Battle on 23-24 November 1795 during the War of the First Coalition
The
Battle of Loano
(23?24 November 1795) saw the
French
Army of Italy
led by
General of Division
(GD)
Barthelemy Louis Joseph Scherer
attack the Allied armies of
Habsburg Austria
and the
Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont
led by
Feldzeugmeister
(FZM)
Olivier, Count of Wallis
during the
War of the First Coalition
. The assault took the Austrians by surprise since it occurred so late in the year. Additionally, the previous Austrian commander resigned the day before the attack. While the French left flank troops pinned down the Sardinian forces opposing them, the French center broke through the Allied center, forcing the Austrians to retreat. Meanwhile, the French right flank forces steadily pressed back the Austrians on the coast. The French gained a more favorable position, but Scherer did not exploit his victory.
Andre Massena
distinguished himself during this battle and is credited with the French victory.
[1]
Context
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After detecting that his Coalition foes were planning an offensive, French commander GD
Pierre Jadart Dumerbion
launched an operation in mid-September 1794 that took his opponents by surprise. Using a plan prepared by
General of Brigade
(GB)
Napoleon Bonaparte
, the French defeated the Austrians under the Count of Wallis in the
First Battle of Dego
on 21 September. The French army then obeyed its orders from
Paris
not to persist in an offensive. As the French troops withdrew to a more defensible position, Bonaparte noted that the road running from the port of
Savona
to the interior was usable by artillery, a piece of information that would prove useful to him in the April 1796
Montenotte campaign
. The French army took up a defense line running from
Ormea
east to
Colle San Bernardo
and then to the
Ligurian Sea
at
Vado
. Dumerbion praised Bonaparte, "It is to the ability of the General of Artillery that I owe the clever combinations which have secured our success."
[2]
GD Scherer replaced Dumerbion as commander of the Army of Italy on 21 November 1794.
GD
Francois Christophe de Kellermann
assumed command of both the Army of Italy and the
Army of the Alps
on 6 May 1795.
Also in May, Bonaparte was ordered away from the Army of Italy.
[5]
On 24?26 June 1795, the Coalition commander FZM
Joseph Nikolaus De Vins
attacked the French positions in the
Battle of Monte Settepani
. Though repulsed near the coast, in the inland sector the Austrians captured
Monte Settepani
, Colle di San Giacomo, and Monte Alto. Kellermann ordered a withdrawal, taking care to evacuate his army's supplies from Vado,
Finale
, and
Loano
. On 9 July, the French army took up its new defense line from
Borghetto Santo Spirito
on the coast to
Monte Galero
, then west to Ormea.
In July 1795, Kellermann mustered 31,193 soldiers in the Army of Italy and 17,108 men in the Army of the Alps. From these numbers, one must deduct garrisons and the sick. Much of Kellermann's energy was expended trying to feed troops who were often on the brink of starvation because of the British
Royal Navy
blockade of the coast and the nearly bankrupt French government. However, the
Peace of Basel
with the
Kingdom of Spain
on 22 July 1795 allowed the Army of Italy to be reinforced. Several thousand more reinforcements arrived from the
Army of the Rhine and Moselle
. The food supply was placed on a better basis at least for a few months.
The Austrians and Sardinian armies did not cooperate very well, so De Vins was placed in overall command of both armies. On 18 September 1795, De Vins attacked the French lines with 40,000 troops. On the French side, GD
Andre Massena
held the right flank with 24,000 men, GD
Francois Macquard
defended the center with 6,000 troops, and GD
Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Serurier
held the left flank with 5,000 soldiers. The Sardinians faced Serurier,
Generalmajor
(GM)
Eugene-Guillaume Argenteau
faced Macquard, and Wallis faced Massena. Near Monte Sambucco, the Sardinians gained a momentary success, but the French under
Colonel
Louis de Saint-Hilaire
counterattacked in a fog and drove them off. All of the other Allied attacks failed.
[note 1]
Battle
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Preparations
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Barthelemy Scherer
On 29 September 1795, Scherer replaced Kellermann in command of the Army of Italy.
Kellermann was demoted to commanding only the Army of the Alps.
