16 November 1796
The second day on the dikes
On 16 November Alvinczi sends Provera with six battalions from Belfiore and Mittrowsky with 14 battalions south from Arcole, to meet at the French bridgehead at dawn. Provera runs into Masséna, General Brabeck is killed, and the Austrians are chased back to Belfiore with the loss of five guns. Mittrowsky and Augereau fight back and forth through the morning until the Austrians fall back to Arcole.
French troops crossing the Adige at Ronco during the battle, painting by Louis-Albert-Ghislain Bacler d’Albe, 1803Wikimedia Commons, Louis-Albert-Ghislain Bacler d'Albe, Public domain (Arcola cruce del rio Adigio en Ronco.png)
Mittrowsky places four battalions under Colonel Sticker on the western dike of the Alpone, lines the eastern dike with four battalions under Brigido and packs the rest of his men into Arcole. Bonaparte’s repeated attacks on the village fail all day, and so do his attempts to cross the Adige at Albaredo, which two Austrian battalions now guard, and the Alpone near its mouth. At nightfall Masséna and Augereau fall back towards the bridgehead, but strong forces stay on the Austrian side of the Adige.
Sources
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
- Martin Boycott-Brown, The Road to Rivoli: Napoleon’s First Campaign (2001).
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