Battle of Castiglione

Background

In the spring of 1796 Bonaparte's Army of Italy drove Beaulieu's Austrians out of Lombardy. They left almost 14,000 men in Mantua, the fortress of the Quadrilateral that barred the routes from the Alps to the Po. The French invested it on 3 June and opened a formal siege on 4 July with a train of 179 guns taken from the cities they had subdued. Bonaparte's 46,000 men were spread to cover it: Sauret at Brescia and west of Lake Garda, Masséna in the upper Adige valley and at Verona, Augereau on the lower Adige near Legnago, Sérurier before Mantua and Kilmaine's cavalry at Villafranca.

Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser came down from the Tyrol in four columns to relieve the city. Quasdanovich's 18,000 marched down the west side of Lake Garda; Melas with 14,000 and Davidovich with 10,000 came down either bank of the Adige; Mészáros's 5,000 moved from Vicenza. On 29 July the centre columns drove Masséna from the hills near Rivoli, and on 30 July Quasdanovich took Brescia, cutting the French road to Milan.

Bonaparte lifted the siege on the night of 31 July, abandoning his siege guns, and turned on Quasdanovich, while Wurmser marched to Mantua and spent days hauling the guns into the fortress. On 2 August Wurmser's advance guard under Lipthay pushed Valette's brigade out of Castiglione. On 3 August Masséna broke Quasdanovich's columns at Lonato while Augereau drove Lipthay back from Castiglione towards Solferino. On the 4th a 2,000-strong Austrian column surrendered at Lonato and Quasdanovich fell back towards Lake Idro. Those fights are background to this page, which covers 5 August. Wurmser had ordered Quasdanovich to rejoin him round the north end of the lake, a march of four days, and waited for him on the hills east of Castiglione.

The armies

Bonaparte brought nearly everything he had. Masséna's and Augereau's divisions, about 22,500 men by Chandler's count, faced the Austrians from the start. Kilmaine held a reserve of about 900 cavalry under Beaumont and 800 infantry under Verdier, and Bonaparte's aide-de-camp Marmont had all the horse artillery. Two more forces were on the march: Despinoy's division from Brescia, and Sérurier's from Marcaria, south-west of Mantua, where it had been holding off the garrison and Mészáros. That division was nominally 7,000 strong, but about 300 fever cases stayed behind; Chandler puts the column at 5,000. Sérurier himself was down with fever. Most accounts give the division to Fiorella; Phipps says Gardanne commanded it, with Fiorella leading the advance guard. By the end of the day the French had some 28,000–30,000 men on the field, veterans of the spring's victories but worn out by a week of marching and fighting.

Wurmser had about 20,000–25,000 men from Melas's and Davidovich's columns, with Vukassovich's brigade drawn from the Mantua garrison. Four battalions under Oberst Weidenfeld, called in from the blockade of Peschiera, arrived late in the day. Under him served Lipthay, Davidovich, Sebottendorf and Schübirz. The Austrians had the heavier guns, and the French would have to bring theirs to close range to match them. Phipps judged Wurmser no strategist but a fine and resolute fighter.

The battle

CDB90 records the battle as a single engagement, number 103 (CASTIGLIONE), on 5 August, with the French as attacker. Times are approximate, and the sources differ on the order of events.

The ground. Castiglione delle Stiviere stands on a plateau some 80 metres above the plain, about 10 km south of Lake Garda. South-east of it a line of hills runs to Solferino, whose tower was one of the key points of the day. Below lay an open plain, uncultivated in 1796 by local tradition and good ground for cavalry. On it, south-west of Solferino, rose the low mound of Monte Medolano, about 7 metres above the plain, crowned by an Austrian redoubt with heavy guns. Wurmser drew up in two lines, his right on the hills at Solferino and his left on Medolano, so that his front ran obliquely from the hills into the plain, facing roughly north-west. Guidizzolo lay behind his left; Valeggio and the Mincio crossing at Borghetto lay behind him to the east.

Dawn: the feint. Bonaparte brought Augereau down from the hills into the plain on the right, facing the Austrian left, and put Masséna against the Austrian right. Marmont's guns and the cavalry stood to Augereau's right; the bulk of the army was kept in columns behind the front. Until Sérurier's division was close, both divisions made feigned attacks and then fell back, to fix Wurmser's attention and draw him forward. The Austrians followed, and on their right tried to turn the French left by Castel Venzago, stretching their line.

Early morning: Fiorella arrives early. Sérurier's division had marched through the night. By six its advance guard, led by the 5th Dragoons, was at Guidizzolo, in rear of the Austrian left, and his guns were soon heard behind the Austrian lines; the sources put this anywhere from about seven to about nine. Wurmser, who had believed the division was away on the lower Adige, was completely surprised. He halted his advance and swung his second line round towards San Cassiano to face this threat. The flank attack had come before the trap was set, and it gave the Austrians time to meet it.

