Battle of Montenotte

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Battle of Montenotte
Part of the French Revolutionary War
Attack On Monte Legino Redoubt.jpg
Attack on the redoubt of Monte-Legino by Guiseppe Pietro Bagetti (1764-1831)
Date 12 April 1796
Location Montenotte Superiore,[1] present-day Italy
Result French victory
Belligerents
France French Republic Habsburg Monarchy Habsburg Austria
 Kingdom of Sardinia
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon Bonaparte
André Masséna
Amédée Laharpe
Antoine Rampon		 Eugène Argenteau
Mathias Rukavina
Strength
10,000,[2] 18 guns[3] 4,500[2]
Casualties and losses
880[2] 2,500, 12 guns[2]

The Battle of Montenotte was fought on 12 April 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between the French army under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian corps under Count Eugène-Guillaume Argenteau. The battle was fought near the village of Cairo Montenotte, in northwestern Italy, and ended in a French victory. This action was part of the Montenotte Campaign.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Plans

During the spring of 1796, the politically connected Bonaparte arrived to take over the Army of Italy, his first army command. His Austrian opponent, Feldzeugmeister Johann Beaulieu was also new to the Italian theater of operations. Beaulieu's ally, the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont also fielded an army against the French.

Bonaparte planned to advance from the Ligurian coast to drive a wedge between Beaulieu's 28,000-man Austrian army to the northeast and Feldmarschal-Leutnant (FML) Michelangelo Colli's 21,000-strong Austro-Sardinian army to the northwest.[4] Colli, an Austrian on loan to the Sardinian army, shared a friendship with Beaulieu. However, the Austrian government secretly warned Beaulieu not to trust his Sardinian ally. This made it difficult for the two allied leaders to agree on a joint strategy.[5] Colli feared an attack that would split the allied armies, exactly the plan that Bonaparte was contemplating. He argued for the allied armies to concentrate in the center.[6] But Beaulieu became convinced that the French intended to seize Genoa, and he intended to thwart that possibility with an attack of his own.[7]

[edit] Forces

See Montenotte 1796 Campaign Order of Battle for the units and organization of the French, Austrian, and Sardinian armies.

[edit] Voltri

On 10 April, the left wing of the Austrian army under Beaulieu and FML Karl Philipp Sebottendorf attacked a French brigade at Voltri, now a suburb of Genoa. The local French commander, General of Brigade (BG) Jean Cervoni made a fighting retreat and escaped intact to Savona down the coast.[8] Beaulieu belatedly realized that he was now dangerously separated from his right wing under FML Argenteau. He made arrangements to shift his left wing west to support his colleague and directed reinforcements from Lombardy to concentrate at Acqui Terme.[9]

[edit] Geography

The road net in the vicinity of the battlefield resembled the Greek letter lambda (λ). The village of Altare, which was on the main east-west road from Savona to Ceva, lay at the bottom of the left leg, to the west. The Cadibona Pass was just east of Altare. The village of Madonna di Savona was located at the bottom of the right leg, to the east. Montenotte Superiore could be found where the right and left legs come together. From Montenotte Superiore, the road continued to the top of the λ at Montenotte Inferiore. Monte Negino (or Monte Legino) was at the midpoint of the right leg, between Montenotte Superiore and Madonna di Savona.[10]

[edit] Battle

[edit] Monte Negino

Colonel Rampon Defending Monte Legino Redoubt by René Théodore Berthon (1776-1859)

Due to poor staff work, the attack of Argenteau's right wing did not begin until 11 April.[11] On that day, the Austrians moved with 3,700 soldiers against a French position on Monte Negino.[12] Argenteau led one battalion of Alvinczi Infantry Regiment (IR) # 19 and two battalions of Archduke Anton IR # 52 to a position near Montenotte Superiore. There, the Austrian rendezvoused with General-Major Mathias Rukavina, who commanded one battalion each of Stein IR # 50 and Pellegrini IR # 49 plus three companies of Grenz infantry from the Gyulay Freikorps.[13]

The Austrians began to press southeast down the right leg of the λ, driving in the enemy outposts on Monte San Giorgio and Monte Pra. Colonel (Col.) Henri-François Fornésy, with about 1,000 French troops of the 17th Light Demi-Brigade held an old Austrian-built redoubt atop Monte Negino. These soldiers were joined by Col. Antoine Rampon who assumed overall command. An additional 1,192 men of the 32nd Line from Madonna di Savona arrived to help.[14]

The road to Monte Negino followed the crest of the Apennines. Led by the Croats of the Gyulay Freikorps in skirmish order, the Austrians pressed their attacks. At a moment when the French troops were wavering, Rampon rallied them by making them swear to 'conquer or die', according to one eyewitness. All the Austrian attacks failed and Rukavina was shot in the shoulder. Argentau called a halt to operations about 4 pm.[15] That evening, he sent to Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.) Karl Leczeny in Sassello for reinforcements.[16] Rampon estimated Austrian losses at 200-300, but they were probably closer to 100. The French reported 57 casualties.[17]

