Abstract
The first Napoleonic campaign in northern Italy is certainly not terra incognita when it comes to historical research. There have been a great number of treatments, and of particular note is the late David Chandler’s in-depth strategic and tactical survey of this legendary military exploit (to be found in his magnum opus on Napoleon’s campaigns). Similarly, Philip Dwyer’s first volume of his ambitious new biography has presented one of the most three-dimensional accounts to date of the French Republic’s descent into the plains of Lombardy. These veteran scholars have analysed with skill and clarity one of the most complicated and tortuous theatres of the Napoleonic Wars. Indeed just by glancing at Chandler’s maps one realizes the sheer complexity of the French armies’ manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres. For instance one need only consider that the battle of Rivoli lasted three days (which was to be uncharacteristic of later engagements during the Empire). The Republic’s soldiers, in little over a year, successfully ensnared four Habsburg armies sent by Vienna to dislodge Bonaparte from Milan.
To be fair to the author of this tome, no claims are put forward here for academic rigour, and the essential objective seems to be to inform and entertain. As befits a former student of the École d’État-Major this book reads rather like a military debriefing. Alas it is perhaps two hundred years too late. There are two sections, the first of which (slightly more than half of the book’s length) deals with the institutional, logistical, strategic, and tactical context in which the army of Italy operated. The least convincing chapter examines Bonaparte’s personality and skill as a commander. In particular it seems bewildering, to me at least, that the author felt the need to include an inaccurate and unsustainable comparison between Napoleon and Robespierre. The most successful portions of this section deal with tactics and the legacy of the military reforms of the ancien régime monarchy. M. Bouan rightly notes that Bonaparte was a skilled assimilator rather than an innovator. The good point is also made that the Revolutionary armies’ chronic shortage of horses was almost crippling, but alas this powerful insight is not developed beyond the obvious. It is perhaps about time that the equine deficiencies of the French Republic were tackled in greater detail in order to explain more fully the structural weakness which hampered French war-planning throughout these wars.
The concluding section is an almost day-to-day account of the progress of the army of Italy (between 1796 and 1797). It is certainly the case that Bonaparte’s correspondence is an essential source for this campaign. However, the author’s decision to quote repeatedly overly long passages of the general’s reports to the Directory is unnecessarily obtrusive and does much to compromise the fluidity of the narrative. Worst of all (and this is a grave deficiency) is the poor quality of the maps included in this volume. They make it next to impossible for the reader to track the movements of the armies in question. As a native of Lombardy I had the greatest difficulty in recognizing the landscape and geography presented in these scrawled sketches. Also unfortunate is the author’s propensity to drop the odd factual infelicity. For instance we are told somewhat simplistically that all of Milan welcomed the French armies enthusiastically and that Josephine didn’t love Napoleon, and there is an unsettling reference to the Habsburg monarchy as Austria-Hungary (a political entity only created in 1867). Equally troubling is the tendency for some mild and rather outdated patriotism to seep into the text from time to time. There are some perplexing passages which refer to ‘nos armées’ (our armies). This final narrative section adds little to the existing scholarship and for the general reader may offer a bewildering chronicle of a complicated military campaign. It is a shame that this is the case as the book has obviously been a labour of love. There is little reason to doubt the author’s genuine enthusiasm for the subject and his painstaking reading of Napoleon’s correspondence. However, the publisher, Économica (no misnomer!), has not helped his task by producing a book whose presentation and layout are quite simply put rough and unpolished. The appendices inelegantly jammed at the rear seem to serve no great purpose, and little attempt is made to cross-reference their content with that of the main text. I think that on the whole this volume on Bonaparte’s first Italian campaign is an opportunité manqué.