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Beaulieu, the veteran general of the Austrians, had been beaten and
compelled to retreat before the French commander of twenty-six. The Po
being crossed and the Tesino turned, Bonaparte beheld the road to Milan
open before him. But he prepared to make the effort to cut off
Beaulieu’s retreat, and compel the Austrian army to surrender. Like
Nelson, upon the sea, he thought no triumph complete unless the enemy
was entirely prostrated. But to cut off the retreat of Beaulieu, it was
necessary to anticipate him at the passage of the rivers. A great number
of these flow from the Alps, and cross Lombardy on their way to the Po
and the Adriatic. After the Po and the Tesino, come the Adda, the Oglio,
the Mincio, the Adige and numerous others.
The Adda was now before Bonaparte. It is a large and deep river,
although fordable in some places. The passage was to be made at the town
of Lodi, an old place containing about twelve thousand inhabitants. It
has old Gothic walls, but its chief defence consists in the river, which
flows through it, and which is crossed by a wooden bridge, about five
hundred feet in length. Having crossed the river, Beaulieu drew up
twelve thousand infantry and four thousand horse on the opposite bank,
posted twenty pieces of artillery so as to sweep the bridge, and lined
the bank with sharpshooters. It was against all military practice to
attempt the passage of a river in the face of such difficulties. But it
was the military mission of Bonaparte to astonish the routine generals.
Napoleon, coming up on the 10th of May, easily drove the rear-guard of
the Austrian army before him into the town, but found his further
progress threatened by the tremendous fire of the pieces of cannon,
stationed at the opposite end of the bridge, so as to sweep it most
completely. The whole body of the enemy’s infantry drawn up in a dense
line, supported this appalling disposition of the artillery.
An answering battery was instantly constructed on the French side,
Napoleon exposing himself in the thickest of the fire to point two of
the guns with his own hands. This he effected in such a manner as to
prevent the possibility of any approach on the part of the enemy to
undermine or blow up the bridge. Observing, meanwhile, that Beaulieu had
removed his infantry to a considerable distance backwards, to keep them
out of the range of the French battery, he instantly detached his
cavalry, with orders to gallop out of sight, and then ford the river,
and coming suddenly upon the enemy, attack them in flank.
He now drew up a body of six thousand grenadiers in close column, under
the shelter of the houses, and bade them prepare for the desperate
attempt of forcing a passage across the narrow bridge, in the face of
the enemy’s thickly-planted artillery.
The cavalry of Napoleon had a difficult task to perform in passing the
river, and he waited with anxiety for their appearance on the opposite
bank. But a sudden movement in the ranks of the enemy showed him that
his cavalry had arrived and charged, and he instantly gave the word. The
head of the column of grenadiers wheeled to the left, and was at once
upon the bridge. The whole body rushed forward with impetuosity,
shouting, “Vive la Republique!” A hundred bodies rolled dead, and the
advancing column faltered under the redoubled roar of the guns, and the
tempest of the grape shot. At this critical moment, Lannes, Napoleon,
Berthier, and L’Allemand, hurried to the front, and dashing onwards were
followed by the whole column in the very mouth of the artillery. They
gained the opposite side: Lannes reached the guns first, and Napoleon
second. The artillerymen were killed; their guns seized; and the
Austrian infantry, which had been removed too far back, not having time
to come up to support the artillery, the whole army was put to flight.
The French cavalry pursued in the blazing enthusiasm of almost
unprecedented victory. About two thousand Austrians were either killed
or wounded, and the same number made prisoners, while twenty pieces of
cannon remained in the hands of the French.
The victorious army encamped on the banks of the Adda, in the position
which had been occupied by the defeated Austrians. Before night fell,
Bonaparte was informed that he had failed to get between Beaulieu, and
the other divisions of the Austrian army; but, aware of the terror which
his daring exploit would strike into the enemy, he scarcely regretted
his trifling failure of movement. The line of the Adda was carried;
tremendous difficulties had been vanquished with a loss of only two
hundred men, and the courage and devotion of the soldiers had been
raised to the highest pitch.
