects of the Directory, but could not give his
hearty consent to the coup d'etat, for he feared for the liberty of his
country. Still, he said, if France desired to entrust her independence
and glory to one man she could choose none better than Bonaparte. The
latter, on his side, was anxious to retain Massena's affections, and at
once offered him the command of the Army of Italy. But the conqueror of
Zurich foresaw that everything was to be sacrificed to the glory of the
First Consul, and it was only after great persuasion, profuse promises,
and appeals to his patriotism that he undertook the command, with the
stipulation that "I will not take command of an army condemned to rest
on the defensive. My former services and successes do not permit me to
change the role that I have heretofore played in the wars of the
Republic." The First Consul replied by giving Massena carte blanche to
requisition whatever he wanted, and promised him that the Army of Italy
should be his first care. But when Massena arrived at Genoa he
discovered, as he had suspected, that Bonaparte's promises were only
made to be broken; for he found the troops entrusted to his care the
mere shadow of an army, the hospitals full, bands of soldiers, even
whole battalions, quitting their posts and trying to escape into France,
and the officers and generals absolutely unable to contend with the mass
of misery and want. In spite of his able lieutenants, Soult and Suchet,
he could make no head against the Austrians in the field, and after some
gallant engagements was driven back into Genoa, where, for two months,
he held out against famine and the assaults of the enemy. While the
wretched inhabitants starved, the troops were fed on "a miserable ration
of a quarter of a pound of horse-flesh and a quarter of a pound of what
was called bread--a horrible compound of damaged flour, sawdust, starch,
hair-powder, oatmeal, linseed, rancid nuts, and other nasty substances,
to which a little solidity was given by the admixture of a small portion
of cocoa. Each loaf, moreover, was held together by little bits of wood,
without which it would have fallen to powder." A revolt, threatened by
the inhabitants, was checked by Massena's order that an assemblage of
over five persons should be fired on, and the approaches to the
principal streets were commanded by guns. Still he refused to surrender,
as every day he expected to hear the cannon of the First Consul's army
thundering on the Austrian rear. One day the hopes of all were aroused
by a distant roar in the mountains, only to be dashed by finding it to
be thunder. It was simply the ascendancy of Massena's personality which
prolonged the agony and upheld his authority, and in bitter earnestness
the soldiers used to say, "He will make us eat his boots before he will
surrender." At last the accumulated horrors shook even his firm spirit,
and on June 4th a capitulation was agreed on. The terms were most
favourable to the French; but, as Lord Keith, the English admiral, said,
"General, your defence has been so heroic that we can refuse you
nothing." However, the sufferings of Genoa were not in vain, for Massena
had played his part and held the main Austrian force in check for ten
days longer than had been demanded of him; thus the First Consul had
time to fall on the enemies' line of communication, and it may be truly
said that without the siege of Genoa there could have been no Marengo.
Massena had once again demonstrated the importance of the individual in
war; as Bonaparte wrote to him during the siege, "In such a situation as
you are, a man like you is worth twenty thousand men." In spite of this,
at St. Helena, the Emperor, ever jealous of his own glory, affected to
despise Massena's generalship and endurance at Genoa, and blamed him for
not taking the offensive in the field, forgetting the state of his army
and the paucity of his troops. But at the moment he showed his
appreciation of his services by giving him the command of the army when
he himself retired to Paris after the victory of Marengo. Unfortunately
Massena's avarice and greed were unable to withstand the temptations of
the position, and the First Consul had very soon to recall him from
Italy and mark his displeasure by placing him on half-pay.
For two years the disgraced general brooded over his wrongs in
retirement, and showed his attitude of mind by voting against the
Consulate for life and the establishment of the Empire. The gift of a
Marshal's baton did little to reconcile him to the Emperor, for, as he
scoffingly replied to Thiebault's congratulations, "Oh, there are
fourteen of us." So uncertain was the Emperor of his Marshal's
disposition that, on the outbreak of the war with Austria, Massena alone
of all the greater Marshals held no command. But with the prospect of
heavy fighting in Italy the Emperor could not afford to entrust the
Italian divisions to a blunderer, and he once again posted Massena to
his old command. The Austrians had occupied the strong position of
Caldiero, near the marshes of Arcola, and the French in vain attempted
to force them from it, but the success of the Emperor on the Danube at
last compelled the Archduke John to fall back on Austria. The Marshal at
once commenced a spirited pursuit, and ultimately joined hands with the
Grand Army, south of the Danube.
After the treaty of Pressburg Napoleon despatched Massena to conquer
Naples, which he had given as a kingdom to his brother Joseph. With
fifty thousand men the Marshal swept through Italy. In vain the gallant
Queen Caroline armed the lazzaroni; Capua opened its gates, Gaeta fell
after twelve days' bombardment, and Joseph entered Naples in triumph.
