1. BONAPARTE OFFERS PEACE TO FOREIGN POWERS. — 2. HIS INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION.—3. HE FORMS SECRETLY AN ARMY OF RESERVE. — 4. WAR IN ITALY. — 5. GENERAL MELAA ADVANCEA AGAIN8T MASSENA.— 6. 8UCHET, WITH THE REPUBLICAN CENTRE, IS DRIVEN BEHIND THE VAR.— 7. SIEGE AND BOMBARDMENT OF GENOA. — 8. WAR ON THE RHINE. — 9. BATTLE OF ENGEN. — 10. BATTLE OF MdSKIRCH. —11. AFFAIR AT BIBERACH — THE AUSTRIANS ENTRENCH THEM8ELVES AT ULM.— 12. THE FIRST CONSUL, IN COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF RE8ERVE, CRO88ES THE ST. BERNARD INTO ITALY.— 13. BONAPARTE ENTERS MILAN.—14. GENOA SURRENDERS TO THE AUSTRIAN GENERAL MELAS. —15. THE FRENCH MARCH TO ENCOUNTER THE AUSTRIANS — BATTLE OF MONTEBELLO. —16. BATTLE OF MARENGO. —17. THE IMPERIALISTS DEMAND AN ARMISTICE. —18. THE FIRST CONSUL RETURNS TO PARIS. —19. WAR IN EGYPT. — 20. BATTLE OF HELIOPOLIS. — 21. ASSASSINATION AND MILITARY CHARACTER OF GENERAL KLEBER. — 22. WAR IN GERMANY. — 23. CAPTURE OF THE CITADEL OF VALETTA BY THE BRITI8H. — 24. NAVAL WAR. — 25. BOAT ATTACKS. — 26. BRITISH CONJUNCT EXPEDITIONS.— 27. NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE AUSTRIANS AND FRENCH. — 28. WAR TN GERMANY. — 29. BATTLE OF HOHENLINDEN. — 30. THE AUSTRIANS RETIRE BEHIND THE SALTZACH.— 31. THE ARCH­DUKE CHA RLE 8 RE8UME8 HIS COMMAND. — 32. ARMISTICE OF STEYER. — 33. WAR IN ITALY. — 34. MACDONALD CROSSES THE SPLUGEN. — 35. BATTLE OF POZZOLO AND MONZAMBANO — THE FRENCH CROSS THE MINCIO. — 36. BRITISH EXPEDITION UNDER SIR RALPH ABERCROMBIE 8AIL8 FOR EGYPT. — 37. NAVAL WAR.— 38. BOAT ATTACKS. — 39. THE ISLAND OF CURAÇOA SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH.

 

1. Bonaparte offers Peace to Foreign Powers.

The successful General had now become, according to all historic precedent, Dictator, and in possession of supreme power; but he found himself surrounded by generals, till that moment his equals, and his rivals in military glory, disposed to question all his merit, and by no means to subscribe to all his commands. First and foremost in this crowd was General Moreau, who had stood by his side in the momentary conflict at the orangery, and whose claim on the public gratitude was certainly only second to Bonaparte. He was rewarded by being named General-in-Chief of the Armies of the Rhine and the Danube. In consequence of the death of Championnet, Massena had been appointed to the command of the army of Italy, where Rome and Naples were occupied by General Janitor.

The first step of Bonaparte after arriving at consular power was to make proposals of peace to the several belligerents, and first to England, by means of a letter addressed to the King himself. The Minister answered, declining the proposition, and justified his policy in a series of most eloquent speeches in Parliament with this apt Ciceronian quotation: “ Cur igitur pacem nolo? quia infida est, quia periculosa, quia esse non potest.” He was supported in the view he took by a division of the House of Commons of 265 to 64. It was soon manifest that Bonaparte had no serious intention of making peace with England. He desired to break up the confederacy against France, because he did not find the Republic in a condition to afford any promise of carrying on the war with advantage; but war was essential to his elevation. He was equally unsuccessful in the proposal he made at the same time to Austria, for the Cabinet of Vienna was unwilling to stop short in the career of victory which they had commenced, especially as Britain was ready with a liberal subsidy to encourage the Emperor to persevere in the war. The Archduke Charles, however, far from feeling any confidence in the issue of the approaching contest from the experience he had acquired in the last, candidly gave his opinion in favour of an accommodation with France. The Emperor nevertheless not only turned a deaf ear to his representations, but resented his frank opinion by depriving him of the command of the Imperial army, and His Imperial Highness retired to his government of Bohemia, whence he had the grief to witness a series of misfortunes that his wisdom had foreseen, and which perhaps his abilities might have averted.

The First Consul was more successful in his propitiatory advance to the Czar, which he made under cover of a return of many thousand Russian prisoners, who were sent back, without question of exchange, perfectly equipped and provided. Just at the moment of this delicate attention on the part of the First Consul, Paul happened to be indignant at the failure of his troops in Switzerland and Holland, and more especially at the conduct of General Frolich, at the capitulation of Ancona, which no justification on the part of the Aulic Council could appease. He accordingly concluded peace with the French Republic, and dismissed the emigrant corps of Conde which had been taken into his service, and which now passed over to that of Great Britain.

2. His Internal Administration.

The First Consul was not a man to trust to diplomacy alone for the success of his policy. He had, it is true, a difficult task before him,—to make head against the confederacy of Austria and England with a defeated and dispirited army, to recruit an exhausted treasury, and to conciliate a disunited people. He laboured to restore respect for religion by permitting the churches to be reopened for public worship without obstacle or ridicule, and by abolishing the absurd puerilities of decade fetes and an unsainted calendar; he allowed a general tolerance, so that the Demoiselles St. Janvier were no longer to be called Mesdemoiselles Nivôse, but reassumed, with others, the ancient appellations of their family. An attempt at reviving the rebellion in La Vendee was promptly re­pressed, order was introduced into the finances, and an appeal to the capitalists of Paris was answered by a loan of twelve million of francs. The funds showed an increasing confidence in the wisdom of the new order of things, and the national domains began to find purchasers.

The military measures of the First Consul were equally energetic. The first class of the conscription for the year was called out, and many veteran soldiers, who had returned to their homes during the eight preceding years, were required again to serve. By these means 150,000 men were brought under arms. The gendarmerie was reorganised for the police of the interior, so that the wealthy classes were enabled again to resume the luxuries of their station, with their hospitalities and their equipages, and to repair to their country seats, sure of being exempt from service, insult, or injury. Large purchases of horses were made in all countries, and the artil­lery, instead of being rendered available through private contractors, was brought under a more 'military order and discipline. Large remounts were sent to the frontiers, to supply the waste that had occurred in the cavalry. AU these proceedings were effected with a degree of system and activity to which the military organisation of France had been a stranger since 1796.

In order to secure tranquillity at home, the First Consul took immediate steps to pacify La Vendée, where an enemy, having his head-quarters near Loudon, was continually promoting insurrection. Bonaparte addressed a proclamation to the inhabitants, offering an amnesty, and at the same time sent down General Brune with an army of 60,000 men, to enforce his arguments, accompanied by the civil functionary Hedouville, to aid the military chief with prudent counsel. The Abbé Bernier, who had obtained a considerable ascendant in the Vendean League, was soon in communication with Hedouville, and on the 18th of January an accommodation was signed at Montfaucon for La Vendée, but Brittany and Normandy still remained in open insurrection.

3. He forms secretly an Army of Reserve.

Having failed to propitiate his enemies abroad, and having now made himself easy in regard to his enemies at home, it had become necessary to the First Consul to consider calmly his military position in France. The British Envoy at Munich, Mr. Wickham, had, by incessant activity and by prodigal subsidies, obtained the coalescence of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, and the other smaller German states, in sending their contingents to the Imperial army. These were well organised, especially in cavalry and artillery. The Marshal de Kray commanded in chief for Austria, and encamped his army in the angle formed by the Rhine at Bale, resting his left flank on Switzerland, and his right upon Alsace. In Italy the Imperial army was commanded by M. de Melas, and was established at the foot of the Apennines, in observation of and threatening Genoa, where the British offered their cooperation from the side of the sea, with their navy and some military detachments, principally of emigrants. De Kray’s army was said to count 150,000 men, and De Melas’s army 120,000, all well appointed.

The possession of Switzerland was an immense military advantage to France, in offering an admirable strategic point, from which to bear on either side, towards Italy or Germany, with the greatest effect. Here, therefore, was collected an army of 40,000 men, who were watched by a small Austrian corps d’armée. The French army opposed to Kray consisted of 130,000 men.

The French government, having become easy in regard to Holland and La Vendée, had an available surplus of 20,000 men, with which Bonaparte now began to form the nucleus of a third army (called at Dijon the army of reserve), which was rapidly increased by the arrival of conscripts, and by the assembling of three new divisions brought up from Paris, Rennes, and Nantes, and the command of this was given to General Berthier, between whom and the First Consul a good understanding reigned as to its being brought together for service, and as to its ultimate object and intention; but Bonaparte found it difficult, in forming his schemes with the required combination and dispatch, to hold any superior control over Moreau, who had already evinced an intention to act independently of him, and therefore the plan of the campaign required to be modified ; that General was therefore simply ordered to cross the Rhine, and threaten the communications with Vienna, by advancing against the Imperialists in his front with the boldness that was characteristic of that renowned great General. The Aulic Council had, on the other hand, prescribed a project of campaign for their armies, laid down by General Zach, which was that their Italian army should force the Riviera di Genoa, with the assistance of the British fleet, and thus effect an invasion of France by way of the Maritime Alps.

4. War in Italy.

There appeared nothing to oppose this project, and Bonaparte had indeed, in his wonderful prescience in military strategy, contemplated its probability. The army of Championnet had been entirely dissipated, and nothing but the military reputation and energy of Massena, who had succeeded to his command, with the assistance of such men as Soult and Suchet under him, could in so short a space of time have reestablished a barrier against the Austrian plan of campaign. But the Commander-in-Chief had been warned, by the instructions he received in March from the First Consul, to be careful lest the Austrian General in his front should endeavour to cut his force in two, by a rapid concentration against his centre. By the first days of April, Massena had given the army a complete reorganisation; the right wing, commanded by Soult, consisted of 18,000 men, under the orders of Miollis, Gazan, and Marbot. Resting their right upon the sea, these occupied the snowy heights from Recco by Torriglia to the Bocchetta, Campofreddo, and Montenotte, whence they doubled back again on the sea at Vado. The fortress of Savona was held by General Gardanne, with a garrison of 700 men, and that of Gavi was held in front of this elevated range by a garrison of 500; and Suchet, commanding the centre with 12,000 men, and having under him Clausel, Pouget, and Garnier, occupied the mountain passes, even as far as the Col di Tenda. The left wing of this army, under General Thurreau, whose head-quarters were at Embrun, occupied, with 6500 men, all the passes of the Alps that debouch into the valley of the Var and on the Lake of Geneva. This position, thus occupied by Massena’s army, was thought to be very hazardous, being backed by the sea, and extending fifty leagues from right to left, and having only the Pass road of the Corniche to communicate with the base of operations at Genoa, where the general head-quarters were fixed.

All this while the Baron de Melas and the Austrian army were revelling in plenty in the plains of Piedmont, where every facility was afforded him for refitting his army for a new campaign. It is true he had to keep his forces faced two ways; on the one side, to watch any approaches from Switzerland, and on the other the army of Italy: but for these objects he had 93,000 men in the field, divided into three corps d’armée: the first, under General Kaim, with 30,000, with Wukassovitch and Haddick looking north from Turi ; the second, under Ott, watching the army of Massena; and the centre, under Melas in person, looking on the Southern Alps. The proposition of General Zach, already alluded to, was to seize Genoa, march rapidly on Nice, and threaten France from the banks of the Var. Holding the whole country of Piedmont, he could have readily fallen with all his force upon the army of Massena, so as to completely separate Soult from Suchet, and place the latter at his mercy; but the Imperial Commander-in-Chief was swayed by the more limited plan of attack suggested by General Assaretto, which was to fall upon Savona and Vado, and leave Genoa for future operations. If this plan had been put in effect by the end of February, nothing could have saved Suchet, but it was the 5th of April before the Imperialists were in motion.

5. General Melas advances against Massena.

To draw off the enemy’s attention, Ott advanced against Miollis, but entered into no serious engagement with him. Melas, with thirty-two battalions, twelve squadrons, and some light guns, moved up from Acqui, by the valley of Bormida, as far as the foot of the Apennines, while General Elsnitz conducted to Ceva twenty-eight battalions and five squadrons, with eight mountain guns, and was ordered to bring up his right shoulders so as to aid the General-in-Chief in his projected attack on Montenotte on the 6th. The arrangements for this attack were kept so secret, that Massena was not at all apprised of them. A multitude of columns debouched at one and the same time against the entire French line, on the morning of the 5th of April. The first was led by General Palfy with such vigour, that Gardanne was driven over the crest of the hills on Cadibona; and Melas with fresh troops, attacking the flying soldiers of Gardanne, so scattered them over the mountains that, although they defended themselves valiantly, and were well supported by Soult, who brought up some reinforcements from Cornigliano, yet, fearing to be cut off from his line of retreat on Genoa, that General fell back along the Corniche, leaving Savona occupied with a garrison of 600 men. Suchet, in like manner attacked by Elsnitz, was obliged to yield to him Settepani, Monte San Giacomo, and Finale, and to fall back on Borghetto. Massena was also attacked on the side of Genoa, but on the 7th he had succeeded in assuming the offensive there, carried the Monte Faccio, and drove back the Austrians on Fortanabona. As soon, however, as he learned that Soult and Suchet had been forced to separate, he awoke to the truth of the movement and saw that the advance against him on the side of Genoa was but a feint: he accordingly resolved to reunite his centre and left, for which purpose he sent orders to his lieutenants, and named Savona as the point of reunion. The advance was to be made on the 9th, and he divided Soult’s force into three divisions: Miollis, with 7000 men, to face Ott and protect Genoa from attack; Gazan, with 5000 men, to cross the hills from Voltri to Sassello, while Gardanne and Suchet were to return to Montenotte and Monte San Giacomo. But war in these mountain regions is more than anywhere a game of chance. It happened that Melas had selected the same day to attack the French on that side of Genoa. Leaving Elsnitz to restrain Suchet, he had collected the brigades of Bellegarde and Sticker to concentrate with Hohen- zollern at the Bocchetta, and advance against Massena. Hohenzollern, however, stopped his movement across the division of Gazan, who was delayed in the attack of the Austrians in Acqua Santa, the result of which was, that Melas got possession of the Bocchetta pass, and proceeded to draw the knot round Genoa.

But Massena was gone away from thence to Monte Croce, to look after Gardanne, and Soult had marched off in the direction of Sassello, where he had fallen upon the Austrian General St. Julien, and very roughly handled him, taking six colours and 1500 prisoners. In the confusion, however, Melas came upon Massena himself, and drove him into Voltri, where, on the 12th, he collected some of the troops of Miollis, and established that post All this while, Elsnitz was deeply engaged with Suchet on the side of San Giacomo, which, after various success, the Republican General had failed to carry by storm on the 12th, and was therefore obliged to fall back on Settepani, leaving the ground covered with his dead: eventually, however, he established his division between Finale and Garessio. On the same day Soult was fighting on the Monte Fayole; but Melas, in order to put an end to these isolated combats, resolved to concentrate an attack, which he made on the 14th, with the troops of Bussy and St. Julien at Porta d’Ivrea. Soult, however, continued to hold his ground pertinaciously, though thwarted by the Austrian General in every attempt to move in a direction where he might expect to meet with Suchet. On the 16th, General Bellegarde thought himself in a position to summon Soult; but, thanks to the fogs that prevail in these mountains, the French General effected his escape to Voltri, where he was united to Massena on the 17th. Here Melas attacked the Republicans on the 19th, and marching down on Sestri di Ponente, very nearly cut them off from Genoa, into which, nevertheless, after much hard fighting, they at length effected their entrance.

6. Suchet, with the Republican Centre, is driven behind the Var.

While Massena placed his troops so as best to defend the approaches to Genoa, and exerted himself to excite their ardour and animate their patriotism, Melas, leaving to Ott the charge of maintaining a blockade at Genoa, set off with three brigades to reinforce Elsnitz, in order to dispose of the French centre, now completely cut off from the army of Italy under Suchet. Massena had been enabled to send Oudinot to that General, in an open boat by sea, to tell him of the events of the 12th to 17th; and in consequence of this information, Suchet resolved on another attempt at a junction, and accordingly advanced to the village of Bormida on the 19th, prepared to assault San Giacomo the following day. His intention had sufficiently transpired to put the Austrians on their guard, who were accordingly on the alert before break of day; and when the two columns of Jablonowsky and Clausel were seen to cross the Mallera, Melas was already on die spot, and forthwith launched his new troops against the enemy, and completely overwhelmed them. Suchet, though now obliged to fall back, resolved to afford his adversary as much occupation as possible, and thus to impede his operations against his chief at Genoa. With this object he transferred his head-quarters on the 27th to Albenga, where he took up the ground on which the battle of Loano had been fought in 1795, extending from Borghetto upon the sea on his right to Monte Calvo and Rocca Barbena on his left. Here Melas resolved to attack him, but it was first necessary to reduce Savona, in which Brigadier Buget had been left with a garrison of 600 men. This task was intrusted to Major-General Count de St. Julien, assisted by a British squadron under Captain H. Downman, consisting of the frigate “ Santa Dorotea,” 36, the brig “Chameleon,” 18, Lieutenant Jackson, and the Neapolitan brig, “Strombolo,” Captain Settimo. With commendable perseverance, this blockading squadron kept its boats in such active watch off the harbour’s mouth, that the garrison was reduced to capitulate from famine on the 15th of May. Baron Melas therefore established his head-quarters at Savona on the 29th, and prepared to bring up his forces, so as to drive Suchet from Albenga at the point of the bayonet. The attack was fixed for the 2nd of May: Elsnitz assaulted Monte Calvo, and drove back the brigade of Serras to Sambucca; Lattermann carried Borghetto. Suchet thus dis- posted now feared for his flanks and rear, and in the night quietly retired farther backward to cover Otreilla and the Col Ardente. The Austrians, delighted with their success, pushed on. Gorrup took possession of the Col Ardente on the 7th, and Knesevich drove Lesuere the same day from the Col di Tenda. The British gun-boats operating upon the strand, completely stopped the passage of the French by that road, so that on the 8th Suchet was forced to abandon the Roya and retire to Mentone. On the 10th the whole of his division was collected on the left bank of the Var, which it crossed on the 11th ; and Melas, continuing his pursuit, entered Nice the same day.

7. Siege and Bombardment of Genoa.

In the meantime, Massena was called upon to defend Genoa, which was threatened with a formidable siege both by sea and land. The city of Genoa has been frequently described. It stands at the bottom of a little gulf in the Mediterranean, partly on the flat below and partly on the declivity of an abrupt elevation, or mountain , buttress, which by means of two valleys, broken from the very summit, is divided in an abrupt mass from the range of the Apennines. The city is accordingly in the form of a triangle, with its base on the sea, and its apex in the mountains. Nature and art have alike combined for its defence. A double wall, having a circumference of about ten Italian miles, surrounds it, and two moles project into the sea to form a haven, which a bastioned front defends, while two forts, called the Spur and the Diamond, are placed on the heights, and command both the harbour and the fortifications. The Republican troops were thus posted: they occupied the city with 1600 men; Miollis, on the east, had 4500 men behind the Sturla; Gazan, to the westward, took post at San Pietro d’ Arena. The fort of the Spur, which is considered the key of the entire fortress, was occupied by a garrison. After all the casualties of the preceding fights, the French garrison for the entire defence of the place was counted at 12,000 men. The Austrian investment commenced opposite San Pietro di Arena, where Palfy’s division, under Schellenberg, assembled 9000 men; General Vogelsang, with 8000, protected the valley of Rivasolo; Hohenzollern, with 110,000, observed the two forts, the Diamond and the Spur; and Gottesheim, with 4000 or 5000, the road leading into Genoa on the east towards Nervi. The investing army thus extended twelve leagues, and the only means of communication between the several members of it was by difficult mountain paths. To Ott had been intrusted the attack of Genoa, when Melas went in person after Suchet, and the General determined to drive in the besieged on the 30th of April, while Lord Keith from the seaward gave the assistance of the British fleet to restrain the garrison. Bussy, assisted by the fire of the fleet, got possession of San Pietro d’ Arena and Rivasolo; Schellenberg seized the post of the Spino and Pellato, while Frimont carried Quezzi; and Rousseau and Gottesheim crossed the Bisagno to the east. Massena, seeing the isolated character of these attacks, resolved to combine his forces for a resolute defence, and ordered Soult to retake the post called the “Brothers,” for which purpose, he sent him four battalions from the left while he placed himself at the head of the division of Miollis on the right, and drove back the besiegers across the Bisagno. Gottesheim therefore retired from his attack on Nervi, with the loss of some hundreds of prisoners. Massena forthwith repaired to the fort of the Spur, from which he could see the fight on every side, and could perceive Soult already aux prises with Hohenzollern, whom he had succeeded in driving back to Turazzo. The Imperialists lost 3000 in these combats.

