The Constitution of the Year III had an interesting provision designed to guard against the government's overthrow by the military: the Councils were limited in the praise they might give for military victories to stating that such and such an army deserved well of the republic. This highest praise they might give was voted five times to General Bonaparte's army, and the Appiani illustrations were of four of the events so honored. The dies for the four medals were engraved by Charles Lavy, of the Milan mint, and dies for a fifth medal were produced by Salwirck, from the mint at Genoa. All five medals were produced with an unobtrusive edge legend in raised letters reading BONAPARTE GENERAL EN CHEF.
Production of the medals had been begun by November. In that month Napoleon sent a medal struck in Milan to Monge, as is shown by his letter of 11 Novenber 1797:
"Headquarters, Milan, 21 brumaire an VI.
To Citizen Monge
I have received, citizen, your letter of 11 brumaire. I read with pleasure your fine speech [upon handing the Directorate the Treaty of Campo Formio] and thank you for it.
I hope that I shall see you at Rastadt with General Berthier. If you should not be able to join us, I will answer your letter from that city....
P.S. I am sending you a medal struck in Milan.
While it is not positive that this was one of the five battle medals, the timing and the fact that Monge was a member of Napoleon's Commission of Arts and Sciences in Italy strongly suggest that Monge had a hand in planning these medals and that this was one of the first struck.
The general history of the five medals may be concluded in a few words. Napoleon left Milan for Rastadt, then posted to Paris to arrange his Egyptian campaign. He sailed from Toulon on about 19 May 1798, not to return from Egypt until 9 October 1799. During his absence northern Italy was recaptured from the French by the Austrians and Russians. Before Milan fell to them, the hubs for the four medals engraved by Lavy were taken to Paris, where years later they were used to prepare new dies for the Paris mint issue of those four medals. The edge inscriptions were not put on the medals produced in Paris, and the Lodi medal was not produced in Paris, Salwirck not having had a hub produced from his die. Although there are copies from Milan without the edge inscription, the Milan mint specimens are about 1.5 mm thick, those from Paris about 3.0 mm.
The first medal celebrates the Battle of Millesimo and the Combat at Dego. This fighting took place on the 14th and 15th of April, 1796.
The medal depicts a nude hero clubbing a seven-headed hydra, Hercules at one of his labors. The legend reads BATAILLE DE MILLESIMO. COMBAT DE DEGO The reverse reads LE PEUPLE FRANCAIS A L'ARMEE D'ITALIE. LOI DU 6 FLOREAL AN 4me DE LA REP.
The fierce fighting of these two days resulted in separating Napoleon's two enemies, the Savoyards and the Austrians, from each other. The French army entered the plains of north Italy. French casualties included three generals and one adjutant general; one Austrian general was captured. The Savoyards were helpless without Austrian support and soon surrendered; the Austrians retreated to Milan.
In a letter of 17 April 1796 Salicetti, supposed to be a government watchdog over Napoleon, wrote to Carnot, the director in charge of war:
"I am writing these few lines to let you know that the Piedmont army has evacuated the fort at Ceva as well as the town. Our troops are there now. They left only five or six hundred men in the fort, who will not hold out long."
From the beginning, reports sent back to Paris by Napoleon were published in "Le Moniteur Universel", the official government newspaper, keeping the French people informed of his successes. The first accounts of his astonishing victories in north Italy aroused so much scepticism that on one occasion the newspaper published three supposedly independent reports about the same actions, one by Napoleon, one by the government watchdog, and one by a subordinate general, in a transparent attempt to show that the news from Italy was not just propaganda.
The second medal celebrates three actions during May, the crossings of the rivers Po, Adda, and Mincio.
The medal shows a general on horseback leading his troops across a bridge in the face of the enemy. This is the Battle of Lodi. There are French sharpshooters in the river below the bridge. along with a bearded man personifying the river. The legend reads PASSAGE DU PO, DE L'ADDA ET DU MINCIO, with the reverse reading A L'ARMEE D'ITALIE LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE, LOI DU 24 PRAIRIAL AN 4me REP.
