Battle of Lonato
Napoleon Bonaparte was outnumbered more than two to one, standing at Lonato with roughly 1,200 French soldiers against 3,000 Austrians who had marched directly into his position. Instead of fleeing or surrendering, he bluffed. He informed the Austrian officer that his entire army was present, and that if the Austrians had not laid down their arms within eight minutes, he would not spare a man. To sell the fiction, he issued orders to his aide-de-camp Berthier naming grenadier and artillery units that Berthier knew did not exist anywhere nearby. The Austrians surrendered. Only after they were disarmed did they realize they could have captured Napoleon with ease.
This moment on the morning of the 4th of August 1796 was the closing scene of a week of hard fighting around the western shore of Lake Garda. The Battle of Lonato was fought on the 3rd and the 4th of August 1796, pitting the French Army of Italy against an Austrian corps under Lieutenant General Peter Quasdanovich. How that Austrian corps came to be there, how Bonaparte turned near-disaster into a calculated destruction of an entire enemy wing, and why the outcome unlocked a decisive French victory the following day at Castiglione - those are the questions this documentary will answer.
An Austrian army moved out of Trento at the end of July with a clear objective: relieve the besieged fortress of Mantua. Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser led the main force south down the upper Adige River valley on the eastern side of Lake Garda. Quasdanovich struck west of the lake with an 18,000-strong corps organized into four mixed brigades of cavalry and infantry.
Bonaparte had fatally underestimated the terrain. He did not believe major Austrian forces could operate in the mountains west of Lake Garda, so he left only General of Division Pierre Francois Sauret's 4,500-man division to cover the entire area. The city of Brescia, a major French base, was held by just three companies of infantry.
The four brigade commanders were General-Majors Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz, Heinrich XV Prince of Reuss-Plauen, Joseph Ocskay von Ocsko, and Johann Rudolf von Sporck. Two advanced guards under Obersts Franz Joseph Marquis de Lusignan and Johann von Klenau rounded out the corps. On the 29th of July, Ott's brigade struck Salò while Ocskay moved against Gavardo. General of Brigade Jean-Baptiste Dominique Rusca had been warned by a village curate of Austrian descent, but chose to ignore the information. Sauret's division was caught off guard. Around 500 Frenchmen and two cannons were captured, and Sauret pulled back to Desenzano del Garda. General of Brigade Jean Joseph Guieu and 400 men took refuge in the Palazzo Martinengo at Salò, where they were quickly surrounded.
Klenau received word that Brescia lay open to attack. Moving through the night with two squadrons of the Wurmser Hussar Regiment Nr. 30, one battalion of DeVins Infantry Regiment Nr. 37, and one company of the Mahony Jägers, he seized the city under cover of fog in a coup de main. The haul was staggering: 600-700 able-bodied French soldiers captured, plus another 2,000 in the hospital. Among the prisoners were Colonels Jean Lannes, Joachim Murat, and François Étienne de Kellermann.
Quasdanovich arrived at Brescia with the brigades of Reuss and Sporck, while Ott pushed south toward Ponte San Marco. The loss of the supply base compelled Bonaparte to make the hardest choice of the campaign: he gave up the siege of Mantua to concentrate against Quasdanovich.
On the 31st of July, Ott led his brigade east from San Marco toward Lonato. He commanded two battalions of the Kheul Infantry Regiment Nr. 10, four companies of the Johann Jellacic Infantry Regiment Nr. 53, two companies of the Liccaner Grenz Infantry Regiment Nr. 60, and one squadron of the Erdödy Hussar Regiment Nr. 11. The initial assault flushed part of General of Division Hyacinthe Francois Joseph Despinoy's division from the town, and Austrian hussars gave chase eastward - only to be stopped cold by two waiting French artillery batteries. General of Division André Masséna and Despinoy then counterattacked with multiple brigades. After four hours of close fighting, Ott's outnumbered soldiers were driven back to San Marco. The same day, Sauret marched to Salò, defeated Ocskay in a pitched battle, and rescued Guieu and his men from the Palazzo Martinengo.
On the 1st of August, Bonaparte assembled 12,000 men under Generals of Division Pierre Augereau and Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine and moved northwest from Goito toward Brescia. Shaken by the reverses at Lonato and Salò, Quasdanovich had already ordered all his troops north to Gavardo. Bonaparte walked back into Brescia without firing a shot.
The Austrian dispositions on the 2nd of August revealed Quasdanovich's intentions: he regrouped at Gavardo and sent Ocskay's brigade south to reoccupy Salò, preparing a coordinated attack with several columns for the following day. Bonaparte countered by ordering Masséna to San Marco, Augereau and Kilmaine back to Montichiari, and Despinoy to hold Brescia and Rezzato. He directed Guieu, now replacing the injured Sauret, to march from Lonato north to retake Salò the next morning. Forces under Despinoy and Dallemagne were tasked with attacking Gavardo directly.
The Austrian plan and the French counterplan were set to collide at dawn on the 3rd of August across a wide arc of ground stretching from Salò in the north to Lonato and Desenzano in the south.
Ocskay's brigade had slipped south along the lake road from Salò overnight, while Guieu marched north on a back lane, and the two forces completely missed each other in the dark. Ocskay reached Lonato's outskirts by way of Desenzano at dawn and hit General of Brigade Jean Pijon's brigade hard, capturing Pijon himself. For the second time in days, an Austrian force held Lonato.
