Unit
| Location
| Infantry
| Cavalry
| total
| Avantgarde Prince Bagration
| at
Lecco
| 3 Battalions
| 3 Cossacks Regiments
| 3000
| Rozemberg Corps
| Road from Caprino to
Lecco
| 9 Battalions
| 1 Cossack Regiment - 9 Squadrons
| 9000
| Vukassovich Avant-Guard Corps
| at Brivio
| 8 Battalions + 2 Companies
| 2 squadrons
| 7000
| Avantgarde Division Ott
| at San Gervasio
| 6 Battalions
| 8 squadrons
| 5000
| 1st Division Zopf
| at Canonica
| 6 Battalions
| 8 squadrons
| 5000
| 2nd Division Fröhlich (under Lusignan)
| at Treviglio
| 16 Battalions
| 16 squadrons
| 13000
| Left wing Division Kaim
| at Treviglio
| together
| together
| together
| Feldbrigade Seckendorff
| at
Lodi
| 2 Battalions
| 2 Squadrons
| 1500
| Gruppe Hohenzollern
| at Pizzighettone
| 5 Battalions
| 6 Squadrons
| 5000
| Totals
|
| 55 Battalions +2 Companies
| 50 Squadrons + 4 Cossack Regiments
| 48500
French Army positions before the Battles
Unit
| Location
| Infantry
| Cavalry
| total
| Left Division Sèrurier
| from
Lecco to Trezzo
| 10 Battalions
| 10 squadrons
| 8000
| 1st Center Division Grenier
| from Vaprio to Villa
Pompeiana
| 10 Battalions
| 10 squadrons
| 8000
| 2nd Center Division Victor
| from Villa Pompeiana
to Robecco
| 10 Battalions
| 10 squadrons
| 8000
| Avantgarde Division Laboissiére
| from Robecco to River
Po
| 5 Battalions
| 7 squadrons
| 4000
| Totals
|
| 35 Battalions
| 37 Squadrons
| 28000
Arméè d’Italie HQ
at Inzago
Commander-in-Chief: General
de Division Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Adjudant : General Jacques Maurice Hatry
On April 25, 1799 all the French army was behind the
Adda
River. General Jean Marie Moreau had the task to defend
Lodi while the other divisions took positions along the right bank
of the river. The headquarters, initially placed at
Lodi, was transferred to Inzago, in a more central position. Having
received the news, that the Cisalpine Directory had abandoned
Milan, General Barthélémy
Louis Joseph Schérer decided to reach the city. Moreau
was sent to Inzago to take provisional command of Army HQs. Escorted
by 20 guides, Schérer reached
Milan. There he did not find the authorities he hoped to see, but
he met Rivaud who gave him the French Directory’s letter of
his dischargement. Schérer immediately resigned and did not
return to Inzago where Moreau agreed to be his replacement [1]
Bagration, repulsed on 25 near
Bergamo, rallied his troops. Suvorov and Rozenberg organized a three
column formation near Ponte San Pietro: the first was a battalion
belonging to Rozenberg’s corps, the second the Dendrjugyn Grenadiers,
and the third was the Miloradovich Brigade deployed as a second line.
Between the infantry were Cossacks. Rozenberg’s troops followed
as a reserve.
April 26: At
2.00 PM hours, the Russian vanguard contacted Soyez’s
Demi-brigade, which had just been replenished with fresh recruits
and had been given the mission of the rearguard. Soyez’s
Chasseurs fought and disengaged but, at 4.00 PM a French guard
of about 150 chasseurs was ovverrun by Cossacks, who ran against
a small redoubt in front of
Lecco. They were met with a salvo of 25 canister shots which thinned
the riders’ rows and caused great disorder. Too late
to engage the infantry, because night was coming, Bagration
resolved to wait for the next day.
The Battle of Lecco
Lecco. The alternative, and more difficult, way to reach
Milan from
Bergamo passed through
Lecco, on the lower right branch of
Lake
Como. There was an ancient bridge near Olginate which cross
the Adda. Nearby two roads surely existed: one to
Milan and one to
Como. In 1784, Joseph 2 of
Austria
visited the town and decided to demolish the town walls. With the
arrival of Bonaparte and the birth of the Cisalpine republic, in
1797, the
Lecco land was enclosed in the Mountain Lombardy Department (
Lecco became the chief town). In 1799 the bridge over the Adda, south
of Caldone stream, was near the
village of
Pescarenico, where the battle occured.
