to release Lecourbe. An increasingly anxious Napoleon got a message to
Massena that he must hold out until 4 June.
Two things helped Napoleon to recover from the disastrous start to his
campaign. In Genoa the valiant Massena held out until 4 June, with the
French garrison on half rations. And the Austrian General Melas,
confident that he held all the cards, had no thought of a French attack
through the Alps. Logically, once Genoa had fallen, Provence lay open to
an Austrian offensive and it was there that he expected the French to
concentrate. But Napoleon confounded expectations. Leaving Paris on 6
May, he proceeded south via Avallon, Auxonne (where he spent two
hours at his old school), Champagnole, Rousses, St Cergue and Nyon to
Geneva, where he arrived on 9 May.
He spent five days in Geneva assembling his so,ooo troops before
moving on to Lausanne and then Martigny-Ville at the foot of the Alps.
Cheering news came in that his great commander Desaix had returned
from Egypt, so Napoleon ordered him to join the army with all speed.
Then the epic crossing of the St Bernard began on IS May. There was
fierce fighting between Lannes and the French vanguard and the
Austrians, but Melas failed to evaluate the intelligence adequately and did
not realize a full French army was on the move. On I8 May Napoleon
took up his quarters in a Bernardin convent at the foot of the pass.
Once again the campaign lurched close to disaster. The French
vanguard, it turned out, were in danger of being trapped from the exit to
the pass at Fort Bard, strongly held by the Austrians. The spectre of
another El Arish loomed. Instead of cursing his own lack of contingency
planning, Napoleon moaned to Bourrienne about the inadequacy of
Lannes and his other field commanders. On I 9 May he told his secretary:
'I'm bored with this convent and anyway those imbeciles will never take
Fort Bard. I must go there myself.' Next day he made a perilous passage
through the pass on muleback, slipping and sliding uncontrollably on the
downhill stretches. He solved the problem of getting his artillery past
Fort Bard by spreading straw and dung along the streets near the fort and
having the two 4-pounders, two 8-pounders and two howitzers dragged
along noiselessly under cover of night (24-26 May). But his achievement,
which was later distorted by propaganda, was bought at great cost.
Napoleonic iconography portrayed the leader as a second Hannibal
crossing the Alpine passes in snow and ice and the famous painting by
David showed him astride a rearing horse rather than a lowly mule; but
the sober fact was that so much equipment had been lost in the St
Bernard that he entered Italy almost as ill-equipped as in I 796.
By 24 May 4o,ooo French troops were in the Po valley. Another 26,ooo
marcin
(Marcin)
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