as he would brood depressively the evening after a battle, regardless
of whether he had won or lost. Popular with his troops, tall, talkative,
foul-mouthed, with a great hooked nose, Augereau was memorably
described by Desaix as follows: 'Fine, big man; handsome face, big nose,
has served in many countries, a soldier with few equals, always
bragging.'
Andre Massena, aged thirty-eight, was the greatest general of the three
and would prove to have military talents of a high order. Dark, thin and
taciturn, a dedicated hedonist and womaniser, Massena started life as a
cabin boy and had been a non-commissioned officer and smuggler. He
looked like an eagle and was said to have an eagle's eye for terrain, but the
quality Napoleon most prized in him was his indefatigable energy.
Dauntless, stubborn, imperturbable, he seemed to spend all his days and
nights on horseback. Nothing ever made him feel discouraged: if he was
defeated heavily, he went jauntily to work next day as if he was the victor.
Serurier, Augereau and Massena were tough characters in anyone's
book, and most twenty-six-year-olds would have quailed at the prospect
of asserting superiority over them. Additionally, they were disposed to be
contemptuous of the newcomer, thinking him merely one of Barras's
favourites and a boy general. Massena and Augereau both thought they
should have had the command themselves and poured scorn on
Napoleon's ideas for the Italian campaign: Massena said that only a
professional intriguer could have come up with such a plan, while the
blunt-speaking Augereau used the epithet 'imbecile'.
By the end of the meeting Napoleon had won all three men round.
Legend has perverted the reality of what took place and credited
Bonaparte with Svengali-like powers, but it is certain that the trio of
generals thenceforth looked on him with new respect. Massena remarked
that when Napoleon put on his general's hat he seemed to have grown
two feet, while Augereau allegedly remarked: 't hat little bugger really
frightened me!' What is certain is that Napoleon tried to calm their minds
over the drawbacks in Carnot's strategy. It did not take outstanding
insight to see that the three main French armies were operating too far
away from each other and that, if any of the offensives flagged, the
Austrians would simply transfer troops from one front to another. The
Directory had not appointed a supreme commander to coordinate the
movements of all three armies, assuming, absurdly, that Jour dan, Moreau
and Bonaparte would all cooperate willingly and without rivalry, and had
compounded their error by seeming to assume that the Alps, which lay
between the Army of Italy and the other two, was simply a paper
obstacle.
marcin
(Marcin)
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