Division de gauche
- General Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier
| 7636
|
| * Numbers and dislocations are estimated.
|
| Detachment Louis-Stanislas-Xavier
Soyez at Lecco
Staff : Aides Bernard, Delort and Willot
|
| Artillery:
Mount
Barro Heavy
Battery
| 6 heavy (4 guns – 2 howitzers)
| 60
|
Lecco position artillery
| 12 guns (4 on bastions)
| 8 redoubt
|
Lake gunboats
|
| 2
| 2 Grenadiers Companies – Line
Infantry
| 150
|
| 18th Light Demi-brigade
Carabiniers Battalion
| 430
|
| 30th Light infantry Demi-brigade
I Battalion.
| 650
|
| 1st Piedmontese Light
Demi-brigade Guards Battalion. (retreating, merged with Fresia
Brigade)
| 470
|
| 9th Dragoon Regiment 1
squadron
| 100
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At Brivio. It is a village built on the Adda river
where the hills leave the land to the plains, dominated by an old
square medieval castle and situated 15 km far from (south of) Lecco.
Brigade Adj-Gen Pierre-Joseph Guillet (Guillot ?)
from
Lecco until the Brivio passage
29th Light infantry Demi-brigade
3 Battalion Pierre-François Mont-Serraz
| 670
|
| 18th Light Demi-brigade
I – 2 and 3 Battalion
| 1170
|
| 9th Dragoon Regiment 1
squadron .
| 100
At Verderio.
On April 1799, the French division Sérurier entrenched
into the Villa Confalonieri (today Villa Gnecchi-Ruscone), into the
Castle and the cemetery. Surrounded by the Austrians, it was defeated
and removed from the rosters.
General de Division Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier
Adj-Gen Louis Garreau
30th Light infantry Demi-brigade
2 – 3 Battalions.
| 1300
|
| 21st Line Demi-brigade Chef
de Brigade Robert I Battalion.
| 670
|
| The 1st Battalion lost
its flag after the battle of Vaprio. On May 6, 1799, Peschiera surrendered and the Austrians captured
a flag of the 21st Demi-brigade, which was there with
another battalion
|
| 1 Foot artillery battery (7th Regiment)
| 3 guns
| 9th Dragoon Regiment Chef-de-Brigade Sebastiani 2 Squadrons.
| 376
|
| Brigade Général
Maurizio Ignazio Frésia Baron of Oglianico
| 1850 [2]
| 1st Piedmontese Light
Demi-brigade the Light Battalion.
| 560
|
| 2nd Piedmontese Dragoons
Regiment
| 480
| 4th Piedmontese Dragoons
Regiment
| 510
|
|
|
|
|
The Coalition’s Army
Commander in chief: Field Marshal Aleksandr Vassiljevic Suvorov
Graf Rimniksky
Russian Avantgarde
Brigade General Prince Petr Ivanovich Bagration [3]
| 2822
Prince Bagration took part in many campaigns, wars and battles.
In the campaign of 1794, Bargation showed himself as a brave cavalry
commander. Suvorov thought highly of his skills, bravery, enterprise
and accuracy of his command. The military service under the command
of Suvorov had a major influence on the forming of Bagration’s
military skills. As a Major General Bagration took part in the Italian
campaign of Suvorov in 1799. He commanded the vanguard of the Russian
troops. He stormed and seized towns of
Brescia and
Lecco and executed the most important missions in the battles at
Trebbia and
Novi. In the well-known Swiss campaign of Suvorov in 1799, Bagration
commanded the Russian vanguard, he was the first who accepted the
enemy blows when the Russian troops crossed
St. Gotthard, the
Devil
Bridge and others. During the retreat of the Russian Army he commanded
the rear-guard, covered the retreat of the main forces and contained
the attacks of the outnumbered enemy forces (the Panix mountain ridge). In
the Swiss campaign Bagration was Suvorov's most reliable support.
For his courage, bravery and military skills he was rewarded with
many Russian and foreign orders and arms: including the gold sword
decorated with diamonds with the inscription "For courage".
5th Don Cossacks Regiment.
Denissov
| 490
| Denissov
Tichon Ivanovich (b. 1749) from 1793 to 1797 Lieutenant Colonel,
regiment-commander of Ekaterinoslaw Cossacks Battalion.
| Don Cossacks Regiment
Molchanov
| 495
| 8th Don Cossacks Regiment
Grekov
| 494
| Imperial Russian Grenadier
Battalion (GB) Lomonosov
| 606
| Imperial Russian 7th
Jäger (Jeghersky) Regiment. GM Bagration – 2 Battalions
| 737
Main Corps 1st Line
Imperial Russian Grenadier Regiment. GdI Rozenberg or Moskow – 1st
Battalion
| 778
| Imperial Russian Grenadier Battalion (GB) Dendrjugyn
| 589
Main Corps
Left Brigade Infantry-general
Andrej Grigorjevich Rozenberg
| 3317
| Imperial Russian Grenadier Battalion
(GB) Sanajev
| 608
| Imperial Russian Musketeers
Regiment. Young-Baden or molodo-Badensky – 2 Battalion
| 712
| Imperial Russian Musketeers
Regiment. GM Tuyrtov or Tug’lsky (
Tula) – I Battalion
| 763
| Don Cossacks Regiment.
