Battle of Bassano

• 1. Introduction

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  The Battle of Bassano, fought on the 8th of September 1796 in the territory of the Republic of Venice, was the last battle of Napoleon Bonaparte's perfect military career. Two months later he would lose the Second Battle of Bassano, and his winning streak would end. Facing him was Count Dagobert von Wurmser, an Austrian field marshal commanding forces sent to rescue a besieged fortress. The fighting belonged to the French Revolutionary Wars, in the phase known as the War of the First Coalition. How did Bonaparte catch an army that was marching to relieve the siege? What did he risk to reach it? And why did a clear French victory leave him in a harder position than before?

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• 2. Orders From Vienna

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  Early in August 1796, Wurmser's first attempt to relieve the fortress of Mantua ended in defeat at the battles of Lonato and Castiglione. The loss sent him retreating north up the valley of the Adige River. Meanwhile the French closed their ring again around the Austrian garrison inside Mantua.

  Emperor Francis II ordered Wurmser to relieve the fortress at once. Together with his new chief-of-staff, Feldmarschal-Leutnant Franz von Lauer, Wurmser drew up a plan.

  Feldmarschal-Leutnant Paul Davidovich would stay behind with 13,700 soldiers to guard Trento and the approaches to the County of Tyrol. Wurmser himself would send two divisions east and then south down the Brenta valley. At Bassano he would meet the large division of Johann Mészáros, bringing his strength to 20,000 men.

  From there Wurmser would march on Mantua. Davidovich would probe the French defenses from the north, watching for a chance to support his commander. Lauer predicted that the French, weakened by recent losses, could not react in time.

  The Austrians did not know that the French government wanted Bonaparte to take his army across the Alps and join General Jean Moreau in southern Germany.

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• 3. Three Roads South

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  In 1796 there were only three practicable routes between Trento and the basin of the Po River. The first ran along the western side of Lake Garda. The second followed the Adige valley east of the lake and north of Verona.

  The third route led east through Levico Terme and Borgo Valsugana. It then turned south down the Brenta valley, called Valsugana, to Bassano del Grappa. An army that held both Trento and Bassano could shift troops and supplies between them without French interference.

  Bonaparte's forces were spread across this map. General of Division Claude Vaubois held the west side of Lake Garda with 10,000 men. General of Division André Masséna guarded the Adige valley with 13,000, and General of Division Pierre Augereau covered Verona with 10,000 more.

  General of Division Charles Kilmaine kept up the blockade of Mantua. He had General of Division Jean Sahuguet's division of 8,000 soldiers and a reserve of 2,000 at Verona. Another source gives different totals for each of these commands, so the figures are approximate.

  Bonaparte, however, did not wait to see which road Wurmser would choose.

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• 4. Spies and Gambles

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  Francesco Toli was the spy who changed the campaign. After Castiglione, Bonaparte had rebuilt his intelligence network. The French representative in Venice, Lallement, received money to pay informers watching the country between Venice and Trent. Angelo Pico, Bonaparte's station chief at Peschiera, sent his own men forward into the Tyrol.

  Toli penetrated the Austrian headquarters and warned Bonaparte that Wurmser had left Davidovich at Trento. Bonaparte struck first, sending Masséna and Augereau north toward Trento. Vaubois advanced past Lake Idro to Riva at the north end of Lake Garda.

  Vaubois and Masséna converged on Rovereto, on the Adige. There, on the 4th of September, the French routed Davidovich's outnumbered troops. The Austrians suffered 3,000 casualties, against 750 killed and wounded among the French.

  Then Bonaparte learned that Wurmser had moved toward Bassano. He gave up the plan to link with Moreau and chose a bold but risky course. Cutting loose from his supply line, he sent Augereau east into the Brenta valley, with Masséna following.

