Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)
Siege of Mantua (1796–1797) | |
---|---|
Part of the Italy 45°09′36″N 10°48′00″E / 45.1600°N 10.8000°E | |
Result | French victory |
Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz
Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
Giovanni Marchese di Provera
Joseph Canto d'Irles
Josef Philipp Vukassovich
179 guns lost[1]
16,000 captured
325 guns captured
During the siege of Mantua, which lasted from 4 June 1796 to 2 February 1797 with a short break, French forces under the overall command of
After driving the Austrian army out of northwest and north-central Italy, the French invested the fortress of Mantua starting in early June 1796. In late July, a new Austrian commander, Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser led an army to the relief of Joseph Canto d'Irles' garrison from the north. Mantua was reached and the French were forced to abandon the siege. However, the Austrians were subsequently beaten in the battles of Lonato and Castiglione. Forced to retreat, Wurmser resupplied and reinforced the fortress with food and able-bodied troops. After withdrawing north up the Adige River, Wurmser planned to move his main army through the mountains to Bassano via the Brenta valley. From there he would mount the second relief of Mantua from the northeast. In an exceedingly bold maneuver, Bonaparte smashed Paul Davidovich's covering force and followed Wurmser down the Brenta valley. Overcoming the Austrian army at Bassano in early September, Bonaparte tried to destroy Wurmser but failed. Instead he chased the bulk of the Austrian army into Mantua. The garrison now counted 30,000 men, but cut off from outside help, disease and starvation began mowing down Wurmser's troops.
A new commander József Alvinczi led the third relief of Mantua in November. While Alvinczi marched from the northeast, Davidovich's column moved down from the north. Alvinczi defeated Bonaparte twice and moved to the gates of Verona while Davidovich drubbed his French opponent in the Adige valley. At his last gasp, Bonaparte crossed the Adige behind Alvinczi's left flank at Arcole. The fighting raged for three days but the French finally prevailed, forcing the Austrians to pull back. Free of Alvinczi, Bonaparte attacked Davidovich and forced his corps to retreat also. For the fourth relief of Mantua, Alvinczi advanced his main army from the north while sending two smaller columns to threaten the French from the northeast. The French crushed the Austrian main army at Rivoli. Leaving two divisions to finish off Alvinczi, Bonaparte rapidly moved south and arrived near Mantua in time to destroy one of the other Austrian columns. With no hope of further help, Wurmser surrendered Mantua in early February.
Background
Geography
After being defeated by
Together with
Mantua lies in the
From Trento in the north, Austrian armies had secure communications with
Siege and blockade
First relief
The
By requisitioning cannon from all over northern Italy, Bonaparte assembled a siege train of 179 heavy guns.
Wurmser launched the first relief of Mantua at the end of July as a three-pronged attack by 49,000 men. Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Wurmser pushed Masséna back and Quosdanovich quickly seized Brescia, forcing Bonaparte to lift the siege on 1 August. The siege cannon being too heavy to move quickly, the French burned the gun carriages and withdrew. The garrison retrieved the abandoned gun tubes and dragged them into the city. Up to this point, the French besiegers suffered 1,200 killed and wounded, plus 898 captured. The defenders lost 492 killed or died of disease, 395 wounded, and 87 captured or deserted.[5] There were also 3,275 soldiers on the sick list.[6]
After a complex series of actions, Quosdanovich's column came to grief at the Battle of Lonato on 3 August and retreated. Bonaparte then turned on Wurmser and defeated him at the Battle of Castiglione on 5 August. Before retreating up the Adige valley, Wurmser threw two brigades into the fortress and evacuated some of the sick. Because of the loss of his heavy cannons, Bonaparte could no longer try to reduce Mantua by breaching its walls. Instead, he was forced to blockade the city.
Second relief
The
At the beginning of September, 14,000 Austrians under Feldmarschall-Leutnant
Bonaparte's concentration of three divisions overwhelmed Davidovich at the Battle of Rovereto on 4 September. Leaving Vaubois in Trento to watch the remnants of Davidovich's corps, Bonaparte boldly decided to cut loose from his supply line and follow in Wurmser's wake. He directed Masséna and Augereau east through Levico and Borgo, then south down the Brenta valley. Augereau dispersed the Austrian rearguard at Primolano on 7 September. The two French divisions fell upon Wurmser and beat him badly at the Battle of Bassano on 8 September. Instead of retreating to the east, Wurmser joined the division of Mészáros and headed west for Mantua with Bonaparte in hot pursuit. Hoping to annihilate his adversary before he reached Mantua, the French commander sent Augereau to Padua to prevent Wurmser from escaping to the east and Masséna through Vicenza and Arcole.
Masséna intercepted
Wurmser arrived at the fortress with 10,367 infantry and 2,856 cavalry, temporarily disrupting the siege on the eastern side of the city. On 15 September, the Austrian field marshal stood to fight a pitched battle on the east side of the Mincio, with his left flank at
At this time, there were nearly 30,000 Austrians crowded into Mantua. Within six weeks, 4,000 died from wounds or sickness.
