The Campaign of Marengo, With Comments

by Herbert H. Sargent

While the Army of Reserve was assembling near Lake Geneva, only a few people at Paris knew that Bonaparte himself intended to take command of it. In fact, a provision in the constitution of the Year VIII. did not permit a consul to command an army in person. But, as Bonaparte himself said, it did not prevent his being present with the army; moreover, this constitutional provision was then regarded by the French people, and even by the Senate and Tribunate of France, as having no binding effect on Bonaparte. Nevertheless, the First Consul did not wish to violate it openly, and, accordingly, adopted the subterfuge of making General Berthier the nominal commander in chief, retaining in his own hands the entire conduct of the campaign. To all intents and purposes, therefore, Bonaparte was the real commander of the Army of Reserve.

Having assembled the Army of Reserve at Lake Geneva, he was in a position where, if the necessity should arise, he could march to the assistance either of Moreau in Germany or of Suchet on the Var. Had Melas succeeded in forcing the Var, Bonaparte would doubtless have marched south along the west side of the French Alps in order to unite the Army of Reserve with Suchet's forces for an attack against Melas. The strategical skill of Bonaparte appears in this arrangement. Though he expected to cross the Alps, yet up to the last moment his army was so situated that he was prepared for any contingency that might arise.

Though the campaign of Marengo, as planned and executed by him, was a bold and hazardous undertaking, yet a careful analysis of the operations shows that nearly all of them were marked by extreme caution. It will be found, too, that his strategy was almost perfect for accomplishing his ends. In fact one of the great merits of Napoleon was that he knew how to produce a maximum effect with a minimum force. The whole theatre of war was an open book to him. He saw just where the battle should be fought in order to produce the greatest results. Though the Austrians in this campaign numbered nearly a quarter-million of men, and stretched from the Gulf of Genoa to the Main River, yet Bonaparte was able, while still at Paris, to picture in his mind the whole strategical situation, and to indicate Stokach in Germany and the Stradella Pass in Italy, as being the two most important points within this immense theatre of operations. These two places were the keys of the territory occupied by the two Austrian armies. Here the greatest results could be produced with the smallest efforts. Here, in each case, a victory could be obtained with the least loss to the French.

Bonaparte's caution is seen in the fact that he would not set out to cross the Alps until Moncey's corps was well on its way towards Italy. Before beginning the movement, he wished to be certain that he would receive this re-enforcement, and to make sure of his communications with Switzerland. He knew that he might be attacked in the plains of Piedmont before he could reach Milan, and might lose his communications by way of the Great St. Bernard Pass. If, however, Moncey succeeded in reaching Italy, Bonaparte would then have uninterrupted communications with the great stronghold of Switzerland.

Again: his caution is seen in the fact that, after descending the Alps with the Army of Reserve, he immediately took measures to concentrate his forces, instead of crossing the Po at Chivasso and of marching directly to the relief of Masséna. He knew that a great battle was inevitable, yet safety was his first object. He wished to gain a position where he could bring a strong force on to the battle-field, and where, if defeated, he could retreat without losing his army. In fact, throughout the campaign, he kept a watchful eye upon his communications. It was his rear that gave him the greatest anxiety. It is always so with the great masters of war. "While the distant spectator," says Hamley, "imagines a general to be intent only on striking or parrying a blow, he probably directs a hundred glances, a hundred anxious thoughts, to the communications in his rear, for one that he bestows on his adversary's front." Notwithstanding the fact that Napoleon seemed always to take great chances in his military career, and seemed often to stake everything on the fate of a single battle, yet a careful analysis of his campaigns shows that no commander has ever looked with more anxiety to his lines of retreat than did this great master of war. At Austerlitz, where he allowed the enemy to envelop his right and cut off his retreat on Vienna, and where he was so certain of success that he issued a proclamation in advance explaining the manœuvre by which victory would be obtained, yet even here he had provided for a retreat through Bohemia in case of defeat.

