The Combat At Peschiera

6 August 1796

Original Document Translations

by Berhard Voykowitsch

3.1 Gen-Maj. Bajalich's report to Wurmser

To the High Imp. Roy. Army Command of the Italian Army; Trent 19th August 1796

    According to yesterday's high army command order I shall report on the retreat from Peschiera and the immediate reason for it. Therefore complying with it obediently I may say that after the disadvantageous affair at Castiglione and the subsequent retreat tt was proper to all war operations and certain that the enemy to make further use of his progress would attack the Austrian troops which stood in front of Peschiera in order to force the (Austrian) army to continue its retreat.

    Only at the center bastion of Peschiera's southern front has time eroded a part of the marvellous 16th century fortress. this gives an idea of the thickness of the walls.

    I stood fn the position of Peschiera in the following order; 2 bns W. Schroder with 4 line pieces, 1 coy Mahony Jager stood on the rfght wing near Lago di Garda with a platoon of Wurmser Hussars which was covered by means of a trench and a battery at the lake. In the middle stood 1 bacn M. Wallis with 1 coy Mahony Jager and 1 platoon Wurmser Hussars and 2 guns near the road which leads from Peschiera to Cavalcasely; yet as the Thurnian baon which had been on the left wing had to depart to Borghetto-Valeggio, I was forced to have bacn M. Wallis with 2 coys Mahony Jager expand its left wing until the Mincio. During the night from the 5th to the 6th only 4 incomplete coys of Thurn returned which I posted to the left wing again, the other 2 had been retained. In this position I stood on the 6th until at 8 o'clock after which hour a sally happened from the fortress which luckily was pressed back. General Mitrovsky arrived at the same time at Cavalcasely and his brigade was split up as follows: 1 baon of Kheul had its posting to the road which leads from Peschlera to Cavalcasely or to Castelnuvo to prevent the enemy from advancing against Cavalcasely; 1/3 bonn grenadiers, 1 baon Brechainville with General Mictrovsky occupied the heights on the left wing between Wallis and Thurn; 1 baon of Brechainville was detached to W. Schroder on the right wing; 3 coys of M. Wallis because there were no more received their posting between W. Schroder and Kheul to the right of Cavalcasely.

    The 4 coys Thurn and the whole brigade of Messr. general Mitrovsky were very fatigued from the hunger and the many marches.

    The second sally, where the 4 coys Thurn, and. 1 bn M. Wallis beside 2 comp Mahony Jager because of the superiority of the enemy were made to waver, might have been stopped by more vigour, if the baons Kheul and Brechainville had properly received the flrst ones; nonetheless this mistake was retrieved, because the enemy was again pressed back by the Jager, Wurmser Hussars and some of the men of Thurn and M. Wallis.

    When the third sortie happened the left wing was defeated and all the troops were made to give way. I have already referred to in my first report; as general Bonapart with a big part of his armee supported the repeated sorties with the advantages of the fortress guns he himself leading in person, I leave it to the high judgement of the very weak (Austrian) force at Peschiera, which had battalions only by name yet as regards numbers was very small and in a diffcult position could have stopped the power of general Bonaparte. I can refer to Colonel Zach (the Austrian chief of quartermaster staff) who was present during these events that the enemy force had been far superior and that the dispositions made didn't lack anything.

    A more detailed investigation I cannot give and, I know myself free of any or mistake yet will accept any innvestigation. I hope to be able to free me completely, that I cannot be held responsible for this defeat and especially for the general retreat; therefore for this I do not deserve to be accused at the highest level and 1 don't need any clemency as I find myself free of guilt as considering all the bad luck I with a small part of my brigade again stopped and resisted the enemy and thereby halted the enemy pursuit completely. Immediately behind Cavlcasely I again took a drawn position and until the arrival of dawn remained in this position; from there with the Jager, the infantry and the Wurmser hussars I only made my retreat after having received the order to retreat; therefore I believe that 1 as an honest man thereby have done my duty and also because one horse has been killed under me by a musket shot, the second one was wounded too and therefore continued to do my duty on orderly horses. Thus I cannot think of any fault from my side as the superior force of the enemy which I confronted only with my troops as the brigade of general Mittrovsky immediately continued its retreat by Castelnuavo, Campana, etc. I alone could not offer any further resistance with the force discouraged by thirst, hunger and already suffered hardship and thus of no real value and therefore; hope that I will be held without guilt.

