Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4

by Wolfgang Menzel

[Footnote 14: In his "Political Remarks touching the Canton of Waldstatten," dated the 23d of June, 1799, he says: "Let us imitate the political maxims of the conquerors of old, who drove the inhabitants most inimical to them into foreign countries and established colonies, composed of families of their own kin, in the heart of the conquered provinces." His proposal remaining unseconded, he sought to obliterate the bad impression it had made, by publishing a proclamation, calling upon the charitably inclined to raise a subscription for the unfortunate inhabitants of the Waldstatte.]

[Footnote 15: Vide Graf's History of Muhlhausen.]

CCLII. The Second Coalition

Prussia looked calmly on, with a view of increasing her power by peace while other states ruined themselves by war, and of offering her arbitration at a moment when she could turn their mutual losses to advantage. Austria, exposed to immediate danger by the occupation of Switzerland by the French, remained less tranquil and hastily formed a fresh coalition with England and Russia. Catherine II. had expired, 1796. Her son, Paul I., cherished the most ambitious views. His election as grand-master of the Maltese order dispersed by Napoleon had furnished him with a sort of right of interference in the affairs of the Levant and of Italy. On the 1st of March, 1799, the Ionian Islands, Corfu, etc., were occupied by Russian troops, and a Russian army, under the terrible Suwarow, moved, in conjunction with the troops of Austria, upon Italy. The project of the Russian czar was, by securing his footing on the Mediterranean and at the same time encircling Turkey, to attack Constantinople on both sides, on the earliest opportunity. Austria was merely to serve as a blind tool for the attainment of his schemes. Mack was despatched to Naples for the purpose of bringing about a general rising in Southern Italy against the French, and England lavished gold. The absence of Bonaparte probably inspired several of the allied generals with greater courage, not the French, but he, being the object of their dread. The conduct of the French at Rastadt had revolted every German and had justly raised their most implacable hatred, which burst forth during a popular tumult at Vienna, when the tricolor, floating from the palace of General Bernadotte, the French ambassador, was torn down and burned. The infamous assassination of the French ambassadors at Rastadt also took place during this agitated period. Bonnier, Roberjot, and Jean de Bry quitted Rastadt on the breaking out of war, and were attacked and cut to pieces by some Austrian hussars in a wood close to the city gate. Jean de Bry alone escaped, although dangerously wounded, with his life. This atrocious act was generally believed to have been committed through private revenge, or, what is far more probable, for the purpose of discovering by the papers of the ambassadors the truth of the reports at that time in circulation concerning the existence of a conspiracy and projects for the establishment of republics throughout Germany. The real motive was, however, not long ago,[1] unveiled. Austria had revived her ancient projects against Bavaria, and, as early as 1798, had treated with the French Directory for the possession of that electorate in return for her toleration of the occupatign of Switzerland by the troops of the republic. The venerable elector, Charles Theodore, who had been already persuaded to cede Bavaria and to content himself with Franconia, dying suddenly of apoplexy while at the card-table, was succeeded by his cousin, Maximilian Joseph of Pfalz-Zweibrucken, from whom, on account of his numerous family, no voluntary cession was to be expected either for the present or future. Thugut and Lehr-bach, the rulers of the Viennese cabinet, in the hope of compromising and excluding him, as a traitor to the empire, from the Bavarian succession, by the production of proofs of his being the secret ally of France, hastily resolved upon the assassination of the French ambassadors at Rastadt, on the bare supposition of their having in their possession documents in the handwriting of the elector. None were, however, discovered, the French envoys having either taken the precaution of destroying them or of committing them to the safe-keeping of the Prussian ambassador. This crime was, as Hormayr observes, at the same time, a political blunder. This horrible act was perpetrated on the 28th of April, 1799.