After the surrender of the Savoyards, Napoleon advanced eastward, south of Milan, threatening to cut the Austrian communications with Vienna. This forced the Austrian army to retreat to north-eastern Italy. The dramatic crossing of the Adda at Lodi won the admiration of Napoleon's soldiers and enthusiastic support from France. It may be difficult today to comprehend the devotion which Napoleon inspired both in his soldiers and in the French people in general. Although the popular conception is that Napoleon led his soldiers in person (and the medallist may have intended the leading general to represent Napoleon), Napoleon's report to the directors told how it was:
"I had thought that crossing the Po would be the most audacious operation of the campaign, just as the Battle of Millesimo had the liveliest action, but I have to give you the account of the Battle of Lody. Headquarters arrived at Cazal on the twenty first at three in the morning; at nine our advance guard met the enemy defending the approaches to Lody. I immediately ordered all the cavalry to mount their horses, with four pieces of light artillery which had arrived and were being drawn by coach horses belonging to the lords of Plaisance. The division of General Augereau, which had slept at Borghetto, and that of General Massena, which had slept at Cazal, began to march. Meanwhile, the advance guard had overcome the outposts of the enemy and seized a cannon. We swept into Lody, pursuing the enemy, who had already crossed the bridge over the Adda. Beaulieu had all his army arranged for battle; thirty cannon covered the bridge. I had all my artillery set up in batteries. The cannon fire was very lively for several hours. As soon as the army arrived it formed a close order column, the Second Battalion of Carabiniers at its head, followed by all the battalions of grenadiers, charging to cries of 'Vive la Republique!' They were on a bridge two hundred yards long; the enemy fire was terrible. The head of the column even appeared to hesitate. One moment's hesitation would have lost everything; Generals Berthier, Massena, Cervoni, Dallemagne, Brigadier Lasne [Lannes?] and Battalion Leader Dupat realized this. They pushed themselves to the head and decided an outcome still in the balance.... If we lost only a few troops, we owe it to executing the operation promptly and to the sudden effect produced upon the enemy by the mass and redoubtable fire of that intrepid column."
What Napoleon defeated at Lodi was only Beauleau's rear guard; the Austrians were retreating to the line of the Mincio River. Napoleon's report of the sequel to Lodi was published in "Le Moniteur" of 12 June 1796:
"Headquarters arrived at Brescia on the ninth, and I ordered Division General Kilmaine to take 1500 cavalry and eight battalions of grenadiers to Desinzano. I ordered General Rusca to take a half-brigade of light infantry to Salo. It was a question of making General Beaulieu believe that I wanted to turn his flank above the lake. to prevent his retreat to the Tyrol by way of Riva. I held all the divisions of the army back so that the right, by which I really meant to attack, was a day and a half from the enemy. I put it behind the River Chemisa, where it seemed to be on the defensive, while General Kilmaine went up to the gates of Peschiera and had daily skirmishes with the advanced posts of the enemy, in one of which the Austrian General Lieptay was killed.
"On the tenth General Augereau's division replaced at Desinzanno that of General Kilmaine. General Kilmaine fell back to Lonado and reached Castiglione that night. General Massena was at Monte-Chiaro and General Serrurier at Montze. At two hours after midnight every division was set into motion, all directing their march on Borghetto. Our cavalry, flanked by our carabiniers and our grenadiers in battle ranks... charged very bravely, put the enemy cavalry to flight, and took a cannon from them. The enemy hurried to cross the bridge and cut it; the light artillery immediately began a cannonade. While the bridge was with difficulty being repaired under the fire of the enemy batteries, fifty impatient grenadiers jumped into the water, holding their muskets above their heads because the water was up to their chins. General Cardanne, grenadier in height and in courage, was at their head. The enemy soldiers thought they were looking at the terrible column of the bridge of Lody again; those in front took to their heels; the bridge was then easily repaired, and in an instant our grenadiers crossed the Mincio and seized Valeggio, headquarters of Beaulieu, who had just evacuated it. Yet the enemy, although staggered and partly in flight, was ranged in battle between Vallegio and Villa Franca. We were careful not to pursue them; they seemed to rally and take confidence, and their batteries were multiplying and nearing us; that was exactly what I wanted. I could hardly restrain the impatience or, to put it better, the fury of the grenadiers,
"While that was happening General Augereau's division crossed; it had been ordered to follow the Mincio straight to Peschiera, to surround that fort, and to cut the enemy off from the gorges of the Tyrol; Beaulieu and the debris of his army would find themselves without any retreat.
"To prevent the enemy from seeing General Augereau's movements I had the village of Valeggio cannoned vigorously, but the enemy were informed by their cavalry patrols of General Augereau's movements and immediately set out to reach the highway to Castelnuova; cavalry reinforcement which reached them protected their retreat. Our cavalry, commanded by General Murat, performed prodigies of valor; that general himself saved many sharpshooters whom the enemy was about to make prisoner. The chief of brigade of the Tenth Regiment of Sharpshooters, Leclerc, equally distinguished himself. When General Augereau arrived at Peschiera he found that the fort had been evacuated by the enemy.
"At daybreak on the twelfth we reached Rivoli, but the enemy had already crossed the Adige and destroyed all the bridges, so we could take only a part. It is figured that the enemy lost 1500 men and 500 horses, killed or taken prisoner. One of the prisoners is Prince Cousio, Lieutenant General of the armies of the king of Naples, commander in chief of the Neapolitan cavalry. We also took five cannon, two twelves and three sixes, along with seven or eight caissons loaded with ammunition... Thus you see the Austrians completely driven out of Italy. Our advanced posts are in the German mountains."
