Battle of Faenza

Coordinates: 44°19′N 11°48′E / 44.317°N 11.800°E / 44.317; 11.800
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other battles called The Battle of Faenza, see Battle of Faenza (disambiguation).
Battle of Faenza
Part of the
Papal Army before the Battle of Faenza.
DateFebruary 3, 1797
Location
Castel Bolognese, Faenza, Papal States
Result French victory
Belligerents
French Republic
 Papal States
Commanders and leaders
Claude Victor-Perrin
Achille Fontanelli
 Michelangelo Colli
Strength
9,000 7,000
Casualties and losses
100 killed or wounded 800 killed or wounded
1,200 captured
14 artillery guns captured

The Battle of Faenza, also known as the Battle of Castel Bolognese on February 3, 1797, saw a 7,000 troops from the

Claude Victor-Perrin. The veteran French troops quickly overran the Papal army, inflicting disproportionate casualties. The town of Castel Bolognese was located on the banks of the Senio River 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Bologna, and the city of Faenza was also nearby. The action took place during the War of the First Coalition, as part of the French Revolutionary Wars
.

Background

The Siege of Mantua ended in a French victory.

The

Montenotte Campaign
. He was an intelligent and capable officer, but sometimes had to be carried on a stretcher due to old wounds.

The French Revolutionary Army was highly skilled, and fresh off recent successes in Italy. The Papal army, on the other hand, consisted of several regular “permanent regiments” reinforced by organized town or regionally trained militia battalions or cavalry squadrons called out in times of need. This was typical of many minor Italian state armies of this period including the Sardinian-Piedmontese army defeated by Bonaparte in 1796. The Papal army included several fortress garrison battalions, tasked with defending the state fortresses dotting the seacoast, ports and major towns.[3] Through the 18th century the small Pontifical force had recruited its officer corps by commissioning individuals who were able to varying numbers of recruits - ranging from 100 men for a lieutenancy to 1,600 for a colonelcy. Training reflected an obsolete military culture with an emphasis on parade ground drill and spiritual exercises. The result in 1797 was a poorly resourced and unprofessionally led force, adequate for constabulary functions within the Papal States but not for facing the highly motivated and experienced French. [4]

Battle

On February 3, Victor sighted Colli's troops on the

General Jean Lannes.[5][6]

Aftermath

The port of Ancona surrendered to Victor on 9 February with its Papal garrison of 1,200 men and 120 artillery guns. There were no French casualties. By the Treaty of Tolentino on 19 February, Pope Pius VI was forced to deliver works of art, treasures, territory, and[2] 30 million francs to France.[1]

In popular culture

The defeat was recorded not only by revolutionaries such as Francesco Saverio Salfi (who wrote a satirical pantomime about it),[7] but also with sarcasm by the reactionary count Monaldo Leopardi[8] and much later by his son, the poet Giacomo Leopardi.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Chandler (1966), 121
  2. ^ a b Smith (1998), 133
  3. ^ Boycott-Brown (2001), 135-136
  4. ISBN 978-0-7006-1770-8
    .
  5. ^ Smith (1998), 133. Smith gave the date as 3 February. He called Lannes a general of division.
  6. ^ Broughton, Lannes. This source noted that Lannes was a general of brigade.
  7. ^ Salfi, Colli
  8. ^ Leopardi, M. Battaglia di Faenza
  9. ^ Leopardi, G. Paralipomeni alla Batracomiomachia

References

44°19′N 11°48′E / 44.317°N 11.800°E / 44.317; 11.800

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Faenza&oldid=1178095662"