    These are the true circumstances of the retreat happened which I submit herewith to the high judgement.

Baron Bajalich, Gral Major

GM Adam Bajalich (62) was born at Szegedin/Hungary in 1734 and entered IR 2 at the age of 16 but left the army in 1754 to become justice. After 4 years, he returned as auditor of the Varasdin Grenz regt. Participating in the 7 Years War, he reached rank of Overlieutenant in 1760, Capitaine-Lieutenant in 1768, and Captaine in 1773. He was promoted to major during the War of the Bavarian Succession and Obristlieutenat in 1783 in the Szluiner Grenzregiment. Once more he distinguished himself in the Turk War earning him the rank of colonel. In 1795 he was made majorgeneral and served on the Rhine. For his part in the combat at Handschuchsheim, he was decorated with the small cross to the MTO. Going to Italy with Wurmser he would serve there during 1796. In 1797 he was promoted FML and sent into retirement. On 5 June 1800 he died in Karlovac/Croatia at age 66.

3.2 Report of 5e demi-brigade de ligne

300 men of our demi-brigade making the garrison of Peschiera took part in the sortie made by our troops. The sortie was commanded by General Guillaume. The detachment of the demi-brigade fought with vigour. It lost 8 prisoners and 5 wounded.

3.3 Report of 18e demi-brigade de ligne

Peschiera. 19 thermidor. - The demi-brigade commanded by general de brigade Victor developed in its natural order of battle and entered into the fighting with its usual impetuousity. The enemy defended himself with vigour and several of us were made prisoner at the enemy redoubts they had broken into. Among these was sergent Rouget whom the enemies had the inhumanity to wound by a shot in the stomach after they had spoiled him of evervthing. I have several times demanded the rank of sou-lieutenant for this brave NCO. Lieutenant Gardelle was killed when aboarding the enemy retrenchments.

The combat lasted for five hours with ongoing firing from both sides. Then our soldiers irritated by such an obstinate resistance doubled their efforts. The enemy gave way and abandoned his retrenchments, 2 guns and many prisoners. We lost in this affair 62 killed, 134 wounded and 59 prisoners.

3.4 Report of the 32e demi-brigade de ligne

19 Thermidor Combat of Peschiera. - Division Massena marched against Peschiera and the enemy had layd siege; to this place; yet the battle of Castiglione had made the enemy evacuate the right bank of the Mincio: without obstacle we entered the town where we crossed the river. General Guillaume commanded the place. When he saw us, arrive he had a sortie made from the gate the enemy was still blockading. The Austrians were there in force: we were ordered to support the garrison. We defiled under the protection of the fortress' guns, the affair became hot: the enemy had the highest interest to stand firm; if we broke through we would be able to cut off everything which was into the direction of Mantua: and the combat was hard fought.

The Austrians had already opened the paralell; this was occupied by a numerous infantry whose flre seemed to make the enemy position unassailable. We; finally took them into their flank and threw them back. They retreated to some distant heights. Wurmser made good his retreat during the following night. In this combat we lost: Thoiret capitaine, Lombard sou-lieutenant and 16 killed: Athanoux capitaine was wounded as were 130 others. We captured 500 men and 12 cannons.

Among the dead we mourned especially Lombard, young man giving reason to the highest hopes and Thoiret captain. The latter was killed at four paces distance by an enemy gun whose blaze burnt him and was enough for his death even though he was not hit by the ball.

More Peschiera

Back to Age of Napoleon No. 28 Table of Contents
Back to Age of Napoleon List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines
© Copyright 1998 by Partizan Press.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com