Driving the Austrian army of General Beaulieu out of Italy did not finish the campaign. The Austrian garrison in the strong fortress of Mantua threatened the French rear if Napoleon followed the Austrians north, and that fortress was prepared to withstand a long siege. General Beaulieu resigned (the British observer with the Austrians, Colonel Graham, said he displayed signs of downright dotage) and the new commander, General Wurmser, was given an additional 25,000 troops from the northern armies and orders to retake the plains of Lombardy. The Austrians divided: General Quosdanovich came down with 17,600 men on the west of Lake Garda; General Wurmser led the main force of 23,400 men down the valley of the Adige to take Rivoli and push on to Mantua, and a third force under General Davidovich came in from the east.
After driving Beaulieu out of Italy Napoleon, in response to orders from Paris, had swung south and seized Bologna, forcing the cardinals to sign an armistice and pay an indemnity of about thirty five million francs, then east to the coast to seize Livorno and collect more loot. His troops were well scattered (except for the ten thousand besieging Mantua) when he learned that the Austrian troops detailed above were marching. He rapidly concentrated his forces, abandoning the siege of Mantua.
The third medal shows two warriors fighting above the supine corpse of a third.
The obverse inscription reads BATAILLE DE CASTIGLIONE COMBAT DE PESCHIERA. The reverse shows crossed trumpets in a wreath, with A L'ARMEE D'ITALIE above and LOI DU 27. THERMIDOR AN 4me REP. below.
Napoleon's report to the directors gives an organized view of what may have happened, although reports from survivors made later are confusing:
"Headquarters, Castiglione, 6 August 1796.
Citizen Directors, since the 27th of July military happenings have followed each other with such rapidity that it has been impossible for me to give you an account of them earlier.
"The twenty thousand reinforcements sent by the Austrian Army of the Rhine to their Army of Italy arived severl days ago and, joined to numerous recruits and a considerable number of battalions who arived from Austria, made their army very formidable.
"The opinion was very widespread that soon the Austrians would be in Milan. On the twenty ninth, at 3 a.m., General Massena was attacked by very large forces. He was forced to yield the important post of La Corona. At the same instant a division of 15,000 Austrians surprised General Sauret's division at Salo and took that essential post. Brigadier General Guieu, with 600 men of the 15th Demi-Brigade of Light Infantry, shut himself up in a large house in Salo and braved all the efforts of the enemy which surrounded him. Brigadier General Rusca was wounded.
"While part of that division besieged General Guieu at Salo, another part descended at Brescia, surprised the French they found there, made prisoners of the four companies I had left there, 80 men of the 25th Regiment of Chasseurs, two generals, and some superior officers who were there, sick.
"General Sauret's division, which should have protected Brescia, retreated to Desenzano. In these difficult circumstances, penetrated by a large army necessaily emboldened by its advantages, I realized I had to adopt a far-reaching plan. In descending from the Tyrol both through Brescia and along the Adige the enemy put me in the middle. If my army was too weak to face two enemy divisions, it could beat each of them separately, and by my position I found myself between them; this it was possible for me, by rapidly backing up, to envelope the enemy division coming through Brescia, taking them prisoner or beating them completely, and then to return to the Mincio to attack Wurmser and force him back into the Tyrol. But to execute that project it was necessary to raise the siege of Mantua within twenty four hours, although that fortress was on the point of being taken. It was necessary for me to abandon my battery of forty cannon, because there was no way to spare six hours. It was necessary to recross the Mincio immediately and not give the two enemy divisions time to join up. Fortune smiled on this project, and the Combat of Desenzano. the Battle of Lonato, that of Castiglione were its results."
Napoleon moved his troops like chess pieces. General Sauret retook Salo and rescued General Guieu. General Dallemagne went to attack Lonato but was himself attacked. After a bitter fight he completely defeated his opponents.
General Augereau retook Brescia and recaptured the French magazines there. But General Valette, who was ordered to defend the important position of Castiglione, holding back Wurmser, retreated with half his men and announced that the other half had been captured. They hadn't; although abandoned by their general they succeeded in retreating to safety. Napoleon relieved Valette of his duties in front of the troops.
Sauret was driven out of Salo; General Guieu was ordered to retake it, while Massena was to attack Lonato, and Augereau Castiglione. General Wurmser gathered his troops together, reinforced by the garrison of Mantua. The Battle of Castiglione resulted; the French troops, reinforced by the men who had been besieging Mantua, thoroughly defeated the Austrians. Wurmser was forced to retreat into Mantua, which the French promptly blockaded again, after defeating another Austrian army, which was led by General Provera and intended to relieve Mantua.
