Date and place
- January 14th and 15th, 1797 near Rivoli Veronese, Venetia (nowadays Province of Verona, Italy).
Involved forces
- French army (19,000 to 23,000 men) under General Napoleon Bonaparte.
- Austrian army (28,000 men) under Baron Josef Alvinczy von Borberek.
Casualties and losses
- French army: 2,200 men killed or wounded, 1,000 prisoners.
- Austrian army: 4,000 men killed or injured, 8 to 10,000 prisoners, 8 cannons, 11 flags.
Aerial panorama of Rivoli battlefield
The battle of Rivoli is known as the brightest French victory of the first Italian campaign. It closed the phase of the Austrian offensives in northern Italy and opened the way to Vienna to the Republican troops of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Overall situation
Despite their defeat at Arcole
It is therefore under the impulse of an imperious necessity that Austria managed, in just two months, to set up a new army of 45,000 men, which it confided, as the previous one, to General Josef Alvinczy von Borberek.
He divided his forces into three unequal units. The first two, with a total of 17,000 soldiers, under Adam Bajalics von Bajaháza (Bayalitsch) and Giovanni Provera command, moved respectively from the Brenta to Verona
Opposite, the French had about 42,000 men, including 7,000 received as reinforcement after Arcole. They were organized into five divisions. That of Barthélemy Catherine Joubert occupied the position of Rivoli
Preliminary operations
The Austrian offensive on Rivoli
On the 13th, at around ten o'clock in the evening, having received neither commands nor reinforcements and noting that the surrounding mountains were covered with enemy troops, Joubert decided, in order to avoid being crushed or encircled the following day, to back off again. He was starting to move when he received the news of the imminent arrival of the general-in-chief, accompanied by the bulk of the Masséna division. The order got also transmitted to him to stand ahead (so north) of Rivoli
Bonaparte, in fact, in view of the fighting on the 12th and 13th in the plain, as well as the reports sent to him by Joubert, had convinced himself that the main effort of the Austrians would be focused on the position held by the latter. He therefore took steps to contain the two enemy corps operating in the plain while he concentrated his troops to meet the third. He was going to bring with him nearly 12,000 reinforcements to Joubert, which would bring the final number of French troops to twenty thousand combatants on the battlefield.
Bonaparte arrived at Rivoli
Field
The Rivoli
The Austrian provisions
Alvinczy divided his troops in six columns. The first, with a force of 5,000 men was commanded by Colonel Franz Joseph of Lusignan, made a large movement turning to the right (the west), passing through Lumini and Pesina. It intended to show up on the side of Affi
A victory on this side could open the way to Canale to the Austrians. The 3,400 soldiers in the fourth column, entrusted to Joseph Ocskay von Ocskó, were assigned to support the two previous ones. So they had to turn around in the Adige valley, where they had already entered, to go back to Belluno Veronese and returned by Ferrara and La Corona. The fifth, under Peter Vitus von Quasdanovich, continued to advance on the road to the right bank of the Adige in the hope of opening the way to Canale. It concentrated by necessity most of the cavalry and the artillery, to which the state of the roads forbade to follow the other columns. The sixth, under Joseph Philipp Vukasovic (Wukassovich) command, took the road to the left bank of the Adige. This column was in charge of seizing the fort of La Chiusa, of throwing a bridge over the river and of startling, just as Lusignan but by the other wing, on the rear of the enemy. The synchronization of all these maneuvers, in the middle of winter and in a mountain region, was a challenge that would not be kept.
14th of January
First fights
At four o'clock in the morning, Joubert mounted the offensive. Leaving the 39th demi-brigade around Osteria to watch the road to Canale, he went straight to the North. On the way, he easily regained San Marco, kept by only a limited number of troops, then entered the valley of Caprino
These 12,000 men fought for several hours against the 8,000 men of Joubert division and gradually took over. At 7 am Liptay counter-attacked vigorously from the foot of Monte Baldo from which he was first repulsed.
The French left flank retreats in the greatest disorder on Trambasore. At the same time, on the right side, General Honoré Vial had to return San Marco to the enemy after a fierce confrontation. Only the 14th half-brigade, in the center, around San Giovanni, continued to hold up. But the first units of Quasdanovich began to appear on the plateau, through the road to Canale. The situation was becoming tricky.
