Army of Naples


The Army of Naples was a French Army unit which took this name following its capture of Naples in 1799. It was related to the Army of Italy. The Army of Naples was virtually annihilated after the Battle of the Trebbia: more than half of the personnel were casualties, namely, up to 21,000 men were lost by the end of its retreat.

Context

had just pacified northern Italy, proclaiming the Piedmontese Republic on 10 September 1798. On 6 December 1798, Joubert occupied Turin, forcing King Charles-Emmanuel to abdicate, giving up all his continental possessions and retreating to Sardinia. Meanwhile, Grand Duke Ferdinand III's Tuscany was also occupied.
King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, returning from Naples, ordered a massive attack on the French, but retired to Palermo at the same time. He named Pigantelli vicar general, but the city fought against him.
The army in Rome received reinforcements from Joubert, raising its strength to 29 battalions and 21 squadrons - a force of 24,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 2,000 artillery for a total of 28,000 men, including the garrisons of Ancona and Castel Sant'Angelo. On December 20, this army left Rome, which had been ordered to disarm, and advanced on Naples in five columns. Gabriel Venance Rey, who was already in pursuit of the enemy, took the right with twelve squadrons and twelve battalions. He had orders to advance to Terracina by way of the Pontins marsh. Jacques MacDonald with three squadrons and twelve battalions had orders to cross Frosinone and Ceprano. Jean Étienne Championnet and the headquarters followed this column. Louis Lemoine's division, six battalions and three squadrons strong, had orders to push on to Sulmona. Finally, the eleven battalions and three squadrons of the far left under Guillaume Philibert Duhesme had orders to push back the enemy at Pescara then follow the river of the same name up to Popoli and there rejoin Lemoine. There was too great a distance between the right and left columns. To remedy this, Championnet directed a column of 800 men under the orders of battalion leader Maréchal to take the route that goes from Tivoli and Vicovaro around Celano Lake to Sulmona. A camp was established at Foligno to meet this group in case of failure. The poor state of the roads was just about the only difficulty Maréchal faced en route. There was a small battle between his troops and those of the enemy on the 27th and 28th of December at the crossing of the Garigliano, but the Neapolitans fled in disorder after the first clash, abandoning all their artillery. On the 30th, MacDonald set up camp between Venafro and the road from San Germano to Capua in Caianello.
This weak resistance inspired Championnet to try a more decisive strategy. At the same time, Karl Mack, who wanted a peace treaty, let his weaknesses show. However, the French general did not receive news of his left columns due to snow that blocked communications. After arriving at Ceprano, he recalled Rey's cavalry to him. After Rey arrived, Championnet decided to push to Calvi down the Volturno behind which the last remnants of Mack's columns had fled.

Attack on Capua

The Neapolitan line extended from Castellammare di Stabia at the mouth of the Volturno to the Scafa di Cajazzo. Each wing was made up of eight battalions and ten squadrons, while the center occupied Capua and the bridgehead built in haste on the right side of the river. This highly defensible position was filled with artillery. Championnet, who had given an unanswered ultimatum to Mack on December 3, ordered reconnaissance of the enemy position and especially Capua. The French attack included three columns, one on the left, another on the main road, and the third to the right of the fortifications. Even though the first attack faced a strong redoubt called the San-Antonio, the Neapolitans gave way. Mack was forced to threaten to have deserters shot in order to keep his men at their posts.
At first MacDonald was able to make the most of this disorder, and he was about to order the last fortifications destroyed when Mack, afraid to lose Capua, came up with a ruse: he asked MacDonald for a cease-fire for the safe passage of the Cisalpine Republic ambassador, returning to Milan from Naples. The French general reluctantly agreed to this demand and the enemy general used the time to rally his troops and reorganize them to his advantage. After the ambassador left, the battle began anew. The San-Antonio redoubt and all of its fortifications fell, but the artillery assault from the walls, which the French were ill-equipped to answer, was so deadly and constant that MacDonald was forced to pull back. Meanwhile, General Maurice Mathieu's arm was shattered by grapeshot. MacDonald took the captured Neapolitan artillery with him while returning to the morning's positions. He had lost about 300 men that day.

Capture of Gaeta

General Rey, whose small infantry column was reinforced at Fondi by that of François Étienne de Kellermann, took the gorges of Itri and pushed the Neapolitan forces that had been defending it back to Gaeta. Inspired by this success, Rey decided to try to take the city, which was defended by 4,000 soldiers armed with seventy cannons, twelve mortars and amply supplied with ammunition and food and who had access to the seven small ships docked in the harbor. After an unsuccessful ultimatum, the French fired off several shells that started several fires, terrorizing the inhabitants and even the garrison, which the octogenarian governor general Tschudi ordered to stand down. The general and 63 officers had the shameful privilege of being sent home to await a prisoner exchange. The garrison remained prisoner. Besides the artillery and the ships, French forces took 20,000 guns and bridge-building equipment that would soon allow Rey to cross the Garigliano.