Before proceeding to the fourth medal I must mention three events which took place toward the end of 1796. Napoleon suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Austrians at the Battle of Caldiero on November 12 but redeemed himself with the brilliant Battle of Arcola a couple of days later. And Catherine the Great of Russia died in November. She had favored the German side, and the Austrian court had expected help from her. Her son and successor, Paul, was known to favor the French.
Since the French had lost their siege guns it was necessary to starve the Austrian troops shut up in Mantua into submission. The Austrian General Wurmser made several attempts to break out of the trap but finally surrendered to Napoleon. The French entered Mantua on 3 February 1797.
The obverse shows an armed Roman warrior to whom Mantua. personified as a draped woman wearing a civic crown, presents the keys to the city. In the background are an aqueduct and part of the citadel of Mantua. In the exergue is the inscription REDDITION DE MANTOUE. The reverse has a laurel wreath, A L'ARMEE D'ITALIE VICTORIEUSE, the thunderbolt of Jupiter, LOI DU 24 PLUVIOSE, AN 5me R. An edge inscription reads BONAPARTE GENERAL EN CHEF.
The loss by the Austrians of their last stronghold in north Italy was an occasion of great rejoicing in France; it was clear that further operations in that theater of war would just be mopping up. It was true that further north the Austrians, under the leadership of Archduke Charles, had driven the French out of Germany, but so many Austrian resources had been expended in Italy that Austria was ready to settle for peace. Charles took command of what was left of the southern Austrian army and rallied it behind the Tagliamento River.
The last medal of this series, the most realistic of the five, marks
the completion of Napoleon's liberation of north Italy by the battle
at the Tagliamento River. The obverse shows the general on horseback,
leading his troops across the river. On the opposite bank are seen
the fleeing Austrians, and the background is filled with cannon smoke. In the foreground reclines the personification of the river, a river god resting on an urn which bears the name, TAGLIAMENTO. In the exergue is the inscription, PASSAGE DU TAGLIAMENTO PRISE DE TRIESTE. The reverse has, within a wreath, A L'ARMEE D'ITALIE and LOI DU 15 GERMINAL, AN 5me DE LA REP.
The Archduke Charles might have been a match for Napoleon if he had had enough artillery and a spirited army; as it was his troops were afraid of the terribly victorious French. A direct frontal assault and a turning movement defeated them in short order. The following short account of the battle was dictated by Napoleon years later, on St. Helena:
"At nine in the morning on the sixteenth the two armies faced each other, the French on the right bank of the Tagliamento and the Austrians on the left. The divisions of Guyeux, Serurier, and Bernadotte were to the left of center and headquarters was to the right, in front of Valvasone. Prince Charles, with almost equal forces, was across the river. In this position Charles was not covering the road along the Ponteba. The debris of the division opposed to Massena was no longer capable of stopping him. Yet the Ponteba was the shortest route to Vienna and the natural direction for covering that capital. This conduct of Prince Charles could be explained only by supposing that he was still not very familiar with the new terrain where he had to operate, which had never been a theater of war in modern times, or that he did not think the French general bold enough to march on Vienna but was afraid only for Trieste, the center of the Austrian maritime establishment, or, finally, that he hoped that the cover of the Tagliamento would win him a few days, which would give enough time to the division of grenadiers which had already arrived at Clagenfort to come and reinforce the division opposed to Massena.
"The cannonade had begun between the two banks. The light cavalry made many charges on the river gravel. The general in chief saw that the enemy was too well prepared and had his soldiers lay down their arms and set up camp. The Austrian general was deceived by this; he thought that the French army, which had marched all night, was taking up a position; he moved his army back to set up camp. But two hours later, when all was quiet in the two camps, the French suddenly took up their arms and Duphot, at the head of the 27th Light, leading the advance guard of Bernadotte, each supported by his division, each brigade forming a line, and these supported by Serurier marching behind in reserve, threw themselves into the river. The enemy ran to arms but all our troops had already crossed over in the most beautiful order and were drawn up in battle line on the left bank. Cannonades and rifle fire began on all sides. At the first cannon shots Massena crossed the Saint-Daniele; he found little resistance and took Osopo, the key to the Ponteba road which the enemy committed the fault of neglecting; thus he cut the Austrian army, isolated the division opposing him, pursued it up to the bridge of Casasola, throwing it back toward Carinthia. Prince Charles gave up hopes of victory. After many hours of fighting and various infantry and cavalry charges he began his retreat, leaving us cannon and prisoners."
Then Napoleon invaded Austria over the mountains, stopping a hundred miles short of Vienna when Austria agreed to sign preliminaries of peace, at Leoben, 18 April 1797. Negotiations for the treaty of peace were lengthy; not until October 17 was the Treaty of Campo Formio drawn up. Napoleon spent the intervening period organizing his conquests in Italy and having the Milan mint strike the Five Battles.
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