The Combat At Peschiera

6 August 1796

Combat

by Berhard Voykowitsch

Preceding Events: 29 July - 5 August 1796

Field-Marshal Wurmser who had replaced FZM Beaulieu at the head of the K.k. Lombardische Armee since July 29 had successfully emerged from the Tirolean Alps to free Mantua besieged by the French Armee d'ltalie under Napoleon.

The corner of Peschiera's most western bastion shows the steepness of the ramparts as well as the counterscarp. The nearby lake easily allowed the moats to fill with water.

July 29 the Austrians defeated Massena in the Adige valley and on the Monte Baldo. July 30 the Austrian center column defeated Massena again and the Austrian right wing west of Lake Garda under FML Quosdanovich took Brescia in the very French rear. This prompted Napoleon to abandon the siege of Mantua and to concentrate all forces available against Quosdanovich to protect his lines of communication.

Until 4 August the French were able to utterly maul Quosdanovich's 1st Austrian Column in a series of combats the better known being fought at Lonato and Salo. 5 August Napoleon turned against Wurmser who had idled around behind the Mincio and only 3 August had advanced west as far as Castiglione. That day his advance guard had been defeated there by Augereau. On the 4 August both sides confronted each other preparing for battle. The next day Napoleon defeated Wumser there by timely directing Serurier's division into the Austrian rear. Wurmser could only save his army by a hasty retreat. Over a single small wooden bridge the Austrians had to recross the Mincio at Borghetto and then took a position on the eastern bank of the river.

There Wurmser wanted to hold firm until the remnants of Quosdanovich's 1st Column marching around the Lake Garda's northern end would join him. Napoleon was determined not to leave Wurmser's Austrians any rest. Thus in the evening of 5 August he ordered Massena to march to Peschiera next morning, cross the Mincio there against any enemy resistance and head into the rear of Wurmser's main force at Valeggio thereby cutting its retreat to the north. Napoleon himself would pin down Wurmser at Vaieggio.

2.2 Peschiera 29 July - 5 August 1796

It was 31 July when Napoleon decided to first tackle Quosdanovich's 1st Austrian Column in the west when he didn't withdraw the small garrison (made up of three coys of the 5th Line Demi-Brigade under General de Brigade Guillaume). Thus he secured a strongpoint to return to and a place to easily recross the Mincio after his hoped for success against the Austrian force in the west. Wurmser who with the combined 2nd and 3rd Austrian columns advanced in the area between the Adige and Lake Garda detached brigade Bajalich to screen Peschiera. Bajalich showed up in front of Peschiera during the 31 July and summoned the French commander to surrender. Guillaume refused and as the Austrians had only field pieces. They could only blockade Peschiera on the left or eastern bank of the Mincio.

2 August another Austrian brigade under Colonel Weidenfeld which had crossed the Mincio at Valeggio-Borghetto arrived to block Peschiera also in the west. For five days the French in Peschiera were cut off from the Armee d'ltalie.

5 August 1796 Weidenfeld's force was withdrawn south to join the Austrian main army at Solferino. Vukassovich's brigade, intended to replace it, had to retreat behind the Mincio due to the main army's defeat of the same day. In the evening of the 5th Wurmser realised at his headquarters at Valeggio that the French might soon try to break out over the Mincio at Peschiera. Therefore he ordered a brigade under general Mitrovsky to set off for Peschiera still in the night to reinforce Bajalich's force there.

2.3 The combat of 6 August 1796 - An Outline

At daybreak the French columns set off from the positions they had taken after the battle "of Castiglione. Augereau marched to Borghetto and had Valeggio and other Austrian positions heavily! bombarded. Massena marched off to Peschiera. It was 8:30 in the morning when his leading troops reached Peschiera. Yet at the same moment brigade Mitrovsky reached Cavalcaselle.

The battleground

As already mentioned one branch of the Mincio goes right through the fortress, another one flows' immediately to the east of the ramparts. To the east the ground near the river is at water level yet soon the moraine hills which surround all of the south of Lake Garda start to rise again. On the first slopes to the east of Peschiera there where today the railway station is situated Bajalich's and Mitrovsky's Austrians deployed. The main road Brescia-Verona leaves Peschiera through the main gate in the northern rampart immediately crosses the main branch of the Mincio there and after having reached the mainland in a sharp curve turns east again. After 3 kms there is the village of Cavalcasell.