Masséna counterattacked from the west at midday. Bonaparte directed the battle personally. Colonel Jean-Andoche Junot, who had taken command of Pijon's brigade after its general was captured, pressed from the north. General of Brigade Claude Victor and General of Brigade Antoine Rampon attacked in the center, while General of Brigade Jean Lorcet closed from the south. Ocskay's brigade was outnumbered on every side and driven from the town toward Desenzano. Junot's men, together with the Guides and the 15th Dragoons, reached Desenzano first, freeing 150 French prisoners taken in the morning's fighting. Ocskay, hemmed in with no route of escape, surrendered with the remnants of his command. During the fighting in Desenzano, Junot suffered severe saber cuts to his head from Austrian cavalrymen.
Elsewhere the day was more complicated. Despinoy attacked Ott piecemeal near Paitone and was repulsed; Dallemagne's flanking march reached Gavardo twice but was driven back each time, and Dallemagne himself eventually reported sick. Reuss appeared at Desenzano with 1,800 men, retook the town, and rescued some of Ocskay's prisoners before learning of the brigade's fate and retreating toward Gavardo, harassed by French forces and losing prisoners along the way. A small Austrian flotilla under Major Gustave Maelcamp managed to rescue some men by water. At Salò, Guieu found the town unoccupied and turned west, capturing Quasdanovich's artillery park before Sporck counterattacked and recaptured the guns. Evening found Sporck on the heights west of Salò and the French in control of the town.
On the morning of the 3rd of August, Wurmser's advance guard of 4,000 men under General-Major Anton Lipthay lay eight kilometers south of Lonato near Castiglione delle Stiviere. Lipthay had been moving to support Quasdanovich, but Augereau struck first with 11,000 soldiers in an enveloping attack.
Lipthay's defense was tenacious. Greatly outnumbered, his force gave ground grudgingly and fell back southeast toward Solferino. General-Major Anton Schübirz marched toward the sound of the guns and hit Augereau's left flank near Solferino. Field Marshal Lieutenant Paul Davidovich formed his division in support. By the end of the day, Wurmser had concentrated most of his 20,000 men on hand. The battle claimed around 1,000 Austrian casualties, including General-Major Franz Nicoletti wounded, and General of Brigade Martial Beyrand killed and General of Brigade Jean Robert wounded on the French side. The account describes great losses suffered by both sides.
Lipthay's stubborn resistance gave Wurmser the time he needed to assemble his force - but it would matter little, because the decision on the western shore had already sealed the campaign's outcome. With Ocskay's brigade destroyed and Quasdanovich's corps in disarray, Bonaparte was about to be free to turn his full weight eastward.
Quasdanovich ordered his corps to retreat north toward Lake Idro at 2:00 am on the 4th of August. In the confusion of the night movement, one Austrian column became separated from the rest and made a desperate march southeast toward Wurmser - walking directly into Lonato, where Bonaparte stood with only 1,200 men.
Oberst Knorr commanded the isolated force. Bonaparte's bluff held, and Knorr surrendered one battalion each of De Vins IR Nr. 37 and Erbach IR Nr. 42 - 2,000 men and 3 cannons. The Austrians only discovered after they had been disarmed that the French grenadiers and artillery units Bonaparte had described to Berthier were entirely fictitious.
Across the 3rd and the 4th of August, the Austrians lost 23 cannons and at least 5,000 men killed, wounded, and captured. French losses stood at least at 2,000. Bonaparte sent Guieu to shadow the Austrian withdrawal and then turned east. Freed to concentrate against Wurmser, he massed over 30,000 soldiers against Wurmser's 25,000 and won the Battle of Castiglione on the 5th of August. Wurmser was forced back to Trento and the entire relief campaign for Mantua collapsed. The fortress remained besieged, and the war in northern Italy shifted firmly in France's favor - all hinged on the destruction of Quasdanovich's corps along the western shore of Lake Garda.
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Common questions
When was the Battle of Lonato fought?
The Battle of Lonato was fought on the 3rd and the 4th of August 1796, as part of a week of hard-fought actions that began on the 29th of July and ended on the 4th of August during the War of the First Coalition.
Who commanded the French and Austrian forces at the Battle of Lonato?
The French Army of Italy was commanded by General Napoleon Bonaparte. The Austrian corps was led by Lieutenant General Peter Quasdanovich, whose 18,000-strong force consisted of four mixed brigades under General-Majors Ott von Bátorkéz, Reuss-Plauen, Ocskay von Ocsko, and Sporck.
What happened at the Battle of Lonato on 4 August 1796?
An isolated Austrian column of around 3,000 men under Oberst Knorr marched into Lonato, where Bonaparte stood with only 1,200 French soldiers. Bonaparte bluffed the Austrians into surrendering by falsely claiming his entire army was present, netting 2,000 prisoners and 3 cannons. The Austrians only discovered after being disarmed that there were no French forces nearby.
What were the Austrian casualties at the Battle of Lonato?
In the battles of the 3rd and the 4th of August 1796, the Austrians lost 23 cannons and at least 5,000 men killed, wounded, and captured. French losses were at least 2,000.
How did the Battle of Lonato lead to the Battle of Castiglione?
Quasdanovich's defeat at Lonato allowed Bonaparte to concentrate more than 30,000 men against Wurmser's 25,000, leading directly to a French victory at the Battle of Castiglione on the 5th of August 1796. This forced Wurmser to retreat to Trento and abandon the campaign to relieve Mantua.
Why did Napoleon give up the siege of Mantua during the Lonato campaign?
On the night of the 30th of July 1796, Austrian forces under Klenau seized the French base at Brescia in a surprise dawn raid, capturing 600-700 able-bodied soldiers and 2,000 more in hospital, including Colonels Jean Lannes, Joachim Murat, and François Étienne de Kellermann. The threat posed by Quasdanovich's 18,000-strong corps compelled Bonaparte to abandon the siege and concentrate against the Austrian western column.