The campaign had, a month anterior to this event, been opened by the French, who had attacked the Austrians in their still scattered positions. Disunion prevailed as usual in the Austrian military council. The Archduke Charles proposed the invasion of France from the side of Swabia. The occupation of Switzerland by the troops of Austria was, nevertheless, resolved upon, and General Auffenberg, accordingly, entered the Grisons. The French instantly perceived and hastened to anticipate the designs of the Austrian cabinet. Auffenberg was defeated by Massena on the St. Luciensteig and expelled the Grisons, while Hotze on the Vorarlberg and Bellegarde in the Tyrol looked calmly on at the head of fifteen thousand men. The simultaneous invasion of Swabia by Jourdan now induced the military council at Vienna to accede to the proposal formerly made by the Archduke Charles, who was despatched with the main body of the army to Swabia, where, on the 25th of March, 1799, he gained a complete victory over Jourdan at Ostrach and Stockach.[2] The Grisons were retaken in May by Hotze, and, in June, the archduke joining him, Massena was defeated at Zurich, and the steep passes of Mont St. Gothard were occupied by Haddik. Massena was, however, notwithstanding the immense numerical superiority of the archduke's forces, which could easily have driven him far into France, allowed to remain undisturbed at Bremgarten. The French, under Scherer, in Italy, had, meanwhile, been defeated, in April, by Kray, at Magnano. This success was followed by the arrival of Melas from Vienna, of Bellegarde from the Tyrol, and lastly, by that of the Russian vanguard under Suwarow, who took the chief command and beat the whole of the French forces in Italy; Moreau, at Cassano and Marengo, in May; Macdonald, on his advance from Lower Italy, on the Trebbia, in June; and finally, Joubert, in the great battle of Novi, in which Joubert was killed, August the 15th, 1799. Dissensions now broke out among the victors. A fourth of the forces in Italy belonged to Austria, merely one-fifth to Russia; the Austrians, consequently, imagined that the war was merely carried on on their account. The Austrian forces were, against Suwarow's advice, divided, for the purpose of reducing Mantua and Alessandria and of occupying Tuscany. The king of Sardinia, whom Suwarow desired to restore to his throne, was forbidden to enter his states by the Austrians, who intended to retain possession of them for some time longer. The whole of Italy, as far as Ancona and Genoa, was now freed from the French, whom the Italians, embittered by their predatory habits, had aided to expel, and Suwarow received orders to join his forces with those under Korsakow, who was then on the Upper Rhine with thirty thousand men. The archduke might, even without this fresh reinforcement, have already annihilated Massena had he not remained during three months, from June to August, in a state of complete inactivity; at the very moment of Suwarow's expected arrival he allowed the important passes of the St. Gothard to be again carried by a coup de main by the French under General Lecourbe, who drove the Austrians from the Simplon, the Furca, the Grimsel, and the Devil's bridge. The archduke, after an unsuccessful attempt to push across the Aar at Dettingen, suddenly quitted the scene of war and advanced down the Rhine for the purpose of supporting the English expedition under the Duke of York against Holland. This unexpected turn in affairs proceeded from Vienna. The Viennese cabinet was jealous of Russia. Suwarow played the master in Italy, favored Sardinia at the expense of the house of Habsburg, and deprived the Austrians of the laurels and of the advantages they had won. The archduke, accordingly, received orders to remain inactive, to abandon the Russians, and finally to withdraw to the north; by this movement Suwarow's triumphant progress was checked, he was compelled to cross the Alps to the aid of Korsakow, and to involve himself in a mountain warfare ill-suited to the habits of his soldiery.[3] Korsakow, whom Bavaria had been bribed with Russian gold to furnish with a corps one thousand strong, was solely supported by Kray and Hotze with twenty thousand men. Massena, taking advantage of the departure of the archduke and the non-arrival of Suwarow, crossed the Limmat at Dietikon and shut Korsakow, who had imprudently stationed himself with his whole army in Zurich, so closely in, that, after an engagement that lasted two days, from the 15th to the 17th of September, the Russian general was compelled to abandon his artillery and to force his way through the enemy. Ten thousand men were all that escaped.[4] Hotze, who had advanced from the Grisons to Schwyz to Suwarow's rencounter, was, at the same time, defeated and killed at Schannis. Suwarow, although aware that the road across the St. Gothard was blocked by the lake of the four cantons, on which there were no boats, had the folly to attempt the passage. In Airolo, he was obstinately opposed by the French under Lecourbe, and, although Schweikowski contrived to turn this strong position by scaling the pathless rocks, numbers of the men were, owing to Suwarow's impatience, sacrificed before it. On the 24th of September, 1799, he at length climbed the St. Gothard, and a bloody engagement, in which the French were worsted, took place on the Oberalpsee. Lecourbe blew up the Devil's bridge, but, leaving the Urnerloch open, the Russians pushed through that rocky gorge, and, dashing through the foaming Reuss, scaled the opposite rocks and drove the French from their position behind the Devil's bridge. Altorf on the lake was reached in safety by the Russian general, who was compelled, owing to the want of boats, to seek his way through the valleys of Shachen and Muotta, across the almost impassable rocks, to Schwyz. The heavy rains rendered the undertaking still more arduous; the Russians, owing to the badness of the road, speedily became barefoot; the provisions were also exhausted. In this wretched state they reached Muotta on the 29th of September and learned the discouraging news of Korsakow's defeat. Massena had already set off in the hope of cutting off Suwarow, but had missed his way. He reached Altorf, where he joined Lecourbe on the 29th, when Suwarow was already at Muotta, whence Massena found on his arrival he had again retired across the Bragelberg, through the Klonthal. He was opposed on the lake of Klonthal by Molitor, who was, however, forced to retire by Auffenberg, who had joined Suwarow at Altorf and formed his advanced guard, Rosen, at the same time, beating off Massena with the rear-guard, taking five cannons and one thousand of his men prisoners. On the 1st of October, Suwarow entered Glarus, where he rested until the 4th, when he crossed the Panixer mountains through snow two feet deep to the valley of the Rhine, which he reached on the 10th, after losing the whole of his beasts of burden and two hundred of his men down the precipices; and here ended his extraordinary march, which had cost him the whole of his artillery, almost all his horses, and a third of his men.

