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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 507: THE CAMPAIGN OF THE ALPS.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

THE CAMPAIGN OF THE ALPS.

During the severity of the winter, the French, who had taken possession of the Alps, were in a state of miserable destitution from desertion and sickness, and no measures were taken by the convention to reinforce them. On the other hand, the courts of Vienna and Turin were making vigorous efforts for prosecuting the war on the Piedmontese frontier. All that the republicans aimed at, was to retain possession of the posts they had gained on the Alps; but, after various actions, they were obliged to evacuate every position on the maritime Alps, and the allied armies threatened the country of Nice and the territory of the republic. If the allies had pushed their advantages with vigour, the republicans must have lost more; but they, as was their general rule, were sluggish and irresolute. Nelson, who had been detached with a small squadron to co-operate with the Austrian general, Devins, and who served on the coast of Nice, was almost frantic at his sluggishness. A plan had been formed for getting between the French divisions that occupied the Nissard territory and a part of the Western Riviera, or coast of the republic of Genoa, for taking the first of these divisions in the rear, and for blockading the port and city of Nice. But planning and executing were two different things. To carry out the plan proposed it was necessary that the allies should occupy the town and bay of St. Remo; but when Nelson suggested its capture, Devins, imagining that Nelson wanted possession of St. Remo for its harbour, argued that the bay of Valdo, which could be of no service in reducing Nice, was a much better and safer anchorage. He finally agreed to send 10,000 men to St. Remo, if Admiral Hotham would send him ten ships of war, and transports sufficient to carry them; but Hotham declined sending any more ships, and the plan therefore failed, the old German attributing its failure to the British admiral. While these divisions paralysed the movements of the allies, the Alpine legions of the republicans were re-enforced by 7000 men from the Eastern Pyrenees, and 10,000 from the army on the Rhine. Moreover, the neutral powers and states assisted France more effectually than the allies assisted each other. Great as had been the insults and wrongs which the Genoese republic had suffered from the French republic in 1794, yet privateers carried abundant supplies of provision from Genoa to the French armies. Moreover, while the Genoese senate presumed to claim from the British fleet all the rights of a neutral state, they allowed all their roadsteads, bays, harbours, and even the well-defended port of the city of Genoa itself, to be crowded with French privateers, and men were enlisted in the city for the French army. Thus re-enforced and supported, Massena, who commanded the republicans, at length made a general attack on the confederates, assisted by Generals Scherer and Serrurier. The allies were so supine that they were not aware of his movements till a cannon-ball, at sunrise of the 23rd of November, aroused them from their lethargy. The French general’s great object was to get between the Austrians and Piedmontese, to cut them off from one another, and then to defeat them in detail: no very difficult task, as both armies were indiscreetly scattered over a wide extent of mountainous country. The battle took place among rocks and precipices, and in the midst of a storm of hail and snow. The republicans were everywhere successful: the centre and the right wing were beaten from post to post, and at last put to flight; and the left wing, though it withstood the shock of assault bravely, was compelled to flee likewise. It is said that many thousands took to flight who had never seen the enemy, and some of whom were thirty miles from the advanced posts. The retreat, indeed, became a rout, and the republicans captured 5000 prisoners, all the artillery of the allies, and an immense store of ammunition. This terminated “the campaign of the Alps,” for the Austrians and the Piedmontese were driven from all that coast, and the French triumphantly wintered in Vado and Savone.