The Battle of Rivoli
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
In the late 18th century and on into the 19th, France was almost continually involved in one war or another. Many of these involved that model general and Frenchman (who was actually a sort of Italian), Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1792 the country became involved in the War of the First Coalition, and in 1815 suffered defeat in the War of the Seventh Coalition (sounding the death knell for Napoleon's military career), fighting five more "coalitions" in between.
But France fared better in the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797), emerging victorious over an alliance that had at various times included the Dutch Republic, Great Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburgs, Prussia, Portugal, Spain, and several Italian states. It was near the end of that war, at the Battle of Rivoli, a key victory in Napoleon's Italian Campaign against Austria, that France reached a turning point leading to the signing of the Treaty of Campo Formio (capping several previous treaties) nine months later.
In 1796, the French had besieged the Austrians in the northern Italian city of Mantua, a siege which the Austrians tried four times to lift, once with limited success. But then on January 12, 1797, the Austrian General of the Artillery Jozsef Alvinczi and his 28,000 men attacked Napoleon's general Barthélemy Joubert's 10,000 men.
Joubert managed to hold Alvinczi off until joined by another general, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, and, at last, by the great Bonaparte himself.
The morning of January 14, three of Alvinczi's five columns engaged Joubert again. The Austrians attempted to run the French into the Rivoli Gorge. The outlook was grim for Napoleon, until he identified a weakness in the Austrian line and threw a concentrated assault into them.
In the end, 3,200 Frenchmen were killed or wounded, and another 1,000 captured. Four thousand Austrians were killed or wounded, and a whopping 8,000 captured, along with 40 large guns.
The following day the French pursued the fleeing Alvinczi and his men, handing Napoleon his greatest victory to date. By January 16, the Austrian army in northern Italy was no more, and those inside Mantua surrendered on February 2.