Battle of Mondovì

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Battle of Mondovì
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
View of the Battle of Mondovi by Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti (1764-1831)
Date 21 April 1796 Location Mondovì, Piedmont, in modern-day Italy Result French victory
Belligerents
French First Republic	Kingdom of Sardinia
Commanders
Napoleon Bonaparte	Michelangelo Colli-Marchi
Strength
17,500[1]	13,000
Casualties and losses
600	1,600, 8 cannons

The Battle of Mondovì was fought on 21 April 1796^[2] between the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte and the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. The French won the battle and quickly forced King Victor Amadeus III to sue for peace.

[edit] Campaign

This was the last battle of the Montenotte Campaign in which Bonaparte's Army of Italy thrust between Michelangelo Colli's 21,000-man Austro-Sardinian army and Johann Beaulieu's 28,000-strong Austrian army.

[edit] Forces

See Montenotte 1796 Campaign Order of Battle.

[edit] Operations

In the initial battles, Bonaparte savaged Beaulieu's army and drove it northeast. Then the French general turned his main attack to the west against the Piedmontese. Colli conducted a series of well-fought rear guard actions, including the Battle of Ceva on 16 April. Nevertheless, Bonaparte drove the Sardinian army relentlessly westward toward the fortress of Cuneo and the plains of Piedmont. On 18 April, Colli retreated into a strong position behind the Corsaglia River.

[edit] Geography

The Corsaglia runs in a northeasterly direction until it flows into the northwest-flowing Tanaro River near Lesegno. In April the streams were swollen by snow-melt and rain which rendered them generally unfordable. On the west bank are hills that dominate the river crossings. These heights are Madonna della Casette in the north, La Bicocca in the center, and Buon Gesù in the south near the town of San Michele Mondovi. The Ellero River and the town of Mondovì lie five kilometers to the west of the Corsaglia.

[edit] San Michele Mondovi

Colli appointed General Jean-Gaspard Dichat de Toisinge with 8,000 troops and 15 cannon to hold the position.^[3] Bonaparte planned to send the division of Jean Sérurier in a head-on assault against San Michele while Pierre Augereau's division crossed the Tanaro to flank the position from the north. André Masséna's hovered in the mountains north of Ceva, threatening to cut Colli off from Turin. Amédée Laharpe's division watched the Austrians to the east.

Augereau's men failed to get across the river due to high water and five well-placed cannon. The Piedmontese repulsed Serurier's morning attack on the San Michele bridge with loss. Later, some skirmishers of Jean Guieu's brigade found an unguarded footbridge to the south near the hamlet of Torre. Soon Guieu's men crossed in strength and began rolling up the Sardinian flank. The defenders of San Michele broke for the rear, allowing Pascal Fiorella's brigade to cross the bridge and occupy the town. In the confusion, Colli was nearly taken prisoner. Dichat was caught, but he escaped by bribing his captor.^[4]

The hungry, badly-paid, and poorly disciplined French troops immediately ran wild in the town, stealing food and pillaging the houses. A company of Swiss grenadiers in Sardinian pay, noting that the French were out of control, retook part of the town. Colli organized a major counterattack in the early afternoon which drove the Sérurier's division out of San Michele, though Guieu managed to hold onto his small bridgehead. One authority estimates that the French suffered about 600 casualties while the Piedmontese lost 300.^[5]

On the 20th, Bonaparte brought Masséna's division forward while the other troops rested. To the northeast, Beaulieu still hesitated to mount a major effort to help his ally. On the night of 20 April, Colli withdrew his army from the Corsaglia position, intending to fall back behind the Ellero River at Mondovì. In the night, Bonaparte discovered that his enemy had decamped and mounted a rapid pursuit, using a ford discovered by some skirmishers.

[edit] Battle

The next morning, Sérurier's advance struck the Sardinian rearguard on the heights of Buon Gesù drove it back on the town of Vicoforte. Sérurier formed his conscripts into three heavy columns and covered them with his more experienced soldiers in skirmish order. Then, putting himself at the head of the central column, he led a charge against the Sardinians with Masséna's division following behind.^[6]

The speed of the French attack did not allow Colli to deploy his troops properly. A few of the Sardinian units panicked and fled, leaving gaps in the line. Fiorella and Guieu's brigades, supported by Elzéard Dommartin's brigade of Masséna, converged on Vicoforte and captured it. The Sardinians at La Bicocca held firm until Dichat was killed, then they joined the disorderly retreat. Bonaparte's cavalry commander, Henri Stengel took some dragoons across the Ellero, but he was mortally wounded during the pursuit.^[7]

When the French arrived at Mondovì, the governor managed to stall the pursuers for a time with negotiations, but he surrendered the town at about 6 pm. Bonaparte forced the municipal authorities to provide large contributions of food to his hungry soldiers, so the town was not sacked.

[edit] Results

Bonaparte ordered a vigorous pursuit of the defeated Sardinians. On the evening of 23 April, Colli asked for an armistice, but the French general ordered his troops to continue their advance. Bonaparte demanded that Sardinia hand over the fortresses of Cuneo, Ceva, and either Alessandria or Tortona as the price of peace. On 28 April, the Sardinian government finally signed the Armistice of Cherasco, which effectively knocked the Kingdom of Sardinia out of the First Coalition.^[8] In the battle, Bonaparte's forces lost 600 killed and wounded out of 17,500. The Piedmontese lost 8 cannons and 1,600 men killed, wounded, and captured out of 13,000.^[9]

[edit] References

• Boycott-Brown, Martin. The Road to Rivoli. London: Cassell & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-304-35305-1
• Chandler, David. Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars. New York: Macmillan, 1979. ISBN 0-02-523670-9
• Chandler, David. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
• Chandler, David (ed). Rooney, David D. "Serurier: The Virgin of Italy," Napoleon's Marshals. New York: Macmillan, 1987. ISBN 0-02-905930-5
• Fiebeger, G. J. The Campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of 1796-1797. West Point, NY: US Military Academy Printing Office, 1911. Reprinted in Bonaparte in Italy Operational Studies Group wargame study folder.
• Rothenberg, Gunther E. The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-253-31076-8
• Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1998. ISBN 1-85367-276-9

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Rothenberg, p 248. Rothenberg gives all losses and strengths.
2. ^ Chandler, Dictionary, p 283. Sources differ on the date. Smith and Rothenberg say 22 April. Fiebeger says 20 April.
3. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 265
4. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 266-267
5. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 267-268
6. ^ Rooney-Chandler, p 452
7. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 271
8. ^ Chandler, Campaigns, p 75
9. ^ Rothenberg, p 248

[edit] External links

• Francesco Frasca, The First Italian Campaign as seen by the artists of the Dépôt de la Guerre.
• An informative article that differs somewhat from the above account.