Massena having now flushed his troops with some success, resolved to avail himself of it by an attempt to seize the height called La Coronata, which was bristling with Austrian artillery. Gazan was ordered on this service on the 2nd of May; but the General receiving a serious wound early in the day, the division was driven back in disorder, with the loss of 300 or 400 men. This attack had been mainly resisted by the guns of the British frigate “Phaeton,” 38, Captain Nicholl Morris, who opened such a fire upon the retiring French column, that it required all the energies of Soult to get it back within the French lines. The town was henceforth continually and effectually bombarded by the British squadron, consisting of frigates, sloops, and Neapolitan gun and mortar boats, under the direction of Captain Beaver of the “Aurora,” which very much annoyed the French garrison, and distracted the defence.

Massena, ever active, and not allowing the least misgiving of his enterprises to occupy his mind, now determined on an attack upon the Monte Faccio. To Soult and Miollis was intrusted this enterprise, and the 11th was the day fixed for it. Miollis was to occupy the attention of Gottesheim’s division upon the Sturla, while Soult, ascending the Bisagno, was to turn the mountain by the right. Four battalions were directed against Hohenzollern to keep him quiet at Turazzo. The attack of Miollis failed completely, and but for the exertions of the Commander-in-Chief his troops would have fled scattered and confused into the town. Soult, isolated as he was by this defection, without regarding the check, pushed on his men to Cavolozzo, and seized the entrenchment on the mountain; and Massena, having reestablished discipline in the troops of Miollis, led them forward against the division of Gottesheim, which he drove back on Sori, with the loss of 1300 prisoners. This gallant attack by Soult was but the prelude to an attack on Monte Cretto, which was intrusted to the same general, on the 14th ; but Ott had now strengthened these hills by fresh troops, placed under the command of Hohenzollern. This was unknown to Massena, and at the moment when the advanced guard, under Gauthier and Gazan, were ordered to drive in the Imperialist outposts, at about eleven o’clock in the day, a most formidable storm happened to break over die mountain, which very much damped the courage and the ammunition of both sides. As soon, however, as it cleared away, Gauthier was encountered by Hohenzollern, and was wounded and driven back. Soult then ordered Poinsot to conduct another attack with the reserve, and accompanied it himself; but, the brigade of Frimont coming up to reinforce Hohenzollern, the French were again discomfited. Soult in this encounter received a shot that broke his thigh, and left him a prisoner in the hands of the Austrians. The Republicans, seeing their leaders stricken, turned and fled, and but for the foresight of Massena, who had sent up Gazan in support, the retreat of the division would have been seriously compromised.

The English fleet renewed the bombardment every night This had become so intolerable to the garrison, that Massena got together a flotilla of his own from amongst the old galleys and some vessels of the Genoese, with which to silence and destroy the bombarding vessels. At night this force took up a position under the protection of the guns of the two moles, which, as well as the bastions, were covered with French troops prepared to render effectual assistance. On the 21st, at one in the morning, the British bombarding flotilla opened on the town, and the fire was promptly returned, as well from the town as from the moles and shipping, especially from the “Prima” galley, which was moored close to die old or eastern molehead. The Admiral directed Captain Beaver to carry this galley by boarding her; accordingly ten boats, containing 100 men in officers and crew, drew off from the fleet for this object. The boats dashed on towards the galley, but its construction offered difficulties not thought of; and the “Prima,” when barricaded, was found to present a more formidable object of attack than the British were prepared for. A young midshipman, however, of the name of Caldwell, made an entrance amidships, through every obstacle, in the most gallant manner, and was promptly supported by his companions; while, on the other side, Captain Beaver, in the cutter of the “ Minotaur,” and Lieutenant Gibson, in the launch of the “ Vestal,” clambered up to the poop of the galley, where a considerable number of French soldiers were collected for its defence. A desperate struggle ensued, but the British succeeded in their object, and Lieutenant Gibson hauled down the French Commodore’s burgee. The boats immediately took the prize in tow, and the galley was soon seen moving to the entrance of the harbour, under a tremendous fire of shot, shell, and musketry from the troops on the bastions and the molehead. Soon after the “Prima” had passed out, under the command of Lieutenant Gibson, an alarm was raised of fire below. The lieutenant rushed down, and found a drunken French sailor with a light and crowbar, with the object (as he unhesitatingly declared) of blowing up the vessel and all on board of her. The wretch was promptly secured, and a guard placed over the hatchway. But the siege and bombardment still continued with accumulating horrors; and the populace, running about the streets, set up frightful cries for a surrender. Nothing but the wonderful efforts of the French soldiers to restrain them prevented a general insurrection. The city of Genoa contained a population of 160,000 souls, who were already a prey to the direst famine. The old, reduced to the necessity of supporting life by herbs and roots, died of diarrhea or inanition; and mothers were often found dead in the streets from starvation, with children at the breast dead or dying.

8. War on the Rhine.

These accounts of the extremities to which Massena was exposed with his gallant army in Genoa excited the highest sympathy in Paris, and reiterated applications were made to Moreau to set the army of the Rhine in motion, which might operate as a diversion in favour of the Italian army, and deter Melas from entering France.

Bonaparte, nevertheless, viewed these reverses with comparative indifference. He had a higher and greater object, which he was preparing the means of maturing in secret His eye was continually on his army of reserve at Dijon, which Berthier was actively engaged in disciplining and organising; but in the plan he contemplated it was necessary for him to push forward Moreau's army across the Rhine and through the mountains, of which that general had had such good experience during the last campaign. This was most essential to Bonaparte’s mighty scheme against Italy. Moreau, on the other hand, had good and sufficient reasons for a delay, in the utter exhaustion to which Alsace and the Swiss frontier had been reduced by their military occupation during the last two years. Moreover, his army was weak in artillery horses, and his cavalry was badly mounted; he was also ill provided with tools, tents, or with any bridge equipage sufficient to pass troops across the most ordinary streams. Bonaparte, obliged to admit some of these excuses, urged the General in any case to send forward a portion of his army, under General Lecourbe, who was well informed of the military aspect and resources of the country. Although Moreau had collected an army of upwards of 100,000 ready to take the field, and might well have spared a division, he would not listen to the proposition to part with Lecourbe, and the First Consul had no alternative but to dissemble for the moment, and ordered the army, by telegraph, peremptorily to cross the river frontier. Moreau had organised his army in four corps d’armée, of three divisions each. Lecourbe commanded the right of the army at Ragatz, in the Rheinthal, nearly opposite Feldkirk and the Vorarlberg. He had with him Vandamme, Lorges, and Montrichard. Moreau himself commanded 26,000 in the entrenched camp at Bale, with Delmas, Leclerc, and Richepanse: this he called the corps of reserve. The centre, under General St. Cyr, with Baraguay d’Hilliers, Thurreau, and Ney under him, consisting of 30,000 men, was concentrated about the two Briesachs; and the left corps d’armée, under St. Suzanne, with Collaud, Souham, Legrand, and Delabride, occupied Kehl and Strasburg. The army had 116 pieces of artillery and 13,000 horse, and General Dessolles was named to the Chief of the Staff of the Army. On the other side, the Imperialist. Commander-in-Chief, Field-Marshal de Kray, had an active force of 110,000 men, with 300 pieces of artillery; his head-quarters were at Donauschingen. His right wing was under General Sztarray, with 16,000 men, and rested on the Mayne about Heidelberg. Keinmayer, with 15,000, watched all the debouches through the Black Forest mountains; Giulay being pushed forward through the Val d’Enfer to Fribourg, to keep his eye upon the river bank opposite Neu-Briesach. The main body, 40,000 strong, was placed at the junction of all the roads leading from the Rhine to the valley of the Danube, where it was cantoned about head-quarters. It was covered by three advanced guards: one, under the Archduke Ferdinand, watched the approaches from Bale; the Prince Joseph of Lorraine protected the magazines formed about Stockach; and General de Sporch observed the Lake of Constance, in which was a flotilla of gun-boats, commanded by an English captain, Williams. A detached corps of twenty-six battalions and twelve squadrons, under the command of the Prince of Reuss, occupied the Grisons and the Rheinthal. It was impossible for any army to be better posted for its object, and it was in the best condition.

Moreau having, after much consultation, determined his plan for crossing the Rhine, moved his head-quarters to Colmar, and on the 25th of April, at four in the morning, St. Suzanne passed the river with his three divisions at Kehl, and advanced right and left on Rastadt and Appenweier. Kienmayer strove in vain to check the French advance at Griesheim, but was forced by the brigade Decaen to fall back to Linz on the Rastadt road, and to Offenburg on the other side. At the same time St. Cyr debouched from Neu-Briesach, pushing Ney towards Burkheim, as if to communicate with St. Suzanne. Giulay, after making some resistance at Freiburg, fell back before this advance to the defiles of Neustadt, sending a detachment to Waldkirch to keep up his line with Kienmayer. De Kray, considering that these movements betokened an intention to force the gorge of Knielis, sent up reinforcements of infantry and cavalry from Villingen, and called in an equal force from Stockach and Engen to replace them in his camp; but on the 27th St. Suzanne suddenly recrossed the Rhine by the bridge of Kehl and marched along the left bank to Neu-Briesach; when there he again crossed to the right bank, while Moreau, with the corps of reserve, advanced on Lauffenburg and Schonau. St. Cyr, making way for St. Suzanne, marched off to St Blaize on the Alb, and on the 28th forced the Col de Neuhof below Feldberg. General Delmas was pushed forward by Moreau to make the passage of the Alb, where the Archduke Ferdinand held Albruck strongly entrenched; but the Republicans, under the Adjutant-General Cohorn, had already got to his highness’s rear, and obliged him to retreat in such haste, that he omitted to destroy the bridge, which the French immediately crossed, while the Arch­duke fell back on Thiengen in order to join his countrymen near Schaffhausen. Moreau had thus completely deceived his opponent. By threatening the passage of the river opposite Kienmayer, he had drawn De Kray’s attention to that quarter, and he now brought an overwhelming force into the mountains opposite the Austrian left, turning by their sources the valleys of the Wiesen, the Alb, and the Wutach.

9. Battle of Engen. 3 May 1800 

De Kray, retaining his first impressions, strengthened Kienmayer on his right to 30,000 men, and as he still left the Prince of Reuss in the Voralberg with 25,000 more, he had only 40,000 men left to defend himself against the French General, who now advanced upon him at the head of 70,000 men.

Moreau employed the 29th and 30th in rectifying his line.

St. Suzanne had reached the Val d’Enfer on the 30th. St. Cyr had marched down from his position on Stühlingen, whence General Lindenau withdrew. Lecourbe had arranged with the General-in-Chief to remain ready to cross the Rhine on the 1st of May. In the night, therefore, he concentrated all his corps behind Reichlingen, having collected there twenty-five boats, and placed thirty-four pieces of artillery in battery to cover the passage, but De Kray had withdrawn the troops from between Schaffhausen and Constance, and there was no opposition except from the outposts of General Kospoth and the Prince of Lorraine on the river banks. The divisions Molitor and Vandamme accordingly crossed, and immediately occupied the roads that led to Engen and Stockach. The brigade Goulu crossed at Paradis, near Schaffhausen, and encountered some resistance at the village of Busingen. With very little interruption, therefore, the French troops made their way to operate a junction, and in passing captured the fort of Hohentweil on the Aach, by which means they secured a place armed with thirty-six guns, which protected the direct communications of De Kray with the Prince of Reuss. The moment, however, had now arrived when the passage of the Rhine having been effected, it had become necessary for the Imperialists to offer an effectual resistance to the descent of the French into the valley of the Danube, and Moreau was not aware that his adversary was so much on the alert as he proved to be. On the 3rd of May, at break of day, Lecourbe was already in march, and the brigade of Molitor had even arrived between Singen and Steuslingen, when he came upon a body of 9000 Austrians under the Prince of Lorraine: these retired as the French advanced, but Molitor, instead of following them, threw his men into a by-road that led by Neuzingen to Wahlwies, while Montrichard and Nansouty with a strong body of cavalry, got before the Austrians on the road to Ossingen. The Imperialists, outflanked on both sides, were obliged to fall back behind Stockach ; but the French followed them up so quickly, that in an instant they were all thrown into confusion and dispersed, flying with haste to Möskirch, and leaving 4000 men and 8 guns behind them, with the possession of considerable magazines that had been formed at Stockach. The division Lorges, destined to keep up the communications between Lecourbe and the General-in-Chief, marched in column of brigades: that of Goulu, clearing the ground between Engen and Stockach, arrived at the latter place when the fight was over; the other, under Lorges himself, united itself with Moreau. While these things were going on, Field-Marshal De Kray arrived at Engen with his entire force; but, desirous of collecting there the division of General Giulay and Prince Ferdinand, he halted, sending the division of Baillet to strengthen Nauendorf, who was already aux prises with the division of Lorges at Weiterdingen; but the division of Delmas coming up to the assistance of Lorges, Nauendorf found himself outnumbered, and fell back on Welst-Engen, leaving many prisoners behind him. As it was only midday when he was informed of this, De Kray, although ignorant of what had occurred at Stockach, determined to support his lieutenant and withstand his adversary on the ground he occupied; but Moreau, aware of the advantages he had already gained, sent Delmas to storm a remarkable height behind Welst-Engen, called Hoherihowen, and Nauendorf, obliged to relinquish the post, fell back again across the stream below it at Neuenhausen and Ghirgen. During this time symptoms of a heavy engagement were heard on the other side of Engen, where the division Richepanse had marched from Blumenfeld, but had been restrained by Kray from advancing beyond Wolterdingen, and was very nearly overcome until Baraguay d’Hilliers arrived to his aid from Riedeschingen. Kray skilfully availed himself of all the advantages afforded him by the ground, and hoped to crush Richepanse and Baraguay d’Hilliers before Delmas could arrive to their assistance; with a view, therefore, of preventing this junction, he desired Nauendorf to retake Welst-Engen.

Moreau, who saw the doubtful issue of the combat, and the necessity of some energetic movement before nightfall to reestablish it, advanced the carabineers of Bontems and the reserve of Nansouty, and ordered Lorges to send forward five battalions and a brigade of carabineers against the village of Eheigen. Bontems gallantly led his horse on in despite, of the fire of twelve guns in battery, and took the village; but Nauendorf, bringing up his reserve of grenadiers and all his cavalry, drove back the Republicans in great disorder and with considerable loss. Moreau sent up, in support, the division Bastoul and the cavalry of Hautpoult, but they failed to regain the ground before night put an end to the combat St. Cyr, supported by Ney, had during the whole day been contending against the Archduke Ferdinand on the left, at Leipfertingen, on the banks of the Wutach, who resisted gallantly every attack until nightfall, when he retired in good order, and closed in upon the main army at Stetten. Both sides now received intelligence of what had occurred at Stockach, which, while it encouraged the Republicans to renew the attack, determined to Kray to retreat. The Archduke was accordingly ordered to fall back in the night on Tuttlingen, and the rest of the army on Liptingen and Möskirch. Giulay, who had been engaged without effect on a distant flank with the division Thurreau, rejoined the Archduke in the night, who was likewise reinforced at this juncture by 3000 or 4000 Bavarians under General Wrede, and took up a position at Buchheim. Kray now sent pressing orders to Kienmayer and Sztarray to join him, and determined to concentrate his forces in order to defend the position he had now assumed at Möskirch. Moreau resolved, however, to anticipate this junction, and to make the most of his present advantages by attacking the Imperialists before they could get up their reinforcements.

10. Battle of Möskirch. 5 May 1800

The position taken up by De Kray at Möskirch was an exceedingly strong one. The high roads from Engen and Stockach here unite, and mount the base of the plateau of Krumbach, which it skirts to the left, and then descends into a long defile of wood, at the end of which is seen Möskirch on the right and Hendorf on the left De Kray took up his ground between these two villages or towns; the Prince of Lorraine with his skirmishers, in the wood of Brechtlingen, rested his left on the Ablach, a rocky stream running towards Memingen; Nauendorf occupied Hendorf with his centre; and the Archduke Ferdinand was already at Buchheim on the right. The head-quarters were established at Rohrdorf. The French were supposed to number 40,000 foot and 15,000 horse. The entire position was crowned with formidable artillery. Moreau ordered Lecourbe to attack his old adversary the Prince of Lorraine; Van damme to advance by Closterwald; and Montrichard, Nansouty, and d’Hautpoult by the chaussée from Stockach. St Cyr was ordered to form the left, and to move up from Lipptingen. The divisions Delmas, Bastoul, and Richepanse formed the reserve. On the 5th of May, at daybreak, the French army was in movement, and Kray, as soon as he was informed of it, advanced a battery of twenty-five guns to the plateau of Krumbach, where he also deployed eighteen battalions to receive the enemy. Montrichard had succeeded, about nine o’clock, in driving in the Austrian advanced posts, but no sooner did the heads of his columns show themselves on the edge of the plateau, than the fire of the battery drove them back to the protection of the wood. Lecourbe endeavoured to establish eighteen guns to silence the enemy’s battery, and the French cavalry were sent forward to capture it, but both attempts failed. General Lorges tried to force the position at the side of Hendorf, and engaged in a sharp contest in the wood, and those that succeeded in forcing their way through this obstacle came upon the heights about Hendorf and Möskirch, bristling with twenty-five guns, that poured down grape and shell upon their heads. De Kray, encouraged by his success, now attempted to assume the offensive, and sent forward twelve battalions to Wondorf to open the way for the arrival of the Archduke Ferdinand. They encountered the troops of Lorges advancing again for the attack of Hendorf, and after a stout conflict the French at length obtained possession of that village. Vandamme at this moment brought up his division out of the wood of Walpertsweifer and sent Molitor forward to make an attack upon Möskirch, in rear of the Austrian corps, who were in advance at Krumbach. The Austrians defended the town with crossed bayonets, and altogether barred entrance until Lecourbe sent up Montrichard to the attack, who drove the enemy through the town, joining Molitor at the opposite end of it. Both of these divisions now pushed on, supported by the cavalry of Hautpoult and Nansouty, until they were stopped at Rohrdorf by Nauendorf, who was posted there with forty pieces of cannon. Kray, with great quickness of vision, saw that there was between Vandamme’s attack and that of Lorges a considerable space, and in order to obtain time to establish a junction with the Archduke, he resolved, with his reserve from Rohrdorf, to attack Lorges at Hendorf, whom he drove completely across the ravine of the Ablach, the attack being opportunely supported by the Bavarians at Altheim. Moreau, coming up with the reserve, saw at once from the side of the firing the danger that was impending, and rapidly moved forward his troops. The division of Delmas first came up to the support of Lecourbe, but the Archduke, effecting at this moment his junction with Kray’s army, fell on the division of Delmas, and drove it in. Moreau then ordered up the division Bastoul to make a charge of foot, which enabled Delmas to stand the shock. Kray now, therefore, turned upon the division of Bastoul, in the ravine behind Krumbach. The fight raged along this ravine as far as Altheim, when Moreau came back to the field, bringing up with him the divi­sion Richepanse. De Kray, now finding himself outnumbered, withdrew all his troops to Buchheim and Rohrdorf; and Moreau bivouacked on the field of battle. Thus, after a loss of nearly 6000 men on both sides, no great result was obtained, and no trophy gained; yet at Krumbach, at Hendorf, at Möskirch and at Altheim, the French had in the end obtained an effectual mastery. De Kray therefore resolved to place the Danube between himself and his adversary, and carried his whole army across the river at Mengen, where he joined Keinmayer and Sztarray. Moreau had obtained vast magazines by the success of these operations, which enabled him to march on, without stopping, on the 7th and 8th of May, always resting his left flank on the Danube, but making occasional halts to enable the corps of St. Suzanne to come up with him. On the other hand, the Austrian General-in-Chief, now in security as to position, consulted his generals as to his future movements, and the majority decided that he should again recross the Danube to save the magazines at Biberach and Memingen, and should strive to effect a junction, if possible, with the Prince of Reuss behind the Iller.