In early October, the Army of Italy with 33,000 soldiers faced 30,000 Austrians and 12,000 Sardinians led by De Vins.
[10]
At about this time, GD
Charles-Pierre Augereau
's division on the right flank, consisting of reinforcements from the Spanish front, numbered 6,961 men. Serurier's division on the left flank counted 5,155 soldiers. In the center, Massena controlled 13,276 troops, split between the divisions of GD
Etienne Charlet
and GD
Amedee Emmanuel Francois Laharpe
and a reserve under GD
Guilin Laurent Bizanet
. Massena's and Serurier's soldiers were originally from the Army of Italy. These active divisions totaled 25,392 infantry but did not include cavalry or artillery.
It also did not include another division on the far left that held the
Col de Tende
.
Michelangelo Colli
Even though the Sardinian army was led by an Austrian officer,
Feldmarschall-Leutnant
(FML)
Michelangelo Alessandro Colli-Marchi
, relations between the Austrians and the Sardinians remained touchy. Bonaparte, then a military planner at the
Bureau Topographique
, urged an attack by the Army of Italy to seize Vado. He was soon backed up by the
Committee of Public Safety
.
[13]
Scherer wanted to execute Kellermann's plan to advance up the
Tanaro
valley, but frequent delays prevented it from being carried out.
On 17 November, Charlet's division attacked the Austro-Sardinians at Campo di Pietri, surprising them and capturing three cannons and 500 prisoners.
A violent storm and heavy snowfall occurred on 18 November, halting further movements.
Desiring to do something before winter prevented all operations, Scherer chose an assault plan presented by Massena. While Serurier's division kept the Allies in his front occupied, Massena's divisions would sever the connection between the Allied right and left wings. After breaking through, Massena's troops would turn to their right and hit the flank of the Allies defending against Augereau's division. The French acted as though they were taking up winter quarters while they were really massing troops for Massena's assault.
On 22 November, De Vins handed over command of the Allied army to Wallis. Colli's
chief of staff
Colonel Joseph Henri Costa de Beauregard reported that De Vins was ill with
scurvy
.
Believing that military operations were finished for the season, Wallis permitted his officers to attend a ball at Finale.
Action
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Battle of Loano 1795 map
Serurier's division was based on Ormea, Massena's divisions operated from
Zuccarello
, and Augereau's division was stationed at Borghetto on the coast.
[10]
On 23 November 1795, Serurier's division attacked Colli's Sardinians in the Tanaro valley. Serurier personally led his soldiers to attack Colle San Bernardo, but the French were repulsed after bitter fighting. Serurier kept the Sardinians busy all this day and the next. Despite the setback, Scherer assured the division commander, "That was all that I wanted".
[note 2]
South face of Rocca Barbena
At 4:00 am on 23 November, Massena's troops began their assault on the Allied field fortifications to the southeast of Colle San Bernardo.
The divisions of Charlet and Laharpe took part in this assault against Argenteau's defending troops.
Charlet was mortally wounded
and Massena took control of his division, also committing the reserve.
GB
Barthelemy Catherine Joubert
described how he and GB
Jean Joseph Magdeleine Pijon
each led about 600 picked troops to attack one of Argenteau's redoubts armed with seven cannons. Charging through withering fire, and without firing, the French burst into the redoubt. In the melee, Joubert demanded that an enemy officer surrender, and when that man found that the Frenchman was a general, he immediately threw down his sword and asked for mercy.
After seizing these positions, Massena next directed his troops to seize
Rocca Barbena
. The French captured Rocca Barbena after a prolonged struggle. Two hours later, they seized the town of
Bardineto
, forcing their foes back to
Calizzano
in the
Bormida
valley. During the fighting,
Lieutenant Colonel
Louis-Gabriel Suchet
's battalion captured the imposing height of
Monte Carmo di Loano
.
Mathias Rukavina
At dawn, accompanied by Scherer, Augereau attacked the Allied left wing at Loano, supported by the fire of French gunboats offshore.
Augereau's division consisted of four brigades under GBs
Pierre Banel
,
Jean-Baptiste Dominique Rusca
,
Claude-Victor Perrin
, and
Elzear Auguste Cousin de Dommartin
. Wallis' position was defended by three fortified mounds, batteries posted in olive groves, and the Chartreuse at
Toirano
. Banel's brigade seized Toirano, but while attacking the Chartreuse, Banel was wounded and handed over command to Colonel
Jean Lannes
.
