The Battle of Rivoli took place on January 14 and 15, 1797 in surroundings of Rivoli Veronese in northern Italy, between the French army and the Austrian army. It is part of the series of battles fought during the siege of Mantua, led by the army of Italy of the French general Bonaparte and the Austrian armies sent to deliver the city.
Prelude
After the victory at Arcole, the Austrian general Josef Alvinczy, finding that this last victory for Bonaparte had been lucky when the French forces were much lower than his (19,000 Austrians and less than 13,000 French), decided to attack for relieve besieged Mantua.
Bonaparte distributed his troops within three days' march of the region of Mantua, Rivoli and Verona.
Procedure
Alvinczy, with 28,000 men, attacked Barthélemy Joubert at the head of 10,000 men on January 12, 1797. The latter withdrew to the Rivoli plateau where he was joined by Louis-Alexandre Berthier and Bonaparte at 2 a.m. January 14. We understand that the Austrian general made the mistake of dividing his forces. Joubert receives the order to retake the chapel of San Marco, and he attacks at 4 am.
But the French of Joubert's corps are almost defeated, when at 9 am, after twelve hours of a forced march, André Masséna's division arrives on the battlefield and turns the situation around. At 11 a.m., the French fell back again and the Austrian division of Peter Quasdanovich arrived in turn on the plateau, but the Austrian soldiers, seized with panic terror, retreated. On January 15, Joubert renews the attack and pursues the defeated enemies.
Consequences
Bonaparte is free to complete the siege of Mantua, which capitulates on February 2.
Anecdote:Napoleon will call Masséna, who has covered 148 km in two days, the darling of victory. He will even say better than Caesar's legions.
In literature
In Honoré de Balzac's Le Médecin de campagne, the ex-infantryman Goguelat tells the story of the Italian campaign and quotes all the battles:"We were thirty thousand va-nu-pieds against eighty thousand Germans, all handsome, well dressed, whom I still see. So Napoleon, who was still only Bonaparte, blows I don't know what into our stomachs. And we walk at night, and we walk during the day, we beat them up in Montenotte, we run to beat them up in Rivoli, Lodi, Arcole, Millesimo, and we don't let them go. The soldier takes a liking to being victorious. »