At 5 a.m., Suvorov deployed the Austrian reinforcements, using a
new bridge built over the Po, at Parpanese, on June 18, as the IV
Battalion Stuart, which was joined with the other two battalions,
come to Italy with Bellegarde. Others came from the Tortona siege
K.K. IR 18 Line Infantry Regiment
Graf Patrick Stuart I, III and IV Battalions
| 1830
| Commander: Obst Franz Weber
von Treuenfels at Verona with his Grenadiers.
| K.K. 8th Light Dragoon Regiment
Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Herzog Württemberg –from
Tortona
| 6 Sqns
| 8th Jäger Regiment Major
General Chubarov –
I and II Battalions – to Bagration
| 555
At the fatal hour, 10 a.m., the French moved first. They began to
get the “ordre de bataille” along the river bank, while
Dąbrowski forded the Trebbia at Rivalta, marching upwards on
the slopes, in order to surround the Coalition’s right wing.
Many French columns began to pass over the Trebbia, advancing slowly,
with cordons of cavalry interposed between the columns. A whole battalion
elongated itself in a “tirailleurs” line, on the right
bank of the river, in order to support, with musketry and artillery
fire, the friendly advance. Each column had a dense chain of skirmisher
at their head.
At 10.30 a.m. the Poles came under the fire of the Russian batteries,
but the Legion continued to advance. They captured and cleared Rivalta
at 11 a.m., while the Russian expellled from the village took cover
among the houses of Gazzola, leaving a gap in the line, 1500 meters
wide between the left of Bagration and the right of Shvejkowsky,
into which ran the Rusca’s Division. Rusca, had already
detached the 55th Demi-brigade with the I Battalion of the 97th line
infantry to support the Poles, giving the command of the detachment
to Chef Dargoubet (Dagobert?). He had passed the Trebbia at 10 a.m.,
but was stopped by the fire of Shvejkowsky’s batteries, 14
pieces (mainly 4 pdr. and 8 pdr. guns) which bombarded the thick
columns of the French, with the explosions spreading the gravel of
the river bed as additional deadly weapons. Soon Rusca’s units
were forced to stop their march. They were able to move only after
midday, entering the above mentioned gap in the Coalition’s
lines. In the meanwhile, the III Battalion of the 55th Line Infantry,
led by its Chef Ledru, had left behind the undisturbed Poles, and
had reached the village of Tuna. From there, it fell on the flank
of the Rozenberg Grenadiers, who were forced to retreat. Prince Constantin,
aware of the danger, reformed the line with two battalions of the
reserve and closed the breach.
Victor had made his river passage at 10.20 a.m. but his advance
was quickly stopped by the opponent’s skirmishers. Taking frontally
Casaliggio with a large column, flanked by the cavalry,[2] in order to link the
units with Rusca’s, he had a timid approach to the battle,
probably fatigued after three days of continuous fighting. Outflanked
by Cossacks and Russian jägers, they withdrew in a real
hurry passing back over the Trebbia. There Victor marched southwards
in two columns, under a burning sun, in order to find a more suitable
passage point. That “promenade”, under the Russian bombardment,
almost caused a complete rout of the fatigued soldiers. So Victor
decided to withdraw to more covered positions, practically exiting
the battle. At the other side Rozenberg, also on the receiving end
of French artillery fire, stopped on the left bank (at 7.00
p.m. the fire ceased in the Victor’s sector).
The French right, under Olivier, had to advance from 10 a.m. However
in these new ivisions there was a definite mood of dissatisfaction,
not so far from a mutiny spirit. It was very difficult to control
the 5th Légère, in which the Chef Antoine Chatagnier
was doing every effort to reorganize his troops. So Olivier had to
wait for Montrichard to move, before beginning his advance. At midday,
the French right passed the Trebbia, with Montrichard upset by Olivier’s
behaviour and with the Austrian generals Ott and Fröhlich very
concerned about how the attack would affect their lunch. Inspite
of a strong artillery bombardment, the French right wing advanced,
routing the Austrian troops surprised around the field-kitchens.
The road to Castel San Giovanni was taken by Montrichard’s
column and only the intervention of platoon of the just reorganized
Wouwermann Grenadier Battalion, deployed into some ditches, stopped
the French advance. On their right Olivier continued to advance,
followed by Watrin, in a more extended position who marched until
the Po, and was flanked by General Salme’s troops. At 11.30
a.m. the extreme right of the French army accelerated. Maucune, adjudant
to Watrin, went forward attacking the Po bank. Jacquelin with the
grenadiers of the 62nd Line passed a marsh and engaged the Banater
Battalion, forcing them to withdraw and losing their 10 guns. Behind
them was General Salme, riding with an elite patrol of the 19th Chasseurs.
