On the 16th of March, the two armies headed by Napoleon, and the Archduke Charles in person, were drawn up on opposite sides of the Tagliamento, face to face. Bonaparte then attempted to effect the passage of the river, but after a formal display of his forces, which was met by similar demonstrations on the Austrian side of the river, he suddenly broke up his line, retreated, and took up his bivouac. The archduke concluded that, as the French had been marching all the night before, their leader wished to defer the battle until another day, and in like manner withdrew to his encampment. About two hours later Napoleon rushed with his whole army, who had merely laid down in ranks, upon the margin of the Tagliamento,—no longer adequately guarded,—and had forded the stream ere the Austrian line of battle could be formed. In the passage of the Tagliamento Napoleon was so nearly drowned, by the submersion of his carriage, that he for some moments gave up all thoughts of being rescued.
This affair was the first in which the division of Bernadotte had borne a part. He arrived upon the borders of the Tagliamento at the very moment of the combat: throwing himself into the river he exclaimed to his followers, "Think that you are the Army of the Rhine, and that the Army of Italy is looking on you!"
In the action which followed the troops of the archduke displayed much gallantry, and charged the French repeatedly with the greatest courage, but every effort to dislodge Napoleon failed; at length retreat was deemed necessary, and eight pieces of cannon and some provisions were left behind, the French following in close pursuit.
Adjutant General Kellerman distinguished himself at the head of the French cavalry and received many wounds in executing the manoeuvres that decided the success of the day; he was subsequently charged with carrying the trophies taken from the enemy to France.
The pursuers stormed Gradisca, where they made 6,000 prisoners; and the archduke continuing his retreat, occupied in the course of a few days Trieste, Fiume and every stronghold in Carinthia. In the course of a campaign of twenty days the Austrians fought Bonaparte ten times; but the overthrow on the Tagliamento was never recovered. Their army was melting away like the snows of the Tyrol.
At last the Austrian leader decided to reach Vienna by forced marches, there to gather round him whatever force the loyalty of his nation could muster, and make a last stand beneath the walls of the capital. The archduke expected to reap great advantage from enticing the French army into the heart of Austria, where, divided by many wide provinces and mighty mountains and rivers from France, and with Italy once more in arms behind them, he hoped to cut off their source of supplies and compel them to retreat from a greatly reinforced imperial army.
From the period of the opening of the campaign the archduke had lost nearly 20,000 men made prisoners, so that the Austrians could make no stand except upon the mountains in the neighborhood of the Capital.
Vienna, however, was terror-stricken on hearing that Napoleon who was only sixty leagues distant, had stormed the passes of the Julian Alps. The imperial family—embracing little Marie Louise, then scarcely six years old, afterwards Napoleon's wife—fled with their crown jewels and treasures into Hungary; the middle classes became clamorous for a termination of the six years' war, and the archduke was ordered to avail himself of the first pretense which circumstances might afford for the opening of a negotiation. Napoleon wrote to the archduke suggesting peace: "While brave soldiers carry on war they wish for peace;" he said, "Has not the war already lasted six years? Have we not killed men enough, and inflicted sufficient sufferings on the human race? Europe has laid down the arms she took up against the French Republic. Your nation alone perseveres; yet blood is to flow more copiously than ever. Whatever be the issue, we shall kill some thousands of men on both sides, and after all we must come to an understanding, since all things have an end, not excepting vindictive passions. * * * For my part, general, if the overture I have the honor to make to you should only save the life of a single man, I should feel more proud of the civic crown, I should think I thereby merited, than of all the melancholy glory that the most distinguished military successes can afford."
The archduke replied within two hours after the receipt of the letter and a series of negotiations followed, which with Napoleon's rapid advance on Vienna, finally brought about the provisional treaty of Leoben, signed April 18, 1797. Napoleon, without waiting for full power from the Directory to complete the treaty, took the responsibility upon himself and signed it on the part of France on the 19th of April. The Austrian plenipotentiaries had set down as a primary concession that "the Emperor acknowledged the French Republic."
"Strike that out!" said Napoleon; "the Republic is like the sun that shines by its own light; none but the blind can fail to see it. We are our own masters and shall establish any government we prefer." "If the French people should one day wish to create a monarchy," he afterwards remarked, "the Emperor might object that he had recognized a Republic."