Calabria alone offered a stern resistance, and this resistance the
French brought upon themselves by their cruelty to the peasantry, whom
they treated as brigands. Unfortunately his success in Naples was once
again tarnished by his greed, for the Marshal, by selling licences to
merchants and conniving at their escape from the custom-house dues,
amassed, within a few months of his entering Naples, a sum of three
million francs. Napoleon heard of this from his spies, and, writing to
him, demanded a loan of a million francs. The Duke of Rivoli replied
that he was the poorest of the Marshals, and had a numerous family to
maintain and was heavily in debt, so he regretted that he could send him
nothing. Unfortunately, the Emperor knew where he banked in Leghorn, and
as he refused to disgorge a third of his illicit profits, the Emperor
sent the inspector of the French Treasury and a police commissary to the
bank, and demanded that the three millions, which lay at his account
there, should be handed over. The seizure was made in legal form; the
banker, who lost nothing, was bound to comply with it. Massena, on
hearing of this misfortune, was so furious that he fell ill, but he did
not dare to remonstrate, knowing that he was in the wrong, but he never
forgave the Emperor: his titles and a pension never consoled him for
what he lost at Leghorn, and, in spite of his cautious habits, he was
sometimes heard to say, "I was fighting in his service and he was cruel
enough to take away my little savings which I had invested at Leghorn."
From what he called a military promenade in Italy the Marshal was
summoned early in 1807 to the Grand Army in Poland, and was present in
command of one of the army corps at Pultusk, Ostralenka, and Friedland.
In 1808 he received his title of Duke of Rivoli and a pension of three
hundred thousand francs per annum, but in spite of this he absented
himself from the court. When Joseph was given the crown of Spain he
requested his brother to send Massena to aid him in his new sphere, but
the Emperor, full of mistrust, refused, while the Marshal himself had no
great desire to serve in Spain. When it was clear that Austria was going
to seize the occasion of the Spanish War once again to fight France,
Napoleon hastened to send the veteran Duke of Rivoli to the army on the
Danube. At Abensberg and Eckmuehl, for the first time since 1797, he
fought under the eye of Napoleon himself. "Activite, activite, vitesse,"
wrote the Emperor, and well his lieutenant carried out his orders.
Following up the Five Days' Fighting, Massena led the advance guard to
Vienna, and commanded the left wing at Aspern-Essling. Standing in the
churchyard at Aspern, with the boughs swept down by grapeshot crashing
round him, he was in his element; never had his tenacity, his resource,
and skill been seen to such advantage. But in spite of his skill and the
courage of his troops, at the end of the first day's fighting his
shattered forces were driven out of the heap of smoking ruins which
marked all that remained of Aspern. On the morning of the second day he
had regained half of the village when news came that the bridge was
broken, and that he was to hold off the Austrians while communication
with the Isle of Lobau was being established. The enemy, invigorated by
the news of the success of their plan for breaking the bridges, strained
every nerve to annihilate the French force on the left bank of the
river, but Massena, Lannes, and Napoleon worked marvels with their
exhausted troops. The Duke of Rivoli seemed ubiquitous: at one moment on
horseback and at another on foot with drawn sword, wherever the enemy
pressed he was there animating his troops, directing their fire,
hurrying up supports; thus, thanks to his exertions, the Austrians were
held off, the cavalry and the artillery safely crossed the bridge, and
the veteran Marshal at midnight brought the last of the rear-guard
safely to the Isle of Lobau, where, exhausted by fatigue, the troops
fell asleep in their ranks.
The death of Lannes threw Napoleon back on the Duke of Rivoli, who for
the time became his confidant and right-hand man. It was Massena who
commanded at Lobau and made all the arrangements for the crossing before
Wagram. The Emperor and his lieutenant were indefatigable in the care
with which they made their preparations. On one occasion, wishing to
inspect the Austrian position, dressed in sergeants' greatcoats,
attended by a single aide-de-camp in the kit of a private, they went
alone up the north bank of the island and took their coats off as if
they wanted to bathe. The Austrian sentinels, seeing, as they thought,
two French soldiers enjoying a wash, took no notice of them, and thus
the Emperor and the Marshal were able to determine the exact spot for
launching the bridges. On another occasion, while they were riding round
the island, the Marshal's horse put its foot into a hole and fell, and
injured the rider's leg so that he could not mount again. This
unfortunate accident happened a few days before the battle of Wagram, so
the Duke of Rivoli went into battle lying in a light caleche, drawn by
four white horses, with his doctor beside him changing the compresses
on his injured leg every two hours. During the battle Massena's corps
formed the left of the line. While Davout was carrying out his great
turning movement, it was the Duke of Rivoli who had to endure the full
fury of the Austrians' attack. In the pursuit after the battle he
pressed the enemy with his wonted activity. At the last encounter at
Znaim he had a narrow escape, for hardly had he got out of his carriage
when a cannon-ball struck it, and a moment later another shot killed one
of the horses.