Watrin organized all these scattered troops in three columns, with
the order to follow the Po and to encircle the enemies. Montrichard
turned them towards Campremoldo, with the will to support Victor
or Olivier, whenever necessary. His troops were heavily harrased by
the enemy musketry and artillery.
Around 1 p.m. the French right collapsed. Montrichard grouped his
troops behind the 5th Legere Demi-Brigade, but waited too long and
lost the initiative, while his soldier were heavily harassed by the
enemy artillery. While this happened, Prince Liechtenstein gathered
his Dragoons and charged. He galloped through the vineyards, jumping
over a lot of ditches and violently hit Montrichard on his flank.
Olivier’s soldiers, hidden into the channel’s banks,
stood firmly, but Montrichard troops were disordered. The 5th Legere,
were surpised by the charge, routed and fled back towards the Trebbia. [3] The
other troops behind them, followed their avantgarde and retreated
in disorder. The Piedmontese Dragoons and Cisalpine Chasseurs were
involved in the Liechtenstein’s manoeuver and were overrun
by the enemy cavalry. They fought afoot and on horses, with sabres,
pistols and even with rocks, collected in the gravel bed of the river.
The French were saved by the punctual intervention of the 19th Chasseurs
of Bruë, which charged the Austrian Dragoons pursuing the fugitives.
So Prince Liechtenstein described his brilliant charge, in a long
letter to his wife:
“The day after, around the 11.30 a.m., while he was
at lunch with some Officer and my Aid-de-Champ, we heard the cannons
shooting. I took an horse but, after only twenty footsteps, I was
in the middle of a chaotic bunch of coaches, men and horses, which
were retreating from the line. The chaos was indescribable. I took
the Lobkowitz Dragoons and lauched them in the middle of the vineyards
and, after having jumped over around 50 ditches, I had the luck to
catch the enemies and to attack them by their rear …
The enemy positions were covered by trees and bushes; between us
extended a sandy terrain, broken by small water channels. There was
no time to wait, the enemy in eight minutes could have reached Ott’s
camp, and I ordered to charge. The enemies partly fleed away but
their guns continued to fire against us, with canisters, while some
French cavalry covered their retreat .. I fought there for all the
necessary time our infantry needed to reorganize the ranks and to
deploy the lines.” (Arch. of H.H. Prince Johann Liechtenstein.
Family papers) .
Olivier did not loose his control and manoeuvered a brigade to face
the Russian troops of Förster, advancing by the road side, but
was stormed by a rain of cannonballs, which disordered his ranks.
He himself had a leg cut off by a cannonball, fainted near Macdonald
and was taken away by the “Santé”. Chef Darnaud,
of the 30th line, formed a square, stopping for twenty minutes the
Russian infantry and allowing the other troops to retreat. Then Darnaud
spread his soldiers among the trees and the vineyard engaging a sort
of “guerrilla” warfare, while slowly retreating towards
the Trebbia, which was reached in the evening. [4] On the French right wing, only Watrin stood on his positions,
in front of Calendasco, while Montrichard was routing and Olivier
retreating.

Fieldmarshal Suvorov, having realized the Poles’ aims on his
right wing, sent against them Bagration’s vanguard, reinforced
by a division of Lobkowitz Dragoons; then went to his left wing to
support Ott. Grekov and Pasdejev, with the two Lobkowitz squadrons,
hit the Poles on both flanks, while the Russian Jägers attacked
the column. At 2.00 p.m. Bagration resumed the offensive, counterattacking
with the support of his cavalry. The endeavour succeeded, at least,
in disordering the entrenched Poles, but with heavy losses. The Poles,
profoundly weakened from the morning and previous day, did not sustain
the assault; many of them routed and escaped into the hills, pursued
by the opponent’s cavalry (they lost a gun, a flag and 400
prisoners). Dąbrowski’s Division, so, was almost annihilated
after two days of hard fighting. A curious Polish account overthrew
the battle events, stating the Poles as winners, also having them withdrawn,
with the Austro-Russian army in rout. A strange 360° degrees
turning view of the facts; the Polish losses, of two days of bloody
combats, were real witnesses of somewhat different situation. [5]
The dangerous advanced positions taken by Rusca were counterattacked
in the late afternoon by General Chasteler. He gathered at Casaliggio
2 fresh battalions from Shvejkowsky’s and 3 from the Förster’s
Division. With these troop and with the flanking Levenehr Dragoons
he assaulted Rusca. The French general did defend at his best for
about 20 minutes, but he was forced to go back, towards the Trebbia.
It was a slow retreat and only in the evening, Rusca passed the river,
leaving the left bank.
