seriously, he could not leave behind an unpacified Italy. The clashes with
Wurmser had been politically valuable to him, since at first there were
rumours of French defeats, which encouraged Napoleon's enemies within
Italy to come out from the woodwork. The pattern of loyalties was now
reasonably clear. Milan, Lombardy, Parma, Bologna, Ferrara and Reggio
had kept faith with him, but Modena, Cremona, Pavia and the Papal
states had thrown off the mask and revealed their pro-Austrian
sentiments.
Bearing all this in mind, Napoleon proceeded cautiously. A game of
wits developed between him and Wurmser. Napoleon began by leading
33,000 French troops against Wurmser. After a victory at Rovereto, he
took Trent on 4 September, but Wurmser outwitted him by heading
south for Mantua via the Brenta valley. The object was to force Napoleon
back down the Adige valley to meet this new threat to Mantua, but
Napoleon proceeded to trump Wurmser's ace. He did not retrace his
steps but simply blocked the gorges north of Trent and set off south after
the Austrians, taking the same pass Wurmser was using. This was a
calculated risk: Napoleon was hoping to live off the land without actually
knowing that Wurmser's army had left enough to subsist on. On the
other hand, Wurmser could not relieve Mantua, since he would be forced
either to turn and give battle or to retreat to the Adriatic.
Napoleon caught up with the Austrians at Bassano on 8 September and
inflicted another defeat, ably supported by Augereau on the left and
Massena on the right. To his annoyance, however, Wurmser did not, as
expected, veer off towards Trieste and the Adriatic but kept on for
Mantua. Beating off his pursuers, he crashed through the besieging
perimeter around Mantua on 12 September and entered the city, raising
the total strength of the defence to 23,000 men. When the pursuers
joined forces with the besiegers heavy fighting took place in the suburbs,
following which the Austrians were penned inside the old city. The
accession of Wurmser seemed to make the fortress impregnable, but in
fact the arrival of so many more mouths to feed placed a terrible burden
on Mantua's food supply. By Christmas 1796 the defenders were eating
horseflesh and dying at the rate of 150 men a day from malnutrition and
disease.
Scarcely had he blocked up Wurmser inside Mantua than bad news
came in from the German front. On 24 August Archduke Charles
defeated Jourdan. Moreau fell back before the Austrians and by the
beginning of October was back on the west bank of the Rhine. Napoleon
always thought that Moreau's 1796 campaign in Germany was a textbook
illustration of all the errors he himself had avoided in Italy. Moreau had
marcin
(Marcin)
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