11. Affair at Biberach.— The Austrians entrench themselves at Ulm

In the night of the 6th and 7th the Austrian army accordingly crossed the Danube at Riedlingen, and advanced next day on Biberach. This town is situated on the river Riess, over which there is a bridge, but the valley is so exceedingly marshy, that it is not to be passed by a horse anywhere. The approach to this level is across a mountain bulwark called the Galgenberg, and after passing the town, in the fort there is a similar block of high ground called Mettenberg. The Austrians had hardly formed their camp at Biberach, about midday on the 8th, when they came in contact with the advance of the French on the Galgenberg. In order to afford the means of removing the magazines, the Archduke Ferdinand was sent forward to occupy Mittel-Biberach; but the position was extremely hazardous, with the great ravine of the Riess in his rear. Moreau happened to be absent from the army, having gone to hasten forward St Suzanne’s corps, and St Cyr was in temporary command. He accordingly sent forward the divisions of Thurreau and Richepanse, with fifteen guns, who fell so heavily on those troops placed on the Galgenberg, that De Kray could only save his advance by hasty reinforcements, and then as hastily withdrew the whole through Biberach, sacrificing three magazines, and losing 2000 men. He had fortunately given orders to the Prince of Lorraine to remove the stores from Memingen, which he accomplished by transferring them to Ulm, whither he transported his whole army; and he forthwith entrenched his camp near that place, and collected in it nearly 80,000 men and 12,000 horses, to await there the further movements of his adversary.

12. The First Consul, in command of the Army of Reserve, crosses the St. Bernard

The First Consul, though he had found General Moreau neither obedient to his will nor accommodating to his wishes, was well pleased to find the troops of the Republic successfully established on the banks of the Danube. He was now prepared on every side for the great coup that he was about to launch against the enemy. Even the reverses of the army of Italy had, in some measure, advanced that object by drawing the Austrian Commander-in-Chief away from Piedmont; for not only was Melas on the Var, and intent on the pursuit of Suchet, but General Kaim had been ordered to beat up General Thurreau’s quarters, and was therefore removed from the path that Bonaparte desired to keep clear for his grand expedition. While Moreau was yet absent from his army, Carnot, to whom had been intrusted the portfolio of war in the absence of Berthier (still in command of the army of reserve), arrived at the army on the Danube, being himself the authority and the messenger to the Commander-in-Chief to send General Lorges to join Moncey at the Mont St. Gothard, whither that general accordingly repaired with 20,000 men on the 13th of May.

In the meanwhile, the First Consul worked day and night to get forward his preparations, which embraced the most minute details. It was the ardour of Bonaparte’s character which effected these gigantic operations,—corresponding, organising, providing, equipping: he never regarded the minutest details to be below the swoop of his genius.

It was of the first moment that the enemy should be kept in ignorance of the real strength and destination of the army which Berthier’s indefatigable activity was collecting between Dijon and the Alps; and so effectual was the deceit, that the Austrian spies made the subject a matter of ridicule throughout Europe, as if a few battalions of conscripts could relieve the exigencies of Massena.

On the 6th, the First Consul quitted Paris, having now prepared everything for his expedition into Italy, by a path across the Alps unexpected by the enemy, and which had been well reconnoitred and considered, and the most extensive preparations made that the passage should be effected quickly and successfully. Every pass across the great mountain chain had been canvassed: the way by the St Gothard had been deemed too circuitous, and that by Mont Cenis was too near the Austrian line of operations; the Simplon required to be approached through the Valais, for which there was not time; accordingly the Pass of the St Bernard was, after great consideration, the point determined upon. Bonaparte awaited with impatience the report of the Engineer-General Marescot, whom he had sent to reconnoitre the ground, and after passing the troops in review on the road, he repaired to Geneva to receive the General’s report. “Eh bien! peut-on passer?” “Oui, General, mais avec peine. Je regarde l’operation comme très-difficile.” “Difficile, soit, mais est-elle possible?” “Je le crois, mais avec des efforts extraordinaires.”  Eh bien, partons.” An interval of time was yet, however, required to allow Moncey to descend into Italy by the Pass of the St. Gothard; and accordingly Bonaparte, to disguise his intentions, gave out that he would hire a house at Geneva, to be at hand to provide against the exigencies of Suchet and Thurreau. With that versatility of mind which was so wonderful in him, even when engrossed in the mightiest conceptions, he occupied himself at Geneva with the conversation of the famous Necker (who still resided at Coppet), and in other ordinary pursuits. But on the 18th he repaired to Lausanne, where he passed in review the vanguard of his army: here Carnot joined him, with the account of the victory at Möskirch and the assurance that Lorges was already on his march through the Alps. He had ordered 180,000 rations of biscuit to be baked as he passed Lyons, giving out that they were for the fleet. These were now covertly employed to form a magazine at Villeneuve, at the end of the Lake of Geneva. Artillery and ammunition were secretly carried into the mountains from Besançon, Auxerre, Grenoble and Brianson, upon pretence of a review; for not only was he desirous of concealing his intentions from the enemy, but the new constitution of the year VIII had distinctly provided that the First Consul should not command armies; although its wise creators had established no punishment for disobedience of this provision, nor given to any one the power of checking its neglect. Perhaps a battle of Marengo could done have obliterated any enactment of the kind. A hundred large trees were felled and hollowed to convey the guns by sledges, and the soldiers were silently provided with six days’ provisions in their haversacks; and sumpter mules, collected from the valleys, accompanied the army with subsistence for six days more; the peasants were everywhere organised to carry shot and shell, and the ammunition was securely packed in little boxes, so as to be conveyed on the backs of beasts of burthen.

The passage of the Great St. Bernard, lying north of Mont Blanc, has been used as the principal line of traffic between France and Italy for many thousand years. It is approached from Martigny in the Valais by St. Pierre, to which village it is practicable for wheels, but thence to Aosta it is merely a foot or bridle-path, following the sinuosities of the valleys that lead to the summit, 8000 feet above the sea, where is situated the celebrated convent, founded a thousand years ago by the humanity of the illustrious saint whose name it bears. Here pious and intrepid monks have for ages fixed their abode to rescue from danger and destruction travellers who may be overwhelmed with the snow in this elevated region, in which avalanches are frequent and fatal. At Aosta the steep and rugged descent terminates, and along the smiling plains of Italy the road is again excellent, leading direct upon Turin and Milan.

On the 16th of May, the army having been silently advanced from Dijon to Villeneuve, on the Lake of Geneva, at the foot of the mountain, moved forward up the steep from St. Pierre on the 17th, the division of Lannes leading. The First Consul slept, in the midst of the troops, at the Convent of St. Maurice, where he fixed his head-quarters till the 20th. When the whole army had passed, after an ascent of twelve hours, they reached the hospice. Here the foresight of the General-in-Chief had availed himself of the hospitality of the convent to provide an ample refreshment of bread and cheese and wine,—a seasonable supply, which exhausted the ample stores of the establishment, but was afterwards justly repaid to them by the authorities. The troops, forgetting their fatigues, rent the air with acclamations, and after an hour’s rest the army again moved forward. The descent was even more dangerous than the ascent: the snow, hard enough beneath, was beginning to melt on the surface, and both men and horses repeatedly lost their footing, and some were precipitated down the steep and perilous descent, even to St. Remi. The advanced guard at length reached Etroubles, where they came upon the first Austrian outpost. It was impossible that more than 7000 or 8000 men could cross in a day; nevertheless Lannes pushed on, and reached Aosta the second evening, and the village of Chatillon on the 19th, but when a little farther on he was stopped by the Fort du Bard, which effectually hindered all further progress. Loison came following after Lannes, and Berthier soon arrived after him; but the first report of the nature of the obstacle that the Fort du Bard presented, had a discouraging effect upon the whole army. The First Consul, deeming all his difficulties surmounted, was descending the Italian declivity of the mountain, when he received the engineer Marescot’s report, that the fort could not be carried by a coup de main, and that by no exertions would it be possible to construct a road, practicable for artillery, beyond the range of the guns of the fort It was the 20th before Bonaparte reached Aosta. He had crossed the range on the back of a sure-footed mule, attended by a young and active guide; but, with all the experience and care of such a one, he often did down considerable depths at very great hazard, and eventually descended with considerable difficulty. To those, however, who remember David’s celebrated picture of the passage of the Alps by Bonaparte, on a rampant charger, amidst storms and snow, the true picture appears mean and undignified; French exaggeration, however, always overcharges the picture, and has loved to mark the enterprise as one which had never been undertaken but by three renowned leaders of great historical fame. One is called upon, therefore, to bring to memory that the passage of Suwarrow over the St. Gothard in the previous year, in face of a resolute enemy, was far more hazardous, and merited more glory, and that the passage by Hannibal, in opposition to the mountain tribes, was infinitely more difficult. The merit of Bonaparte’s enterprise was its hardy conception, and the wonderful secrecy and forethought by which he was enabled to fall upon an enemy who were without the slightest idea of an invasion from that quarter, and who could not comprehend an expedition that was far beyond the limited comprehension of the military genius of ordinary generals.

As soon as the First Consul heard that the advance was checked by an obstacle that appeared to some to be insurmountable, he hastened to the front, and clambering across the rocks of Albaredo, which commanded the fort on the left bank of the Dora Baltea, reconnoitred with his own eyes the inconsiderable fortification below him, which yet, he could not deny, was a more serious obstacle than the mountain had proved to be. The Fort du Bard is situated on a pyramidal rock midway in the slope, is constructed of masonry, and armed with twenty guns, which completely commands the narrow road that leads directly under the ramparts, and through a single range of cottages just standing above the bed of the Dora Baltea, the whole space for village and stream not exceeding fifty or sixty yards. Lannes had summoned the fort on his first arrival before it, and its commandant, Captain Bernkopf, had replied to the summons with spirit, but was not sufficiently on the alert, so that in the night of the 21st, some companies of French introduced themselves into the village and lowered the drawbridge; but the garrison retired into the fort on the rock above, and from its secure casemates kept up an incessant fire on every soldier that showed himself. Bonaparte himself, Lannes, Marescot, and every French officer and soldier racked their brains in vain to suggest a means of getting past this dreadful obstacle to the passage of the army. At length, on the 23rd, contrary to the advice of Marescot, Bonaparte ordered an escalade. General Loison headed the grenadiers, who, under the eyes of the First Consul, threw themselves against the revetement; but the most daring courage was all in vain,—round shot, grape shot, musketry, did their work effectually, and 200 killed and wounded (among the latter of whom was Loison himself) obliged the General-in-Chief to renounce the enterprise. In the meanwhile Lannes had discovered a goat-path, out of the reach of the batteries, along which he passed some infantry and cavalry, and with them he advanced on the 22nd, to Ivrea, across Monte Strutto. Here the advance, under Watrin, encountered the Austrian brigade of Briez, with 2500 men, whom he drove back to Borgofranco, making some prisoners.

But Bonaparte chafed at the impossibility of getting forward his cannon, and vainly pushed forward reconnaissances on every side to seek another outlet. At length, as time pressed, it was determined to employ artifice, and to take advantage of the darkness of the night boldly to pass the artillery through the village itself; dung was collected and spread upon the road, the wheels of the guns were wrapped in straw, the horses sent by the mountain paths, and the stalwart arms of the grenadiers and the soldiery carried the guns through the village on trucks in complete silence. In this way, on the 25th, some 40 guns and 100 tumbrils were passed successfully, notwithstanding some fire-balls and hand-grenades, by which some few men were killed at random, but one tumbril unfortunately exploded, which, however, did not arrest the passage for a moment. Lannes now ordered Ivrea, in which Briez with his brigade had shut himself, to be assaulted on its three sides, and he himself led the attack on the 26th, when the French troops rushed in with loud shouts, the Austrian troops retiring precipitately towards Chiusella, where they joined General Haddick’s division.

It was the 27th, before the whole French army, 36,000 strong, was collected around Ivrea. The infantry comprised three corps d’armée under Lannes, Duchesne, and Victor; Murat commanded the cavalry; and Chabran, with one division, remained behind to blockade the Fort du Bard, which, in fact, held out till the 5th of June. Bonaparte now received advices from Suza and Fenestrelles that General Thurreau had crossed Mont Cenis, and was skirting the foot of the mountains towards Novallese; that General Bethencourt, who had wound down the Simplon on the left of the army, was at Domo d’Ossola with Gravellona, pushing the Austrian brigade of Landon before him. Lechi was therefore sent by the First Consul to obtain information respecting General Moncey, who was, in truth, now descending the St. Gothard, in spite of all the opposition of the brigade of Dedovich to retard his march.

13. Bonaparte enters Milan.

To General Haddick had been intrusted by Melas the duty of closing and watching the passes of the Alps; who now, sending off to the General-in-Chief advices of this serious inundation of the enemy into the plains of Piedmont, eight battalions and thirty squadrons were hastily collected to cover the approaches to Turin. Lannes was immediately sent against the Austrians to attack them in the position they had assumed behind the bridge of Chiusella. The position was strong, and a well-directed artillery received the attack; but in spite of it, Colonel Macon reached the bridge by marching up the bed of the stream. Here General Palfy was struck down dead at the head of the Austrian cavalry, in vainly endeavouring to stop the French column, who carried the bridge in face of a vigorous resistance, and drove them back to Ro­mano. Haddick, in consequence, retired behind the Oreo at Foglizzo. This opened the way to Lannes to advance on Turin, but he adroitly turned from the capital, and pushed for the Po at Chivasso, where he made himself master of a flotilla of boats, of which the French army had the greatest need, for they were necessarily unprovided with any bridge equipage. Bonaparte now adopted a course that, while it quite bewildered the Austrian General, could not fail to produce a great moral impression in Italy, and would facilitate his junction with Moncey and the divisions coming through the Alps, and raise his force to 50,000 men. Leaving Lannes, therefore, at Chivasso, the First Consul advanced Murat to the Ticino, where he arrived on the 30th of May, and where he was shortly followed by the divisions of Loison and Victor. On the 31st Murat came up against the Imperial cavalry of Festenberg, and the corps of Wukassovitch, and drove them across the river to Turbigo. On the 1st of June, he passed the division of Bondet to Buffalora; and on the 2nd Bonaparte, marching with the advanced guard, entered Milan, to the surprise of the garrison in the fort and to the immense astonishment of Melas in the field.

The first rumours of the French army marching into Italy found the Austrian Chief intent on entering France by storming the bridge over the Var, and crushing Suchet. So brilliant a campaign would afford him leisure to turn his army either against Provence or Switzerland, as might hereafter be determined on. At first, the information that reached him on the 13th of May, was that the army of reserve had quitted Dijon. He naturally surmised that the object of this movement was to raise the siege of Genoa, and he looked out for the appearance of the French troops in his front; but he himself made no movement till the 18th, when General Kaim reported to him the arrival of a considerable force in the Valais. Melas accordingly sent off the brigade of Knesevitch to assist Kaim, while he himself fell back to Nice with the brigade of Auersberg. He left Elsnitz with 18,000 men to watch Suchet, who had with him 12,000 in the tete du pont on the Var, where he strengthened himself by every means of art. Elsnitz had not at first any artillery with him, but the General-in-Chief sent him some guns by water from Nice, and he then gallantly determined to assault the bridge, but in this attempt he signally failed.

14. Genoa surrenders to the Austrian General Melas.

Report on report now reached Melas, and he learned with such surprise the arrival of General Bonaparte with the French army on the plains of Italy, that he could not believe the fact until it had been corroborated to him from the authorities at Milan. At Coni, on the 22nd, he learned the capture of Ivrea by Lannes, and Thurreau’s attack on Suza, but he could not comprehend the intent and object of these events. The affair at Chiusella, and the disaster that had happened to Palfy and his brigade of horse on the 26th, with the apparent intention of the French to march on Turin, induced Melas to recall Elsnitz in great haste to Fossano, where he would be at hand either to assist him against Bonaparte or to march to the assistance of General Ott before Genoa. The Austrian General was so intent on the expected advance of the Republican army on Turin, that he was not aware that Lannes, after attacking Chirazzo, had suddenly marched away to Pavia, situated at the junction of the Ticino and the Po, and where there was the principal depot of the Austrian army, with a quantity of guns, muskets, and ammunition, which that General had in truth surprised and taken.

The garrison of Genoa was at its last gasp, and it required all the address of Massena to maintain order amidst the starving population of the city. On the 26th, two officers, who had evaded the enemy’s outposts, brought the news to Massena that Bonaparte was on the 20th at the Italian side of the St Bernard, coming on to his relief. Nevertheless, there was every apprehension that the famished garrison would be overpowered by the multitudes of starving inhabitants, who had risen in despair, and with unwonted courage. While matters were in this desperate state, the French General heard, on the 31st, that a flag of truce was at the gates. The Adjutant-General Andrieux was sent to meet it. It was a letter from the General-in-Chief Melas, couched in the most flattering terms, and offering a capitulation. This proposition appeared to Massena to be ill timed, and he declined it; but the same night a severe bombardment, both by sea and land, shook his firmness, and the condition of his troops and the aspect of the people drove him to compliance, so that on the 4th he agreed to the surrender of Genoa, with the sole stipulation that the garrison, 8000 or 9000 strong, should be conveyed by land or sea to Antibes. The same evening the Austrian troops took possession of the gates. The next day the garrison marched out, with General Gazan at its head, and were regaled with some good sustenance, of which they stood in great need, at the outposts, and Massena, embarking in an open boat, made the best of his way by water to join General Suchet’s army. The defence had done honour to the French arms. The city was not surrendered until half the defenders had succumbed to wounds or sickness; the second in command, Soult, had been made prisoner, and grievously wounded; and eight other generals, eleven colonels, and three fourths of the officers had been put hors de combat. Out of compliment to the defence, the Austrian General omitted the word “ Capitulation ” from the terms conceded for the surrender, so that French vanity was thus reconciled to the sight of the Imperial flag waving over the walls of Genoa.

Melas had seen the necessity of concentrating his army without a moment’s delay, and had fixed upon Alessandria for the trysting place. Kaim was withdrawn to Casale, where he forthwith strengthened the tête du pont over the Po. Wukassovitch had orders to defend the passage of the Ticino. Raddick, leaving a garrison at Turin, under General Nimptsch, marched up by Asti. Ott received the most positive orders to raise the siege of Genoa; but the British Admiral, Lord Keith, had a voice in that question, and urged the Austrian General to disobey the order, which had the effect, in fact, of hastening the capitulation, and of smoothing over the pre­judices of Massena, by which we have seen he was led to terms; but no sooner was the place surrendered than, leaving Hohenzollern with sixteen battalions to garrison the city, Ott marched away the besieging force to Tortona.

15.  Battle of Montebello. 9 June 1800

Bonaparte, having issued proclamations and reorganised the republic at Milan, now sent away detachments to endeavour to surprise Peschiera and Mantua, which was somewhat rash and hazardous in him; nevertheless, he was willing to dally for five or six days in the Capuan delights of Milan, for no one better understood the necessity of interchanging the delights with the severities of war to the soldiers. This delay enabled him also to welcome the arrival of Moncey’s corps d’armée; and, as soon as he had effected this junction, he immediately resolved to march his army from Milan to encounter Melas. The Fort du Bard having surrendered, Chabran, set at liberty, was sent to keep watch over Piedmont; and Lorges was now left to blockade the Castle of Milan and guard Lombardy. On the 7th, the First Consul quitted Milan, and took up his head­quarters at Pavia; and Lannes, having collected boats sufficient, moved forward the division Watrin to pass the Po, who took up a position threatening the great communications from Alessandria to Piacenza.

On this same day Elsnitz had reached Ceva, but had been so pressed and punished by Suchet in his retreat, that his division, lessened by several thousands, was disorganised, and hardly able to maintain its place in the line. Melas was therefore constrained to draw from Genoa every disposable man, and to leave the defence of that city to some 3000 sick, who could undertake no other duty. Gavi, which was still occupied by French troops, was kept blockaded by some Alpine volunteers, while the Austrian block­ading force was drawn in towards Alessandria. General O’Reilly, with the Imperial cavalry, was sent off in haste to defend the pas­sage of the Po near Piacenza, and Ott and Hohenzollern were pushed forward in the same direction. Kaim had arrived at Alessandria, and Elsnitz, getting clear of Suchet, reached Asti on the 10th or 11th.