  On the 7th of September, Augereau's 8,200 soldiers overwhelmed Wurmser's rear guard at Primolano, 6 km north of Cismon del Grappa. The rear guard numbered between 2,800 and 4,000 men. The French captured 1,500 of them, along with their commander, Oberstleutnant Alois von Gavasini.

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• 5. Fighting at Bassano

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  Wurmser was surprised by the speed of the French advance, yet by the day before the clash he had gathered 20,000 men at Bassano. On the 8th of September, a French force of about the same size came down on him from the north.

  The first blow fell on the Austrian rearguard of 3,800 men. It was led by Feldmarschal-Leutnant Peter Quasdanovich and General-Major Adam Bajalics. Bonaparte sent Masséna down the west bank of the Brenta and Augereau down the east bank.

  Repeated attacks overwhelmed the rearguard. Colonel Joachim Murat's cavalry pursued it, and Bajalics was captured.

  Wurmser placed one brigade on the west bank, a second on the east bank, and a third inside Bassano. Colonel Jean Lannes then led a charge that broke the Austrian lines and carried into the town.

  The Austrian army split in two. Quasdanovich took command of the defeated troops who retreated east. Another 3,500 men from Feldmarschal-Leutnant Karl Sebottendorf's division fell back south with Wurmser himself.

  The French lost 400 killed, wounded and missing. Wurmser lost 600 killed and wounded. Between 2,000 and 6,000 Austrians were captured, along with eight colors and 30 artillery pieces. The French pursuit also seized a bridging train and 200 limbers and ammunition wagons.

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• 6. Race for Mantua

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  Wurmser surprised everyone by turning west toward Mantua instead of fleeing east. At Vicenza he joined the division of Mészáros. Bonaparte sent two divisions after him, hoping to cut him off. Masséna advanced southwest from Vicenza, while Augereau moved south to Padua to close the escape route to the east.

  General-Major Peter Ott distinguished himself by leading Wurmser's vanguard in the race. At Legnago, a French battalion abandoned its post and let the Austrians cross the Adige. Wurmser left 1,600 men to hold the city and pushed on.

  On the 11th of September, Masséna caught the Austrians at Cerea with two brigades thinned by straggling. Ott held on until Wurmser arrived with the main body. The Austrians drove the French back, inflicting 1,200 casualties.

  Bonaparte ordered Sahuguet to block the roads at Castel d'Ario and at Governolo, where the Mincio River flows into the Po. The next day, a local guide helped Wurmser cross a bridge that Sahuguet had failed to destroy. Wurmser led 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry on to Mantua.

  Bonaparte captured the detachment left at Legnago on the 13th of September and then appeared before Mantua. On the 15th, Wurmser waited for him on the east bank of the Mincio. His right flank rested on the San Giorgio suburb and his left on La Favorita Palace.

  Ott's wing on the left held off Sahuguet's attacks all day. The center gave way before Masséna, and the right gave way before General of Brigade Louis André Bon, who led Augereau's division. The French took the San Giorgio suburb and drove the Austrians into Mantua.

  The Austrians suffered 2,500 casualties and lost 11 cannon and 3 colors. The French lost 1,500 killed and wounded, and nine of their guns were captured. Behind the walls, the fortress now held far more men than before.

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• 7. A Crowded Fortress

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  By the end of the fighting, the garrison of Mantua had swollen to nearly 30,000 men. Crowding took its toll. Within six weeks, 4,000 Austrians had died of wounds or disease inside the fortress.

  One historian summed up the outcome as a sorry end to the second relief attempt. Wurmser had shut himself inside the very place he meant to free, after losing more than 11,000 men. The French had failed to connect their armies in Italy and Germany. Bonaparte also still faced the task of reducing Mantua, now defended by a far stronger garrison.

  The victory carried a hidden cost. To hold both Trento and Bassano, Bonaparte had to stretch his army thin. He could not reinforce either place without being drawn too far from the other.

  That weakness would come close to handing the Austrians a win in the third attempt to raise the siege of Mantua, which began in November.

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