The archduke had, meanwhile, tarried on the Rhine, where he had taken Philippsburg and Mannheim, but had been unable to prevent the defeat of the English expedition under the Duke of York by General Brune at Bergen, on the 19th of September. The archduke now, for the first time, made a retrograde movement, and approached Korsakow and Suwarow. The different leaders, however, merely reproached each other, and the czar, perceiving his project frustrated, suddenly recalled his troops and the campaign came to a close. The archduke's rearguard was defeated in a succession of petty skirmishes at Heidelberg and on the Neckar by the French, who again pressed forward.[5] These disasters were counterbalanced by the splendid victory gained by Melas in Italy, at Savigliano, over Championnet, who attempted to save Genoa.

Austria was no sooner deprived in Suwarow of the most efficient of her allies than she was attacked by her most dangerous foe. Bonaparte returned from Egypt. The news of the great disasters of the French in Italy no sooner arrived, than he abandoned his army and hastened, completely unattended, to France, through the midst of the English fleet, then stationed in the Mediterranean. His arrival in Paris was instantly followed by his public nomination as generalissimo. He alone had the power of restoring victory to the standard of the republic. The ill success of his rivals had greatly increased his popularity; he had become indispensable to his countrymen. His power was alone obnoxious to the weak government, which, aided by the soldiery, he dissolved on the 9th of November (the 18th Brumaire, by the modern French calendar); he then bestowed a new constitution upon France and placed himself, under the title of First Consul, at the head of the republic.

In the following year, 1800, Bonaparte made preparations for a fresh campaign against Austria, under circumstances similar to those of the first. But this time he was more rapid in his movements and performed more astonishing feats. Suddenly crossing the St. Bernard, he fell upon the Austrian flank. Genoa, garrisoned by Massena, had just been forced by famine to capitulate. Ten days afterward, on the 14th of June, Bonaparte gained such a decisive victory over Melas, the Austrian general, at Marengo,[6] that he and the remainder of his army capitulated on the ensuing day. The whole of Italy fell once more into the hands of the French. Moreau had, at the same time, invaded Germany and defeated the Austrians under Kray in several engagements, principally at Stockach and Moskirch,[7] and again at Biberach and Hochstadt, laid Swabia and Bavaria under contribution, and taken Ratisbon, the seat of the diet. An armistice, negotiated by Kray, was not recognized by the emperor, and he was replaced in his command by the Archduke John (not Charles), who was, on the 3d of December, totally routed by Moreau's manoeuvres during a violent snowstorm, at Hohenlinden. A second Austrian army, despatched into Italy, was also defeated by Brune on the Mincio. These disasters once more inclined Austria to peace, which was concluded at Luneville, on the 9th of February, 1801. The Archduke Charles seized this opportunity to propose the most beneficial reforms in the war administration, but was again treated with contempt. In the ensuing year, 1802, England also concluded peace at Amiens.

The whole of the left bank of the Rhine was, on this occasion, ceded to the French republic. The petty republics, formerly established by France in Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, were also renewed and were recognized by the allied powers. The Cisalpine republic was enlarged by the possessions of the grandduke of Tuscany and of the duke of Modena, to whom compensation in Germany was guaranteed. Suwarow's victories had, in the autumn of 1799, rendered a conclave, on the death of the captive pope, Pius VI., in France, possible, for the purpose of electing his successor, Pius VII., who was acknowledged as such by Bonaparte, whose favor he purchased by expressing his approbation of the seizure of the property of the church during the French Revolution, and by declaring his readiness to agree to the secularization of church property, already determined upon, in Germany.

The Helvetian Directory fell, like that of France, and was replaced by an administrative council, composed of seven members, in 1800. The upholders of ancient cantonal liberty, now known under the denomination of Federalists, gained the upper hand, and Aloys Reding, who had, shortly before, been denounced as a rebel, became Landammann of Switzerland. Bonaparte even invited him to Paris in order to settle with him the future fate of Switzerland. Reding, however, showing an unexpected degree of firmness, and, unmoved by either promises or threats, obstinately refusing to permit the annexation of Valais to France, Bonaparte withdrew his support and again favored the Helvetlers. Dolder and Savari, who had long been the creatures of France, failing in their election, were seated by Verninac, the French ambassador, in the senate of the Helvetian republic, and Reding, who was at that moment absent, was divested of his office as Landammann. Reding protested against this arbitrary conduct and convoked a federal diet to Schwyz.