Massena’s arrival
Massena’s arrival, around ten o'clock in the morning, changed the course of events. Bonaparte immediately went to the rescue of Joubert's left side with the 2,000 men of the 32nd demi-brigade, who formed the vanguard of the newcomers. This support helped balancing the situation. Liptay got once again pushed back to the foot of Monte Baldo. The other two half-brigades, the 18th and the 75th, were led by the future Duke of Rivoli and were moving, the first one towards Garda
Meanwhile, the other Austrian columns had progressed and began to appear on battlefield. Lusignan appeared in Affi. Two of Garda's recalled battalions slowed him down near Costermano without stopping him. Wukassovich, on the left bank of the Adige, settled within sight of Somano, from where he bombed the 39th demi-brigade which guarded the way to Canale while Quasdanovitch climbed the slopes. After the evacuation of San Marco by Vial, the 39th demi-brigade was forced to abandon the Osteria, leaving the head of Quasdanovich’s column progress on the plateau. Masséna having difficulty in containing Liptay in Trambasore, the situation at this moment of the battle could seem, once again, worrying.
Further analysis revealed a very different reality.
The Austrians of Liptay, Köblös and Ocskay were exhausted by the battles fought since dawn; Quasdanovich only had a very small amount of troop on the plateau while the rest of his men were engaged in the difficult climb of the slope; Lusignan was still very far from being able to intervene where the fate of the battle was played out. He was even in danger of being taken by the imminent arrival of French reserve troops, 3,000 men that General Rey brought from Castelnovo [Castelnuovo del Garda], towards the south.
Failure of Austrian’s left wing
More or less aware of these different parameters, Bonaparte kept his composure in the difficult situation that his situation seemed to be in and soon rebalanced it. The 75th half-brigade, too far from Joubert's right side to be able to rescue it, got sent to join the two battalions of the 18th who had just started harassing Lusignan. Their joint mission was to occupy the heights of Tiffaro
Defeat of the Austrian center
Once this victory was set, the right wing of Joubert and his cavalry were sent to support the center where Vial had to deal with Ocskay and Köblös. But, when they arrived to Mutole, and because of the way they were progressing, they ended up offering their right flank to the blows of Masséna, who held the heights of Trambasore after having rejected Liptay. The simultaneous appearance on their left of new masses of French infantry and 200 cavalry led by the squadron leader Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle caused a panic movement in the ranks of the two Austrian columns, which could not oppose their enemies or cavalry or artillery. They let go and retreated behind the Tasso
Rout of the Austrian right wing
The left wing and center opponents defeated, Bonaparte turned against Lusignan who had finally entered the theater of operations by taking the Monte Pipolo
Bonaparte departure
At five o'clock, only the remains of Quasdanovich's column were still able to fight, but they withdrew into the Adige valley
15th of January
The next day, Alvinczy had already retreated far enough to be able to hope that the distance gained during the night would allow him to get off La Corona towards Brentino without danger. Although he still had to lead his army through paths cut on the slopes of Monte Magnone. He then had the best chance of escaping his pursuers. However, uncertain of the fate of his right wing and eager to facilitate the withdrawal while retaining some French troops in the mountains while Provera operated in plain, Alvinczy attempted an offensive return on the morning of the 15th.
On the French side, the measures taken by Joubert actually aimed to disturb or even cut the enemy line of retreat. His right wing, under Vial, is on the Monte Magnone; his left wing, with Veaux, and his extreme left, reunited with Joachim Murat who landed at Torre [Torri del Benaco]
This last episode represented the outcome of a battle in which the Austrian losses amounted to 14,000 soldiers out of the 28,000 engaged, of whom nearly 10,000 laid down their weapons. The French, for their part, had in all just over 3,000 killed, wounded and prisoners.
Consequences of the battle
The victory of Rivoli had an immense impact in Europe. Followed the next day by the La Favorita one, it paved the way for the fall of Mantua (February 2). The road to Vienna opened ahead of the French army, which would be taking it two months later. In the meantime, even in Italy, Pope Pius VI, now deprived of allies, soon had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Tolentino. The pontiff ratified the annexation of Avignon and Comtat-Venaissin by France and ceded to it the legations of Bologna, Ferrara and Romagna.
Map of the battle of Rivoli
Picture - "General Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Rivoli". Painted 1844 by Henri-Felix-Emmanuel Philippoteaux.
The Masséna division arrived on the battlefield and returned the situation after having traveled more than one hundred and forty kilometers in two days, including the last twelve hours in forced march. Napoleon Bonaparte wrote in this connection, in a letter to the Directory, that "these soldiers surpassed the speed of Caesar's legions."
At the end of the year 1796 and in January 1797, the headquarters of Napoleon Bonaparte was at the Forti Palace