Semernikov (Semjornikov)
| 484
|
| Reserve Brigade Major
General Nikolaj Andrejevic Chubarov [4]
|
| Imperial Russian 8th
Jäger (Jegherski) Regiment. Major General Chubarov
| 750
| Chief from
May 13: GM Ivan Ivanovich Miller
| Imperial Russian Musketeers
Regiment. GM Baranowsky 2 - I Battalion
| 804
April 26, Night. The
Russian were masters of the left Adda’s bank. Sérurier,
seeing a threat at the Brivio passage, detached Adjudant Général
Guillet to cover his northern flank.
April 27, Dawn. Soyez
is in
Lecco. The walled town of 4000 inhabitants is at a distance of
400 meters from the Adda’s stone bridge, a fortified
structure 100
meters long. The Russian moved forward at 8.00 AM but their advance
was harassed by the
Lecco’s pieces and definitively halted at 10.00 AM. Bagration
decided to wait for the planned Austrian diversionary attack at
Brivio. Soyez sent the two Grenadiers companies south, to
cover his right flank in direction of Olginate.
April 27, 2.00 PM. Rozenberg’s
Grenadiers advanced against
Lecco but were sent back by the Carabiniers of 18th Demi-brigade.
The melée was very bloody (Rozenberg’s battalion
lost 150 men dead and 360 heavily wounded). The French were
the victors, however they began to have a shortage of ammunitions
and withdrewinto the town walls. At 9.00 PM a courier
arrived bringing a message from Guillet. It was the news of the massive
Austrian deployment along the Adda. Guillet said he had to withdraw
to
Como and left Soyez free to decide to do whatever he wanted. Soyez
realized that his right flank was cut off from the Army center and
ordered the retreat, in echelons, in order to save as many troops
as possible.
At 11.00 PM only the 18th Légère
remained to guard the Adda bridge, the others were already retreating
towards Erba and
Como. Before dawn the
class=MsoEndnoteText Demi-brigade embarked
on 28 boats and the bridge was destroyed by Soyez’s sappers.
(The 18th Demi-brigade crossed
Lake
Como and continued its march towards Lugano in
Switzerland
without any losses in men, materials and guns). From Lugano, where
they blocked a people uprising, the bemi-brigade went by the way of
Lake Maggiore; other boats were requisitioned and the French
disembarked at Arona, on April 30. There Soyez had orders to
reach Lavino, on the road to
Novara and there he got the news, on May 1, of Moreau’s
defeat at Cassano. S
of April 26
The impatient Field Marshal, on April 26, had planned that, while
Bagration attacked Lecco, forcing the Adda passage, and
sending a strong Avantguard to Como, General Vukassovich would gathered
as many boats as he could in order to pass the river
at Brivio, during the oncoming night. Ott’s and Zoph’s
Divisions, with a 3-days food reserve, had to reach San Gervasio
and San Pietro to finda good position to install a pontoon, near
Trezzo. The avant-guard had to direct itself north, from Trezzo to
Vaprio and to join with Vukassovich. The main columns and the rear-guard
had to go south towards Cassano. Melas, with the Fröhlich division,
had to take contact with the French Cassano bridgehead or Pritorto
entrenchments at Cascina Franca and attck them. Count Seckendorff
had to move, on the evening of the 26th, towards
Lodi attacking that bridge and trying to concentrate the French attention
on that city while Prince Hohenzollern, after sunset, had to send
patrols under Pizzighettone walls, reaching himself the meeting point
of rivers Adda and
Po. There he sent spies to spread the false news of the Austrian
will to conquer
Piacenza. At dawn on April 27, he bombarded the Adda fords
and the right Po River bank from Monticelli to San Nazzaro. Suvorov
marched with the Austrian 2nd Colonum (Ott), masked by a very dark
night in which the wind hampered the sound of moving troops.
