Battle of Fombio
The Battle of Fombio began on the 7th of May 1796, when a column of French grenadiers seized a ferry near Piacenza and crossed the Po River in the early morning dark. One officer, Colonel Jean Lannes, stepped ashore first, making him the first Frenchman to touch the north bank. It was a small moment with enormous consequences.
The man who ordered that crossing, Napoleon Bonaparte, was commanding the French Army of Italy against the Austrians under Feldzeugmeister Johann Peter Beaulieu. Bonaparte had just forced the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont to seek peace. Now he turned the full weight of his campaign against Austria. What unfolded over the 7th, 8th, and the 9th of May would determine not merely a battle but the strategic shape of the entire northern Italian campaign.
How did a river crossing near Piacenza put all of Milan at risk? What happened in the dark streets of Codogno when two forces collided by accident? And why did the fighting at Fombio make a second, more famous battle inevitable just one day later?
General of Brigade Claude Dallemagne led the advance guard: roughly 3,500 grenadiers and 1,500 cavalry, a force assembled for speed. Bonaparte had placed Dallemagne at the head of this column specifically for a rapid eastward march along the Po's southern bank, while General of Division Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Serurier launched a separate pinning attack near Valenza to keep Beaulieu looking the wrong way.
The pinning attack was a feint. Bonaparte's real intention was to turn the Austrian left flank entirely by emerging on the north bank near Piacenza. Beaulieu had withdrawn his army to the north bank of the Po after the conclusion of the Montenotte Campaign, believing the river gave him protection. He was wrong about where the French would cross.
By the time General-major Anton Lipthay de Kisfalud detected the incursion on the 7th, Dallemagne's advance guard and General of Division Amedee Emmanuel Francois Laharpe's division were already forming a bridgehead on the north bank. Lipthay commanded roughly 4,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Several clashes broke out during that first day, but the French hold on the bridgehead held. Beaulieu, hearing the news, immediately ordered his army to pull back toward the Adda River and sent General-major Josef Philipp Vukassovich marching from Valeggio to reinforce Lipthay. To the west, General of Division Pierre Augereau pushed 7,000 additional soldiers across the river using a captured barge.
On the morning of the 8th of May, Dallemagne's advance guard moved on the village of Fombio with Laharpe's division, which numbered 6,500 men, in support behind it. Colonels Lannes and Francois Lanusse commanded the advance guard's left and center columns. Dallemagne personally led the right.
Lipthay resisted hard at first, using his hussars to counterattack rather than simply absorb the assault. But facing three converging columns, he calculated that holding Fombio meant being encircled, and he ordered a withdrawal. His Austrian and Neapolitan cavalry covered the retreat toward Codogno. The French followed and struck again at Codogno. That engagement forced Lipthay's men to fight their way back further still, all the way to Pizzighettone, where a bridge over the Adda River offered a way out. By the end of the 7th and 8th combined, Lipthay's losses stood at 568 men. One report placed French casualties from a single opening volley at 150 killed and 300 wounded.
The bridge at Pizzighettone was Lipthay's escape route, and it pointed toward why Beaulieu had ordered his whole army in that direction. Whoever held the Adda crossings held the fate of the Austrian retreat.
On the evening of the 8th of May, as Laharpe's 51st Line Infantry Demi-Brigade moved through Codogno, General-major Anton Schubitz von Chobinin appeared from the west. He brought with him 1,000 foot soldiers and 580 uhlans, and he attacked the town while the French column was still passing through it.
What followed was not a formal engagement. The fighting collapsed into confused close-quarters combat in streets darkened by night. Laharpe was killed in the chaos, the evidence suggesting he may have been struck by friendly fire rather than by Austrian hands. The general commanding the division that had been Bonaparte's follow-up force since the crossing was gone.
Bonaparte's chief of staff, General of Brigade Louis Berthier, took charge in Laharpe's place. Berthier pushed two additional demi-brigades into the fight before Schubitz finally withdrew near dawn on the 9th. The Austrians had bought time but at the cost of their route. Schubitz's attack had been aimed at reopening access to the bridge at Pizzighettone, but the gambit failed. Beaulieu now redirected his retreating forces away from Pizzighettone and toward the bridge at Lodi, further north along the Adda.
The three days of fighting at Fombio had a strategic outcome that went far beyond the casualty counts. By crossing the Po at Piacenza, Bonaparte had placed his army in Beaulieu's rear, threatening Milan and cutting the Austrian line of communications simultaneously. That double threat was what drove the entire Austrian withdrawal eastward.
Beaulieu's army was now racing toward Lodi. Bonaparte was trying to intercept it before it could consolidate behind the Adda. The Battle of Lodi followed on the 10th of May 1796, one day after the night fighting in Codogno ended. Lannes, the first Frenchman across the Po on the 7th of May, would be among the officers again at the front when the French stormed the bridge at Lodi.
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Common questions
When did the Battle of Fombio take place?
The Battle of Fombio was fought between the 7th and the 9th of May 1796, during Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign against Austria.
Who commanded the French and Austrian forces at the Battle of Fombio?
Napoleon Bonaparte commanded the French Army of Italy. The Austrian forces were under Feldzeugmeister Johann Peter Beaulieu, with General-major Anton Lipthay de Kisfalud commanding the troops that directly contested the crossing.
Why was the Battle of Fombio strategically decisive?
Bonaparte crossed the Po River at Piacenza in Beaulieu's rear, simultaneously threatening Milan and the Austrian line of communications. That double threat forced the entire Austrian army to withdraw eastward toward the Adda River.
Who was the first French soldier to cross the Po River at Fombio?
Colonel Jean Lannes was the first Frenchman to step onto the north bank of the Po River when the advance guard seized a ferry near Piacenza on the 7th of May 1796.
How did General Laharpe die at the Battle of Fombio?
General of Division Amedee Emmanuel Francois Laharpe was killed on the evening of the 8th of May 1796 during confused night fighting in the streets of Codogno. Evidence suggests he may have been struck by friendly fire.
What battle followed immediately after the Battle of Fombio?
The Battle of Lodi followed on the 10th of May 1796, one day after the night fighting at Codogno ended. Beaulieu directed his retreating army toward the bridge at Lodi, and Bonaparte moved to intercept him before the Austrians could cross the Adda River.
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