The First Consul had now a most difficult game to play against his adversary. He held Milan and the Ticino, it is true, while he also threatened the great road by Piacenza; and, so long as he occupied Pavia and the Stradella, Melas could not pass into Lombardy, unless he could dislodge the French army. Nevertheless the enemy were upon all his communications with France. Watrin was attacked fiercely at St Cipriano, at the moment of passing the river, by General Molitor and the Prince of Taxis; but as soon as the brigade of Gency had been got over at Albaredo, Lannes attacked, in his turn, and the Austrian division was forced to withdraw. Murat advanced from Lodi, but as the troops ordered to Piacenza by Melas had not yet arrived, he found the tete du pont there merely armed by six guns, and garrisoned by about 200 men. These he immediately assaulted, but without success. However, the Austrian General Mosel, who commanded in the town, withdrew those troops from the bridge in the night, just as O’Reilly arrived with the Imperial cavalry. In the meantime Murat, ignorant of the evacuation of the tête du pont, had assembled some boats at Nocetto, where he crossed the river. The divisions Chambailhac, Gardanne, and Mounier were concentrated near La Stradella, and were apprised that they might at any time expect to have some 15,000 or 18,000 Austrians on their hands coming from Genoa. O’Reilly saw that he was unequal to oppose the accumulation of troops around Piacenza, but he also feared for the great force of artillery that was following in his wake, and he apprehended very reasonably that some of Lannes’ division would intercept it at Broni. He therefore exerted himself to keep Watrin in check while the guns reached Tortona in safety on the night of the 7th-8th June. Ott was delayed at Voghera till the 8th by the waters of the Scrivia, which had swollen so much in one night that he could not lay a bridge over; but next day he united himself with O’Reilly at Casteggio, forming a corps of twenty-six battalions and fifteen squadrons, or about 16,000 men, exactly at the point where Bonaparte expected an enemy. Here they were drawn up in a most advantageous position, die right resting on some heights which are spurs of the great Apennine range, and command the great road leading to Tortona. Bonaparte was himself at the Stradella to witness the junction, and sent back to hasten the march of Victor, while he directed Lannes to call in Murat, and to defend stoutly every approach against himself until their arrival.

Ott, in the impression that his adversary was but a rear-guard of the French retreating upon Mantua, hastened to direct the division of Vogelsang to assail the heights on his right, and Schellenburg to march against the town of Casteggio in the plain, while he held Montebello with his reserve. Watrin defended this last with difficulty, in face of the Austrian superiority in artillery, and Gottesheim in the hills had driven back the French battalions when the head of Victor’s column arrived on the ground. This changed the whole state of affairs, and gave the Republicans the superiority; nevertheless, Ott held his own until Victor brought up the whole of his division, when he ordered a retreat, and O’Reilly, who covered it, had some difficulty to get through Casteggio; but the Imperialists retired in good order to San Giuliano, throwing in as they passed by a garrison of 1000 men into Tortona. The Austrians lost in this action near 3000 killed and wounded, and 1500 prisoners. But Bonaparte arrived on the ground before the close of the battle, and highly complimented Lannes, who obtained great praise for his success, which procured for him in after years his tide of Duke of Montebello.

Bonaparte had now his head-quarters at La Stradella, a remarkable position, so called from the narrowness of the defile occasioned by the approximation of the mountains and river at that spot; and ground singularly well adapted to compensate his inferiority to the enemy in cavalry and artillery. Here he remained the three following days, concentrating and organising his troops for the impending battle that was now become imminent He was thus occupied when his old Egyptian comrade, Dessaix, with his aides-de-camp Savary and Rapp, arrived in the camp. He had quarrelled with Kleber, and had in consequence quitted the banks of the Nile; and burning ardently to serve again under his old chief, whom he was sincerely attached to and much valued, he came up with head­quarters on the 12th. The First Consul immediately made a corps d’armée of the divisions Mounier and Boudet, and gave Dessaix the command. Melas arrived on the 10th at Alessandria, where he learned the disastrous issue of the affair of Montebello, and, on a calm revision of the difficulties that surrounded him, he also considered that it was only by the hazard of a battle that he could get out of them. He now collected around him 31,000 men, of whom 7000 were cavalry, and 200 pieces of artillery. He saw in his front the French army 60,000 strong, closing all access into Lombardy. In his rear, Suchet, having rallied to his standard the garrison of Genoa, was now driving Elsnitz before him, and occupying all the passes of the Alps. These hemmed him in on the left, and the Apennines on the right. He therefore resolved to give battle, and open a way by his good sword, to escape from the corner into which he had become suddenly ensconced. Having formed this resolution, he gave orders to Elsnitz and Hohenzollern to join him quickly, and despatched a request to the British Admiral, Lord Keith, to accelerate the approach of 12,000 English, who had arrived at Minorca.

Bonaparte’s force before Melas was 29,000, of which 3600 were horse. Since the 9th, he had obtained no intelligence of his adversary, and concluded that he was meditating an escape, either from the side of Genoa or by way of the Ticino; in his impatience, therefore, he determined to go forward and look after him; accordingly, on the 12th, he moved his head-quarters to Voghera, and on the 13th crossed the Scrivia below Tortona. On arriving at San Giuliano, he could learn no intelligence of the position of the Austrian army; he therefore pushed Dessaix the same evening to Rivalta, on the road to Novi, and gave Victor orders to march forward to Marengo. Gardanne, who commanded the advance of the latter, here fell upon O’Reilly in the village, and drove him to the banks of the Bormida, establishing his advanced post for the night at the farm of Padrebona. The First Consul slept on the 13th at Torre di Garafolo. Nothing was yet known positively of Melas, and Bonaparte felt anxious for the return of some of his troops, and for the coming up of those still on the left of the Po, whom he was now anxious should arrive in line. In the course of the night, therefore, he called back Dessaix from the road to Novi, and placed Lannes in echelon behind Victor’s division about Spinetta.

The plain on which the celebrated battle of Marengo was now to be fought offered no advantages of ground. The waters of the Scrivia, the Bormida, and the Tanaro, coming down from the mountain, here unite themselves with the Po in a vast and richly cultivated plain, across which the great road leading through the villages of San Giuliano and Marengo ascends a slight elevation of ground before it descends to the Bormida, which it crosses by a bridge, and then enters the strongly fortified place of Alessandria. The level of Marengo is perhaps the only one in Italy where cavalry could be brought to act with the fullest effect, for the plains of Lombardy are generally intersected either with watercourses, or with the vines intertwined with mulberry-trees, which render it difficult to deploy even a single regiment, while open cornfields and orchards offered no impediment here to the action of horse, of which the Austrians had with them 7600 in the finest order.

The expulsion of his advance out of Marengo and across the Bormida on the 13th, awakened Melas to the necessity of speedy action, and he held a council of war the same night in Alessandria. It was resolved that the Austrian army should assume the offensive, —that it should pass the river and force back the army of the First Consul, so as to be enabled to recover a free access with Mantua. The plan resolved upon was that General Ott, with 8000 men, should be pushed forward on the left, to Salo, while the General-in-Chief, with the divisions of Kaim, Haddick, Morsin and Elsnitz, numbering 20,000 men, should march direct by the high road and across the bridge on Marengo and San Giuliano, and then bringing up the right shoulders, should turn the enemy’s left, and throw him upon Ott’s line of march. O’Reilly, with 3000 men, was to act at the same time by an independent movement on La Stortiglione, covering the extreme right flank of the army. A considerable detachment, composed principally of cavalry, was posted behind the fortress, on the road to Arqui, to catch any symptoms of the arrival of Suchef’s corps, who was expected to come up from that quarter.

16. The Battle of Marengo, 14 June 1800

On the 14th of June, at break of day, the Imperial army crossed the Bormida by three bridges, under the fire of twenty guns, when O’Reilly and Haddick easily overcame the resistance offered by Gardanne and Victor, who fell rapidly back on Marengo. Haddick and Kaim deployed behind O’Reilly, and Ott marched away to his left as arranged. Bonaparte was quite taken by surprise at this attack, and it has been thought that his order of battle was ill prepared for it. He had echeloned his troops left in front, which was well suited for a retreat or for marching forward to an attack, but not for receiving an assailant. Dessaix was forthwith hastened to the front, and the First Consul was immediately on the spot. A little quaggy rivulet called Fontanone ran here, of which such considerable advantage was taken, that Victor withstood the efforts of Kaim and Haddick with heroic resolution, until Lannes, at ten o’clock, came up and restored the combat Haddick moved resolutely forward, but at this moment received his mortal wound, which discouraged his men so that they fell back, and Frimont took the command of his division, which Kaim supported and rallied. At this moment Melas received intelligence that Suchet was in full march in his rear, and had reached Acqui; but in truth it was only a detachment of light troops belonging to his corps that had got up, and therefore the Austrian General-in-Chief troubled himself and weakened his attack unnecessarily, when he detached from the field General Nimptsch, with 2200 cavalry, to keep in check this force approaching out of the Apennines. Melas, however, directed Kaim to push forward the attack, and O’Reilly at the same moment succeeded in passing the brigade of Pilati across the ravine, when Kellermann arrived with three regiments of cavalry across the head of the Austrian column, and drove them from La Stortiglione into the Fontanone.

In the meanwhile Ott, who had the greatest extent of ground to go over, had come up with the enemy’s right at Castel Ceriolo, and had fallen on the flank of Lannes, who sent against the Austrian attack the cavalry brigade of Champeaux; but, notwithstanding two brilliant charges, the Austrian column persisted in its advance, and scattered the French cavalry, whose general here received a mortal wound. Melas now ordered a third attack upon the village of Marengo, and the Austrian grenadiers, under Lattermann, entered the ravine and stormed the opposite bank of Fontanone, notwithstanding all the efforts of General Rivaud, who was wounded and taken prisoner. O’Reilly likewise overcame the obstacle, and outflanked the division of Chambailhac, who was almost crushed by the fire of the Austrian batteries, directed by General Lamarsaille. Lannes had therefore upon his hands Ott on the one side and Kaim on the other, and a boundless plain behind him, across which he withdrew steadily, in the face of a numerous cavalry and 200 guns.

It was not eleven o’clock when Bonaparte, escorted by the consular guard, arrived on the field of battle, followed by Mourner’s division. It was a most critical moment. Gardanne and Chambailhac, outflanked and crushed by the Austrian guns, were giving way. The First Consul immediately sent the brigade of Carra St Cyr from Mounier's division into Castel Ceriolo. This drew away Ott from the attack on Lannes, who was almost overwhelmed with his assault, and sent the grenadiers of the guard to restrain the Austrian cavalry. The consular guard formed square against the assaults of the dragoons of Lobkowitz, but it was overwhelmed and broken by Gottesheim, and the remnant reached the hamlet of Gli Poggi with difficulty. Ott sent Vogelsang against Mounier, and the French General was forced to abandon Castel Ceriolo and fall back on Villanova. But while Bonaparte had thus directed the division of Carra St Cyr to the relief of his right wing, his left had become a scene of the most frightful disorder. The Austrian General, Briez, had penetrated almost to San Giuliano, and if the Imperial cavalry had been now at hand, the plain must have been utterly scoured of the retiring columns; but had been sent with one portion to look after Suchet, perished with another in the marshes of Fontanone, and the brigade of Nobili was therefore the only one left upon the field. The First Consul was in consequence of the state of affairs obliged to order a retreat; but with characteristic imperturbability Lannes, Victor, Gardanue, Chambailhac, and Kellermann moved slowly and firmly across the plain, maintaining a good countenance as they successively yielded Castel Ceriolo, Villanova, and Cameria Grassa to the enemy, and occupying two hours to pass over three quarters of a league of ground.

Melas had had two horses killed under him, and had been slightly wounded; he was exhausted also with the heat of the weather, and now, thinking the victory sure, he retired to Alessandria to send off the news of his victory to the Aulic Council, while he committed the charge of the pursuit to hjs chief of the staff, De Zach. The First Consul had often cast a wistful eye for the column of Dessaix, of whom he had as yet received no report Dessaix, however, had heard the firing, and having detached Savary to Novi, where he could learn nothing of the enemy, had resolved to return with all haste towards Marengo. It was now about four o’clock, when aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp from Bonaparte reached Dessaix himself, and he at length debouched from San Giuliano and galloped upon the field. Bonaparte doubted a moment whether he should halt his army and renew the fight or employ his first division to cover his retreat. He consulted Dessaix, who replied: “If the battle be lost, it is only four o’clock, so that there is time enough to gain another.” The advice was genial to the wishes of Bonaparte. The determination to try another hit was forthwith taken, and the troops received orders to halt. The First Consul then, surrounded by his staff, rode down the line, and in one of his energetic speeches cried out, “Soldats! c’est assez reculer pour aujourd’hui. Vous savez que je couche toujours sur le champ de bataille.”

General Zach, at the head of the Imperial advance, was thinking only of his triumph, when a battery of twelve guns opened on the head of his column charged with grape, and he saw the whole French army advancing in an oblique line, extending from Castel Ceriolo to San Giuliano. Dessaix forming the left of the line, next to him Victor, and next to him Lannes, while Kellermann moved forward with the cavalry on the right. The Austrian column was utterly taken aback and confounded when the leading regiment, headed by Dessaix himself, fell upon them. He had just despatched his aide-de-camp Savary to the First Consul with this verbal report: “ Allez avertir le Général que je charge, et que j’ai besoin d’être appuyé par la cavalerie,” when he was struck by a ball in the breast, and fell from his horse. The First Consul ordered Savary to carry orders to Kellermann to charge. A vineyard whose festoons of vines, extending from tree to tree, concealed the advance from the sight of the Austrians, enabled the French General to approach the Austrians unperceived, as they moved in open column. Zach’s grenadiers, pierced by this sudden inroad, broke and fled. The cavalry, under St Julien, thinking they had fallen into an ambuscade, turned round, and threw themselves into the midst of the brigade of Lattermann, who maintained his ground until Lichtenstein fled before Kellermann, and put the whole division of Kaim into disorder. The French troops, eager to avenge the death of their general, now rushed forward impetuously on the enemy, under Bondet, who had taken charge of Dessaix’s division.

The Austrian army, without a general or chief of the staff, and vigorously attacked by the French divisions on every side, emulous of the success of Bondet, now made the best of their way to gain the bridge over the Bormida. Kaim endeavoured to stay the flight of his troops, but Kellermann’s horse, with none to oppose them, carried all before them. The brigade of Weidenfeld alone held its ground for a short time at Spinetta, and then retired in order upon Marenge. O’Reilly at length united himself to Weidenfeld, and thus succeeded in checking Bondet and Kellermann in their advance. More than 2000 Austrians, pressed on every side, surrendered, and the unfortunate De Zach, carried away in the stream, was overridden, and obliged to yield his sword to his captor.

The report of this sudden change of affairs was naturally carried with all speed to Alessandria, where General Melas was occupied in drawing up the report of the victory that he thought he had gained, and for a long time he would not permit this pleasant delusion to be destroyed, until the report of firing came nearer and nearer to his ears. He then mounted his horse and crossing by the bridge hastened to the scene of action, where he succeeded in rallying and reforming the first leaders of the flight at Marengo. By this time Carra St. Cyr had again reached Castel Ceriolo, and Villanova, Gli Poggi, and Spinetta had been reoccupied and passed by the French columns. It was seven o’clock when the First Consul sent up Bondet, Lannes, and Victor to the attack of the Imperialists, who had reformed in Marengo; but the position they held at this village was the reverse of that held by Victor in the morning. The ravine of Fontanone, instead of being in front, was in rear of the Austrians, and Melas accordingly withdrew them back towards Padrebona. Ott’s division had been directed forward by the road that led to La Ghilina, at the same time that Zach and Kaim had advanced to San Giuliano. Some of the fugitive cavalry brought the General word of what had happened to this latter column, and accordingly he halted but eventually fell back on Castel Ceriolo. Here, to his astonishment, he found a French detachment, under that same Carra St. Cyr who had defended it against him in the morning. There was but one course to pursue, which was without the loss of a moment to force the way through the village, and Vogelsang, leading the assault, cut his way through and joined Weidenfeld and O’Reilly, though the former General was severely wounded in the conflict. These were again attacked by Gardanne, supported by Kellermann and the regiment of Guides under Eugene Beauharnois. Marengo was now passed; but the confusion that reigned on the single road leading thence to the one outwork that covered the three bridges may be well imagined. Officers and men, foot and horse, guns and tumbrils, all got huddled in a heap, and many threw themselves into the Bormida; but the Austrians nevertheless offered a stout resistance, until by about ten o’clock all had crossed the river, when they destroyed the bridges, and both armies passed the night occupying the exact relative positions that they had done in the morning.

17. The Imperialists desire an Armistice.

But very different indeed was the condition of the contending forces. The Imperialists had lost 3000 prisoners and 25 guns, besides some 7000 men hors de combat, including Generals Haddick, Vogelsang, Lattermann, Belleville, Lamassaille, and Gottesheim. But the French had lost as many killed and wounded, and amongst the former the brave Dessaix, a general immensely esteemed by the army, and whose loss was greatly regretted by all his countrymen. It is said that when the news of his death was brought to Bonaparte he exclaimed: “Ah! que ne puis-je pleurer!” His body was for some time lost in a heap of killed and wounded, friends and enemies, but was at length discovered by the flowing locks which it was his fancy to wear, and it was borne with pious state to the head-quarters, whence it was afterwards carried to the convent of the St. Bernard, where a monument is erected to his memory. The Baron De Melas, as soon as he had collected the remains of his army around him, saw the embarrassment of his situation,— accustomed to rely for counsel on his Chief of the Staff, De Zach, he found at this moment of severest trial no general on whom he could repose his anxieties or seek comfort. The whole Austrian camp was in the utmost consternation: no one was willing to take on himself the responsibility of advice; but they said, “Let those who have got us into the scrape get us out of it.” Of course, however, the generals were called together, and with them Colonels Radetski and Stukerheim, who were on De Zach’s staff. It is said that one of them proposed to cut their way to Valenza, and so reach Milan; but it was replied, “If we succeed in cutting our way through, we must sacrifice the garrison of Genoa and other places in Piedmont. We had better, at all events, save these 20,000 men.” The night was far spent in these discussions; but before daybreak it was essential to come to some decision. There was no earthly necessity for the Austrian General to throw his arms in the air, and say “I am ruined”. He might have quitted Alessandria in the dawn of morning with all his lightest troops, and, falling à l’improviste upon Suchet, surprised and dispersed the French General in the Apennines, and forced his own way to Genoa, where he knew a fresh division of 12,000 British troops were ready to join him; but in fact the constant vice of employing old men in the command of armies, fatal enough in England, but ten times worse in Austria, prevented any resolution of vigour in a matter of difficulty. While Bonaparte and Dessaix, after fighting and marching the entire day, had manly fire left to fight a new battle at four o’clock in the afternoon, the sexagenarian Melas was overcome with the heat of the day, and had withdrawn to rest in his quarters. The experience of the Seven Years’ War ill compensated for the exhausted energies of sixty years of age; and nations will at length understand that to reward distinguished young officers with sedentary home employments, and to send the old and failing to the field, is a most unwise and extravagant expenditure of the military strength at their command. Melas, however, was utterly prostrated by fatigue and despondency, and therefore resolved to send Colonel Neuperg, with a flag of truce, to desire the release of General De Zach, with a view of arranging a cessation of arms. Accordingly De Zach was forthwith sent into Alessandria, and was accompanied by Berthier. After some hours’ discussion, it was at length agreed, subject to the approval of the Emperor, that the Austrian army should retire behind the Mincio, retaining Tuscany, Ferrara, and Bologna, south of the Po, and that to the north of it the space included between the Chiesa and the Mincio should be neutral ground between the armies; but that Genoa, Alessandria, and all the smaller fortresses in Piedmont, should be delivered up to the conquerors, with their artillery and stores, between the 16th and 24th of June.

Such was the famous battle of Marengo, and although the results of it were immense for the First Consul, for it eventually gave him the empire, yet the personal fame accruing to him as the victor and director of the contest has been greatly exaggerated. The battle was clearly lost at four o’clock, and had the Austrian General been where he ought to have been, there was nothing in the renewed combinations of Bonaparte which could have recovered the day; but when the Austrians were surprised, and at one blow deprived both of Melas and De Zach, so slight an event as a successful charge of cavalry was enough to change completely the state of affairs, and to convert defeat into victory. Melas, who had so shortly before had Piedmont at his feet, now took his way, humbled and disgraced, into Germany, and was never again intrusted with the command of an army in the field. He is only heard of subsequently as presiding at the court of inquiry into the conduct of Mack, in 1806, and he died in 1807.

No time was lost by the French in recovering possession of Genoa. This place had in fact been formally made over to the British Admiral, Lord Keith, when an insufficient garrison was all that the Imperialist Commander-in-Chief could spare for its protection. It was nominally in the hands of the Count De Hohenzollern, who thought himself under the obligation of honour to surrender the place as it was on the 24th of June, resisting all his Lordship’s orders to remove the guns and magazines. So rapidly, indeed, was Genoa restored to Suchet, that the British flag-ship “Minotaur” found difficulty in saving herself from capture by the French by warping beyond the mole in time. The next day General Abercrombie, with 8000 British troops, arrived off the harbour of Genoa, whither he had hastened in obedience to the urgent requisition addressed to him at Minorca by General Melas. The British Admiral, Lord Keith, had been blamed for preventing the earlier arrival of this reinforcement; but it is not very clear what were the instructions with which General Abercrombie arrived from England, or whether at that time the object of the expedition was not rather the reduction of Malta and the expulsion of the French out of Egypt, than participation in the Italian campaign; an object which may not have been within the scope of British policy, or, judging after the event, have been of the slightest advantage to a campaign already marked for disaster.

