Italian campaign of 1796–1797
The Italian campaign of 1796–1797, also known as the First Italian Campaign, was a series of military operations in Italy during the War of the First Coalition. Led by Napoleon Bonaparte, the First French Republic's Army of Italy fought and defeated the armies of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Papal States, as well as various revolts, notably in the Republic of Venice.
The campaign opened with the Montenotte campaign on 10 April 1796, where despite the limitations of his means, Bonaparte descended from the Alps into Italy and achieved a rapid series of victories that decisively knocked Piedmont-Sardinia out of the First Coalition. Next, Napoleon chased the Austrian army across Lombardy, culminating in the French victory at Lodi on 10 May 1796. After putting down revolts in Pavia and Milan, the focus of Napoleon's war in Italy shifted in June 1796 to the long and difficult siege of Mantua, which would see the French blockade the city and defeat four relief efforts by Austrian armies from August 1796 to January 1797. As he besieged Mantua, Napoleon also directed the French forces in a series of invasions of the states of Central and Northern Italy, such as of Modena and Reggio, Genoa, and the Papal States. In addition to these events, Napoleon would also conclude a Franco-Sicilian-Neapolitan treaty on 10 October 1796.
After the annihilation of the final Austrian relief force at Rivoli in January 1797, the weakened and starved garrison of Mantua finally surrendered on 2 February 1797; Bonaparte was not present at the surrender, as he was occupied with another invasion of the Papal States, resulting in the Treaty of Tolentino on 19 February 1797. Bonaparte next turned north from Italy, with a main force thrusting northeast and a secondary force invading the Tyrol. Although he fought his way over the Alps and had reached Klagenfurt by the end of March, the supporting offensive he expected by the French forces on the Rhine was slow to materialize and revolts developed in his rear. Rather than retreat, Napoleon opted to leave his lines of communication exposed and drive further into Austria as a show of force, which culminated with the Peace of Leoben on 18 April 1797. As part of the terms, Austria would receive Venice, resulting in Bonaparte dissolving the Republic of Venice in May 1797.
Napoleon's campaign had seen the French achieve a series of decisive victories, establishing French domination over much of Northern and Central Italy. Although Napoleon had previous military experience, the campaign marked his first in command of a full army, and his victories led to great personal prestige and widespread popularity in France. Throughout the campaign, he independently exercised authority over conquered territories and established a series of sister republics under French domination. Although Napoleon often conflicted with or disregarded the directives of the French Directory, his victories across Italy and his march into Austria concluded the war victoriously for the First French Republic, and on 17 October 1797, he personally signed the Treaty of Campo Formio. This sanctioned the defeat of the Holy Roman Empire and the First Coalition and confirmed the predominance of French influence in Italy, especially on the peninsular elites.
Background
General Bonaparte and the Army of Italy
Having advanced to the rank of brigadier general after having contributed to the victory of Toulon in 1793, Napoleon Bonaparte went to Nice to take up the new position of inspector of artillery in the Army of Italy, where the two representatives of the National Convention, Augustin de Robespierre and Antoine Christophe Saliceti, were seconded, already with him during the siege of Toulon.In the spring of 1794 the Army of Italy, already at war for two years with the Kingdom of Sardinia of Victor Amadeus III, was in a critical situation, with the troops blocked between the Piedmontese army to the north and the Royal Navy to the south, which blocked the maritime trade of the Republic of Genoa in concert with a Piedmontese naval team based in Oneglia. With the forces of Victor Amadeus III heavily entrenched around Saorgio, Napoleon deemed it the best thing to proceed quickly with the conquest of Oneglia, attacking simultaneously between the valleys of the Roia and Nervia rivers in the direction of Ormea and up to the Tanaro, all supported by a false attack against Saorgio. By doing so, contacts with Genoa would have been re-established, the Sardinian army would have been outflanked, forcing it to retreat and the Italian Army would have found itself in a more favorable position, controlling the mountain passes and close to the Piedmontese plains.