The French surprised and captured two of the fortified mounds but were repulsed at the Greater Castellaro which was held by GM
Mathias Rukavina von Boynograd
and 1,200 Austrians.
Rusca's brigade failed to take the Greater Castellaro, but pressed forward. Banel's brigade captured a battery in front of the Chartreuse, forcing GM Michael von Ternyey's troops into the Chartreuse. Reinforced by refugees from Argenteau's disintegrating command, Ternyey sortied from the Chatreuse and recaptured the battery. Hearing fire erupt in the rear, Augereau sent back Dommartin's brigade which drove Ternyey's soldiers into the Chartreuse again.
Pierre Augereau
After Rusca failed to capture the Greater Castellaro, Victor's brigade was placed to contain it.
Augereau summoned Rukavina to surrender the Greater Castellaro, but the Austrian insisted on getting free passage to Wallis' position, which was refused.
Pointing at Victor's brigade, Rukavina said, "There is where I mean to pass", and led his soldiers out in close column of attack. The Austrian column bored right through Victor's troops, who rallied and fired into Rukavina's men. In the end, Rukavina escaped to join Wallis, though half his soldiers became casualties.
It went otherwise with Ternyey, who surrendered the Chartreuse to Dommartin. Wallis brought the Austrian cavalry into action, which briefly halted Augereau's advance. However, Rusca drew the cavalry into an ambush, driving them back. Wallis evacuated Loano at 3:00 pm and ordered the Austrian left wing to fall back to Monte Carmelo.
At 4:00 pm, Scherer ordered Augereau's men to halt and camp for the night. He knew that Rocca Barbena and Bardineto were captured, but was unaware of Massena's subsequent progress.
Andre Massena
Massena left enough troops to hold Bardineto and headed for Monte Settepani and the
Colle del Melogno
with a small force, hoping to get there before Argenteau.
Meanwhile, GB
Jean-Baptiste Cervoni
set out in pursuit with three battalions and prevented Argenteau's fugitives from rallying.
Ultimately, Argenteau ordered his troops to retreat to
Ceva
.
Massena caught up with Cervoni's brigade at the Colle del Melogno at 11:00 pm, and at midnight he pressed on with 2,000 men to seize what the French called the San Pantaleone heights. This was the ridge extending down from Monte Settepani toward Finale. Wallis hoped to continue the battle the next day and sent a message to Argenteau to hold Monte Settepani and the Colle del Melogno, but the courier was captured by Pijon's troops.
Barthelemy Joubert
Finally hearing that his center was overwhelmed, Wallis withdrew during the night to the San Pantaleone heights. On 24 November, Massena sent a message to Scherer, but the French army commander did not receive it until noon. Massena got some reinforcements from Laharpe's division, but by noon he still had only 4,300 troops available. With these soldiers, Massena harassed Wallis so that the Austrian commander sent away his artillery by what he assumed was a safe route via the Colle di San Giacomo.
Suspecting that his opponent would retreat by this route, Massena ordered Joubert to seize the defile. The artillery convoy set out under the command of GM
Philipp Pittoni von Dannenfeld
and found itself blocked by Joubert's soldiers, who had marched through a hailstorm. Pittoni's soldiers manned an old entrenchment and waited for further orders. By the time Pittoni tried to execute Wallis' orders to withdraw to Finale, Massena also blocked the road behind the column.
Taking the horses, Pittoni's men abandoned 19 guns and the wagon train
and fled cross-country.
As Wallis retreated along the coast road, his columns became the target of the French gunboats. After being pursued by Dommartin's brigade, Wallis reached Vado where he rallied his troops. On 25 November, Scherer reinforced his left flank under Serurier with troops from Augereau's division. Despite this, Colli maintained a spirited defense of
Garessio
. When he heard about Wallis' defeat, Colli ordered a retreat on 28 November to his entrenched camp at Ceva, leaving behind his cannons.