18. The First Consul returns to Paris.

Bonaparte repaired to Milan to enjoy his triumph, and appointed Jourdain regent in the dominions of the King of Sardinia.

On the 25th, Massena again returned to Genoa, and the First Consul now remitted to him the Command-in-Chief of the army of Italy, and took his departure for France. He arrived at Paris in the middle of the night of the 2nd and 3rd July, accompanied only by General Duroc and M. de Bourrienne. The next morning the whole city was in a stir to do honour to the conqueror of Italy. The cannon of the Tuileries and Montmartre announced his return. At night, Paris was spontaneously illuminated, and epigrams, laurel crowns, and crowds of people were forced upon him on every side. The greatest men have, however, some ill-wishers, and there are some who will not lose their joke, either for their friend or hero. Some of the latter proposed to give the First Consul the surname of Maringouin, which means a little stinging gnat or mosquito.

19. War in Egypt.

Bonaparte’s meeting with Dessaix would naturally have brought Egypt to his memory, where a French army yet remained in considerable peril. Kleber, with whom the command now rested, had proved himself a man of great ability. Conscious that the end and object of the French expedition to the Nile were gained, he was naturally desirous of getting it away with honour. On the last days of the previous year, Commissioners had assembled on board Sir Sidney Smith’s ship of war, which had been obliged by the weather to quit her anchorage, and go to sea. When the wind permitted the “ Tigre ” to return to port, the negotiators, tired of their place of council, landed, and repaired to carry on their conferences in the newly captured fort of El-Arisch, where, on the 24th of January, a convention was agreed to and signed, for the evacuation of Egypt by the French army. Before ratifying it, the French General called into council the generals of division, Regnier and Friant, with the brigadiers and chiefs of the engineers and artillery of his army, and it was decided unanimously,—"Qu’il serait plus avantageux d’évacuer Egypte par un traité que de tenter le sort des armes,” and accordingly General Kleber signed the treaty. To this document, however, Sir Sidney Smith declined to affix his name. Nevertheless, on the strength of its efficacy, Generals Dessaix and Davoust had quitted the French army, and sailed away for France, and, as we have seen, the former assisted and fell at the battle of Marengo. Kleber, deeming the matter concluded, made immediate arrangements for removing his army according to the treaty. It is almost impossible, however, but that rumours must have reached him very early in the transaction, that the British authorities would not permit this easy escape of the French, to carry a reinforcement to their armies on the European continent, when not only had they the command of the sea, but a considerable land force was actually on its way to enforce their surrender. A letter from the British Admiral, Lord Keith, dated on the 8th of January, at Minorca, must have reached the hands of the French General, in which he was warned that any vessels having on board French troops returning to Europe, by virtue of any capitulation, other than an unconditional surrender, would be made prisoners of war, if captured. On what day this letter did actually reach Kleber does not appear, but on the 20th of February Sir Sidney addressed to him a letter dated from the Isle of Cyprus, informing him that he had received orders which opposed the execution of the treaty of El-Arisch. General Kleber professed to be greatly indignant at this repudiation of the treaty, and, with Lord Keith’s letter printed at the head of the paper, he addressed the following animated proclamation to his army:—“Soldats! on ne repond à de telles insolences que par la victoire: préparez vous à combattre.”

20. Battle of Heliopolis.  20 March 1800.

The French General instantly required the Grand-Vizier to return with his army to the position occupied by him before the convention, and on his refusal, he marched his army, 12,000 strong, on the 20th of March, against the Turks, who were reckoned to be 50,000 men, encamped in the vicinity of El-Hanjah. Kleber, always affecting Eastern magnificence, marched out of Cairo at daylight on the morning of the 20th, clad in a splendid dress, and upon a horse apparelled with Turkish trappings; and caracoling in front of his troops, he flattered their self-love and alarmed their security, by announcing to them that they held no territory in Egypt but the soil under their feet, and that for the possession of that they must stand firm. On the march the Janissaries fell on the French advance, commanded by Generals Belliard and Dargelot, who immediately formed square, and repulsed their charge with loss. General Friant now advanced on Matarieh, built upon the ruins of the ancient Heliopolis, which was defended by some slight entrenchments which he carried after very severe fighting, when the Turkish troops under Nassyf-Pacha fled, and, without minding the rest of the army, marched off direct to Cairo. The Grand­Vizier no sooner saw his advance dispersed than he moved up his whole army to avenge their loss, and after five days’ fighting in the plains of the province of Chasquieh, during which Asiatic valour as usual strove vainly against European discipline, the Ottoman camp was carried, and the French gained an entire victory, the Turkish army flying to the desert. Nassyf-Pacha had in the meantime reached Cairo, and had there succeeded in raising the inhabitants against the French garrison, who were ruthlessly put to the sword. Kleber, on the 21st, followed after the Grand-Vizier to Belbeys and Salayeh. Here, on the 23rd, he saw not only the Turkish army in full retreat, but the Grand-Vizier himself, accompanied by some 500 followers, in the most disgraceful flight Kleber now, leaving Regnier to watch any reassemblement of the Turkish army, marched back to Cairo with a part of his force, and, on the 27th, reached the capital. He found the fanaticism of the Beys assembled there so exalted, that the force he had brought back with him under Friant was insufficient to reduce them, and it was necessary to call in all Regnier’s troops to recover possession of the capital. It was, however, the 18th of April, before he was enabled to carry the city by assault, and even then the General thought it prudent to grant terms to Nassyf-Pacha, who was permitted to retire into Syria. Suez still remained in the hands of the English, but they also were expelled from it on the 27th, and within a month after the battle of Heliopolis, Kleber was again master of the whole of Egypt.

No sooner had it been made known to the British minister, Mr. Pitt, that the treaty of El-Arisch had been concluded with the French General on the faith of a British officer, than he sent out orders to renew the treaty which had been suspended, and this communication reached the hands of General Kleber at Cairo in May; but before he could act upon it, he had, on the 14th of June, fallen a victim to the dagger of Suleyman, a miscreant employed by Nassyf-Pacha and the Grand-Vizier, who could not endure the humiliation of his defeat at Heliopolis. The fanaticism of a Moslem against a Christian is so implanted in his character that it is scarcely necessary to seek for any special motives for this diabolical act , but it was so deeply rooted in Suleyman’s nature, that he had waited a whole month in Cairo watching his victim, until he at length availed himself of his opportunity so well, that the General fell dead without a struggle. When arrested, the assassin confessed the fact, and was immediately brought before a military commission presided over by General Regnier, by which he was sentenced (together with three other sheiks his accomplices) to have his right hand burned off, to be impaled alive in the presence of the army, and there to remain till devoured by birds of prey! This sentence was carried out; but in consequence of the death of the General-in-Chief, the negotiations were never reopened, and General Menou (the next in command) succeeded to the direction of French affairs in Egypt, but with far inferior abilities, and without apparently regarding the dangers that soon began to accumulate around him.

21. Military Character of General Kleber.

Kleber was born at Strasburg, the son of a tradesman in the household of the Prince of Rohan. He was apprenticed, when a boy, to an architect; circumstances, however, brought him to the military school at Munich, where he attracted the notice of General Kaunitz, son of the Imperial Prime Minister, who gave him a sous-lieutenancy in his regiment in 1776. He made his first essai-d’armes in the Austrian army against the Turks, and remained in that service till 1783. He afterwards returned to Alsace, where he resumed his early calling, and obtained the appointment of Inspector of Public Buildings at Befort, which he held till 1792, when he entered as a volunteer in the battalion of the Upper Rhine, and subsequently became adjutant-major to General Custine, under whom he served at Mayence. He went to Paris with that General, when he was denounced and tried, but had the courage to speak in his favour at his trial, a matter that, in those days, required stronger nerves than to attack a battery. While at Paris he got appointed Brigadier in the army of La Vendée, where he obtained great credit at Cholet and Mans, and remained to the conclusion of that war with the rout at Savenay. After a period of non-employment, owing to the frankness of his speech, which in those difficult times often brought a man into trouble, and prevented promotion, he was called to the command of a division in the army of the north, under Dumouriez, in which he bore a prominent part in the battle of Fleurus. He subsequently commanded the left wing of Jourdain’s army, and directed the passage of the Rhine at Dusseldorf in 1795. In the following year he fought at Altenkirchen and Friedberg, and for a time commanded that army in chief, but was superseded by Hoche in 1797, and retired in disgust to Paris. Here Bonaparte found him when going to Egypt, and soon formed so high an estimate of his abilities, that, although he never loved him, he reposed so much confidence in his talents and character, he placed him in the chief command of the army when he quitted the country.

Kleber negotiated with great skill and judgment. The convention of El-Arisch, with Sir Sidney Smith, was shrewdly carried into effect upon a just appreciation of the circumstances that were favourable to the French at the time; and he showed a very gallant spirit when the terms obtained by him were afterwards disallowed by Admiral Lord Keith. Perhaps a great deal of bloodshed might have been spared if the British government had acted more consistently on this occasion; for, after all that afterwards occurred, the expulsion of the French was not effected on any better terms than those accorded to Kleber. The sad end of Kleber by the hand of an assassin was a subject of very deep regret to both friends and enemies. He was of a lofty character, and without question one of the very ablest of the generals who arose out of the French revolution. He united with great bravery much sang froid, and to a firm and commanding look, so gracious a manner and voice, that it often checked mutiny and sedition in his soldiers. He was exceedingly frank in his manner, though essentially a proud man, and he had a soul above all desire of ill gotten wealth, for he could not conceal his disgust at acts of rapine and brigandage. He had conceived the idea of rendering Egypt a military colony of France, by a distribution of lands under a species of feudal tenure; but it is extremely doubtful whether it could have been possible to have effected this at the time, even if Algeria should be rendered hereafter a prosperous addition to the French empire on the same system, for the genius of that people has never proved itself adapted for colonisation. The remains of Kleber were carried in great state, with the army, down the Nile, when it quitted Egypt, and were deposited in France.

22. War in Germany.

The fortress of Ulm had been selected by the judgment and forethought of the Archduke Charles, as the best strategic point for the Imperial army to adopt for the defence of Germany. Accordingly the entrenchments that had already been thrown up round a camp there in 1796 had been strengthened very considerably on the heights of St. Michelsberg and Ziegelhauteberg, and on both banks of the Danube. Here therefore De Kray had now collected his forces, which consisted of 56,000 Austrians, of whom 13,000 were cavalry and 4000 artillery; 11,000 Bavarians and 9000 Suabians, comprising altogether 76,000 fighting men, including the corps of Sztarray. The corps of Prince Reuss, 25,000 strong, was still on the side of the Tyrol; and Baron d’Albini had a small division on the Mayne. In this central position General de Kray prevented all advance of the enemy on either side of the Danube, and he was placed on the great roads leading from the Neckar, and watching the principal communications of Germany with the Grisons and the Tyrol. He also directly opposed his adversary’s advance from Strasburg, and flanked that from Schaffhausen towards Augsburg and Munich. His camp was garnished with 144 pieces of artillery, and was supplied for a long occupation with every material of war. It was accordingly resolved by the Aulic Council that the main army should rest here on the defensive, but that the two corps of Kienmayer and Sztarray should take the field, in order to check any advance that General Moreau might make across the Iller.

The French General, although not yet apprised of the victory at Marengo, had the knowledge of the safe passage of Bonaparte across the Alps, which assured his rear, and left him free to concert a forward movement; accordingly he reconnoitred the camp at Ulm on the 18th of May, but saw clearly it was beyond the power of any direct assault, and therefore he resolved to avail himself of all the resources of art to draw some of the divisions out of the camp into the open country. A genius like Bonaparte might possibly have passed the Austrian army in its fastness, and have marched rapidly by Munich upon Vienna; but under the circumstances of the moment this would have been rash, and moreover it was beyond the boldness of character possessed by Moreau. No alternative presented itself to his mind but that of carrying the entrenched camp by assault, or, by marching down the valley of the Danube, to make De Kray apprehensive for his communications. In the meanwhile he detached Molitor to look after the Prince of Reuss in the Tyrol, whom he encountered at Bregenz on the 22nd, and drove back without difficulty to Ragatz. It was now imperative on Moreau to advance into the interior, because it had become a serious difficulty how to maintain his army in the province of Suabia; and under these several considerations he sent Lecourbe with the right wing, across the Lech, who advanced on the 28th without opposition to Augsburg. St Cyr, with the left wing, took post between the Iller and the Danube. De Kray, taking time to assure himself of the position of his adversary, who he now satisfied himself exposed his left flank to his attacks, quitted Ulm on the night of the 5th of June with 30,000 men, while 26,000 formed with its right on the Iller, and its left on the Kamlach, to show front to Richepanse, who, in command of the divi­sions of St Suzanne and Sorham, was placed in observation upon Ulm.

Moreau saw the sortie of Kray with pleasure, and hastened to withdraw Lecourbe from Augsburg in order to move to the assistance of Richepanse, whose position was somewhat too much extended. Ney was despatched with this object, and marching off with his usual activity, he came up with the Austrians at Kirchberg, whom he fell upon with vigour, and forced to retreat on Roth. His success emboldened Richepanse to assume the offensive; at Beurent and Guttenzell he had a warm encounter with the centre of the Austrians, in which General Sponck was taken prisoner. These successes of Ney at Kirchberg and Richepanse at Guttenzell satisfied De Kray that he could do nothing against the French at this time, and he withdrew all his troops back into Ulm, having lost 2000 men in these several engagements.

Moreau now resolved on a grand manoeuvre towards the Lower Danube, which should seriously alarm De Kray for his communications and draw him out of Ulm. On the 10th Lecourbe was marched again towards the Lech: General Meerfeld, not strong enough to oppose his march, gave way before him to Aicha. He found the bridge at Landeberg destroyed, but he repaired it, crossed the river, and reached Augsburg on the 12th. The centre and left of the Republican army advanced at the same time, the former to Krumbach, and the latter to Weissenhorn, driving Sztarray before them. Richepanse had a more serious engagement with the corps of Prince Ferdinand, whom, however, he obliged to cross the Danube. De Kray seemed indifferent to these marches, and withdrew his troops to the left of the river; but the advanced guards of Nauendorf and Kienmayer were driven into the valleys of the Rott and the Iller by Ney, who entered Weissenhorn pêle-mêle with the Austrians. As soon as these advances had been made, Lecourbe, at the head of the divisions of Gudin and Montrichard, doubled back upon Zusmerschausen and Wertingen. De Kray was embarrassed by these movements, and could not determine which alternative that was open to him he should adopt, either to cross the Danube and crush Richepanse, or to march by the left bank on Donauwerth to alarm Lecourbe. Instead of doing either he merely withdrew Sztarray and Giulay to the left bank of the river, and also into Ulm, so that only eight battalions and five squadrons remained outside the camp and fortress to protect the passages of the Danube. Lecourbe arrived on its bank on the 16th, and tried ineffectually to cross on the 18th at Dillingen, but the Austrians had cut all the bridges between Ulm and Donauwerth. On the 19th however, at five in the morning, under cover of a battery, the division of Gudin passed at Gremsheim, while General Devaux, with five battalions and three squadrons, arrived promptly from Donauwerth at Schweningen; Lecourbe immediately advanced against the enemy with eight squadrons, and took prisoners a Würtemberg battalion, all the rest being attacked and dispersed. Sztarray now assembled in all haste 3000 or 4000 men at Hochstett, but Lecourbe, collecting Gudin and Montrichard's divisions, with Hautpoult’s reserve of cavalry, drove him readily back to Dillingen, which they could only attack with difficulty. De Kray sent out some cavalry under General Klinglin, from Ulm, to support them, but Moreau opportunely arrived on the spot at the head of his reserves, and these were obliged to cross the Brenz. Moreau, now seeing that he should have to do battle with the whole of De Kray’s army, sent orders to General Grenier to join him by the bridge of Gunzburg next morning (20th), and to Ney to observe Ulm and to keep up the communication with Richepanse. De Kray had seen the danger that surrounded him, but he did not dare to march against the French and give them battle in the position they had now assumed, directly between him and Vienna, with their left on the Danube. He therefore resolved to march past their right flank. Leaving then 10,000 men with which to garrison Ulm, under the orders of Petrasch, he assembled all the rest of his army at Elchingen, Albech, and Langenau on the 20th. He sent off his heavy artillery the same day to Aalen, and followed it on the 21st, on which day he reached Heydenheim, and on the 22nd Neresheim, whence, on the 23rd, he continued his march on Nordlingen. Lecourbe followed him with his corps d’armée, but the Imperialists retired with a firm countenance, checking every insult; Moreau, however, was not prepared for the sudden abandonment of the entrenched camp. De Kray rested on the 24th at Nordlingen, and on the 26th suddenly changed the direction of his march, and returned to the Danube at Neuburg. Finding, however, that the Austrian army had gained some marches upon him, Moreau resolved to change the direction of his movements also, and occupy Bavaria, as well to cut off De Kray from the Prince of Reuss, as to have a rich province to lay under contribution.

Moreau received at this period a communication from the Austrian General to the effect that an armistice bad been concluded by Bonaparte at Alessandria, although not a word was suffered to transpire of the victory of Marengo; and the French General had as yet heard nothing of it. He therefore thought it preferable to continue the march of 10,000 men under General Decaen to Munich, which city that General entered without opposition on the 28th of June, and gave orders to Lecourbe to follow after Kray, who, on the 27th, came up with the Austrians at Neuburg on the right bank of the Danube, where he was at once attacked by De Kray, who also kept the field, and perceiving that he was in greater force than the troops that followed him, fell on Montrichard, whom he damaged considerably; but the French reserve, moving up under Lecourbe, again drove back the Imperial cavalry, though with the loss of Latour d’Auvergne, called by Bonaparte “premier grenadier de France”, who fell pierced through the body by a lance. In the night De Kray crossed to the left of the Danube, and marched on the 28th along its left bank to Ingoldstadt The Austrian General here heard of the capitulation of Munich, and saw that he was now thus cut off from reaching the army in the Tyrol. He therefore threw a garrison into Ingoldstadt, and quitted it on the 30th, and on the 1st of July he took up a position at Landshut behind the Iser. Leaving there the Archduke Ferdinand, he again marched away on the 3rd, and attained the camp at Ampfing on the 7th July. There he was joined by the corps of Meerfeldt, who had returned from Munich, and there he posted his army, holding the têtes-du-pont, to guard the passages across the Inn at Wasserbourg and Muhldorf. The Archduke, completely cut off from the main army at Landshut, was attacked there by General Leclerc, and owed his escape entirely to his own vigilance, though he lost 300 or 400 prisoners, but he succeeded in rejoining De Kray behind the Inn. Both parties at this period received the intelligence from Italy, and as the proposition was again made by De Kray for a suspension of arms, Moreau signed it on the 15th at Parsdorf near Munich, on terms somewhat similar to those of the convention of Alessandria; but finding himself at liberty, notwithstanding, to continue the campaign, marched off to see what he could do against the Prince of Reuss in the Voralsberg.

23. Capture of the Citadel of Valetta by the British.

The citadel of Valetta, in the island of Malta, notwithstanding a close blockade both by sea and land, was still held by General Vaubois, and a garrison of about 4000 French troops. This garrison had been closely shut up in Valetta after the insurrection of the inhabitants in September 1798, and would have been sadly straitened for supplies during the long interval, but for the opportune arrival of a French frigate, which had eluded the vigilance of the blockading squadron. In order to alleviate the restrictions to which the garrison was in consequence reduced, the French governor from time to time drove the inhabitants out of the city, who were, in consequence, in great distress. The ejected united with the nude population of the island in adding to the blockade of the fortress from the land side. Admiral Lord Nelson had from time to time commanded the blockading force by sea, and in November he sent in a summons to General Vaubois to surrender the place to him, who replied “Jaloux de mériter l’estime de votre nation, comme vous recherchez celle de la nôtre, nous sommes résolus de défendre cette fortresse jusqu’à l’extremite.”