Du Merbion entrusted 20,000 of his 43,000 men to Napoleon who immediately delegated the general of division André Masséna to attack on 16 April 1794. Masséna quickly conquered Ormea without encountering resistance, then turned west to cut off the retreat of the Austrians of Saorgio, who surrendered to Du Merbion's army which in the meantime had set out from Nice. Oneglia, Albenga and Loano fell along the coast, so that by May the French army had the Argentera, Colle di Tenda and Colle San Bernardo passes under control.
At this point Napoleon sent to Paris, through the representatives Robespierre and Saliceti, the plan for the second part of the offensive, which was to lead the French army to Mondovì, where the problems linked to the supply of soldiers that had been plaguing them for some time would be eliminated. Du Merbion's army, specifically the Army of Italy and the Army of the Alps should have proceeded eastwards, gathering near the well-defended Cuneo, while another column would have routed the Piedmontese around Colle di Tenda. The Minister of War Lazare Carnot and the Committee of Public Safety approved Bonaparte's plans and operations began on 5 June which immediately had positive developments. However, Carnot stopped any further steps forward to await developments on the Rhine front and avoid moving the soldiers too far from southern France, where a rebellion had recently been repressed. Robespierre himself traveled to Paris to dissuade the Committee. While the debate was underway, a coup d'état on 27 July 1794 resulted in the death of Maximilien Robespierre and most of his supporters. Napoleon himself was implicated: he was arrested on 6 August by order of Saliceti due to the friendly relations he had with Augustin Robespierre.
The immobility into which the Army of Italy fell following the arrest of General Bonaparte forced Saliceti to exonerate him and give him support in his military initiatives; Austrian troops were also concentrating in the Bormida Valley to retake Savona. Napoleon immediately ordered the garrison of the Ligurian city to be strengthened and the representatives of the new Thermidorian Convention authorized the attack despite Carnot's veto still being in force. On 19 September 1794 the French went on the offensive, taking the Austrians by surprise who repaired to Dego, where they were narrowly defeated on 21 September.
Barras' decision
Napoleon, after being sent back to Toulon to participate in the invasion of Corsica, in May 1795 was assigned to an infantry brigade engaged in the repression of the rebel uprisings in the Vendée. Disappointed by these orders, he resigned but on 29 June, that is, eight days later, the Austrians pushed the 30,000 soldiers of the Italian army back to Loano, now under the command of François Christophe Kellermann who wrote to Paris that he was not certain of even being able to hold Nice. The facts forced the French government to recall Bonaparte as general of artillery, who was sent to the Bureau Topographique of the Ministry of War, a general staff of the French army. In July 1795 the Corsican general explained his ideas by declaring the reconquest of Vado Ligure and Ceva to be fundamental, these theses accepted and forwarded to the new commander of the Italian army, Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer.The slowness of the 16,000 reinforcement soldiers meant that at the beginning of October, Schérer could only have 33,000 men at his disposal, but to his advantage there were disagreements between the commander of the 30,000 Austrian troops and general Michelangelo Alessandro Colli-Marchi at the head of the Piedmontese 12,000 strong contingent; such disagreement blocked any further advance of the two allied factions. Schérer divided his forces into three divisions: one under the command of Jean Mathieu Philibert Sérurier operating from Ormea, one under Masséna based in Zuccarello and another directed by Pierre François Charles Augereau stationed in Borghetto Santo Spirito. On 23 November the French began the offensive with Masséna victorious in the Battle of Loano but, due to the lengthening of the supply lines, Schérer lost the initial impetus and the Austrians managed on 29 November to set up a defensive line at Acqui.
The unstable political situation in Paris led to a new change in the staff of the Committee of Public Safety and, on 15 September, Napoleon was removed from the list of generals in actual service. Less than a month later the insurrection of the 13th of the year IV broke out led by the royalists who, at the head of 20,000 soldiers of the French national guard, marched towards the Tuileries palace, seat of the government which immediately delegated Paul Barras to resolve the complicated situation; Barras immediately asked Buonaparte for help who dispersed the rebels by giving the order to fire the cannons. Five days later, Napoleon was back in the ranks of the French army and on 2 March 1796 was entrusted with command of the Army of Italy.