Third relief
The
After a clash at
At this point, the French commander almost decided to retreat to the
Fourth relief
The
Alvinczi massed his main body of 28,000 men in the north for the fourth attempt to relieve Mantua. The Austrian commander sent Feldmarschall-Leutnant Adam Bajalics von Bajahaza with 6,200 men to move southeast from Bassano and demonstrate in front of Verona. Alvinczi ordered Feldmarschall-Leutnant Giovanni Marchese di Provera with 9,000 soldiers and a bridging train to advance from Padua, cross the Adige near Legnago, and relieve Mantua.
To defend against these forces, Bonaparte deployed
On 7 January, Provera began to move and Bajalics started his advance the next day. By 10 January, Provera and Bajalics were menacing Legnago and Verona, while Alvinczi's army started its march from the north. On the afternoon of 13 January, Bonaparte realized the main Austrian attack was coming from the north. Accordingly, he ordered Masséna, Rey, and Victor to march to Joubert's aid. That night, Provera crossed the Adige above Legnago at Angiari and marched for Mantua, leaving 2,000 men as a bridge guard.
On 14 January, Bonaparte inflicted a severe drubbing on Alvinczi's army at the Battle of Rivoli. Leaving Joubert, Rey, and Victor to finish off Alvinczi's crippled army, the French commander ordered Masséna south the next day. Meanwhile, Augereau captured Provera's bridge guard and moved west. Provera's advance guard failed to break through Sérurier's blockade and a breakout attempt by Wurmser was repelled at dawn on 16 January. That day, surrounded by Masséna, Augereau, and Sérurier, and unable to get through to Mantua, Provera surrendered at La Favorita with 6,000 men.[18] By this time, Alvinczi's main body lost 4,000 killed and wounded, plus a staggering 8,000 soldiers captured. The French suffered 3,200 casualties at Rivoli.[19]
Capitulation
After the Rivoli disaster, Wurmser held out two more weeks before capitulating on 2 February. During the siege and blockade, the Austrians reported 16,333 killed and wounded in action or died of disease. In recognition of his stout defense, the old field marshal was freed with his staff and an escort of 700 soldiers and 6 cannon. The rest of the garrison marched out with the honors of war and were paroled on the condition not to fight against France until exchanged.[20] Only 16,000 Austrians were fit enough to march out under their own power. Historian David G. Chandler reports that as many as 18,000 Austrians and 7,000 French died during the siege.[21] His health ruined, Canto d'Irles died shortly afterward. The fortress, with 325 cannon, passed into French control. Bonaparte also recovered the 179 guns lost in August 1796. While the Austrians desperately scraped together another army, Bonaparte consolidated his position in northern Italy by crushing the army of the Papal States at the Battle of Faenza. In March he launched a final offensive against Vienna.
Commentary
It did not help their cause that the Austrian generals faced a military genius in Bonaparte. But they also pursued a flawed strategy. Chandler wrote,
"Throughout the whole year, the lure of Mantua continued to exert a fatal attraction over the Austrian field forces and led them to one costly failure after another."[22]
Chandler added,
"In each of the four attempts to relieve Mantua, the
Austrian high command divided their forces into unconnected parts routed along divergent lines of advance, which made coordinated effort impossible, hoping thereby to divert Bonaparte's attention and cause the fragmentation of his forces. In the event, however, they only laid their own forces open to defeat in detail, throwing away the chance of commanding a decisive numerical superiority on the critical battlefield, thus violating the principle of true economy of force."[23]
Battles during the siege
- Battle of Lonato, 3–4 August 1796
- Battle of Castiglione, 5 August 1796
- Battle of Rovereto, 4 September 1796
- Battle of Bassano, 8 September 1796
- Second Battle of Bassano, 6 November 1796
- Battle of Calliano, 6–7 November 1796
- Battle of Caldiero (1796), 12 November 1796
- Battle of Arcole, 15–17 November 1796
- Battle of Rivoli, 14–15 January 1797
Notes
- ^ Chandler Dictionary, p 265
- ^ Chandler Campaigns, p 89
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 362
- ^ Fiebeger, p 9-10
- ^ Smith, p 118
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 387
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 416
- ^ Fiebeger, p 12
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 433-434
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 435
- ^ Smith, p 124
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 438
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 439
- ^ Fiebeger, p 14
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 477
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 478
- ^ Fiebeger, p 17
- ^ Chandler, p 120-121
- ^ Rothenburg, p 248
- ^ Smith, p 132-133
- ^ Chandler Dictionary, p 265
- ^ Chandler Campaigns, p 128
- ^ Chandler Campaigns, p 129
References
- Boycott-Brown, Martin. The Road to Rivoli. London: Cassell & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-304-35305-1
- Chandler, David. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
- Chandler, David. Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars. New York: Macmillan, 1979. ISBN 0-02-523670-9
- Fiebeger, G. J. (1911). The Campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of 1796–1797. West Point, New York: US Military Academy Printing Office.
- ISBN 0-253-31076-8.
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
Further reading
- Cuccia, Phillip R. (2014). Napoleon in Italy: The Sieges of Mantua, 1796–1799. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-4534-1.
External links
- Kudrna, Leopold; Smith, Digby. A Biographical Dictionary of All Austrian Generals during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars •1792–1815 (with Biographical Essays by Digby Smith). The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
- Media related to Siege of Mantua at Wikimedia Commons