14 January 1797, late morning
The fight at the gorge
By about 11 am Lusignan’s column is cutting off Bonaparte’s retreat south of Rivoli, and on the Trambasore heights Alvinczi is urging his battalions forward. Bonaparte sends Masséna’s 18th demi-brigade, just arrived from Lake Garda, against Lusignan and turns on Quosdanovich’s column in the gorge. He thins out Joubert’s line on the heights and masses 15 guns before the head of the defile.
The guns fire canister at point-blank range into the column as it climbs onto the plateau. The Austrian dragoons at its head break and stampede back through their own infantry. Leclerc’s brigade attacks the column from the front while Joubert’s men fire into its flank from San Marco, and Lasalle charges into the mass with 26 chasseurs, taking a whole battalion and five flags. Quosdanovich falls back out of range of the guns.
The French drive Prince Reuss’s troops back into the gorge at Rivoli, engraving, 19th centuryWikimedia Commons, unknown author, Public domain (Bataille de Rivoli ag1.jpg)
In the centre Ocskay attacks again from San Marco and drives back Vial’s brigade. At midday French cavalry under Joachim Murat charge his flanks and drive his troops back to the positions they held in the morning.
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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