ideas of the mature Napoleon clearly on display. 'All of Napoleon is to be
found in the Souper de Beaucaire,' Jean Tulard wrote, and perhaps too
much is on show, for as First Consul Napoleon ordered the police to
destroy every copy they could lay hands on.
The immediate result of this successful foray into political propaganda
was to encourage Saliceti, now a political commissar (depute-en-mission) of
enormous power, to wrap the Bonaparte family even closer around him.
He began by fixing Joseph's appointment as an assistant commissary of
the Republic, attached to the Army of the South on a salary of 6,ooo
francs. He then kept a close eye on Napoleon, who led an itinerant life for
the next weeks: he was at Aries at the beginning of August, then travelled
up to Valence and at the beginning of September was back in Auxonne. It
was mid-September before Saliceti got his chance to reward the most
valuable of the Bonapartes. Back in Marseilles on 15 September,
Napoleon was assigned to the escort of powder wagons from Marseilles to
Nice, ready for use by the French Army of Italy. Learning of this,
Saliceti set it up that Napoleon should stop at Beausset to 'pay his
respects' to him and the other depute-en-mission, Gasparin, also a
Bonaparte supporter. He then introduced the young Bonaparte to
General Carteaux, who was conducting the siege of Toulon, and
suggested him as a replacement for the artillery commander Dommartin,
who had been seriously wounded. Carteaux was reluctant, but as political
commissar Saliceti had superior hire-and-fire powers even to a
commander and chief; and so the appointment was made.
When the men of Toulon admitted the Anglo-Spanish fleet on the
night of 27-28 August 1793, they brought about a potentially critical
situation for the Jacobins. Toulon was the most important naval arsenal
in France and the key to French control of the Mediterranean. Even
more importantly, it posed a problem of credibility for the Montagnards.
Not only did its loss damage the image and reputation of the Republic,
but it was looked on as a test case; if not recovered it could fan the flames
of the Vendee into wholesale civil war. It was fortunate for the
revolutionaries that England had already committed most of its troops to
the West Indies and that no more than 2,ooo of them landed at Toulon.
Six thousand Austrian soldiers were promised as reinforcements, but
never arrived, thus leaving 7,ooo poor quality Neapolitans and 6,ooo
lacklustre Spaniards to bear the brunt of defence.
General Carteaux had been given r2,ooo men to retake Toulon, plus
5, 000 detached from the Army of Italy under General Lapoype. Both
commanders were basically nonentities, who commenced an unimagina
tive blockade of Toulon, with Lapoype approaching from Hyeres and the
marcin
(Marcin)
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