Battle of Montenotte

• 1. Bonaparte's Italian Command

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  On the 27th of March 1796, a young General Bonaparte arrived in Nice to take over the Army of Italy. His army included 63,000 troops, but only 37,600 men and 60 artillery pieces were capable of being put into the field. The soldiers were badly fed, months behind in pay, and poorly equipped. Consequently, morale in many units was low and in a few cases this had led to mutiny. Bonaparte faced an Austrian opponent named Feldzeugmeister Johann Peter Beaulieu who was also new to the Italian theater of operations. Beaulieu directly controlled 19,500 Austrians of whom half were still in winter quarters. Beaulieu's subordinate Argenteau commanded an additional 11,500 Austrians who were deployed farther to the west around Acqui Terme. A Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont army of about 20,000 men sat west of Argenteau's corps.

• 2. Allied Strategic Disarray

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  The Austrian government secretly warned Beaulieu not to trust his Sardinian ally. This made it difficult for the two allied leaders to agree on a joint strategy. Colli feared an attack that would split the allied armies, which was exactly the plan that Bonaparte was contemplating. He argued for the allied armies to concentrate in the center. But Beaulieu became convinced that the French intended to seize Genoa, and he intended to thwart that possibility with an attack of his own. On the 10th of April, the left wing of the Austrian army under Beaulieu attacked Cervoni's French brigade in the Battle of Voltri. Cervoni made a fighting retreat and escaped intact to Savona down the coast. Beaulieu belatedly realized that he was now dangerously separated from his right wing under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Argenteau. He made arrangements to shift his left wing west to support his colleague and directed reinforcements from Lombardy to concentrate at Acqui.

• 3. Montenotte Triangle Terrain

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  The road net in the vicinity of the Montenotte battlefield resembled a triangle. The village of Altare lay at the bottom of the left leg to the west. Altare sat on the important Cadibona Pass road. The village of Madonna di Savona was located at the bottom of the right leg to the east. Montenotte Superiore could be found at the top of the triangle. From Montenotte Superiore, the road continued north from the top of the triangle to Montenotte Inferiore. Three peaks were spaced at intervals along the right leg on the triangle. Starting from the top of the triangle, they were Monte San Giorgio, Monte Pra, and Monte Negino or Monte Legino. Colonel Henri-François Fornésy with about 1,000 French troops held an old Austrian-built redoubt atop Monte Negino.

• 4. Assault On The Redoubt

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  Due to poor staff work, the attack of Argenteau's right wing did not begin until the 11th of April. On that day, the Austrians moved with 3,700 soldiers against a French position on Monte Negino. These soldiers were joined by Colonel Antoine-Guillaume Rampon who assumed overall command. An additional 1,192 men of the 32nd Line from Madonna di Savona also arrived to help. Led by the Croats of the Gyulai Freikorps in skirmish order, the Austrians pressed their attacks. At a moment when the French troops were wavering, Rampon rallied them by making them swear to conquer or die. All the Austrian attacks failed and Rukavina was shot in the shoulder. Argenteau called a halt to operations about 4:00 PM. That evening, the Austrian commander sent a courier to Oberstleutnant Karl Leczeny in Sassello asking for reinforcements. Rampon estimated Austrian losses at 200 to 300, but they were probably closer to 100. The French reported 57 casualties.

• 5. French Flanking Maneuver

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  Fog shrouded the area at dawn on the 12th of April. When it cleared, several French cannons began firing from Monte Negino on the Austrians below them. Masséna's soldiers launched their attack on the weakly held Austrian right flank, swamping the defenders with superior numbers. Argenteau deployed the Stein and Pellegrini battalions under Oberstleutnant Nesslinger to hold the center. He assigned the two Archduke Anton battalions to defend the left flank on Monte Pra. Then he took the Alvinczi battalion to the rescue of the 3rd Terzi battalion on his right flank. While Masséna overwhelmed Argenteau's right, Laharpe fell on the Austrians defending Monte Pra. At first the Austrians conducted a stout defense. But Masséna's assault made such rapid progress that Argenteau ordered a retreat. By 9:30 AM the battle was over.

• 6. Casualty Disputes And Aftermath

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  By the next morning, Argenteau reported only 700 men with the colors. The rest were lost in combat or scattered. Historian Martin Boycott-Brown presented French losses as light; a sampling of reports show that the 32nd Line, 51st Line, 75th Line, and 17th Light lost 10, 8, 27, and 19 casualties respectively. The Austrians admitted losing 166 killed, 114 wounded, and 416 missing for a total of 696. Three historians assert that losses were more severe. Digby Smith wrote that the French suffered 800 killed, wounded, and missing out of a total of 14,000 troops and 18 guns. The Austrians went into the action with 9,000 men and lost 2,500 killed, wounded, and captured with 12 guns lost. Most of Argenteau's casualties were prisoners. A badly shaken Argenteau pulled his surviving soldiers back to cover Acqui while other forces under Rukavina held Dego about to the northwest of Montenotte Superiore.