[edit] Moves

Argenteau's attack precipitated an immediate counteroffensive by Bonaparte, who moved General of Division (MG) André Masséna's two divisions from Savona to the area of the Cadibona Pass. Satisfied that Beaulieu was too far to the east to intervene effectively, Bonaparte determined to crush Argenteau. He ordered MG Amédée Laharpe's division to join Rampon's force, making a total of 7,000 soldiers at Monte Negino. Masséna marched from Altare, up the left leg of the λ, with BG Philippe Romain Ménard's 4,000-man brigade. In order to reach their jumping off positions, the troops started at 2 am and marched in a rain storm. MG Pierre Augereau's division and other units concentrated near the Cadibona Pass.[18]

The 3rd battalion of the Terzi IR # 16 marched all night to reach Montenotte at dawn. Argenteau deployed this unit, some Croats, and several detached companies from his other regiments to guard the Altare road. The rest of the Austrians still faced Monte Negino. One battalion of the Preiss IR # 24 arrived in the area but was not committed to the next day's battle.[19]

[edit] Montenotte

Fog shrouded the area at dawn on 12 April. When it cleared, several French cannons began firing from Monte Negino on the Austrians below them and Argenteau saw that he was confronted by a large force. Shortly afterward, Masséna's soldiers launched their attack on the weakly held Austrian right flank, swamping the defenders with superior numbers. Argenteau deployed the Stein and Pellegrini battalions under Lt. Col. Nesslinger to hold the center and assigned the two Archduke Anton battalions to defend the left flank on Monte Pra. Then he took the Alvinczi battalion to the rescue of the 3rd/Terzi battalion on his right flank.[20]

While Masséna overwhelmed Argenteau's right, Laharpe fell on the Austrians defending Monte Pra. At first the Austrians conducted a stout defense. But Masséna's assault made such rapid progress that Argenteau ordered a retreat. The 3rd/Terzi battalion was nearly destroyed and Nesslinger's two battalions were badly cut up. In the Austrian retreat from Montenotte Superiore, the Alvinczi battalion provided the rear guard. The battalion had to fight its way out, losing its color and many soldiers. Argenteau's men barely cleared out of Montenotte Inferiore before Masséna's and Laharpe's flanking forces converged on the hamlet. By 9:30 am the battle was over.[21]

[edit] Results

The battle was General Bonaparte's first victory in the Montenotte Campaign. By the next morning, Argenteau reported only 700 men with the colors.[22] The rest were lost in combat or scattered. Boycott-Brown presents French losses as light; a sampling of reports show that the 32nd Line, 51st Line, 75th Line, and 17th Light lost 10, 8, 27, and 19 casualties, respectively. The Austrians admitted losing 166 killed, 114 wounded, and 416 missing, for a total of 696.[23]

Three historians assert that losses were more severe. Digby Smith wrote that the French suffered 800 killed, wounded, and missing, while the Austrians lost 2,500 killed, wounded, and captured, most of the casualties being prisoners.[3] Gunther E. Rothenberg listed 2,500 Austrian casualties against 880 French.[2] David G. Chandler also gives Austrian losses as 2,500, but lists no French losses.[24]

A badly shaken Argenteau pulled his surviving soldiers back to cover Acqui, while other forces under Rukavina held Dego, about 6 km to the north-northeast of Montenotte. He sent an alarming dispatch to Beaulieu stating that his command was "almost completely destroyed".[25] Bonaparte issued orders to exploit his success by widening the gap between the Austrian and Sardinian armies by thrusting west toward Millesimo and north toward Dego.[26] The next actions were the Battle of Millesimo on 13 April and the Second Battle of Dego on 14–15 April.[27]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Proximity to M San Giorgio and Naso di Gatto make Montenotte Superiore a far more likely battle location than modern Cairo Montenotte
  2. ^ a b c d e Rothenberg, p 247
  3. ^ a b Smith, p 111
  4. ^ Fiebeger, p 5
  5. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 136-137
  6. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 148-149
  7. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 160
  8. ^ Chandler, Campaigns, p 64
  9. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 212
  10. ^ Boycott-Brown, Montenotte map, after p 256
  11. ^ Chandler, Campaigns, p 67
  12. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 202. Boycott-Brown, who studied the battlefield, calls the position Monte Negino. Other sources use Monte Legino.
  13. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 202
  14. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 207
  15. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 210-213
  16. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 222
  17. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 214-215
  18. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 221.
  19. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 222. Smith identifies the Terzi unit as the 1st battalion.
  20. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 224-225
  21. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 226-228
  22. ^ Chandler, Campaigns, p 66
  23. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 229-230. The Austrian killed-wounded ratio is unusual, unless many of the wounded were reported as missing.
  24. ^ Chandler, Dictionary, p 285
  25. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 230
  26. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 233
  27. ^ Smith, p 112

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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