Suvorov came by Ott headquarters, escorted by the Cossacks. He ordered
Ott’s Division to advance, headed by two fresh grenadier battalions,
flanked by his 200 Cossacks, the Archduke Joseph Hussars and 10 dragoon
squadrons (Lobkowitz and Levenehr). The earth trembled under the
galloping horses. The avalanche of men, horses and cannonballs overran
Watrin, forcing him to reach Cascine on the Po bank. On the
left bank of the great river, Colonel Kinsky, come from Mantua, installed
an heavy battery and bombarded the Republicans on the opposite bank.
At dusk, Watrin passed back over the Trebbia, which waters were described
as red for the blood, leaving 351 prisoners in enemy hands. At 9
p.m., the battle definitevely ended with a complete French defeat. Victor
had the main responsibility of the events together with Dąbrowsky
and 5th Légère routs, but the Austro-Russian superiority
was the real cause which led to the defeat.
The Losses
That same evening, Macdonald, not hoping anymore for help from Moreau,
frontally threatened by Suvorov and on the flanks by Klenau and Hohenzollern,
who, passed again the Po, were heading to Modena, Reggio and Parma,
wrote a letter to Pérignon, (which however never reached its
recipient). He wrote: “… All the division generals of
the army of Naples are wounded, other than two; also wounded are
forty and more Officers, adjudants and other generals or Chefs. Several
demi-brigades have lost from 30 to 40 Officers. More than 12000 men
are out of combat; the soldiers do not have more cartridges; the
artillery without ammunition. Not having news neither of general
in Chief Moreau, neither of general Lapoype, I must withdraw …”(from
Chasteler Papers). Macdonald’s withdrawal began the same night.
He left the campfires alight in the bivouacs to trick the enemy and
marched away with the favour of the darkness, directed towards the
Apennins passes.
The French losses described into Suvorov’s reports were the
following: 1400 men, dead and 764 prisoners taken during the action
of Bagration and Shvejkowsky against the Poles, Rusca and Victor;
400 dead and 126 prisoners taken by Förster in the attack against
Montrichard; 600 men and 553 prisoner taken during the Melas/Ott
attacks against Olivier, Watrin and Salme. The Coalition’s
army captured 7 guns and 8 flags. General Olivier was severely wounded,
having a leg amputated by a cannon shot, only Watrin and Calvin having
avoided wounds. [6]
Gachot counted 1600 dead laying on the terrain. The Generals Olivier,
Rusca, Salme, Cambray (died after the wounds), the adjudants Grandjean,
Sarrazin, Liébault, Blondeau with other 502 Officers and 7183
soldiers wounded, were abandoned at Rocco, Sant’Antonio, Gossolengo,
Piacenza and into the two camp hospitals of Combarino, recommended
to the Austro-Russians and Parma’s Duke mercy. The Austro-Russian
lost 5273 men, out of combat: the Austrians having 10 Officers and
244 soldiers dead, 1816 wounded and 497 missing; they lost also 660
horses. The Russians lost 4 Officers and 675 soldiers dead, one General,
1 Colonel, 2 Majors, 35 Officers and 2041 soldiers wounded for a
total of 2759 men out of combat.
Austrian losses after the Trebbia – dead, wounded and missing
(source “KA FA Italien 1799 VI 30 A, Totale”
in C.Duffy “Eagles over the Alps”, Emperor’s Press,
1999)
K.K. IR Nádasdy
| 565
| K.K. IR Mittrowsky
| 198
| K.K. IR Fröhlich
| 348
| K.K. Grenadier Battalion Pertussy
| 106
| K.K. Grenadier Battalion Paar
| 109
| K.K. Grenadier Battalion Weber
| 62
| K.K. Grenadier Battalion Morzin
| 29
| K.K. Grenadier Battalion Wouwermann
| 102
| K.K. Grenadier Battalion Schiaffinati
| 37
| K.K. Light Battalion Mihanovich
| 260
| 6th Banater Croats
| 115
| K.K. Light Dragoons Lobkowitz
| 107
| K.K. Light Dragoons Levenehr
| 76
| K.K. Light Dragoons Karacsaj
| 62
| K.K. Light Dragoons Wurttemberg – they
were the reserve of Liechtenstein brigade
| 2
| K.K. Hussar Regiment Erzherzog
Joseph
| 152
| Artillery
| 64
| Totals
| 2394
Other sources told the Coalition, over the three days of combats,
had lost about 6,000 men from all causes. The Austrian lists included
the losses sustained during the 20th, amounted to 254 dead, 1,903
wounded and 500 missing, a total of 2,657. The Russian losses were
estimated in 681 dead, 2073 wounded, while the missing were unrecorded.