On the 15th of February Lord Keith in the “Queen Charlotte,” 100, joined Lord Nelson off Malta, whose blockading squadron consisted of “Audacious,” 74, “Northumberland,” 74, “ Alexander,” 74, and “Lion,” 64. The Admiral now received information that the French Rear-Admiral Perree in “Le Genereux,” 74, with “Badien,” 28, and 3000 troops in transports, had quitted Toulon with the intention of forcing the blockade and relieving the garrison at Malta. On the 18th at daylight the “Alexander” fell in with Admiral Perree’s squadron, with which he was unable to come up; but having apprised Lord Nelson, the “Foudroyant,” 80, Captain Sir Edward Berry, got near enough to the French squadron to discharge some shots upon it, whereupon the “Généreux,” 74, finding it impossible to escape from her pursuers, struck her colours. In this slight action, (which indeed was the principal cause of its very short duration,) Admiral Perrée received a severe splinter wound in the left eye; and had scarcely turned round when a round shot took off his right thigh. This brave and much regretted officer died of these wounds a few minutes afterwards, which so damped the spirits of his shipmates that they lost heart for the fight. On the failure of this relief, Governor Vaubois determined to despatch Rear-Admiral Deeres in the “Guillaume Tell,” 74, which was still in the harbour of Valetta, to announce to the First Consul that the place could not hold out much longer. On the 30th of March, the Admiral, taking advantage of dark nights and a favourable wind, weighed and put to sea; but the “Penelope,” 36, Captain Henry Blackwood, having discovered the “Guillaume Tell” under a press of sail, despatched the intelligence of her departure to the Commodore, and ran up alongside, and gave her a broadside. The “Penelope” continued through the night to accompany the “Guillaume Tell” in her course, but her rate of sailing so exceeded that of her adversary, and Captain Blackwood, her captain, was so able and practised a seaman, that he was enabled, notwithstanding her disparity of size, to pour in from time to time such raking broadsides as brought down the main and mizen topmasts and the mainyard of the 74. With the daylight the “Lion,” 64, Captain Manby Dixon, came up in the chase, but in half an hour she got so damaged from the adversary, that she was obliged to drop astern. Soon afterwards the “Foudroyant,” 74, Captain Sir Edward Berry, arrived at the scene of action, and, summoning the “Guillaume Tell” to strike, poured in upon her a treble-shotted broadside. This was replied to in a dauntless manner, and with such effect, that masts and yards of the British ship were brought down, and the sails cut to tatters. The “Guillaume Tell,” however, had now lost her main and mizen masts, and was rolling an unmanageable hulk on the water, so that, with her three shattered antagonists close around her, she hauled down her colours. Of the three antagonists the frigate “Penelope” was the only one in a fit state to take possession of the French ship, and she took her in tow and carried her into the port of Syracuse. The British loss was about 120 killed and wounded, and the French upwards of 200. A more heroic defence than that of Admiral Deeres in the “Guillaume Tell” is not to be found among the records of naval actions, and his defeat is regarded as having done him more honour than many victories more loudly celebrated. General Vaubois was now again summoned but still replied, “Je suis trop jaloux de bien servir mon pays pour écouter vos propositions.” Nevertheless, as the summer proceeded, nourishment, firewood, and even water began to fail the besieged; but the Governor had still in harbour two fine frigates, and convinced that he must soon capitulate, which would throw them into the possession of the enemy, he was determined to give them a chance of escape. Accordingly, on a dark night, on the 24th of August, the “Diane,” 40, and “La Justice,” 40, put to sea from Valetta harbour. They were seen by the “Success,” 32, Captain Shuldham Peard, who immediately followed the “Diane,” and after a running fight made her haul down her colours; but the “La Justice,” which, under cover of the darkness, was not seen by any other British ship, effected her escape, and reached Toulon in safety.

On the return of the ill-fated expedition from the Helder to England, the attention of the British government had been directed to the isolated condition of the French troops in Malta and Egypt, and it was resolved to send a force into the Mediterranean to secure them. With this object two battalions of the 35th and the 40th regiment, with two battalions of the 5th, under General Pigot, quitted England on the 28th of March, but did not rendezvous at Minorca till the 12th of May, whither from time to time other battalions followed, and on the 22nd of June, Sir Ralph Abercombie arrived in that island, and assumed the command of the army. The following day he despatched General Pigot to Malta, who landed and took the command of the whole allied force on shore on that island. On the 3rd of September, General Vaubois, who had so stoutly declined every proposition to capitulate, held a council of war, which unanimously concurred in recommending him to treat for the surrender of the fortress. On the 5th the Major- General and the Commodore on the part of the British, and General Vaubois and Rear-Admiral Villeneuve on the part of the French, settled terms of capitulation which were honourable alike to both parties, and on the same day the fortress of Valetta and its dependencies were yielded up.

It is due to truth to record that it was mainly owing to the resolution of the inhabitants that the French were thus driven out of Malta. For the long period of sixteen months the Maltese had continued the land blockade of Valetta with no other support from England than some 1500 muskets. Whenever the French troops attempted a sortie they drove them back with loss and disgrace, so that General Vaubois himself bore them this testimony, that “no trace of the former docile character of the islanders remained, they fought like enraged lions.”

The loss of Malta was especially felt by the First Consul. The French expedition under his command had in 1798, by a most unjustifiable aggression, seized upon the island, abolished the Order of St. John, and annexed it to France; now it would appear that the only result of this most accidental acquisition had been to place Great Britain in possession of one of the best ports of the Mediterranean, of immense importance to their command of the “French lake,” and singularly adapted to the prosperity of their commerce with the Levant

Seeing the absolute necessity of its surrender to the British, a singular idea presented itself to the mind of Bonaparte. The Czar Paul had taken the Order of St. John under his especial protection, and declared himself its Grand-Master. The eccentric monarch had held several chapters of the Order at St. Petersburg, and had given the decoration to several sovereigns and princes. Bonaparte now adroitly offered him a gift of the island of Malta. He forthwith nominated an old Swedish officer in his service, M. Sprengporter, to be Governor of Malta and the Order, and some 6000 Russian soldiers, who were prisoners in France, having been at the same time released, were ordered to go with him and take possession of the island. But the British authorities, of course, absolutely refused to receive them, and his Imperial Majesty, disappointed and indignant at having been so treated in this transaction, and being moved by other causes to be displeased with the Allies, while he had become enthusiastic with the generous attention and with the heroism of Bonaparte, he now at once altered his European policy, abandoned their cause, and even endeavoured to blow up a storm against England by forming against her an armed neutrality of the Northern Powers in the Baltic.

24. Naval War.

While France thus progressed in the dominion of Europe, Great Britain gradually and consistently acquired the empire of the seas. The first action this year in point of date was, however, one between the United States frigate “Constellation,” 36, Captain T. Truxton, and the French frigate “Vengeance,” 40, Captain Sebastien Pichot, near Guadaloupe. The action may be said to have lasted from half-past seven in the morning till past midnight, when the battle ended with a loss of 36 killed and wounded on the American side, and 150 on that of the French; but although it was stated that the flag of the “Vengeance” came down three times during the con­test, yet the “Constellation” lost her mainmast and got with difficulty to Jamaica, and the “Vengeance” reached Curaçoa in a very shattered condition, so that after all it was a drawn battle.

On the 4th of February a French frigate, “Pallas,” 38, Captain Eprou, chased the “Seaflower,” 14, Lieutenant Murray, in the British Channel. The sloop of war fortunately escaped, but on receiving information of the occurrence, two other sloops of war, the “Fairy,” 16, Captain Horton, and “Harpy,” 18, Captain Bayley, set sail from Jersey to reconnoitre the port of St. Malo, where they discovered the “Pallas” running down close alongshore; they readily induced the frigate to chase them to an offing, but after some broadsides had been exchanged, the French frigate ceased firing, and made all sail away. Captain Horton, however, immediately signalled an enemy to three sail whom he saw ahead, which proved to be the British frigate “Loire,” 38, Captain Newman, “Danae,” 20, Captain Lord Proby, with the sloop “Railleur,” 16, Captain Turgaud, all of whom immediately gave chase, and a spirited action ensued. The broadsides from these several vessels were repeated with such destructive effect upon the French frigate, that some one on board cried out “Ne tirez pas encore, messieurs, nous sommes a vous.” Captain Newman accordingly lowered a boat, though no flag had been struck, and brought Captain Eprou with his sword to the British captain. The British ships had nine killed and thirty-six wounded, but the loss on board the French frigate is not stated. On the 1st of March, off the Penmarck, the British frigate “Néréide,” 36, Captain Watkins, discovered to windward fire ships and a schooner, and immediately hauled his wind to receive them, but just as they arrived within gunshot they all made sail on different courses. The “Néréide” followed one, which proved to be a privateer out of Bordeaux, called “La Vengeance,” which she soon captured, but the others got away. On the 5th the British frigate “ Phoebe,” 36, Captain R. Barlow, was borne down upon and fired at by the French ship-privateer “ Heureux,” 22, who mistook the frigate for an Indiaman, and, when she found out her mistake, would have effected her escape, but the fire of the “Phoebe” was so prompt, that the “ Heureux” was captured.

On the 20th the British frigate “Mermaid,” 32, Captain Oliver, and sloop of war “Petrel,” 16, Captain Austen, when cruising in the Bay of Marseilles, descried and chased some vessels of a convoy of fifty sail of merchantmen, and, although some escaped, they captured the French brig-corvette “Ligurienne,” 14, Lieutenant Petebond, who was killed. On the 5th of April a British squadron, composed of “Leviathan,” 74, Captain Carpenter, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Duckworth, with the “Swiftsure,” 74, Captain Benj. Hallack, and frigate “Emerald,” 36, Captain Walker, cruising in the neighbourhood of Cadiz, discovered twelve sail in the offing from the masthead. Chase was given, and on the 6th a Spanish ship of 10 guns was captured by the “Emerald,” and another of 14 guns was taken by Lieutenant Gregory with the boats of the “Leviathan” and “Emerald,” and at daybreak on the 7th the 74 and the frigate bore down on two other ships of the squadron, which proved to be the Spanish frigates “Carmen” and “Florestina,” who, after firing a few straggling and ineffectual shots, hauled down their colours; but in proof that they had made an honourable resistance, the first had eleven men killed and sixteen wounded, and the other, twelve killed and twelve wounded. Each frigate was laden with quicksilver, a very valuable commodity for prize money.

25. Boat Attacks.

It is hardly necessary to detail the conflicts with privateers, which were often, nevertheless, very bloody, and requiring great bravery, but the boat attacks now begin to assume more prominence in naval war. Mr. Buckley, master of the "Calypso,” 16, in a six-oared cutter, properly armed and provided, then cruising about the shore near Cape Tiberon, perceived, on the 13th of April, a schooner becalmed under the land: he forthwith advanced on her, and notwithstanding a heavy fire of musketry from her crew, boarded and carried the “Diligente,” with the loss of only one man wounded. On the 25th, Lieutenant Wilson, of the “Lark,” 14, and in the face of a smart fire of musketry from the troops on shore, boarded the “Imprenable,” but could not carry her off until he landed and drove them from the sand-hills, behind which some had taken shelter; after effecting which he returned and brought her away. On the 10th of June, Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, cruising off the Penmarck, detached the boats of the “Renown,” 74, “Defence,” 74, and “Fisguard” and “Unicorn” frigates, to cut out or destroy a convoy of brigs and chasse-marées, lying at St. Croix. The boats were eight in number, and commanded by Lieutenants H. Burke, Deane, Gerrard, Stamp, and Price, of the marines. The freshness of the wind prevented the little squadron from reaching the enemy’s anchorage till after daylight on the 11th, when they captured some, and drove all the remainder upon the rocks, with a loss of only four men wounded. On the night of the 23rd, the boats of the same squadron, under the direction of Captain Byam Martin of the “Fisguard,” proceeded to attack a corvette and other craft in the Quimper, who escaped an unattainable distance up the river; but Lieutenant Yarker landed, and stormed, carried, and destroyed a battery and two other forts without a single casualty. On the 1st of July the Admiral detached the boats of his squadron, under the same Lieutenant Burke, against some armed vessels moored within the island of Noirmoutier, who boarded and carried them all after much resistance; but finding it impossible to bring off his prizes, he caused them to be destroyed, with a quantity of provisions and stores for the fleet at Brest. In getting back, however, some of the British boats took the ground, and could not be got off, so that the enemy returned upon them, and took them, when ninety-two officers, seamen, and marines were made prisoners; but the remainder not only got away safe, but in their course captured some other craft, which they were enabled to bring back to the squadron. On the 7th of July the British frigates “Andromeda,” 32, Captain Inman, and “Nemesis”, 28, Captain T. Baker, with four other armed vessels and eleven ships, besides gun-brigs, cutters, and luggers, assembled off Dunkerque, to attempt the destruction of four French frigates, which had long become blockaded in that port One of the ship-sloops, the “Dart,” 30, Captain Patrick Campbell, ran in and ranged alongside the “Desirée,” 38, and boarded her; when Lieutenant Pearce, in command of the boats, immediately cut the frigate’s cables, got up her sails, and steered her safely over the banks. In this dashing enterprise one lieutenant and ten men were wounded, and one sea­man killed. The fire-ships sent in against the other ships were well conducted, but the three frigates contrived to evade them by running out of the road and escaped. On the 26th Lieutenant J. Coghlan, in a ten-oared cutter, with a dozen volunteers, and two other boats, proceeded to board a French gun-brig in the harbour of Port Louis, within pistol-shot of three batteries, and not a mile from a French 74 and two frigates. In the very teeth of these obstacles, however, Lieutenant Coghlan and his gallant comrades carried the “Cerbère,” with only the loss of one man killed and eight wounded, in which number were himself in two places, and a young midshipman, Mr. Padda, wounded in six; but they succeeded in towing out their prize under a heavy but ineffectual fire from the batteries. On the 25th a British squadron of three frigates fell in with the Danish frigate, “Freya,” 40, Captain Krabbe, having under her convoy six sail. Captain Thomas Baker 6f the “Nemesis,” the officer in command, hailed the “Freya,” to say he would send his boat on board the convoy. The Danish captain replied, that if such an attempt were made he would fire into the boats, and he added, that the vessels under his charge had nothing contraband of war on board them. The threats of both sides were put into execution, and an action ensued, when the “Freya” hauled down her flag after a short contest, in which there were two men killed and five wounded. This unfortunate collision complicated the negotiations for an armed neutrality, and Lord Whitworth was sent specially to Copenhagen to explain the occurrence, and to undertake that the frigate and convoy should be repaired at the expense of the British Government, and the question of the right of search adjourned for future consideration. On the 4th of September a Swedish galliot, “Hoffnung,” Captain Rudbart, was boarded in the port of Barcelona, and made to show his papers, which roused the ill-will both of the Spaniards and Swedes against the British pretensions of right of search, and two months after­wards the “Triton”, a Prussian ship, was searched and seized by a British man-of-war in the Texel. This produced a spirited proclamation from the government of Hamburg, declaring the rights of a free commerce; all which events were rendered available by France to excite a feeling of hostility, in every nation, against what was deemed the rapacity of Great Britain.

26. British conjunct Expeditions.

The spirit of insurrection in La Vendée, though restrained by the energy of the Consular government, still smouldered under the activity of the Bourbon agents, who continually blew up the flame. Lemercier had organized a rise among the Chounas with Georges Cadoudal and others, to act in concert with a descent of the English navy upon the shore. The British Commodore, Sir Edward Pellew, with seven 74s, five frigates, and five troop-ships, having 5000 soldiers on board, under Major-General Maitland, anchored in the Morbihan, on the 1st of June. The frigate “Thames,” 32, Captain Larkin, and some small craft, were immediately sent in, who soon silenced the forts which disputed their entrance, and which were afterwards destroyed by a detachment of troops under Major Ramsay. On the 6th 300 of the Queen’s regiment, covered and sustained by some gun-launches manned by sailors under Lieutenant Pelfold, brought away the shipping in the port, and blew up the powder magazine; but the descent on Belleisle, which was in contemplation, was found impracticable in face of a force of 7000 men which had been collected on the island by the French General, and the expedition re-embarked and proceeded to the Mediterranean, satisfied that La Vendée was no longer in a state to justify the interference of a British force. On the 25th of August Rear-Admiral Sir J. Borlase Warren, commanding a squadron that consisted of the “London,” 98, and “Renown, “Impetuous,” “Conveyance,” and “Captain,” 74s, with four or five frigates, and a fleet of transports containing a large body of troops under Lieutenant-General Sir James Pulteney, made an attempt upon the harbour of Ferrol, in which were six of the largest Spanish men-of-war. The British ships having silenced the forts, the troops were disembarked on the shores of the bay, with sixteen field-pieces. The seamen dragged up the guns to the heights with their accustomed alacrity, and the troops advanced against Fort St. Philip on the heights of Brion, when, after a sharp contest between the rifles under Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart and a detachment of the enemy, the latter were driven back that evening, and at daybreak on the 26th Major-General Lord Cavan repulsed a considerable body of them. After these preliminary advantages, however, the Lieutenant-General appears to have become alarmed at the insight he had obtained from the heights of the strength of the Spanish defences, and from the information he also received of the preparations of the enemy; he accordingly requested the British Admiral to re-embark the troops and the cannon; all which was done the same evening without any loss, and the expedition then proceeded under secret instructions to Gibraltar to join Admiral Lord Keith.

On the 2nd of October a conjunct expedition of very considerable magnitude had been organized under his Lordship’s command. A fleet, consisting of twenty-two ships of the line, thirty-seven frigates and sloops, and eighty transports having on board 18,000 men under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, sailed from Gibraltar, and on the 5th came to anchor in the Bay of Cadiz. The town was forthwith summoned to surrender, with a view of getting possession of the Spanish squadron at anchor in the harbour. The Spanish Captain-general, Motla, immediately despatched a flag of truce, with a touching appeal to the two British commanders-in-chief, acquainting them that the plague was raging in the town and amongst the fleet, carrying off several hundreds of persons daily, and therefore appealing to their humanity under such circumstances to stay their hostile intentions. Lord Keith and Sir Ralph in reply demanded the fleet, which the Spaniard stoutly refused to yield up to them. Some preparations were made to land at San Lucar, but it was in the end resolved that the ulterior objects of the expedition might be frustrated by the effects of the contagion, and accordingly the troops were re-embarked, and the expedition stood out to sea and returned to Gibraltar. The science of applying the resources of war to results that were in any degree proportionate to the extent of the preparations was not at this period understood by the British government. Conjunct expeditions of 20,000 men and sixty ships of war, with the power of ubiquity afforded by the sea, is a tremendous engine against an enemy, if wisely wielded; but the aphorism of Wellington should be always remembered, that Great Britain should never make a little war. Merely to summon Ferrol and Cadiz became despicable in an army, especially when accompanied by arrogance one day and flight the next morning.

27. Negotiations between the Austrians and French.

When General Melas concluded a cessation of arms with General Bonaparte at Alessandria, it was provided that the terms of a truce should be referred to Vienna and Paris. Accordingly General Count de St. Julien was sent by the Emperor to the French capital, and arrived there on the 21st of July. Preliminaries of peace were speedily settled between that negotiator and Talleyrand; but M. de St. Julien had gone beyond his powers, so that when these pre­liminaries were referred back to Vienna they were rejected. The British ambassador, Lord Minto, doubtless influenced this determination of the Emperor, for he had entered upon his duties just at the time that the battle of Marengo took place, having concluded a new treaty by which Austria was to receive a fresh subsidy of two millions sterling from Great Britain. At the same time the British ambassador signified the readiness of his government to unite with that of the Emperor in opening negotiations with France for the termination of the war, and suggested that plenipotentiaries should meet for that purpose at Luneville. A great deal of negotiation ensued on this proposition, in which the First Consul endeavoured to force upon Great Britain an armistice by sea, during which Malta and Egypt might be revictualled and reinforced. This the British government refused to admit, and when Count Cobentzel and Joseph Bonaparte repaired to Luneville, Mr. Thomas Grenville demanded passports to be present there as British Ambassador, but the First Consul declared he would only negotiate with Great Britain and Austria separately. M. Otto, happening to be in London on the subject of an exchange of prisoners at the time, was therefore put into communication with the British Secretary of State, and after several months had been thus consumed in fruitless negotiations, that came to nothing on every side, Bonaparte denounced the termination of the armistice for the 8th of October, being impatient to force the Emperor to treat before the winter. The Aulic Council was not inactive in advancing preparations during the conferences. The British subsidy was expended in raising new levies in Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Styria, and Carinthia. Têtes-du-pont were thrown up to cover every approach to the Inn. A change also took place in the commanding General. De Kray and De Melas were disgraced, and the young Archduke John placed at the head of the war office. It was soon perceived that time was wanted to mature these preparations, and M. de Lehrbach was sent to the head-quarters of General Moreau, where a military convention was entered into on the 20th of September at Hohenlinden between Generals Lauer and Lahorie, by which Ulm, Ingoldstadt, and Philipsburg were to be ceded to the French, and the armistice prolonged for forty-five days, with fifteen days’ notice of its termination. A similar armistice was at the same time agreed upon at Castiglione for the armies of the two belligerents in Italy.

