Battle of Rivoli
Napoleon destroyed the last Austrian attempt to relieve Mantua at Rivoli on 14 January 1797. Mantua had been under siege since June and its garrison of some 20,000 was starving. Austria had sent three relief armies and lost all of them, and Alvinczi's fourth came down the Adige valley from the north in five columns. The dispersal is what killed it. The columns had to move on separate mountain roads with no lateral communication in January, and Napoleon, who had interior lines and a courier system, could concentrate faster than they could. He arrived at the plateau of Rivoli at two in the morning by moonlight, having ridden from Verona, and found Joubert's division holding a position that was nearly surrounded. The battle turned on the arrival of Masséna's division after a night march of some thirty kilometres, and on a column that came round the plateau's flank and was caught in a defile — its ammunition wagons blowing up in the middle of the column, which finished it. The Austrians lost some 14,000 men over two days to about 5,000 French. Provera's column, which had slipped past towards Mantua, surrendered at La Favorita two days later. Mantua capitulated on 2 February with 16,000 men. The road to Vienna was open, and the preliminaries of Leoben were signed in April with French troops within a hundred miles of the capital. The campaign made Napoleon's reputation and gave Masséna the title Duke of Rivoli. Austria had now lost four armies and some 50,000 men trying to relieve one fortress. The lesson Napoleon drew and applied for twenty years is that a besieged garrison is bait, and that relief columns arriving separately can be destroyed one at a time.
- Year: 1797 CE
- Category: Military
