The Allies Strike Back:
Field Marshal Suvorov
Retakes Italy in 1799

Post-Battle

by Christopher Duffy
with artwork by
Keith Rocco, Ray Rubin, Steven Palatka and John Pomeroy

In the battle of Novi the Allies lost about 8,200 men from all causes, of whom the Austrians accounted for some 5,800 and the Russians 2,496. The estimates of the French losses range between 6,500 and 6,643, and about 4,500 of these were lost on the left wing. The dead of all parties were buried in three mass graves.

The Austrian official report concluded: "Such was the termination of this terrible battle, long, so disputed, and so bloody; and which in these three respects was without parallel in this campaign, or indeed in the whole war. It has been shown that 15,000 men, about a fifth of the combatants were disabled this day.... Combining all the circumstances of this battle, it may be said that it was of the first order, as in it two great armies were engaged for more than twelve hours on the whole extent of their front; that it was one of the most remarkable combats of infantry, which have taken place since the invention of firearms."

This was also one of those rare battles which was unsought by all the combatants, being precipitated by a series of misapprehensions, some of which endured long after the event. These now claim our attention.

If the distant fortress of Mantua had held out just a few days more, Kray would have been in no position to join the Allies, and a campaign of a totally different order would have been fought out in the plains to the north. The sight of the Allies on 14 August broke Joubert's initial confidence, and he still had not moved his troops from the plateau when they came under attack by Kray early on the 15th.

Once Suvorov was fully awake, he grasped that his scheme of elaborate maneuver had gone awry, and that the only thing that mattered now was to open a general assault on the plateau. He therefore committed the successive formations of Bagration, Derfelden and Frelich to the battle. Without this drastic measure Kray would surely have succumbed, for the fighting on his sector was far more intense than elsewhere, and that day would have been remembered as a costly Allied defeat.

The historian Jomini wrote: "We cannot count this victory as one of Suvorov's finer feats of arms. His right wing went into action three hours before his center, and eight hours before his left, and the French should therefore have been able to crush it at their leisure. The fact that this did not come to pass was due to the death of foubert." [There is also the question as to why one of the French generals at Novi did not take control as soon as they learned of Joubert's death. There seemed to be no effective over-all French leadership, allowing the Allies to recover from each setback and eventually triumph.]

Melas too remained under a misapprehension. He never knew about the debates among the French generals which caused them to hang back on the plateau, and he believed that Suvorov had missed the opportunity for an altogether more decisive action: "I do not wish to talk about the blunder we made at Novi, when we ought to have let the enemy descend to the plain. They would have been eliminated for the rest of the campaign, and we would not have lost half the number of our brave troops ...

Novi was a joint victory, but one in which the chief burden had been borne by the Austrians. Suvorov wrote to Emperor Francis and enclosed the report of Melas, "to which I must add one circumstance, which General Baron Melas is unwilling to mention on his own account, namely what I owe to the extraordinary enthusiasm of the Austrian troops, and the unparalleled exertions of their admirable commander who contributed so decisively to the victory by his repeated and selfless exertions."

For Tsar Paul the victory at Novi represented the last good news he was to receive from the southern theater. He awarded the Order of St. Andrew to Derfelden, and bestowed the Alexander Nevsky on Bagration, and he wrote most handsomely to Suvorov: "I do not know which is the more agreeable - for you to win battles, or for me to reward your victories. We both fulfill our duty. Me as Tsar, and you as the first commander in Europe."

Christopher Duffy was a Senior Lecturer in War Studies for 35 years at Britain's Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. He is a specialist on the Austrian and Russian military in the 18th and 19th centuries. His book credits include The Army of Frederick the Great, The Army of Maria Theresa, Austerlitz 1805, and, recently released by The Emperor's Press, Eagles Over the Alps: Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland, 1799

The Allies Strike Back: Suvorov Retakes Italy 1799

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