Battle of Rivoli
Battle of Rivoli | |||||||
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Part of the Italian campaigns in the War of the First Coalition | |||||||
Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli, by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
French Republic | Habsburg monarchy | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Napoleon Bonaparte Barthélemy Joubert André Masséna Gabriel Venance Rey Louis-Alexandre Berthier Charles Leclerc Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle Honoré Vial |
József Alvinczi Joseph Ocskay von Ocsko Anton Lipthay de Kisfalud Franz Joseph, Marquis de Lusignan Heinrich XV, Prince Reuss of Greiz Peter von Quosdanovich Josef Philipp Vukassovich | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
22,000[2] | 28,000[2][3] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3,200[2][3]–5,000[4] | 12,000[2]–14,300[3] | ||||||
The Battle of Rivoli (14 January 1797) was a key military engagement during the
Forces
See
Prelude
Alvinczi's plan was to rush and overwhelm Barthélemy Joubert in the mountains east of Lake Garda by concentrating 28,000 men in five separate columns, and thereby gain access to the open country north of Mantua where Austrian superior numbers would be able to defeat Bonaparte's smaller Army of Italy. Alvinczi attacked Joubert's 10,000 men on 12 January. However Joubert held him off and was subsequently joined by Louis-Alexandre Berthier and, at 2 am on 14 January, by Bonaparte, who brought up elements of André Masséna's division to support Joubert's efforts to form a defensive line on favorable ground just north of Rivoli on the Trambasore Heights. The battle would be a contest between Alvinczi's efforts to concentrate his dispersed columns versus the arrival of French reinforcements.
Battle
The morning of Saturday 14 January found Alvinczi engaging the division of Joubert. He had united three Austrian columns between Caprino on the right and the chapel of San Marco on the left; the brigade of Franz Josef de Lusignan was advancing to the north of Monte Baldo; and the troops of Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich and Josef Philipp Vukassovich were pouring down the roads on either side of the Adige. Before daybreak as the French were moving on the road from Rivoli to Incanale Joubert attacked and drove the Austrians from the chapel of San Marco.[5]
At 9 a.m., the Austrian brigades of Samuel Koblos and
With the 18th dispatched to check Lusignan, Bonaparte turned all his attention to Quosdanovich. He understood the defeat of this column was the key to the battle. Unfortunately the French had very few reserves left and mostly had to accomplish this with troops already at hand. Making the best of interior lines and his advantage in artillery, Bonaparte thinned out Joubert's lines facing the Austrians frontally at the Trambasore Heights as much as possible and concentrated them before the gorge. A battery of 15 French guns were massed and poured canister shot at point blank range into the advancing Austrian column that was emerging from the gorge. This devastating firepower struck first on the advancing Austrian dragoons who broke and stampeded through their own infantry causing mass chaos. At this juncture the brigade of Charles Leclerc assaulted the column frontally while Joubert laid down heavy flanking fire from San Marco. Here Antoine Charles de Lasalle with just 26 horseman of the 22nd Horse Chasseurs charged into the melee. Lasalle's men captured a whole Austrian battalion and seized 5 enemy flags. In the centre the battle was not yet won; Joseph Ocskay renewed his attack from San Marco and drove back the brigade of Honoré Vial. But at midday French cavalry under Joachim Murat charged the flanks of Ocskay's troops, which were driven back to the positions they occupied in the morning.[6]
Quosdanovich realized he could not force the defile and ordered his troops to fall back out of artillery range. Meanwhile, while Lusignan was being engaged frontally by the brigade of
Aftermath
The next day Joubert and Rey began a successful pursuit of Alvinczi, all but destroying his columns, the remnants of which fled north up into the Adige Valley in confusion. The Battle of Rivoli was Bonaparte's greatest victory at the time. After that he turned his attention to
Legacy
The Rue de Rivoli, a street in central Paris, is named after the battle.
Notes
- ^ Forrest 2011, p. 77.
- ^ a b c d Bodart 1908, p. 318.
- ^ a b c Clodfelter 2017, p. 100.
- ^ a b Chandler 1979, p. 328.
- ^ Burton 2010, p. 84.
- ^ a b Burton 2010, p. 85.
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 131.
- ^ Rothenberg 1980, p. 248.
- ^ a b Burton 2010, p. 88.
References
- Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- Boycott-Brown, Martin (2002). The Road to Rivoli. Cassell; New Ed edition. ISBN 0-304-36209-3.
- Burton, Reginald George (2010). Napoleon's Campaigns in Italy 1796–1797 & 1800. ISBN 978-0-85706-356-4.
- ISBN 0-02-523670-9.
- Forrest, Alan (2011). Napoleon. Quercus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85738-759-2. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
- ISBN 0-253-31076-8.
- Grant, R. G. (2017). 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. Chartwell Books. ISBN 978-0785835530.
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
- Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-7470-7.
External links
- Photographs of the battlefield of Rivoli
- Media related to Battle of Rivoli at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Action of 13 January 1797 |
French Revolution: Revolutionary campaigns Battle of Rivoli |
Succeeded by Action of 25 January 1797 |