Joining up with Lemoine's column

Rey's column reached Capua but Championnet decided not to risk a siege without further reinforcements necessary to a decisive attack. He worried about Lemoine and Duhesme who he had not had news of for the last ten days. Nor had he heard from Maréchal and his 800 men. He sent a party of 200 horsemen to Sulmona to try to regain contact. At the same time, General Jean Baptiste Eblé was putting together the materials for a siege at Gaeta.
On January 5, headquarters got news that Lemoine, on his way to Venafro, was being harassed by rebelling peasants - he had only fought one battle against Neapolitan soldiers. Those soldiers, after a deadly operation followed by an occupation of Popoli, had turned towards Sulmona and then on Benevento. Lemoine, master of Popoli, had waited there several days in hope of news of Duhesme, but because the number of angry peasants grew daily, he moved on to Sulmona and there rejoined Maréchal's column and the 200 men sent to meet him on the 4th. The Capua blockade tightened upon Lemoine's arrival.

Joining up with Duhesme's column

Meanwhile, after taking Civitella del Tronto, Duhesme marched on the Vomano and on Scuzzano, where he fought two battles against Micheroux's troops. He divided his forces in three columns, two of which he sent to disperse the seven to eight thousand insurgents who had just taken Teramo and burned the bridge at Tronto. The third column headed to Pescara. On the 23rd, it arrived in front of the city, strategically important due to its location at the mouth of the river of the same name and because it controlled access to the only road through Abruzzo that artillery could use. Pescara had strong fortifications with formidable artillery and abundant provisions for its 2,000 soldiers. It seemed that the French forces would need a well-organized siege that they could not mount without more artillery and bridge-building supplies to cross the river. Adjutant General Jean-Charles Monnier, who stayed near Pescara, was nonetheless fortunate enough to get into the city while Duhesme and Brigade Chief Chariot dealt with the insurgents. The governor, intimidated by Micheroux's retreat and the first ultimatum he received, surrendered immediately. Duhesme was thus saved the trouble of a long siege thanks to a stroke of good luck that supplied his troops with everything they needed. After leaving a weak garrison in Pescara, Duhesme rejoined the rest of the army by way of Sulmona and Isernia on the Volturno.

Surrender of Capua

The insurrection against the French expanded each day thanks to the intrigues of the nobles and the support of the priests. Starting in Abruzzo, it expanded to the Terra di Lavoro. Sessa Aurunca was the main meeting place for the insurgents, who had received orders to and did wage a war of extermination against the French. The French army that formed a blockade around Capua was itself surrounded by countless insurgents. Nonetheless, Championnet, whose forces were almost out of munitions and food, refused Mack's offer to give him Capua under the condition of an armistice, in spite of being in such a critical situation. Championnet instead reinforced Lemoine's division with General Forestier's legendary cavalry, which crossed the Volturno at the Lago ford, and the Venafro cavalry came as reinforcements. The whole French front was on its guard, caught between a rock and a hard place. Mack didn't dare try anything, in spite of this highly advantageous position. He wanted to evacuate Capua in order to arm the Lazzaroni and form a retrenched camp under the walls of Naples. The viceroy Domenico Pignatelli, to whom he appealed, was powerless, hated by the people, and mistrusted by the soldiers. Soon he would see no possible escape except by negotiating with the French; he sent two representatives to Championnet who were authorized to agree to anything except for the evacuation of Naples.

Armistice

Championnet met with Pignatelli's envoys in Terano at a time when the situation was turning against him and he regretted not making a deal with Mack. In fact, General Santa-Agatha and the Gambs division reinforced by three battalions seemed likely to force the weak Lemoine division into the Volturno, whose left bank they were defending, and then to take the French army from behind. The divisions of Naselli and Roger de Damas, kept at sea by unfavorable winds, meant to land at the mouth of the Garigliano. Championnet did not know what had happened to Duhesme. He decided, therefore, to accept the Neapolitan proposals. On the 11th of January General Bonnamy, representing Championnet, as well as the princes of Miliano and the Duke of Gesso, agents of the viceroy, agreed to a treaty by which the French were bound to stop at Capua and to pay two and a half million within fifteen days, and the enemies of France must leave the ports of the kingdom, etc.