Battle of Verona (1799)
| date | March 26-30, 1799 |
|---|---|
| place | Near Verona , today's Italy |
| output | draw |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 46,000 men | 52,000 men |
| losses | |
|
3400 dead and wounded |
4,300 dead and wounded |
Ostrach - Feldkirch - Stockach I - Verona - Magnano - Cassano d'Adda - Frauenfeld - Winterthur - Zurich I - Trebbia - Mantua - Novi - Vlieter - Bergen - Zurich II - Muotatal - Egmont - Genola - Wiesloch - Genoa - Stockach II - Engen - Meßkirch - Biberach II - Montebello - Marengo - Höchstädt - Oberhausen - Hohenlinden - Walserfeld - Pozzolo - Copenhagen - Algeciras I - Algeciras II
On March 26th and 30th, 1799 there was fighting between the French and Austrians at Legnago , Verona , Pastrengo and Barona. These battles were summarized as the Battle of Verona (1799) . Legnago and Verona were then two small fortresses on the banks of the Adige .
prehistory
Before the outbreak of the Second Coalition War , the Austrians had 69,000 infantry (87 battalions), 12,000 cavalry (60 squadrons) and 350 guns stationed in northern Italy . In addition, 30,000 Russians were expected under the command of Field Marshal Suvorov .
General Melas was to be the commander of the Austrians in Italy, but he was old and sick and therefore traveled slowly. In the meantime, General Kray commanded the Austrians, and General Chasteler acted as chief of the quartermaster's staff .
The French armed forces consisted of 116,000 men. Of these, 34,000 men in the Papal States , the kingdom of Naples were 25,000 men. Furthermore, 6,400 men were stationed as a crew in Tuscany . About 5,000 men were sent to Switzerland , so only about 40,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry remained usable for operations in Upper Italy, where the former Minister of War General Scherer was in command. In addition, the French had occupied the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera del Garda and several citadels in the Milan area.
construction
Scherer arrived in Milan on March 11th , relocated his headquarters to Mantua on the 21st and had the troops take up positions between this place and Lake Garda . He had orders to cross the Adige near Verona, to take Verona, to move the left wing to Trento and to throw the Austrians back over the Brenta and Piave in order to join forces with the armies advancing in Switzerland and Swabia (see battle near Winterthur ) some sort of same alignment to come. A certain purpose of the offensive was just as little given to him as to Generals André Masséna and Jourdan , they just wanted to gain ground everywhere without thinking about how it could be said.
When Lieutenant Kray, Field Marshal, received news of the opening of hostilities at the headquarters in Padua on March 7, he let the troops behind him gradually advance towards the Adige. As a result of the plan of operations that was only received on March 21, he was supposed to advance via Brescia and Bergamo against the Adda in order to take the valleys leading to Tyrol , Graubünden and Valtellina in the back, whereby one hoped to liberate Tyrol, Mantua should be blocked for the time being, Peschiera, however, are besieged.
The Austrian troops received a different direction and stood on March 25th on the following points:
- General Friedrich Heinrich von Gottesheim with 7800 men in a hurriedly entrenched camp near Pastrengo between the Adige and the southern end of Lake Garda
- the Kaim and Hohenzollern divisions with 20,000 men near Verona
- the divisions Fröhlich and Mercandin with 20,000 men behind Legnago
- General Klenau with 4,500 men in the area of Rovigo
Generals Ott , Zoph and St. Julien were on the march with 19,500 men from Carinthia and Krain , over 10,000 men were in the garrison. 7000 riders were among the 52,000 men standing on the Adige. With this relationship, a victory over Scherer could be achieved, but the offensive movement that was ordered could not be carried out without the risk of being defeated in detail, as long as the opponent did not split his forces and remained inactive. Since the French army had taken position on the left bank of the Mincio , from which the intention of an attack seemed to emerge, Kray decided, in the event that this attack was directed against Verona, to attack the right flank of the French from Legnago while Kaim resisted Verona should do. Scherer knew that the Austrian army was not yet united. Since Suwarow and Melas had not yet arrived, he was now all the more hopeful of a victory, since the war had not yet been formally declared and the above-mentioned circumstances of his opponent had to lead to some uncertainty or hastiness in action. Scherer therefore decided to attack the Austrians without delay. Assuming that the main Austrian power was at Rivoli and their vanguard at Pastrengo , he united 22,000 men against this point while General Moreau with 15,000 men against Verona, General Montrichard with 9,000 men against Legnago. The Austrians had at Pastrengo on a plateau 14 redoubts and 4 Fleschen can raise their right flank covered on the Garda stationed flotilla to retreat across the Adige facilitated two pontoon bridges . General Elsnitz , who now commanded the 7800 troops standing here, had split them up into a long outpost line , but was still expecting 3 battalions of reinforcement.
