Battle of Rovereto

Battle of Rovereto

Part of: First Coalition War

Battle of Rovereto on September 4th 1796, contemporary copper engraving from the beginning of the 19th century

date	4th September 1796
place	Rovereto in the Adige Valley (Trentino-South Tyrol)
output	French victory
consequences	Partial withdrawal of the Austrians

Parties to the conflict
France	Austria
Commander
Napoleon Bonaparte	Paul Davidovich
Troop strength
20,000	10,000
losses
750	3,000, 25 guns, 7 flags

In the Battle of Rovereto occurred near the small town on September 4, 1796 Rovereto in today's Trentino during the Italian campaign during the first coalition war to an armed confrontation between the French Italy Army under General Napoleon Bonaparte and the troops of Austria under the command of Paul von Davidovich , which ended in a victory for the French.

background

After the defeat in the Battle of Castiglione on August 5th, the Austrian army under Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser withdrew north to Trento , while the French resumed the siege of Mantua .

plans

Despite the defeat of Castiglione , Emperor Franz II ordered a second attempt at relief for the besieged Austrian troops in Mantua , which is why Wurmser's new General Staff Officer FML Franz von Lauer developed plans for an offensive. The Mészáros division was increased to 10,700 men in the course of the preparations and the order was given to advance via Bassano del Grappa towards Mantua. Meanwhile, Wurmser would lead 8,700 men from Trento into the Brenta Valley , then move east and finally south, then join forces with Mészáros in Bassano and then march together to Mantua via Legnago .

The 17,300-strong garrison of Mantua under Joseph Canto d'Irles was to launch simultaneous attacks on the besiegers as soon as Wurmser's relief army approached. According to the plans, Trent would be defended by Davidovich with 19,600 men and he should move south if the French saw him weakened. Lauer noted that the French army "suffered badly in the last few skirmishes and has not recovered properly or received significant reinforcements." Trusting in this, Lauer foresaw that the French army would remain calm long enough not to significantly disrupt the Austrian relief efforts.

The fact was, however, that the French government approved a strategy which envisaged the dispatch of the Italian army northwards over the Brenner Pass in order to then unite with the army of General Jean-Victor Moreau in Bavaria . Accordingly, Bonaparte planned to pull together 33,000 soldiers from the divisions of Generals Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois , André Masséna and Pierre Augereaus and set off with this force on Trent. His remaining 13,500 men would continue to besiege Mantua and hold the front line on the Adige between Verona and Legnago. Bonaparte also gave orders to Generals Charles de Kilmaine and Jean Sahuguet to leave a garrison in Peschiera del Garda and fall back behind the Oglio River in case they could not withstand an attack by the Austrians from the east.

Action

The 4,100 strong division of FML Karl Sebottendorf left Trento on September 1, 1796, soon followed by FML Peter von Quosdanovich 4,600 soldiers; so Davidovich remained behind with 13,700 men, which he divided into five brigades. Two of these brigades he set up under the command of Major General Joseph Vukasović and Johann Rudolph Sporck near Rovereto, one he left in Trento under Prince Heinrich XV. von Reuss-Plauen , returned as a garrison and the last two brigades served to control the Valtellina and Vorarlberg regions .

On the French side, Vaubois and his 10,000 men camped in the west of Lake Garda at this time . There he had a brigade under Major General Jean Joseph Guieu cross Lake Garda by ship while he and his two other brigades circled the lake to the north, after which, after reunification with the Guieu brigade, he turned towards Rovereto. Meanwhile, Massénas 13,000 soldiers marched north in the Adige Valley. Augereau's 9,000 men, in turn, according to Bonaparte's plan, were to march from Verona through the mountains and prevent the Austrians from retreating.

On September 3, Masséna began to attack the outposts of Vukasović and drove them back to Marco on the east bank of the Adige, while Vaubois smashed isolated elements of Reuss' brigade on the west bank. At this point Wurmser was fully aware of the French threat to Trient, but stuck to his plans and continued his march through the Brenta Valley.

The battle

At dawn, Masséna's division attacked Vukasović's Austrians south of Rovereto in Marco, with Brigadier General Claude-Victor Perrin. Victor led half a brigade down the main road and General Jean Pijon on one side occupied the heights. After strong resistance, the Austrians withdrew so as not to be cut off, pursued by the Masséna breaking through the Austrian positions. After reaching Rovereto, Vukasović bravely held out with his soldiers in the minority until nightfall, but then withdrew with his remaining troops and those of Spork to Calliano . At this point Vaubois had already taken Mori on the west bank.

In order to prevent his troops from being further dispersed, Davidovich then positioned Colonel Karl Weidenfeld and the 22nd Preissler Infantry Regiment in an excellent position in the Adige Valley to cover the withdrawal of the troops. Still, the regiment's morale was very low after suffering casualties and being driven from several defensive positions. With the help of artillery fire under General Elzéar de Dommartin , Massena's troops in heavy column formation went on the attack and broke through the Austrian positions. Assuming that they were well covered by Weidenfeld's troops, Vukasović and Sporck allowed their troops to cook dinner after they reached Calliano. In the late afternoon the French interrupted their preparations for dinner when they stormed the Austrian camp, which resulted in the disordered escape of the Austrians.

The result

The French suffered 750 casualties that day, compared to 3,000 casualties on the Austrian side who were dead, wounded or captured, plus 25 guns and 7 flags. During the night Davidovich left Trento and retired to Lavis , where he united his troops with those of Reuss. Masséna then entered Trento on September 25, followed shortly after by Vaubois. It was around this time that Bonaparte found out that Wurmser was marching east into the Brenta Valley to attack Mantua, whereupon he rejected the strategy of uniting with Moreau and devised a daring plan:

Instead of retreating with his whole army into the lower Adige Valley, he ordered Vaubois to block the gorges in the north of Trient with 10,000 men, while the rest of the army with its 22,000 men followed the Austrians precisely through the pass they were using. This was a very risky undertaking in that, for the entire duration of the operation, the Italian Army would have to confine itself to the supplies it could obtain from locally available goods, and even a temporary survey of the Brenta Valley could do so cause the army to starve in the middle of the Alps.

On September 5, Vaubois attacked Davidovich and drove him further north. Satisfied that Davidovich was no longer a threat, Bonaparte dispatched Augereau's division to Levico Terme on the trail of Wurmser, and shortly afterwards Massena and his division followed Augereau. This should set the stage for the ensuing Battle of Bassano on September 8th.

swell

• Martin Boycott-Brown: The Road to Rivoli . Cassell, London 2001, ISBN 0-304-35305-1 .
• David Chandler: The Campaigns of Napoleon . Weidenfeld, London 1993, ISBN 0-297-81367-6 (reprint of the London 1966 edition).
• Gustav Joseph Fiebeger: The Campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of 1796–1797 . Leonaur Publ., New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-85706-224-6 (reprinted from West Point, NY 1911).
• Digby Smith : The Napoleonic Wars Data Book . Greenhill, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 .