This campaign was indeed a bold one; but it must be remembered that the very boldness of Bonaparte was one of the principal causes of his success. By descending the Alps into Italy upon the Austrian rear, he surprised his adversary and caused him to tremble for his communications. By this means he struck terror into the heart of Melas even before a battle had been fought. No sooner had French troops reached the valley of the Po than Melas was compelled to change his whole plan of campaign. He had then to defend himself against Bonaparte. He could no longer think of invading France. By this bold movement Bonaparte snatched the initiative from his adversary and compelled him to fight on the defensive. In war, the boldest course is often the safest. "The greatest soldiers have always been the most daring."

From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it is evident that in this campaign Bonaparte allowed his boldness to outrun his caution. He attempted to grasp too much. This characteristic of Napoleon, here exhibited for the first time in his military operations, was in after years one of the principal causes of his fall. In his subsequent career he fought Spain and Portugal on one side and nearly the whole of Europe on the other. Though the greatest exemplar of concentration that the world has ever known, yet at times he divided his forces when he should have made peace on one side, and have concentrated on the other. In the Russian campaign, too, he was overconfident. He was not satisfied with ordinary victories or with ordinary results. His early successes were so marvellous that he began to feel that he could conquer in the face of all Europe, and in spite of the elements themselves. And yet this very boldness, coupled with a caution that seldom failed him, was one of the secrets of his numerous victories during so many years of war.

The crossing of the Alps with the Army of Reserve was undoubtedly a hazardous undertaking, yet it was so carefully planned in all its details that it was completely successful. During the operations of Masséna in Italy, and of Moreau in Germany, Bonaparte had displayed marvellous energy in hastening the preparations for crossing the great chain of the Alps. In this famous passage, nothing, however trivial, that could contribute to the success of the operation was beneath the attention of Bonaparte. Referring to the activity and care displayed by the First Consul at this time, Thiers, in his "History of the Consulate and Empire," writes as follows:—

"Himself toiling day and night, corresponding with Berthier, who was organizing the divisions of infantry and cavalry; with Gassendi and Marmont, who were organizing the artillery; with Marescot, who was reconnoitring the whole line of the Alps; he urged every one to exertion, with that headlong energy and ardour which sufficed him to carry the French from the banks of the Po to the banks of the Jordan, from the banks of the Jordan to those of the Danube and Borysthenes. He would not leave Paris in person until the last moment, not wishing to abandon the political government of France, and leave the field clear to intriguers and conspirators for a longer time than was absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the divisions ordered from La Vendée, from Brittany, from Paris, and from the banks of the Rhone, traversed the widespread territory of the Republic, and the heads of their columns were already appearing in Switzerland. The depots of some corps were still at Dijon, besides some conscripts and volunteers, sent thither to give credence in Europe to the opinion that the army of Dijon was a pure fable, destined solely to alarm Melas. Up to this moment everything had gone well; the illusion of the Austrians was complete. The movement of the troops advancing towards Switzerland was little noticed, because the corps were so much dispersed, that they passed for re-enforcements sent to the army in Germany.... To such a point had he carried his foresight as to establish saddlers' workshops at the foot of the defile, for the repair of the artillery harness. On this apparently trivial matter he had already written several letters; and I mention this circumstance for the instruction of those generals and governments to whom the lives of men are intrusted, and who too often, through indolence or vanity, neglect such particulars. Nothing, in fact, that can contribute to the success of operations, or to the safety of soldiers, is below the genius or rank of commanding officers."

One of the secrets of Napoleon's success in war was the fact that he bestowed great care on all military matters. Whether his operations were simple or complex; whether his attention was called to the ration of a single soldier, or to the subsistence of a hundred thousand men; whether his mind was occupied with the trivial details of routine duty, or was evolving the grandest strategic conceptions, he was the same painstaking, orderly, careful man. "His plan," says Napier, referring to Napoleon's projects in the war with Spain, "embraced every probable chance of war, and even provided for the uncertain contingency of an English army landing upon his flanks at either end of the Pyrenean frontier. Neither his power nor his fortune nor the contempt he felt for the military power of the Spaniards made him remiss. The conqueror of Europe was as fearful of making false movements before an army of peasants as if Frederick the Great had been in his front."