Both nations made use of the interval to strengthen their forces. The Emperor Francis put himself at the head of his army on the Inn. The Archduke-Palatine raised the spirit of Hungary and obtained new levies; but an unaccountable jealousy of the Archduke Charles still kept that best of Austrian generals in the government of Bohemia, where however he exerted himself in his vocation to send up reinforcements. The First Consul, as usual, gave all his attention to the collection of soldiers. The army from Holland was marched up to the Rhine, in order to allow the forces there to be added to the troops on the Danube and in Italy. General Brune succeeded Massena in the command of the army of Italy, who had been so completely exhausted by the fatigues of the campaign in the Alps, that he solicited some repose. Macdonald was given a command of 15,000 in the Grisons, to act with Moreau or with Brune, according to circumstances; and Murat was despatched to bring up a considerable force that had been assembled at Amiens against the designs of England, and which had now become available for the army of Italy. General Dupont was likewise sent to the command of Tuscany, on the shores of which some descents had been threatened by England.

28. War in Germany.

In the first days of November 1800 the armistice was by consent to be concluded, and at this period the Imperial army was thus situated. The entire force upon the banks of the Inn and Danube counted from 110,000 to 120,000 men. Its right was at Ratisbon, consisting of 27,000 men under Kienmayer, while Klenau was in front on the Altmuhl and Rednitz; and further a-field, Simbschen observed the army of Augereau. The left, with 18,000 men under General Hiller, was in the Tyrol. The main body, counting about 60,000 to 65,000 combatants, were behind the Inn, arming têtes-du-pont at Wasserburg, Mühldorf, Braunau, and Rosenheim. The Inn is a rapid river, equal to the Rhine in force and volume, and, passing through rocky banks, presents an almost impassable boundary, and a position of force that, strengthened by the forts of Braunau Kufstein, rests its flanks on the great Tyrolean and Bohemian I woody mountains. The Isar runs nearly parallel to the Inn, at the J distance of ten or twelve leagues from the position of the French army, which had its head-quarters at Augsburg, though, its General- in-Chief Moreau having gone to Paris to be married, it was tem­porarily under the command of General Dessolles, his distinguished chief of the staff. It was divided into four great corps d’armée. The right, under General Lecomte, with the divisions of Gudin and Montrichard, observed the Tyrol, and had its head-quarters at Feldkirch on the Isar. The corps at Munich, with the divisions of Decaen, Richepanse, and Grouchy, was to be under the direct orders of the Commander-in-Chief. General Grenier, with the third, consisting of the divisions Ney, Hardi, and Legrand, was at Hohenlinden, observing the road by Mühldorf; and General Suzanne, with the fourth corps, flanked by Souham and Collaud, occupied the neighbourhood of Ratisbon and the Danube, keeping up a communication with Augereau, who commanded a detached force, coming up into line from the direction of Franconia. The force expected to arrive from Holland consisted of 16,000 or 18,000 Dutch! and French, under the immediate command of Dumonceau, and was marching on Wurzburg.

General Moreau returned to his army before the resumption I of hostilities, and immediately approached the enemy, with whom his troops exchanged shots on the 28th and 29th. But the Archduke John, ambitious to signalise his command by an offensive movement, sent forward General Kienmayer on the 30th to Landshut. The French General on this brought forward his left wing, consisting of 26,000 men under General Grenier, upon the high road leading from Munich to Ampfing and Mühldorf, while with his centre he marched on Wasserburg, leaving Lecourbe with 26,000 to form his right wing at Rosenheim. The Archduke on this passed the Inn at Mühldorf, and on the 1st December deployed his troops on the plain of Ampfing, while he threw forward his right wing on Isen and with his left crossed the Inn at Kratzburg. Moreau checked his advance by the divisions which nevertheless retired before them; but, finding Klenau moving up by Eckmühl, and Landshut already in the possession of the Austrians, that astute general resolved to attract the enemy into the great forest of Ebersberg, through which the chaussé from Muhldorf leads to Munich, and there to fall upon him under cover of the snows and fogs of the season, when involved in the bogs and quagmires of the by-roads that cross the forest, which are only available in the fine season to draw out the timber. On the 2nd the Archduke rested his troops, who had been much fatigued by the state of the roads and condition of the weather, and prepared for the battle he proposed to fight the following day.

29. Battle of Hohenlinden. 3 December 1800

Moreau took the opportunity of the 2nd to concentrate his forces in a little open plain that surrounds the village of Hohenlinden. A practicable road on the other side of the forest leads from Wasserburg through Ebersberg, and here the divisions of Richepanse and Decaen were placed, to outflank the Austrian advance; for Moreau learned his ground well beforehand, and became aware that the strength of it consisted in this, that the attacking columns must advance through a thick forest, isolated the one from the other. Richepanse accordingly received orders to march to meet the Austrians, and if he did not meet them, to throw himself on their flank at St Christophe. When the morning of the 8th broke, the snow succeeded to the rain of the previous days, and the horizon was so obscured that it was impossible to distinguish objects many paces distant The Austrians advanced boldly to the attack upon the great hard road leading to Hohenlinden, in unusual confidence, after their success on the 1st. Kienmayer dashed into the forest on the road from Isen to Buch, Baillet on that from Burgoner to Preissendorf, while General Rietsch, who had commanded the 12,000 men that had crossed the Inn at Kratzburg, endeavoured to make his way through the forest by passing up the course of the rivulet that flows to Altaching from St Christophe. Kolowrath, leading the principal column with all the artillery by the hard road, found much better facilities for marching than file three other columns, who moved by the by-ways, in which the men at every step sunk to their knees, so that his column first came up with the enemy in the open between eight and nine o’clock, where they were received with a heavy fire of French artillery. The divisions of Grouchy and Ney were seen deployed in the plain in front of Hohenlinden. The Austrians at once attacked the brigade of Grandjean, whom they found most in advance. These gave way before the vigour of the assault, and the Archduke deployed his troops as fast as they came up, and marched eight battalions along the edge of the forest to turn the French right wing.

Richepanse had marched at early morning on St Christophe, and, finding no enemy in his path, pushed on by the by-way through the forest to Mattengroth upon the great chaussée and in rear of Kolowrath’s column. Rietsch’s column, advancing from Altaching, had been delayed by the badness of the ways, so that Richepanse had already passed with two brigades of his column when the rear brigade of Drouet found itself attacked by that Austrian column. Richepanse saw himself on the point of being surrounded, but nevertheless, in full reliance upon the General-in-Chief’s calculations, and conscious of the importance attached to his movement, he immediately sent orders to Drouet to resist à l’outrance, and to the division Decaen following in the rear of the brigade to come up with the greatest expedition to Drouet’s assistance. With uncommon resolution he then dashed into the forest to reach the high road, and found himself at Mattengroth, in the midst of the cavalry of Lichtenstein, and the great park of Austrian artillery, who were resting at their ease at the entrance of the forest defile, assured that they were protected on their flank by Rietsch and in front by their own advancing column under Kolowrath. Richepanse, however, at once boldly attacked them and forced them back to Strassmaier. Ha then placed himself at the head of a battalion and some squadrons and dashed boldly along the high road after the principal column, carrying alarm and disorder into the midst of it. It may well be conceived what effect such an apparition as a hostile column in the rear must have created in the midst of the close engagement going on near the keeper’s lodge on the borders of the forest, where the Archduke had succeeded in organising a new attack, and the column of Baillet. Latour had also come into action on the right with the division Bastoul. Moreau, with the sagacity of an old campaigner, understood the confusion that was seen reigning in Kokovrath’s column, and, turning to Ney, said, “C’est le moment de charger; Richepanse et Decaen doivent être sur les derrières des Autrichiens.” Grouchy, Ney, and Grandjean instantly dashed forward and fell upon Kolowrath, and, in conjunction with Richepanse, carried all before them. The Austrians, assailed on every side, broke their ranks, and fled in disorder into the forest, leaving 7000 or 8000 prisoners and 10 pieces of artillery in the hands of the Republicans.

On the other flank Kienmayer as well as Baillet had debouched from the woods, and were in full conflict with the divisions of Legrand and Bastoul. Various fortune attended the combatants. Grenier had the ground against him, for, after quitting the forest, the hills command the hamlet of Harthop, into which the division Legrand withdrew; General Bastoul was here severely wounded; Baillet had obtained possession of the heights of Datting when the Archduke’s orders arrived for a general retreat, and the whole of the Imperialists retired with the greatest haste, abandoning 97 guns and 7000 or 8000 prisoners; for the Austrians had Stillmore difficulty in struggling back through the forest than they had in entering it, for with the exception of the one chaussée, the ways had become one sea of mud.

In the meanwhile Decaen had arrived to Drouet’s assistance, and had turned the tables on Rietsch, who, instead of being able to assist Kolowrath, fell back rapidly on Attaching, and left the road open to Decaen, who marched boldly on Mattengroth. and joined in the attack of the unhappy column retreating from Hohenlinden, who, unable to deploy and make a stand, was soon obliged to surrender. The Archduke made the best of his way out of the forest to Haunau, and immediately set to work to rally his army. In the course of the night he got together some 12,000 or 15,000 men, who secured themselves behind the Inn at Wasserburg, while Kienmayer and Baillet made good their retreat to Mühldorf. The French army bivouacked outside the forest, having in truth gained a most complete and decisive victory without the assistance of either their right or left wing; for General Lecourbe, at Steinberg, had taken no part in the engagement, having been pushed forward on the road to Wasserburg, and Collaud had not been able to get up in time from Treysing. On the 4th the whole army were in pursuit of their discomfited enemy, and Moreau moved it by its right, so as to cut off, if possible, the Imperialist corps of General Hiller, on the side of the Tyrol. Accordingly Lecourbe, with the right wing of the French army, marched on the 5th to Rosenheim, where the bridge had been broken, while every artifice was employed to induce the Austrians to believe that Moreau was coming by his left on Muhldorf. On the 9th he had established a pontoon bridge at New Peura, and passed some troops, but the Austrians collected 4000 or 5000 men at Stephanskirchen, and checked the French advance, though they were in the end obliged to retreat Moreau, by means of a pontoon bridge and one of boats, had reestablished at Rosenheim a passage across the Inn, by which he reached one of the most difficult of the military roads which kept him from the Imperial capital, and this without the loss of a man. The Archduke was in consequence obliged to yield the line of the impregnable Inn, and withdrew his forces behind the Algar.

Fortune, which has so great an influence on all military affairs, was not less conspicuous at Hohenlinden than it had been at Marengo; but although no one could have foreseen a victory that was attended by results so important, yet the young Archduke fell headlong into the trap of his wary antagonist when he carried his army by a single road into a dense pine forest, amidst the storms and gloom of the shortest days of the year. It might have been readily predicted that four columns could not have been simultaneously moved with success through such an obstacle; but certainly the activity and vigour of Richepanse, when he found that he had anticipated the left flanking column of the Austrians, and the boldness with which he drove away the rear of the main column and then charged the front, caused an unforeseen disaster to the enemy which it was impossible to repair in the midst of a thick forest, with scarcely any remaining daylight to guide them through the dense pine trees and the falling snow. The result was obtained almost without an effort of the General, or any very great bravery of his troops.

It is perhaps superfluous to reflect upon the “airy nothings” of the poet in any work written principally to please the ear and engage the feelings; but the magnificent ode of Campbell on the battle of Hohenlinden is so completely at variance with the reality of the his­tory, that it is calculated altogether to mislead the reader, or to make him suppose that it alludes to some great conflict of the same name other than the one here recorded. It will he seen that the “black Iser,” the “bannered Munich,” and the “night scene” have been altogether imagined, and that nothing can be called true but the beautiful stanza that concludes the ode:

 

Few, few shall part where many meet,

The snow shall be their winding-sheet,

And every turf beneath their feet

Shall be a soldier’s sepulchre.”

 

30. The Austrians retire behind the Saltzach.

After crossing the Alga, which is one of the tributaries of the Inn, Frauenstein was passed without stopping, in order to hasten across the Salza. The town of Salzburg, situated on that river, affords a strong position at the confluence of the two rivers Saal and Salza, and here on the 13th the Archduke imagined that he could concentrate his troops and give battle, in order to check the French pursuit. Moreau, observing that the Austrians were concentrating towards Salzburg, determined at once to force the Saltzach, which is the name given to the region where these streams take the mountain sources, and he sent forward accordingly General Decaen on the 13th to make a strong reconnaissance upon the defile. On arriving at Lauffen he found three arches of a bridge broken, and the Austrians in force opposite; but some chasseurs, observing a barge fastened to the shore, swam the river and brought it across. General Dusatte immediately took advantage of this means to pass over 400 men, while General Decaen opened a heavy cannonade on the enemy from the bridge. The sight of the French across the river at once induced the Imperialists to quit Lauffen; when Moreau, on hearing of this success, ordered it to be occupied in force. General Lecourbe, immediately after the battle of Hohenlinden, had been ordered to turn all these streams of the mountains, and had on the 9th safely passed the division Montrichard across the Inn, and drove the Austrians from Rosenheim to Stephanskirchen. Pursuing his success Lecourbe forded the Saal, and on the 14th advanced to the plain of Wais, with the whole of the cavalry and artillery, in the middle of a thick fog. When this cleared up he found himself in presence of a strong force of Imperial cavalry, with thirty guns, which covered the approach on Salzburg. The French immediately attacked them, but after sacrificing 800 men, and having General Schinnen badly wounded, were obliged to retire.

Decaen, however, had come up and passed the Saltzach on the 14th of December, continuing his advance from Lauffen upon the road to Pergham, where he took up a position two leagues from Salzburg. Richepanse and Grouchy followed by the same route, and Moreau bringing up the divisions of Legrand and Bastoul, now threw another bridge across the river at Lauffen, to be in communication with the cavalry under De Hautpoult, who were placed at Teissendorf. Lecourbe’s column arrived most propitiously at the same moment that Decaen deployed, and the Archduke then made haste to withdraw his army sending forward the Prince of Lichtenstein to cover his retreat with the cavalry, who made several successful charges against Decaen as he advanced between Lauffen and Pergham, which enabled the Imperial army to reach Neumark, where they arrived in the morning of the 15th; and the Archduke next day continued his march on Lambach and Linz. On the same day the French Generals Decaen and Lecourbe entered the town of Salzburg simultaneously as soon as it was abandoned by the enemy; and thus, as a triumphant result of the battle of Hohenlinden, the conquerors had in twelve days crossed the two great barriers to the Imperial capital, the Inn and the Saltzach; and Ratisbon and Passau were successively occupied by Suzanne, driving the corps of Klenau before him. To Suzanne Moreau now intrusted the reduction of Braunau.

31. The Archduke Charles resumes his Command.

The retreat of the Imperialists had become an absolute flight. On the 16th Baillet was defeated at Steindorf by Richepanse; Kienmayer was alike overthrown on the 17th; and both again by Grouchy and Decaen at Schwanstadt on the 18th. After these successive disasters the troops would stand no longer, and fled in hot haste to get across the Traun at Lambach. Here they were pursued by the indefatigable Richepanse on the 19th, and again defeated, with the loss of some thousands and a great number of equipages and guns; and 1200 men, with General Meezeri and the Prince of Lichtenstein, were taken prisoners. At this moment some hope and encouragement were given to the retreating soldiers by the arrival of their favourite prince and commander, the Archduke Charles, whom the Emperor had at length sent to assume the command of his army; but he came alone, without reinforce­ments, and soon saw that all he could hope to do under the gene­ral rout was to endeavour to rally the fugitives behind the Ems. The Emperor had, on the first news of Hohenlinden, repaired to Vienna, where he was able to organise some Hungarians whom General Sztarray had brought up to the capital, and these were sent down to Linz on the 20th. The French head-quarters were the same day at Weis; Richepanse and Grouchy were at Kremsmunster, Decaen at Neuhoffen, and Grenier at Ebersberg, all across the Ems, upon which the Archduke ordered a farther retreat on Steyer. His troops, exalted for a moment by the hopes of better fortune under their attached leader, were in despair at this still continued retreat, and a universal insubordination soon broke forth, in which even the officers participated. The Archduke accordingly despatched M. de Meerfeld from Steyer on the 31st with a flag of truce demanding an armistice. Moreau would only consent to a cessation of arms for forty-eight hours, during which the Imperialists continued their retreat.

All this time Augereau was besieging Wurzburg, where the Austrian corps of Simbschen remained in observation upon him. The Archduke Charles, as soon as he took the command, de­spatched an order to General Klenau to march to join Simbschen, in order to make a diversion in Franconia to favour the grand army. Accordingly on the 15th both these divisions were in motion to effect the desired junction. On hearing this Augereau converted the siege of the citadel of Wurzburg into a blockade, and sent orders to the Generals Duhesme and Barbou to march quickly and take post at Nuremberg. Klenau, with 4000 infantry and 2000 cavalry, encountered on the 18th the advanced guard of Barbou, under General Walthiez, on the road to Feucht, and succeeded in checking its progress on Nuremberg. General Barbou, hearing the firing, immediately sent off assistance to his lieutenant, and sending Brigadier Fugier to the right of the road, and Brigadier Pacthod with a couple of guns to the left, tried to get to the relief of his advanced guard. But Walthiez was able to effect his own release. He formed his men into close column, flanking it by the carabineers under Captain Dittelin on the right and the chasseurs on the left, and in this way he made his way through the troops that barred his passage. the north of Nuremberg between the Rednitz and the Pignitz, when he encountered Simbschen, who drove him back to the heights of Eschenau; .and General Dufour at Grafenberg was forced to fall back on the road to Forchheim. In the meanwhile General Augereau returning to his head-quarters at Herzogen-Aurach, found him­self engaged with a greater force than he expected, and withdrew his troops altogether out of Nuremberg, recalling Barbou to the banks of the Rednitz, and Duhesme to Neukirchen. Here the latter was again attacked by Simbschen on the 21st, and fell back to Forchheim. General Suzanne, however, continuing his march down the Danube, found Klenau at Ratisbon with a feeble detachment, which he drove out of the city, and back to the Nab, when Augereau again reoccupied Nuremberg.

32. Armistice of Steyer.

In the interval the suspension of arms concluded between Moreau and the Archduke Charles had ripened into a preliminary armistice, which was concluded between General the Count de Grune and General Lahoire at Steyer on the 25th; by the terms of which the Emperor bound himself to negotiate a separate treaty without his allies, and not to despatch any reinforcements to his army in Italy, until the two armies in that country should have also concluded an armistice. The results of this wonderful campaign, which only lasted fifteen days, gave the French 20,000 prisoners and 150 guns, besides tumbrils and equipages, and in this short period Moreau had marched ninety leagues, crossed three considerable rivers, and had arrived i within twenty leagues of the gates of Vienna, which capital, in truth, lay now open to his generosity. He had shown in the various events of the campaign the greatest ability, and those talents which have justly elevated him to almost the highest rank of the Generals of the period. He was ably seconded by bis chief of the staff General Dessolles, whom Moreau himself placed in the first rank of Generals.