Mid-morning: Medolano. With the second line turned, Medolano became the hinge of a bent Austrian line, and Bonaparte struck it. Marmont took his horse artillery through a narrow defile two guns abreast at the gallop. Enemy fire smashed the head of the column, but the rest came into action at close range and dismounted about half the guns in the redoubt. Verdier's grenadiers, three battalions in one account, stormed the mound, and Beaumont's cavalry swept round by San Cassiano towards Fiorella. The mound was in French hands by between nine and ten.

Late morning to evening: the general attack. Wurmser began to pull his left back from the plain and set it at right angles to his front on the hills, to cover a retreat eastwards. Marmont's cannonade and the French cavalry threw the retiring battalions into confusion, and with no proper road their guns could not be got away. Bonaparte now launched Masséna and Augereau against the front. Leclerc arrived from Brescia with two of Despinoy's demi-brigades and took the tower of Solferino. The Austrian right, seeing its left fall back, began to withdraw too. Weidenfeld's battalions came up in time to stop Masséna getting round the Austrian right, and Schübirz's cavalry covered the retreat. Leaving much of their artillery and baggage, the Austrians made for Valeggio, crossed the Mincio at Borghetto that evening and cut the bridges. Wurmser himself narrowly escaped capture.

The pursuit. It was gentle. The French had marched day and night for a week, and one officer of Victor's brigade, Roguet, wrote that they were "worn out by fatigue and unable to pursue". They stopped around Pozzolengo and Castellaro Lagusello. Marmont, who said he had slept only minutes in five days, then slept for twenty-two hours.

Aftermath

The Austrians lost about 2,000 killed and wounded and 1,000 prisoners, with 20 guns; the French lost about 1,100–1,500. It was a clear victory but not a rout, and Wurmser got his army over the Mincio.

On 6 August Masséna hurried to Peschiera, whose French garrison was close to surrender, to cross the Mincio and threaten Wurmser's road to the Tyrol. Wurmser put two more brigades under Minckwitz and Spiegel into Mantua with food, took out the sick, and fell back up the Adige to Trento. The garrison now numbered some 15,000. The French returned to Mantua, but with their siege train lost they could only blockade it. Over the whole campaign Chandler counts 6,000 French killed and wounded and 4,000 captured, against 16,700 Austrian losses.

Chandler saw in Castiglione the whole of Napoleon's later battle plan, already in place in 1796: pin the enemy's front, bring a force onto his flank or rear, then break the line where it bends, as at Austerlitz, Friedland and Bautzen. Jomini thought Bonaparte could have done more by sending Augereau south; Phipps answered that the men were exhausted. Phipps also attacked the "Augereau myth" that the campaign was really Augereau's victory, though it was Augereau's fight of 3 August that later made him Duke of Castiglione. The battle is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe. In 1859 the French won again on much the same ground, at Solferino. The battle also appears in the film Time Bandits (1981).

Wargaming it

Castiglione is one day, about 25,000–30,000 a side, on ground about ten kilometres across from the Castiglione plateau to Guidizzolo. It suits brigade or regimental level with battalions as units and turns of 20–30 minutes, or a grand-tactical game with brigades as units if you want the march of the flanking columns on the table.

The key terrain is clear. The Castiglione plateau is the French start line; Solferino's tower anchors the Austrian right on the hills; the Medolano mound and its redoubt is the hinge; the open plain is cavalry ground; Guidizzolo and San Cassiano lie behind the Austrian left. Put the road to Valeggio and Borghetto on the Austrian base edge, because the retreat is what the Austrian player is really playing for.

Timing is the game. On the day the flanking attack came too early and spoiled the trap, so Fiorella's and Despinoy's arrivals should be variable, with the French player choosing how long to keep feinting. The Austrians have the heavier guns and a good position but must watch their rear; Weidenfeld's four battalions should arrive late from Peschiera. Fatigue rules for the French will stop the pursuit from becoming a rout that did not happen.

What ifs: Wurmser calls up Mészáros, who had a shorter road by Rivalta than Sérurier; Wurmser attacks on the 4th before Masséna arrives; Sérurier himself is fit and the column holds back until the front is engaged. Augereau's fight of 3 August makes a smaller curtain-raiser.

Maps and pictures

Paintings and prints

Paintings and prints of the battle, from the time and the century after, by year: free-to-use pictures from the battle's category on Wikimedia Commons. Each opens its file page there, with the full caption and source.