Situation of the armies and French plan
In 1790 the then-Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II had an army of 350,000 soldiers, 58,000 of whom were part of what was considered the best cavalry of the time. However, the composition was heterogeneous and reflected the vastness of Joseph II's dominions: in fact there were Austrians, Hungarians, Serbs, Croatians, Czechs, Slovaks and Italians under arms, with considerable communication problems. The tactics, as was the case for every other royalist army, were based on the concept of linear deployment which, if at the beginning gave good results against the undisciplined French troops, from 1796 had to give way against the genius of Napoleon. The attacks involved volleys of musket fire followed by infantry charges, and no capable artillery generals were available. The supreme command belonged to the emperor, the only authority superior to the courtly council made up of generals responsible for dictating strategies. The Austrians also trained the Sardinian army according to their own views, but mutual distrust reigned between the two allies, so much so that the court council had warned Johann Peter Beaulieu, supreme commander of the Austrian troops in Italy, to expect at any moment 'another betrayal. Beaulieu could have three armies for military operations: the first, under his direct control, numbered 19,500 soldiers, half of which were stationed around Alessandria; the second, under Argenteau headquartered in Acqui Terme, was strong with 15,000 men deployed between Carcare and the heights above Genoa; the third was under the orders of General Colli-Marchi and included 20,000 Sardinian soldiers located west of Turin, flanked by an Austrian detachment placed under General Giovanni Provera and deployed from Cuneo to Ceva and Cosseria. The total number of troops was ~54,500 men.File:Johann Peter Beaulieu.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Johann Beaulieu, Austrian commander-in-chief who was succeeded after the Battle of Lodi by Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser|alt=Johann Beaulieu, an Austrian Commander in chief, seen in a black-and-white sketch with a black hat, grey overcoat, and a blank expression.
A peculiarity of the French army was the speed of movement dictated by the limited resources available, which forced the soldiers to live at the expense of the occupied territories without the need for long cartloads of food in tow. In 1796 the Italian army was made up of approximately 63,000 personnel, of which however only 37,600 were ready for immediate use, to which could be added the approximately 20,000 soldiers of the Army of the Alps. These soldiers, however, were demoralized, dispersed along the coastal road from Nice to Savona, and dangerously exposed from the sea to the Royal Navy, from the hills to the Waldensian guerrillas and from the mountains to the Austrian army. The food ration deficit was chronic, while pay was several months late. Some demi-brigades hosted royalist councils and on 25 March 1796 two battalions had mutinied in Nice.
The plans of the Ministry of War envisaged that the Italian army would have to take possession of the Lombard plain and then continue up to the Adige river where they would go up the valley to cross the Alps after touching Trento, thus ending up in the Tyrol where, together with the general Jean Victor Marie Moreau, coming from the Rhine, would then go on to defeat the Austrian army and conquer Vienna. More concretely, the orders written by the War Ministry for Napoleon required him to push into the Milanese area with a secondary attack against Acqui and Ceva so as not to further antagonize the Piedmontese government, whose population was not entirely opposed to revolutionary ideas. However, Bonaparte considered the conquest of Piedmont indispensable and insisted so much that the Directory, on 6 March 1796, corrected the orders as follows:
"The situation requires that we force the enemy to recross the Po, to therefore exert our maximum effort in the direction of Milan. It seems that this fundamental operation cannot be undertaken without the French army conquering Ceva as a preliminary move. The Directory leaves the commanding general free to begin operations by attacking the enemy in that area and, whether he achieves a complete victory there or the adversary has retreated to Turin, the Directory authorizes him to pursue him and attack him again and also to bomb the capital if circumstances require it. After having seized Ceva and having brought the left of the Italian army into the Cuneo area the general will direct his forces towards the Milanese area, essentially against the Austrians. He will have to repel the enemy beyond the Po and will try to take possession of the fortresses of Asti and Valenza."