March 26th - French attack near Pastrengo
At 3 a.m. on March 26, the Serrurier division approached the line of Austrian outposts. Their 7,000 men blew it up without any effort and then advanced via Lazise , Bardolino , Incasie against Rivoli , a French flotilla at the same time expelled the Austrian one. Immediately afterwards Scherer appeared with the Delmas division (7,500 men), followed by the Grenier division (7,500 men), but sent a brigade to the Adige against Bussolengo . Delmas stormed the half-finished entrenchments without difficulty but found stubborn resistance from Pastrengo. Here one fought for a few hours in small sections with the greatest bitterness. Since the expected 3 battalions arrived with a battery at precisely this time , the Austrians managed to take several redoubts again. But when the second Greniers Brigade came to support and in particular threatened the Adige bridges at Polo, Elsnitz sought salvation in a quick retreat, which was not started in the best order. One bridge was demolished immediately, but the other had to stand still for the rearguard and they suffered heavy losses when they retreated from the French artillery fire. The battle ended at 8 a.m. The Austrians lost almost all artillery and 3536 men. Elsnitz led the rest of his corps behind the defile at Barona to cover the road to Verona.
Inconceivably, Scherer contented himself with this success instead of driving his half-annihilated opponent as far as Verona, two miles from the battlefield, and thereby facilitating Moreau's attack, for he could know by noon at the latest that Serurier had just come across scattered piles. The latter stopped at Rivoli. The other two divisions encamped on the battlefield. Two battalions stood on outposts on the left bank of the Adige, the cavalry brushed against Barona.
Battle near Verona
After the battalions assigned to Elsnitz had withdrawn, General Kaim still had around 17,000 men near Verona, of which three battalions held the towns of Chieve , Croce Bianca San Massimo , Santa Lucia , Tomba and Tombetta in a semicircle in front of the fortress . Two battalions and two squadrons stood on the glacis to support the other troops in the fortress. General Moreau, with Divisions Victor (8,200 men) and Hatry (6,300 men), also attacked here at about 4 a.m. The strongest columns advanced against Massimo and St. Lucia. These posts were stubbornly defended St. Lucia but soon conquered, whereupon Victor was marching on Verona. When Kaim was able to judge the strength of the enemy, he believed he had to face him offensively and gave the order to move out. A struggle now relaxed and dragged on with varying degrees of success until nightfall. Massimo was stormed 7 times by the French but lost just as often, on the other hand they held their own in St. Lucia and the neighboring country houses, but went back to Dossobuono and Casa di Davide during the night .
On the Austrian side, Generals Ferdinand von Minckwitz , Kaim and Liptay were wounded, the total loss amounted to 2,600 men, on the other hand they took control of one gun, three chiefs of the brigade, 43 officers and 270 men. The French loss of dead and wounded is given as 2000 men.