1st
Austrian Avant-Guard Corps Generalmajor Freiherr
Josef Philipp von Vukassovich
| 7693
| 7 Battalions
+ 3 Companies
| 2 squadrons;
| After
having gathered many river boats, Vukassovich sent his vanguards
to the other river side and found the parts of a French pontoon
bridge equipment, abandoned by Sérurier. Austrian
pioneers used it to construct a bridge pontoon across the
river. Vukassovich’s patrols went north towards
Como; a detachment led by Major Lettnitz engaged the French rear-guard
at Olginate and repulsed it.
|
|
|
|
Dutch Light Volunteers
- Freikorps Major Johann Le Loup (3 Companies
)
| 359
| K.K. 14th Light Infantry
Battalion. (Italian) Oberst Prince Ludwig (Louis) Rohan
| 590
| 2 Battalion Banater
Grenzregiment (or I Battalion. 13th GrenzRegiment)
| 1005
| V Battalion Banater Grenzregiment
| 596
| K.K. 2nd Light Infantry
Battalion. (Italian) Oberst Carl Prince of Rohan
| 578
| K.K. IR 52 hungarian
Rifle Line Inf. Regiment. Erzherzog
Palatin Anton Viktor
| 2702
| I – 2 –3
Battalions. Commander: Graf Johann Nepomuk Khuen de Belasi
| K.K. 9th Hussar Regiment
FML Johann Nepomuk Graf Erdödy de Monyorókerek
(Erdödy Hussaren) Cdr. Oberst
Franz Freiherr von Stephaics, not with Vukassovic. Had
2 Squadrons.
| 210
Notes:
[1] Officially
Moreau received the Directory letter from a Courier (a letter
similar to that of Schérer) on April 26, when the French
front line was already pierced. He, coming from
Lodi, didn’t know the exact deployment of the Armée.
[2] Included the Guards of Light demi-brigade now under Fresia command.
[3] Prince Petr Ivanovich Bagration (1765 - 24 September 1812,
Simy) joined as private the Astrakhan Infantry Regiment in 1782
and participated in a number of campaigns on the Northern Caucasus
in 1783-1787. He served under Alexander Suvorov in
Crimea and distinguished himself at Ochakov in 1788 and was promoted
to captain skipping the rank of sub lieutenant. Bagration was promoted
to ensign [praporshik] on 9 July 1787, to captain on 18
December 1788 and nominally given rank of sub lieutenant [podporuchik]
on 9 July 1789. In 1789-1790, Bagration served in Gregory Potemkin’s
staff and participated in negotiations with representatives of
Ali Mahmud Khan of
Persia
. He also served as adjutant to various generals, including Count
Ivan Saltykov and Johann Hermann, who commanded Russian troops
in the
Caucasus. In 1790, he participated in the campaign against Chechens.
By early 1792, Bagration was transferred to the Kiev Horse Jager
Regiment and promoted to second major (9 July 1792) and then to
premier major (8 December 1793). On 15 May 1794, he was transferred
to the Sofia Carabineer Regiment and served in
Poland
in 1794. In late October, he led his squadron in a surprise attack
against a thousand Polish troops camped in woods with a cannon.
Bagration’s squadron captured 250 men and the gun, while
the fleeing Poles lost up to 300 killed and wounded. For this success,
Bagration was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 27 October 1794.
In November, he followed the main army to Praga, the suburb of
Polish capital, but he did not participate in the assault because
his regiment was assigned to cover the artillery. Bagration was
given command of the 1st Battalion of the Lifland Jagers at Volkovysk
in the
Grodno gubernia in June 1795. After the military reorganization
in 1796, Bagration was appointed commander of the 7th Independent
Jager Battalion on 28 May 1797. However, his battalion was soon
transformed into the 7th Jager Regiment. On 24 February 1798, Bagration
was promoted to colonel and, on 28 January 1799, appointed chef
of his regiment, now renamed to Prince Bagration’s Jager
Regiment. He took part in Suvorov’s campaign in
Italy
and
Switzerland
in 1799. Commanding the advance and rearguards of the Russian army,
he distinguished himself at the battles at Brescia, Lecco, Tortona,
Alexandria, Marengo, Turin, Tidone, Trebbia and Novi in Italy as
well as during the crossing of the St. Gotthard Pass, storming
of the Devil’s Bridge, actions in Muothatal Valley, Nafels,
Netstal, Glarus and the Panixer Pass. For his actions, he was awarded
Orders of St. Anna (1st Class), of St. Alexander of Neva, of St.
John of Jerusalem, Order of Saints Maurice
and Lazarus, Austrian Order of Maria Theresa in late 1799.
In 1800, his regiment was transformed into the 6th Jagers (10 April)
and Bagration was appointed chef of the Life Guard Jager Battalion
on 21 June 1800. Source: Alexander Mikaberidze 2003.
[4]Generalmajor
Nikolaj Andrejevic Chubarov – lieutenant
colonel (from 01.10.1797 colonel, с 20.08.1798
general-major). From 17.05.1797 to 17.01.1799 – commander
8th Rgt. Jäger. From 17.01.1799 to 13.05.1799 Chef (Owner)
8th Rgt. Jäger.
Placed on the Napoleon Series: July 2007
|
|
© Copyright 1995-2009,
The Napoleon Series, All Rights Reserved.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |