In this campaign Bonaparte was fortunate in having a Masséna at Genoa, a Suchet on the Var, and a Lannes at Montebello and at Marengo. He was fortunate, too, in having a Desaix near at hand, who dared march to the sound of the cannon, and who counselled hope when he might have counselled despair.
Though these operations of Bonaparte were brilliant in strategic manœuvres and in far-reaching results, nevertheless they were faulty in execution. Out of a total force of fifty-five thousand men, the greater part of whom might have been present on the battle-field of Marengo, only twenty-eight thousand fought there. Instead of calling in his detachments before the engagement, and of outnumbering his enemy on the battle-field, as had always been his plan heretofore, he permitted himself to be outnumbered by Melas. Rather than let a single Austrian escape, he took great chances on the battle-field. In short, he attempted to grasp too much; and, by doing so, sacrificed a certain amount of safety. Doubtless within his breast there was the feeling that he would stake all and abide by the consequences. Reckless of the sequel, he pressed on with the faith of a fatalist, little realizing how much glory and how much gloom yet remained in store for him. It would seem that his triumph was written in the stars; perhaps, too, his fall was written there.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] See Maps 2 and 4.
[9] In his memoirs and in other places Napoleon often speaks of "lines of operations," meaning "lines of communication." Every advancing army must necessarily have a line of operations. If the roads leading from an army to its base are held by the enemy, the army is said to have lost its communications; in other words, to have lost its line of communication with its base of operations. The point that Napoleon intended to make in the discussion is this: Fort Bard being at the time in possession of the Austrians, the French army had no unobstructed line of communication back to its base of operations at Lake Geneva; hence, if defeated, it would find great difficulty in retreating by this route.
[10] An army forms front to a flank when it operates on a front parallel to the line communicating with its base.
GENERAL COMMENTS.