Battle at Legnago
General Montrichard and his division of 9,000 men had only reached Legnago in the morning hours and, through his vanguard, had made two fruitless attempts at attacking the fortress, whereupon he had it fired from 14 guns. General Kray, who was standing with 22,000 men in a camp near Bevilacqua , immediately marched to Legnago but seems to have been undecided for a while because Montrichard sent a brigade to the right and only decided his opponent with the Fröhlich division (10,000 men ) to attack. Mercandin stopped behind Legnago. The attack took place in three columns, which advanced against the villages of Anghiari, San Pietro and Gallo. Anghiari was quickly taken and the French detachment standing there thrown back in disorder as far as the Menago . The French offered more stubborn resistance to Pietro and did not leave this place until the next Austrian column penetrated from the side. The terrain criss-crossed by ditches and hedges in all directions and the falling darkness made it easier for Montrichard to retreat. This might have been impossible if Kray had moved out earlier and with all his troops. Meanwhile, the French lost 14 guns, 32 ammunition wagons and 500 prisoners. According to Austrian sources, the number of dead and wounded is said to have been 2000. Brigadier General Vigne was killed at the beginning of the battle. Kray bought this victory with the loss of 740 men.
So each of the two armies had been victorious on one wing, defeated on the other, and in the middle the battle was undecided. The Austrians lost about 2,500 men, but the number of guns was pretty much the same. However, since the French at Pastrengo had already won the victory at 8 o'clock in the morning and the Austrians at Legnago late in the evening, the relationship between the latter was more disadvantageous in every respect if Scherer had known how to benefit from it. But the French high general lacked both clarity of views and determination, he did not dare to cross the Adige with his left wing and remained inactive for two days.
March 30 - Final skirmishes at Barona
After two days had passed by both sides, a council of war finally decided on the 29th to change the entire attack disposition in such a way that the main crossing should take place at Legnago, but General Serrurier with his division returning from Rivoli should pass over at Pastrengo and through a mock attack against Verona should favor that strange maneuver. Accordingly, the Delmas and Grenier divisions had to march behind the center and join Monrichard. Moreau followed this direction a little later. Kray, too, had wavered in his earlier decisions due to the events of the 26th and gave up the intended offensive movement, which should be less noticeable given the terrain there was unfavorable for the attacker. He marched off towards Verona that night and left only a few squadrons to guard the Adige. On the 29th most of the troops were united at Verona, where General Zoph arrived with 4,600 men. The movements of the French perceived that day did not worry the courageous Kray in the least.
On the 30th General Serrurier crossed the Adige with 7,000 men and advanced on the left bank towards Barona. There he should only carry out a fake attack. Since the position of General Elsnitz, who had received reinforcements, was not accessible in the front, Serrurier sent a brigade to the left. The attack took place around 10 a.m. and initially promised a favorable result. But immediately after the first shots, Kray had 7 battalions and 4 squadrons set out from Verona and attacked the French himself around noon with 14 battalions, 4 squadrons in 3 columns. Serrurier backed away from this superiority, but became so distressed with the bridges that the bridges were destroyed before everyone had passed them. 77 officers and over 1,000 men were taken prisoner here. His total loss was 1,500 men. Serrurier, already threatened on his right flank by a detachment at Bussolengo, hurried back against Peschiera , but on the way received orders from the army to follow.
Meanwhile Scherer made the indicated flank march, which would not have remained unhindered without the attacks of Sérurier. Since the bridge pioneers had to be fetched from Peschiera for the crossing at Legnago, the execution was delayed by a few days, during which time the French army stayed at Sanguinetto , Isola della Scala , Isola Porcarizza , Mazzagata , Magnano , Azano and Bovolone . During this time Kray's offensive plan finally came to fruition and before Scherer's preparations for the transition were completed, he was attacked by his opponent on April 5th and, after a persistent fight, defeated in the Battle of Magnano ,
literature
- Carl von Clausewitz : The campaigns of 1799 in Italy and Switzerland , Volume 1, Ferdinand Dümmler , Berlin 1833, pp. 172-179
- Hans Eggert Willibald von der Lühe (Ed.): Militair-Conversationslexikon , Volume 4, Otto Wigand , Leipzig 1834, pp. 584-588
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Schütz : History of the wars in Europe since 1792, as a consequence of the change of state in France under King Louis XVI. , Volume 5, ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin, Posen and Bromberg 1833, pp. 191-207