Duffy says also that, upon the French losses “The only verifiable
figures related to the French losses are those of the 7,183 untransportable
wounded found by the allies in Piacenza, and the further 200 in Parma,
from which it is fair to assume that with the dead, the transportable
wounded and the missing the total could well have reached 12,000”.
Notes
[1] The regiment, during the
Three Days battle, was led by Prince Liechtenstein and its divisions
were under Prince Thurn un Taxis (1), Oberstlieut. Graf Alois Harrach
(2), Major Ignaz Molitor (3) and Second Oberst Bernhard Grosser (4).
It had some losses: 18 dragoons and 55 horses dead (among these Lieutenants
Graf Mensdorff and Königstetten, aide of Prince Liechtenstein;
lieut. Unruh died several days after, for the wounds suffered); 86
Dragoons and 114 horses wounded (among these the commander Oberst
Prince Thurn und Taxis, Rittmeister Molitor and Rittmeister Prince
Ysenburg); 3 men and 3 horses were missing. On the second battleday,
a division was attached to the Bagration’s vanguard to restore
the cavalry force, weakened during the previous battleday.
[2] “In a mixed column,
the infantry, accompanied by its artillery, march at the head; and
the cavalry always at the rear. A different arrangement would compromise
the whole column in the case of a strong attack on the front, as
was proved in the case of the central column of the French forces
at the battle of the Trebbia (June 19, 1799).” De la Barre
Duparcq, Elements of Military Art and History:
Comprising the History and Tactics of the Separate Arms, transl.
by George Cullum, Van Nostrand D. 1863,
New York.
[3] Chef Chataignier tried
to justify the rout: “Suddenly, from a little wood, appeared,
by our left, a dense group of enemy cavalry charging. The Chasseurs
of the 25th regiment, 150 men of the Olivier division, stood firmly
and countercharged, but it was too late. The three Carabiniers coys
of the 5th and the grenadiers of the 62th line infantry opened the
fire and defended our two guns and one howitzer. I tried to rally
my soldiers and I gathered almost 800 men forming the line to counterattack.
But it was impossible to stop the enemy cavalry. I formed so a long
rank of Tirailleurs fighting with them until the dusk…. I
don’t know if I did all what was possible to do, but I think
that charge would have been more difficult if Victor had controlled
our left side, as he would have to do..” War Archives “Affaires
de la Trebia”
[4] “The terrain
was so thick of vines, that it was difficult to see anything. We
opened our way with the bayonets losing 6 Officers (dead), 22 Officers
wounded and 300 men, dead or wounded.” War
Archive “Darnaud’s report”.
[5] From Chodzko, op. cit.
: “The 1st messidor (June 19), all the Gallo-Polish army
attacked again the Austro-Russians. The Polish division crossed Trebbia
close to Rivalta. It slipped by its line, so that the 2nd battalion
was at the head: the mixed battalion made up of grenadiers, chasseurs,
and of the 3rd battalion remainder followed; the 2nd and the brigade
Calvin formed the rear. The ground, on the other side of the river,
not being favourable for the moves of artillery and cavalry, they
remained in reserve, to protect an eventual retreat, where necessary.
Brun, with his half-brigade and the 1st battalion, covered this movement
towards the left. The enemy wanted to dispute the passage of Trebbia,
but was driven out at Rivalta. Division made a half-turn on the right,
the pivot being this village, and went forward. However, being the
interval too large, Dąbrowski took a French demi-brigade, which
had not yet completed its movement, and placed it there to cover
the troops. By this movement, the deployment became perpendicular
to Trebbia and the army.
The attack began “par echelons”; Calvin brigade first,
then the Polish legion, and last the French demi-brigade. The enemy
was dislodged away from its positions. They drove out it from all
the houses and gardens, which it had occupied, without ceasing
to pursue. The right wing of the division had already gone beyond
Tuna and had joined the Rusca division, which.”
[6] To these numbers must
be added the French losses of the third day (combat of San Giorgio – 1029
prisoners) and those of the rearguard fights on June 21 (Ott against
the French rearguard – 120 prisoners), with the Veletsky attack
against Lapoype near Bobbio (103 prisoners) and finally the Hohenzollern
results of the Parma’s occupation (other 200 prisoners). The
totale losses (dead) of these action were utter 500 men. For the
Russians the French wounded found at Piacenza and Parma were 7383,
the total of Frenchmen out of combat was not less than 2500-3000
(counting the dead ones) and, considering also 4500 prisoners of
war, we can realize the Macdonalds’ army reduced by about 15000-16000
men, which left a number of about 10000 men surviving fit to combat.
Placed on the Napoleon Series: July 2008
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