The opposing forces: Bajaiich's brigade comprised 32/3 bns, 3 coys, 1 sqn, Mitrovsky's 41/3 bns, so that the Austrians reached a total of some 7,500 combattants. Massena's division on the morning of Castiglione had totalled some 10,000 men. Whereas his troops had seen heavy fighting during the combats of 3 and 4 August during the main engagement of 5 August the whole division had only lost about 60 men.

Massena arrived at Peschiera ahead of his division. With the small French garrison he immediately left the fortress and attacked the earthworks with which Bajalich already had surrounded Peschiera. The attack was so weak that the Austrian outposts were able to repulse it. Meanwhile GM Mitrovsky had arrayed his troops behind the left wing of Bajelich's. After the end of the first clash he detached 2 1/2 bns to strengthen Bajalich's center and left. Before the Austrians could accomplish this movement by 9.30 a.m. Massena attacked a secand time now that the larger part of his division had arrived. After a fierce combat he was once more obliged to retreat into the fortress.

When the rest of his troops had arrived Massena lead his whole division out of Peschiera and started a third attack. Now he was superior enough in numbers to the Austrians as to carry them. With the main part he flrst threw back the Austrian left wing. Then he attacked Bajalich's right. The latter defended its position for some time but its left threatened it {retreated by Cavalcaselle).

Upon news of the ensuing combat at Peschiera Wurmser immediately detached GM Schubirz thither with 6 sqns Erdody Hussars from Valeggio and followed in person. Yet this reinforcement arrived too late. It only prevented Massena from a hot pursuit. Bajalich and Mitrovsky joined their troops at Castelnuovo with their rearguard being on the heights between Pacengo and Cavalcaselle. Massena, didn't dare to further attack.

Massena's crossing to the left bank of the Mincio threatened FM Count Wurmser's right flank and his retreat back up the Adige valley. Thus from Volargne/Adige where he had gone in the evening he ordered that during the night that followed the retreat to the Tirol was to be resumed: GM Bajalich was ordered to take a position at Madonna della Corona on the Monte Baldo, GM Mitrovsky at Canale, (Incanale) on the right bank of the Adige. As he believed Massena's intentions to be to reach the right bank of the Adige as fast as possible it was clear that, the Austrian center couldn't use the direct route by Bussolenao. The troops under FMLs Davidovich and Sebottendorf, as well as the cavalry of Meszaros who had sent his infantry into Mantua had to march to Verona to cross the Adige there. FML Quosdanovich was ordered to send two battalions to strengthen Bajalich on the Monte Baldo.

Still before noon of 6 August FZM Baron Alvinzy reached Mantua and on behalf of the field marshal installed everything which was necessary to secure this fortress for the renewed separation from the army. Victuals, cattle, corn, fodder should be collected in the vicinity to secure the needs for two months. The repair of the bulwarks, the flattening of the French trenches, the removal of the deserted siege artillery and ammunition into the fortress were continued with energy. In the evening a letter from Wurmser arrived informing the commander "that the army is retreating to the Tirol so that the fortress has to expect a second attack but that the field marshal, after joining Quosdanovich, would do everything to free the fortress."

At dawn GM Spiegel from the Austrian main army and GM Minkwitz from the 4th Column, together with 7 bns, 6 coys and 1 sqn, arrived at Mantua to reinforce the garrison so that it noew again counted 12,000 fit for service.

2.4 An Accounting

When doing the research for my book it came as a surprise to me that the combat of Peschiera was the second biggest encounter of the Castiglione campaign (Castiglione-Solferino 5 August 1796, being the main battle). It was a hard fought victory for the French as shown by the losses of the demi-brigades engaged: 5th Line: 5 wounded, 8 prisoners; 52nd Line: 16 killed, 150 wounded; 18th Line: 62 killed, 154 wounded, 59 prisoners. Of the many French taken prisoner in the beginning the Austrians managed to bring back only some 50. The two Austrian brigades lost 1 officers, 62 men killed, 155 wounded and 6 officers, 755 men missing and 4 pieces.

Wurmser was furious about Bajalich's defeat at Peschiera. In a letter to the president of the Hofkriegsrat (literally Court War Council, Austria's central military administrative body) he made Bajalich the scapegoat for the loss of the Mincio-line. When on the 10 August Bajalich was also driven from the important position of Ferrara on the Monte Baldo Wurmser rudely ordered him to report on both combats obviously with the intention to put the Austrian general before a court martial. Therefore a detailed Austrian report on this action exists.

More Peschiera

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