Results
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Philibert Serurier
Wallis continued to retreat, reaching Savona on 25 November,
Dego
on 27 November, and
Acqui
on 29 November.
Rukavina led the Austrian
rearguard
, marching via
Altare
and
Carcare
, he arrived at Dego on 28 November. Shortly after occupying Savona, the French halted pursuit due to lack of provisions.
The triumph was not followed-up because of Scherer's caution, a "poorly conducted" pursuit, over-stretched supply lines, and the non-arrival of promised reinforcements.
[10]
However, the capture of Savona made supply from
Genoa
easier.
Charles Mullie credited the French with 40,000 men and the Coalition with 53,000.
Historian
Digby Smith
reported that the French had 25,000 men engaged, while the Allied total was 18,000 soldiers. Of these, the French lost 2,500 killed and wounded, plus 500 captured. Allied losses numbered 3,000 killed and wounded, plus 4,000 men, 48 cannons, and 5 colors captured.
Ramsay Weston Phipps
stated that the French admitted losses of 500 killed and 1,150?1,200 wounded. The Austrians sustained losses of 3,500 men killed and wounded and 4,000 captured. They also lost 5 colors and 48 field guns, plus 17 more guns abandoned at Vado.
Edward Cust asserted that the Austrian-Sardinian armies lost 80 guns and abandoned large supply depots at Finale, Vado, and Savona.
On the Austrian side, Argenteau received much of the blame for the defeat.
After the debacle, the Sardinian generals urged
King Victor Amadeus III
to conclude peace with Frence.
[10]
The Sardinians duly entered into negotiations, but the king rejected all French proposals on 27 January 1796. However, the Austrian government was notified of what was going on and this led to increasing strain on the Austrian-Sardinian alliance.
Scherer repositioned his army, placing Massena's two divisions (Laharpe and GD
Jean-Baptiste Meynier
) on the right flank, Augereau's division watching the Bormida valley, Serurier's division watching the Tanaro valley, Macquard's division at the Col de Tende, and GD
Pierre Dominique Garnier
's division on the extreme left flank.
On 4 February 1796, Scherer asked to be replaced and on 2 March, the French government selected Bonaparte. The new commander arrived on 27 March 1796.
The historian Phipps questioned why Scherer authorized Augereau to attack early in the morning, when the plan was for Massena to break through in the center and then strike the inland flank of the Allied left wing. In the event, Augereau's early attack pushed back Wallis' left wing so that it was out of reach of any possible flanking move by Massena.
Notes
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- Footnotes
- ^
Only Cust described the 18 September 1795 battle. Boycott-Brown, Chandler, Phipps, and Smith did not mention it at all (Cust, pp. 303?304).
- ^
Phipps stated that the battle started on 22 November (Phipps, pp. 262?264) while Boycott-Brown (p. 110), Chandler (p. 38), Cust (p. 304), and Smith (p. 108) all gave a date of 23 November.
- Citations
References
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edit
]
- Boycott-Brown, Martin (2001).
The Road to Rivoli: Napoleon's First Campaign
. London, UK: Cassell & Co.
ISBN
0-304-35305-1
.
- Chandler, David G.
(1966).
The Campaigns of Napoleon
. New York, N.Y.: Macmillan.
ISBN
0-02-523660-1
.
- Clerget, Charles (1905).
Tableaux des Armees Francaises pendant les Guerres de la Revolution
(in French). Paris: Librarie Militaire R. Chapelot et Cie
. Retrieved
21 September
2023
.
- Cust, Edward (1859).
"Annals of the Wars: 1783?1795, Volume 4"
. London: Mitchell's Military Library
. Retrieved
21 September
2023
.
- Mullie, Charles (1852).
"Massena (Andre)"
.
Biographie des celebrites militaires des armees de terre et de mer de 1789 a 1850
(in French). Paris: Poignavant et Compagnie. pp. 273?275.
- Phipps, Ramsay Weston
(2011) [1931].
The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I: The Armies in the West 1793 to 1797 and The Armies in the South 1793 to March 1796
. Vol. 3. Pickle Partners Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-908692-26-9
.
- Smith, Digby
(1998).
The Napoleonic Wars Data Book
. London: Greenhill.
ISBN
1-85367-276-9
.