The encampment upon the Adda presented a remarkable aspect. Most of the
officers had the accommodation of tents, but the troops were destitute
of that luxury, and their only resource for rest was to throw themselves
upon the ground around their fires. These gallant men, although fatigued
with the efforts of the glorious day, were too much excited by their
victory to rest without some demonstration. It was a clear, beautiful
moonlight night. Although filled in some places with the dead, the Adda
danced merrily onward, the ripples sparkling in the moonbeams. All was
quiet above; but in camp and town, there was the bustle of men to whom
sleep would not come. Bonaparte had retired to his tent to partake of
some refreshment, and having soon satisfied his abstemious appetite, he
was about to traverse the camp, alone, to observe the spirit of his
troops, as well as to ascertain the character and rank of the prisoners.
In front of his tent, he was astonished to meet a small deputation of
grim-visaged grenadiers, who saluted him with the title of the “Little
Corporal.” One of their number then stepped forward, and respectfully
communicated the intelligence that they had elected him a corporal, in
consideration of his gallant service in the ranks that day, and hoped
that they might one day confer still higher honors upon him. Three
hearty cheers were then given by the veterans, who appeared to enjoy the
joke amazingly; and after they had retired, the young general was
saluted in various parts of the camp as the “Little Corporal.” This
gaiety was characteristic of the French soldiers. Bonaparte was rather
pleased with the singular mode of showing affection for his person, and
admiration of his intrepidity.
The general approached a group of Hungarian prisoners without being
recognised by them. They were standing near a fire, conversing, and
evidently much irritated at the misfortunes of their position. He went
among them and mingled in the conversation. An old officer, who spoke to
him, appeared to be extremely moody. Bonaparte could not but smile at
his language. “Things are going on as ill and irregular as possible,”
said this veteran of routine. “The French have got a young general who
knows nothing of the regular rules of war; he is sometimes on our front,
sometimes on our flank, sometimes on the rear. There is no supporting
such a gross violation of rules.” He evidently preferred to be whipped
in a regular way. But it is agreed that the object of war is victory,
and if rules do not secure that victory, they are of no value.
Bonaparte’s system appeared very extraordinary to the Austrian
commanders. It was something beyond what they had learned at their
German military schools.
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[Illustration: NAPOLEON INFORMED OF HIS ELECTION AS CORPORAL.]
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After traversing the camp, and receiving many testimonials of the warm
devotion of the troops to his person, Bonaparte returned to his tent,
where he was soon joined by Berthier, Massena, Augereau, Bessieres,
Duroc, Serrurier, Lannes, and others. To each and all he gave a word of
compliment; but he was especially fluent in his praise of the
indomitable young General Lannes, whose daring courage had attracted his
attention in previous engagements as well as at the tremendous charge
across the bridge of Lodi. They were, indeed, as gallant a group of
officers, as ever a general had at his command—men who could as calmly
reason and determine upon manœuvres in the hottest storm of battle,
as during the quiet hours of this moonlight night—quick in devising,
irresistible in the execution; and yet it was only yonder stripling,
with the Roman features and the piercing eyes, who could give a glorious
harmony to their action, bring their peculiar faculties into play, and
secure their triumph. Great as they undoubtedly were, they failed to
achieve great triumphs when beyond the reach of the “Little Corporal’s”
controlling mind. The conference was long, for there were difficulties
in the arrangement of the plan for moving upon Milan, and some of the
officers, particularly Massena, had objections to urge. However,
Bonaparte determined according to his own views. The officers observed
that there was a remarkable change in his bearing towards them. He had
hitherto admitted them to complete familiarity; but they now felt
constrained by his lofty manner to keep at a respectful distance. When
they retired that night, some of them exchanged glances of significance;
they were evidently displeased at the haughty bearing of the young
commander-in-chief; yet few of them, perhaps, comprehended the change.
The fact was that the victory of Lodi had a great influence upon
Napoleon’s mind. He afterwards acknowledged, that neither the quelling
of the sections at Paris, nor the victory of Monte Notte made him regard
himself as any thing superior, but that after Lodi, for the first time,
the idea dawned upon him, that he should one day be “a decisive actor,”
on the stage of the political world. It was Lodi which gave birth to the
18th Brumaire.
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