33. War in Italy.

It would seem as if Bonaparte retained a special interest in the campaign of what may be termed the cradle of his glory; and that while he left to his able lieutenant Moreau to prosecute the war in Germany upon his own plan, he sketched himself that which he desired should be pursued in Italy, and even planned it upon the intention of taking the principal command of the army himself The First Consul did, however, see the necessity of varying his own plan, according as Moreau’s campaign developed itself; and Mac­donald was commanded, in the last days of October, to cross the Splügen, and to descend into the Valteline, there to act in concert with the army of Italy. This order distressed that General very much, for, although he had been promised 40,000 men, he had only received 15,000, and he knew how much superior in force were the Austrian divisions of Hiller and Wukassovitch, to which he should be opposed in the mountains. Accordingly he sent off his chief of the staff, General M. Dumas, to represent to the First Consul the danger of exposing the corps under his command to such disparity of numbers, in a district beset by such natural difficulties, in the severest season of the year. Bonaparte, after having patiently listened to his representations, replied that he could not change the orders he had given ; that he was about to terminate the armistice, and was resolved to get possession of the Tyrol in order to act upon the flank and rear of Bellegarde’s army; that the expected severity of the season was no impediment,—“qu’une armée passe toujours en toute saison partout où deux hommes peuvent poser le pied;” that seasons of frost are better for mountain warfare, than the mild seasons that melt the snow; that he would take care to supply the force requisite for the task to be performed, for that “ce n’est pas sur la force numérique d’une armée, mais bien sur le but et l’importance de l’opération que je mésure celle du commandement”

34. Macdonald crosses the Splügen.

It was towards the end of November at Coire that this positive order reached General Macdonald, and in obedience to it he prepared to convey his entire force across the Splügen. He therefore left behind Morbot’s division with orders to protect the debouches into the valley of the Engadine, which would likewise cover the march of the rest of his army up the Via Mala. Macdonald then divided his corps into four small divisions. The first, consisting of cavalry under Laboissière, opened the march, followed by the ad­vanced guard conducted by Vandamme, by the division of Pally, and by the reserve under Bey. The division of Baraguay d’Hilliers, which had been passed across the Spleen a month before, now received orders to be on the alert against any movements of the enemy from the Italian side. The endeavours to widen the roads by means of pioneers near Tusis having been found too tedious, the artillery was dismounted and placed on bullock cars, and every soldier was required to carry on his shoulders eight or ten pounds’ weight of ammunition, besides provisions for five days, for not only was there no hope of provisions in the mountains at this season, but the resources of the country had been exhausted by successive previous campaigns in it. The defile of the Via Mala is extended up the higher valley of the Rhine, where its rocky channel is closed in to the breadth of eight or ten yards by stupendous cliffs from 2000 to 3000 feet high. The road that is carried along its banks is rendered more gloomy by conspire to render this pass more extraordinary and sublime than any other scene in the Alps, and a fearful defile for an army to penetrate. The weather had become very severe by the 26th, when the army reached the village of Spleen; and, in the act of crossing the pass, an avalanche fell, which carried with it into unfathomable depths thirty dragoons in their order of march. A new advance was forthwith formed, but the tornado of snow that for three days afterwards prevailed brought down avalanche on avalanche, which destroyed all traces of the road, and the sappers and cattle were obliged to be employed, under the direction of the Generals themselves, to open a new passage through the walls of snow, and were obliged to feel their way by sounding, as they would do at sea. At length they reached the hospice, but the descent was, in this, as in all mountain passes, more frightful than the ascent had been, where steep descents of hard ice led to the brink of the most fearful ravines. It was the 6th of December before the Splügen was passed, and in the interval hundreds had perished in the snows, or been frozen to death, or carried down precipices; but now, at length, the sunny plain of Chiavenna burst in all its glory on the sight of the famished and footsore soldiers. Head-quarters were immediately established on the shores of the Lago di Como, and the army was now permitted some repose to recover their effectiveness and discipline. No enemy had disputed a single inch of the passage. As soon, therefore, as the guns had been remounted and the troops had somewhat recovered their fatigue, Macdonald prepared to carry his army by the Col d’ Abriga into the valley of the Adige, and to march upon Trent to unite himself with the army of Brune. On the 22nd of December he reached the Monte Tonal, and immediately sent forward Van damme to assault the double entrenchments which had been thrown up to guard that passage. The brigade of Vaux carried the first line, but did not succeed at the second, which was bravely defended by some 500 or 600 men of the corps of Wukassovitch. Macdonald therefore descended the valley of the Oglio, and on the 31st of December established his head-quarters at Breno.

The position of the Imperialists was at this time exceedingly strong. Wukassovitch, having under him the divisions of Loudon and Dedovitch, protected all the approaches to the Tyrol from Glarus to Riva on the Lago di Garda, covered Trent, and formed the right wing of the army commanded by Bellegarde. On the lake was a flotilla of twenty-seven gun-boats, protected by the batteries of the harbour of Sermione, at once impeding all communications of the enemy by water, and intercepting their advance on Peschiera from the side of Desenzano. The whole course of the Mincio was defended with redoubts and entrenchments; and, as the left bank for almost its whole course commanded the right, there were the greatest facilities to oppose the passage of it; but the bridges at Borghetto and Vallegio were also guarded by têtes-du-pont, and Mantua covered the left wing of the army, which extended to the fortified post of Goito. Oto the other side of the Po the corps of Schustek was at Cento, and that of Sommariva at Imola, to be in connexion with a Neapolitan army under Count Roger-Dumas, which was marching up to take the extreme left of the allied line in Tuscany, and who had already reached Sienna. The whole Imperial forces thus assembled were counted at 80,000 men, under the command of the Marshal Bellegarde.

The Republican army between the Chiese and Oglio rested their left on the Lake Idro and their right on the Po, and consisted of 55,000 bayonets and 8000 sabres, without counting Macdonald’s corps d’armée, or the troops detached to various places in Tuscany and the Bolognese. The whole was under the superior command of General Brune.* Delmas commanded the advanced guard of the army, Dupont the right wing, Suchet the centre, and Moncey the left wing, and about 4000 cavalry were placed in reserve under Kellerman.

The renewal of hostilities was fixed for the 5th, but neither army availed itself of its termination to move, until Bellegarde made a strong reconnaissance on the 17th of December along the whole French line. Brune, who was now informed of the brilliant victory at Hohenlinden, at once put himself in motion; and, having sur­veyed the enemy’s line from Desenzano to Borgoforte, he ordered an advance on the 20th. General Delmas accordingly marched on Pozzolengo, Moncey on Mozambano, Sachet to Volta, and Dupont to Goito and Castelluchio. The reserves moved up to Castiglione. These first movements were intended to clear the ground in front of the Mincio, which had been occupied by the Austrians in defiance of the line of demarcation fixed by the convention of Castiglione, but in truth neither party had adhered very rigidly to the stipulations of that armistice. Count de Hohenzollern, however, defended himself bravely against the French advance, but could not contend against numbers, and gave way before them.

35. Battles of Pozzolo and Mozambano. 25–26 December 1800)—The French cross the Mincio.

Brune now considered how to force the passage of the Mincio, and feeling that it would be dangerous to attempt it near Mantua, he drew in his right upon his centre, and determined to send Dupont to make a false attack on Pozzolo, while he passed the great body of his army, under a heavy fire of artillery, at Mozambano. Dupont succeeded in throwing a bridge over the river at Molino della Volta, and on the 25th in establishing a battery of twenty guns to sweep the bend of the river near that place, and he passed the divisions Watrin and Monnier, who drove off the unequal force opposed to them, and threw up a slight épaulement to protect the bridge; but Bellegarde sent down the divisions of Kaim and Vogelsang upon the village of Pozzolo, in which Monnier had established himself, and notwithstanding all his endeavours to keep the village, and the exertions of Watrin to keep back the Impe­rialists, the Hungarians drove the French at crossed bayonets completely out of Pozzolo. All this time Brune remained utterly inactive at Mozambano, leaving Dupont to contend with the whole Austrian army, and Suchet, seeing the disadvantage under which he was placed, resolved to go to his assistance. He accordingly sent forward the brigade of Clausel to support Monnier; but the move­ment was still unsuccessful, until the artillery, pouring in grape from the other side of the stream, gained the ascendency of fire and reestablished the combat. Upon this Watrin, being reinforced by the division Gazar, whom Suchet sent across the river, again advanced right and left on the Austrians, who were now driven back with the loss of 700 or 800 prisoners and five guns, and Monnier again recovered the possession of Pozzolo. But Bellegarde neverthe­less sent up fresh troops, the village was taken and retaken several times, and for six hours a mortal fight ensued, in which the Aus­trian General Kaim fell mortally wounded. By nine o’clock the village was at length in the hands of the French; but under the light of the moon the Imperialists still contested their advance, and attacked the épaulement that covered the bivouac of the divi­sion of Watrin, nor did the fire cease till the Republicans obtained full possession of the field of battle, after a severe loss on both sides.

Brune had prepared his troops for the passage of the Mincio at Mozambano, regarding as altogether secondary the passage at Pozzolo, of which he was not informed till late on the evening of the 25th. At 5 in the morning of the 26th, the troops under his immediate command were therefore in motion to the banks of the river, on which he had established a heavy battery of forty guns to protect the passage. Under this formidable fire, and under the disadvantage of a thick fog, the troops placed to oppose the passage of the river at this point by General Bellegarde made little opposition, and a bridge was constructed by nine o’clock, when General Delmas passed with the advanced guard, and the army immediately set forward on the march in four columns, under Generals Cassagnet, Bisson, Lapisse, and Beaumont. The Austrian General Rousseau, on hearing the cannon, approached to meet the advance of Delmas, under cover of a heavy fire of artillery from the entrenched height of Salienzo; and Bellegarde, as soon as he learned that the passage at Mozambano had been made good, ordered the Count of Hohenzollern in support, but he only arrived in time to cover the Austrian retreat, which could now no longer be delayed, and was continued as far as Verona; and the castle of Borghetto scarcely permitted its General to march past before it surrendered, without any defence. The loss of the Austrians in these various affairs has been set down at 7000 or 8000 men and forty pieces of cannon.

The Imperialist army now concentrated itself in the entrenched camp of Verona, its head-quarters being at San Michele, and strong garrisons were placed to defend Peschiera and Mantua. These garrisons reduced the active force of General Bellegarde in the field to 40,000 men, and the French army of Brune had about the same numbers. The Republicans, nevertheless, determined to avail themselves of the moral force with which their successes had endowed them, to force the passage of the Adige as they had now forced the Mincio; but time was required to bring up their pontoons, so that on the 30th December the former river divided the combatants.

36. —British Expedition, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, sails for Egypt.

In consequence of negotiations carried on with the Porte by the British minister Lord Elgin, a strong combined attack was resolved to be made upon the remains of the French expedition that still continued in Egypt, and which the Turks were clearly unequal to expel by their own military force or skill. Accordingly, a British expedition, which had been silently preparing all the year, and which had arrived a day too late at Genoa, now quitted Minorca, on the 2nd October, and united with 200 sail that had rendezvoused in the Bay of Gibraltar. These weighed again from the Rock on the 4th November, and on the 15th were assembled at Malta. Here they again received reinforcements, and on the 20th the conjunct expedition sailed away for Marmorice harbour on the coast of Caramania, in which they cast anchor on the 29th December. The force thus united consisted of 17,489 British soldiers, under the command of General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who expected to be joined by 6000 more men under General Baird, who was to arrive in Egypt from India by way of the Red Sea. A considerable Turkish force was also collecting in the neighbourhood of Jaffa under the orders of the Grand Vizier, who were intended to cooperate with the British in their descent upon Egypt. Bonaparte beheld with real anxiety this great and extensive project which, combining the British resources from the east and west of the world, was destined to envelope the isolated French army in Egypt, and sweep away the ill-digested and insane ambition that hoped to render that classic land a military colony of France. All the ports of France, Spain, Italy, and Holland were accordingly now rendered busy by the vast preparations contem­plated for the protection of the distant forces, but these were all dissipated by the winds or the British cruisers, so that it remained to Great Britain “ to assemble at the foot of the Pyramids the forces of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in one combined enterprise, more vast and extensive than had ever been previously undertaken by any nation, ancient or modern.”

37. —Naval War.

On the 4th of August, when off the coast of Brazil, the British ship “Belliqueux,” 64, Captain R. Bulteel, with a fleet of outward- bound Indiamen in convoy, discovered four sail to leeward. The “Belliqueux” immediately steered for the largest, which proved to be the French frigate “Concorde,” 40, Commodore Landolphe. She came up with her after about five hours’ chase, when, after a partial firing of ten minutes’ duration, in which not a man was hurt on either side, the French commodore hauled down his colours. At the same time that the “Belliqueux” gave chase, two of the Indiamen, the “Exeter,” Captain Meriton, and “Bombay Castle,” Captain Hamilton, followed after the French frigate “Medée,” 36, Captain J. D. Coudin. These China ships were painted with two tiers of ports, and had a very warlike appearance. The chase was long, so that it was midnight before Captain Meriton leading ran alongside the enemy. His consort being still very far astern, the position was critical for a captain of an Indiaman. Nevertheless, Meriton boldly summoned his opponent to surrender, who, supposing him­self under the guns of a ship of the line, admitted an officer on board, and gave up his sword. On the “Bombay Castle” coming up, the crew, consisting of 315 men, was divided and sent on board the two ships. By this time the French captain began to doubt the character of his adversary, and asked anxiously to what ships he had surrendered. Meriton drily answered, “To a merchant ship,” on which the poor French captain was in such despair at his folly that he destroyed himself. The other two Indiamen under convoy, the “Coutts,” Captain Torin, and “Neptune,” Captain Spens, had followed after another French frigate, “Franchise,” 36, Captain P. Josieu, but this vessel, by throwing overboard her guns and anchors, escaped in the night; and the fourth sail, an American armed schooner which had been captured by the French frigates, also escaped.

On the 20th August, when in the West Indies, the British frigate “Seine,” 38, Captain D. Milne, sighted, when on the starboard tack, the French frigate “Vengeance,” 40, Captain Pichot, who, it will be remembered, had had a severe contest with the American frigate “Constellation” in the early part of this year. A running fight was soon commenced and kept up the whole day, in which the “Seine” got so damaged in her rigging and sails that she dropped astern during the night, but on the 27th, in the morning, she again got alongside of the “ Vengeance,” when an action re­commenced that continued with unabated fury for two hours and a half, when an officer hailed the “Seine” from the end of the bowsprit of the “Vengeance” to say that she surrendered. The British vessel lost one lieutenant and twelve men killed, and three superiors and twenty-six wounded, and it was said the French had thirty-five killed and seventy or eighty wounded.

On the 10th of September, a privateer brig of Nova Scotia, called the “Rover”, Captain Godfrey, cruising near Cape Blanco, came up with the Spanish schooner “Santa Ritta,” which, with two gun-boats in company, had been equipped by the Governor of Puerto Caballo to capture the “Rover”. Captain Godfrey suffered the Spaniards to advance until they got within about fifteen yards of him. He then manned oars on one side and pulled round the schooner, on whose decks he saw the men assembled ready for boarding. He at the same time ordered a whole broadside of round and grape to be poured into her, and then, with great activity, pulled round to the opposite side of the Spanish ship, where he raked the two gun­boats in the same manner. The “Rover” then commenced a close action with the “Santa Ritta,” and soon with scarcely a show of opposition carried her; and the two gun-boats, seeing the fate of their consort, sheered off. The “Rover” had not a single man hurt of her crew, while on board the “Santa Ritta” every officer except the commander was killed. This was an achievement that did honour to the hardy tars of British America.

On the 8th of October the “Gipsy,” 10, Lieutenant Boyer, tender to Admiral Duckworth’s flag-ship (when off Guadaloupe), chased and captured an armed sloop of eight guns, called the “Quid-pro-quo,” M. Touspie, and after an action of two hours and a half compelled her to strike her colours.

On the 9th, the Indiaman “Kent,” 26, Captain Rivington (off the Sandheads), on her way from England to Bengal, fell in with the French privateer “Confiance,” 20, M. Suscouff, which, after a couple of hours’ action, succeeded in boarding the Indiaman, Captain Rivington, who had been shot through the head, after a most gallant defence, and the disheartened crew gave in.

On the 12th, off the shores of the United States, the “Boston,” 32, Captain Little, fell in with the French corvette “Berceau,” 22, Lieutenant Senes, which, after a spirited action of two hours, struck her colours to her. The “Boston” had twelve killed and eight wounded, and the “Berceau” lost her fore and main masts, and had a considerable number of killed and wounded.

On the 13th of November, the British schooner “Millbrook,” 16, Lieutenant Matthew Smith, lying becalmed off Oporto, descried a strange sail that she took for a French frigate. Having several merchantmen under his protection, Lieutenant Smith got out his sweeps, and pulled towards the enemy. He was received with a broadside from the French ship, which he now discovered to be the well-known privateer “Bellone,” of Bordeaux. The “Mill­brook ” had her guns mounted on a particular principle, which admitted great activity of firing, so that when she returned her broadside, she repeated it eleven times before the French ship had fired her third. In a couple of hours, therefore, the “Bellone’s” colours came down; but Lieutenant Smith had no boat to launch and could not take possession, so that after a pause the privateer took advantage of a light breeze and got away. The Lieutenant received great praise, with promotion for his ready gallantry and seamanlike conduct; and the English factory at Oporto presented him with their thanks and a piece of plate, for this spirited defence of their trade.

On the 7th of November, off the rock of Lisbon, Lieutenant Bond, commanding the “Netley,” 16, received information that the New­foundland convoy, having dispersed, might be daily expected to run into the Tagus; and, being consequently on the look-out, he discovered the Spanish privateer “L’Alerta,” 9, with a brig prize at anchor. The “Netley” at once gallantly ran on board of and captured the privateer and brig without the discharge of a shot or the loss of a man, and brought them both next day into the Tagus.

On the 7th of December, off Quiberon Bay, the “Nile” and “Lurcher”, cutters, discovered a convoy of fifteen or sixteen vessels coming round the point of Croisie, and notwithstanding the fire of the batteries of Notre Dame and Pointe St Jacques, they captured nine of them with little Joss, showing how much may be done even by such small vessels when commanded by active and intelligent officers. On the 10th, the armed brig “Admiral Pasley,” 16, Lieutenant Nevin, with despatches, on her way from England to Gibraltar, was attacked in a calm by two Spanish gun-vessels, and after an engagement of an hour and a half, the British brig was obliged to haul down her colours, having previously thrown over­board her despatches.

38. Boat Attacks.

Several boat actions of an enterprising and dashing character remain to be recorded among the naval annals of this year. On the 29th of August, as Sir John Borlase Warren, with his squadron, was proceeding along the coast of Spain, a large ship was seen to take shelter from such superior force by running into Vigo, under the protection of the batteries of Redondela. In the evening, therefore, a division of boats, twenty in number, under Lieutenant Burke of the flag-ship, taken from “Renown,” 74, “Courageux,” 74, “Defence,” 74, and “Fisguard” and “Unicorn” frigates, proceeded to attack her, and at a little after midnight got alongside of the ship. The British so resolutely boarded that in fifteen minutes they carried the vessel, with the loss of four killed and twenty wounded. She proved to be the French privateer “Guepe,” 18, Captain Dupau; and so obstinately was she defended, that her loss was twenty-five killed and forty wounded, including among the former her brave commander. Lieutenant Burke and about twenty of the boats’ crews were wounded. On the 3rd of September, when off the Mediterranean shores of Spain, eight boats, taken from the “Minotaur,” 74, Captain Louis, and frigate “Niger,” 32, Capt. Hillyer, under the orders of the latter officer, proceeded to cut out or destroy two Spanish armed ships at anchor in Barcelona roads. Having approached within a mile of the nearest battery, one of the two, named “L’Esmeralda,” discharged her broadside at the boats, but without effect, the shot falling short. Captain Hillyer, there­fore, and his party pulled away with accustomed alacrity, and were soon alongside the ship, before she could reload her guns; and in a few minutes, but not without a sharp struggle, they boarded and carried the Spaniard. The cheers that announced this victory was a signal for all the batteries and gun-boats to open fire upon the boats, and for the other ship to endeavour to get under their protection; but the British being alert in their movements, the other ship “Paz” soon shared the fate of her consort, and both prizes were brought off in safety, in spite of the firing of all the batteries, with the loss of only three killed and five wounded. On the 27th of October, near Malaga, the boats of the British frigate “Phaeton,” 38, under Lieutenant F. Beaufort, proceeded to attack the polacre “San Josef,” lying moored under the fortress of Fuengirola. As they proceeded on their course, they were unexpectedly fired at by a French privateer, which had entered the harbour unseen by them, and had placed herself in a position to flank the advance of the boats. Nevertheless, though Lieutenant Beaufort and the other officers were all wounded under her fire, the boats went forward; and in six or eight hours, notwithstanding an obstinate resistance, they boarded, carried, and brought off the polacre. On the 17th of November, off Porto Navallo, in the Morblhan, Sir Richard Strachan's squadron discovered a French corvette endeavouring to get away to the protection of the batteries. The “Captain,” 74, the frigate “Magicienne,” 82, and the “Nile” lugger, immediately despatched boats, under Lieutenants Skottowe and Rodney, to endeavour to board and bring away the vessel, which, however, ran so far into port that the boats were signaled to return. Lieutenant Rodney, nevertheless, in his way back, captured, with the division of boats under his command, one merchant vessel from under the batteries. Sir Richard was now determined not to be foiled in the destruction or capture of the corvette, and therefore sent off another division of boats belonging to his squadron, under Lieutenant Hennah, to attempt this service. The enterprise was conducted by that officer with 30 much judgment and gallantry, that, notwith­standing a heavy fire from the shore on every side, the corvette “Réolaise” was boarded and destroyed, with the loss of only one seaman killed and seven wounded.

39. The Island or Curaçoa surrendered to the British.

On the 11th of September, as the British frigate “ Nereide,” 36, Captain T. Watkins, was cruising off the island of Curaçoa, the schooner “Active,” tender to the flag-ship, commanded by Lieutenant Fitton, who had been for some time watching the mouth of the harbour of Amsterdam, obtained full view of five or six French privateers moored close to the walls. Taking advantage of some negligence that he had observed of their watch, Lieutenant Fitton dashed in unnoticed, and, bringing the broadside of the “Active” to bear, opened it with great effect into the sterns of this cluster of t pirates; and then, before the fort could get its guns to bear, crowded sail and got clear off: but as it was evident that the “Néréide” was a dangerous neighbour, and might make some further attempts on them with her boats, the French pirates took advantage of night sailed away from the harbour with all the plunder they had collected. As soon as they were gone, the Dutch inhabitants, tired of the tyranny of such masters, sent off a deputation to Captain Watkins, and on the 13th signed a capitulation for the surrender of the island to His Britannic Majesty. Forty-four vessels that were in the harbour surrendered at the same time.