Armée d'Italie
The Armée d'Italie was an army of the First French Republic , which was formed on November 1, 1792, when the Armée des Alpes formed from the Armée du Midi was divided into the Armée de Savoie and the Armée d'Italie has been.
The operational area was initially limited to the coast and the area of the Alpes-Maritimes until Napoleon Bonaparte took command and led them in two remarkable campaigns to Italy .
Positioning and development
- On November 1, 1792, by order of the “Conseil exécutif provisoire”, parts of the right wing of the “ Armée des Alpes ” commanded by Général Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fézensac (occasionally also “Armée du Var”) ) called, set up. Général Jacques Bernard d'Anselme was entrusted with the high command . However, this decree, which made d'Anselme a de facto independent troop commander, did not come into force until November 7th.
- On September 4, 1793, the army had to supply units to the "Armée devant Toulon", which had been set up for the siege of the city of Toulon , which was occupied by the royalists and the English . After the city was captured, the "Armée devant Toulon" was dissolved again with the decrees of December 25 and 28, 1793 (5 et 8 nivôse an II of the revolutionary calendar ), and the ceded troops came back to the "Armée d'Italie".
- In September 1795 it was reinforced by four divisions with a total of 16,000 soldiers who had been withdrawn from the "Armée des Pyrénées Orientales". The army now consisted largely of volunteer battalions from the Midi .
- By order of February 3, 1798 (15 pluviose to VI), parts of the "Armée de Rome" were given up.
- By order of July 5, 1799 (17 messidors to VII) - to be carried out on July 21, 1799 - parts of the army were handed over to the establishment of the "Armée des Alpes".
- By order of August 29, 1799 (12 fructidor to VII) - to be carried out on September 1, 1799 - the "Armée des Alpes" was dissolved and the personnel and equipment returned to the "Armée d'Italie"
- By order of June 23, 1800 (4 messidors to VIII), the "Armées de Réserve" (reserve armies) were incorporated into the "Armée d'Italie".
Dissolution and first re-use
- By order of June 1, 1801 (12 prairial an IX), to be carried out on June 20, 1801, the "Armée d'Italie" was dissolved. After a reorganization, it took over the name "Corps de troupes françaises dans la Cisalpine" (French troops in Cisalpine ).
- On February 14, 1802, the name was changed to "Troupes françaises dans la République italienne " (French troops in the Italian Republic)
- By order of February 27, 1802 (8 ventôse an X), to be carried out on March 22, 1802, the army was placed in the peacetime state and reduced to 25,000 men.
Commanders
- November 7th to December 25th, 1792: Général Jacques Bernard d'Anselme . Officially, however, he was never given the post of army commander, nor was he promoted to general d'armée .
- December 26, 1792 to February 9, 1793, par intérim: Maréchal de camp Gaspard Jean-Baptiste de Brunet
- February 10 to May 4, 1793: Général Armand-Louis de Gontaut, duc de Biron
- May 5 to August 8, 1793: Général Brunet; June 2 Général François-Christophe Kellermann assumed
- August 9, 1793 to November 20, 1794: Général Pierre Jadart du Merbion
- November 21, 1794 to May 5, 1795: Général Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer
- May 6th to September 28th 1795: Général Kellermann (commander of the two armies "des Alpes" and "d'Italie"; after the unification only called "d'Italie")
- September 29, 1795 to March 26, 1796: Général Schérer, resigned
- March 27, 1796 to November 16, 1797: Général Bonaparte
- November 17 to December 21, 1797, par intérim: Général Charles Édouard Jennings de Kilmaine
- December 22, 1797 to April 3, 1798: Général Louis-Alexandre Berthier
- April 4 to July 27, 1798: Général Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune
- 28 July to 18 August 1798, par intérim: Général Paul-Louis Gaultier de Kerveguen
- August 19 to October 31, 1798: Général Brune
- November 1, 1798 to January 31, 1799: Général Barthélemy-Catherine Joubert (at the same time commander of the “Armée de Rome”); from December 11th to 25th Général Jean-Victor Moreau .
- February 1 to March 6: Général Antoine Guillaume Delmas
- March 7-11, 1799, par intérim: Général Gilbert Joseph Martin Bruneteau
- March 12 to April 26, 1799: Général Schérer (at the same time commander in chief of the "Armée de Naples")
- April 27 to August 4, 1799: Général Moreau (at the same time commander-in-chief of the "Armée de Naples")
- August 5-15, 1799: Général Joubert, killed in the Battle of Novi
- August 15 to September 20, 1799: Général Moreau
- September 21 to December 30, 1799: Général Jean-Étienne Championnet
- December 31, 1799 to January 5, 1800: Général Louis Gabriel Suchet
- January 6-15, 1800, par intérim: Général Jean-Antoine Marbot
- January 16 to June 16, 1800: Général André Masséna
- June 17 to 24, 1800, par intérim: Général Suchet
- June 25 to August 21, 1800: Général Masséna
- August 22, 1800 to March 7, 1801: Général Brune
- March 8 to August 27, 1801, par intérim: Général Bon-Adrien-Jeannot de Moncey
Campaigns and battles
Campaign in Italy (1796–1797)
- → see Italian campaign
- Battle of Montenotte
- Battle of Millesimo
- Battle of Dego (the victory was thanks to the artillery under Napoléon Bonaparte )
- Battle of Mondovi
- Armistice of Cherasco
- Battle of Fombio
- Battle of Lodi
- Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)
- Battle of Lonato (August 3-4, 1796)
- Battle of Castiglione
- Battle at Peschiera del Garda
- Battle of Rovereto
- Battle of Bassano
- Battle of Arcole
- Battle at Rivoli
- Battle at Faenza
- Battle at Valvasone
- Expedition to Tyrol
- Easter Rising in Verona
Campaign in Italy (1799-1800)
- → see Second Coalition War
- Battle of Magnano
- Battle of Cassano (1799)
- Battle of the Trebbia
- Siege of Mantua (1799)
- Battle of Novi
- Battle of Montebello (1800)
- Siege of Genoa
- Battle of Marengo
- Battle of Pozzolo
Général Bonaparte takes over the army
Before Napoleon Bonaparte took over the command, the army was poorly fed, barely paid and could only survive by marauding . There were hardly any uniforms or shoes. When Napoleon arrived (March 27, 1796), the troops consisted of an indisciplined bunch. Royalist songs were sung and a “Compagnie du Dauphin” (Crown Prince's company) was set up. The first thing he did was improve the food supply and restore discipline as much as possible.
He punished the officers who had undermined discipline by shouting “Vive le roi” (“Long live the King”), and released the “13 e régiment de hussars” (13th hussar regiment) , which was only set up on January 31, 1795, for lack of discipline and another regiment that mutinied at the end of March. The first victories, the improvement in the food situation and the resumption of wages increased the willingness to fight considerably. With the help of the "contributions de guerre" ( war contributions ) that were imposed on the conquered parts of the country and cities, money was returned to the war chest.
There are only private records from letters and diaries about the high failures up to 1797, as these were officially hushed up.
literature
- C. Clerget: Tableaux des armées françaises pendant les guerres de la Révolution (Librairie militaire 1905)