Battle of Novi (1799)

Background

The Allied campaign in Italy in 1799 had been a string of successes. After Magnano (5 April) Suvorov took command of the combined Austro-Russian army on 15 April and beat Moreau at Cassano on 27 April and MacDonald at the Trebbia on 17 to 20 June. Milan fell on 24 May, Turin on 20 June and Mantua on 30 July. But Vienna's instructions halted offensive operations, and Suvorov resented being directed from a distance.

In Paris the coup of 30 Prairial (18 June) changed the government, and Barthélemy Joubert was given the Army of Italy. He arrived on 4 August. Moreau stood aside and offered his help. Joubert's generals wanted to wait for Championnet's army, but he would not delay. Saint-Cyr's wing came through the Bocchetta Pass and Gavi, Pérignon's through Acqui, and Saint-Cyr reached Novi Ligure on 13 August. The French were short of supplies and the army was hungry and tired.

They found Suvorov coming up to meet them. His plan was for Kray to attack the French flank while Bagration's advance guard turned the French right, with Derfelden's and Melas's forces joining in once those moves had developed. The French stood on the heights around Novi, a walled town on the edge of the plain, and the position was strong.

The armies

The Allied army was a little over 51,000 strong. Kray's Austrian corps was by far the largest part, 27,420 men in the divisions of Ott and Bellegarde and Seckendorff's screen, and Melas's left wing under Fröhlich added 8,575. Derfelden's Russian corps was 15,552: Bagration's advance guard, Derfelden's own infantry division, and Miloradovich's division. Suvorov commanded the whole.

The French Army of Italy numbered some 35,000, in two wings. Pérignon's left had Grouchy's and Lemoine's divisions, a reserve, and Richepanse's cavalry. Saint-Cyr's right had the divisions of Laboissière, Watrin and Dombrowski, Colli's brigade, and small reserves. Joubert's command lasted only the first hours of the fight. His men were underfed, since the French supply system had collapsed, but they held a good position.

Kray's Austrians massed about 40 guns on the day to bombard the crest. Terrain was the French advantage: the slopes were steep and covered with vineyards, Novi was ringed by a medieval wall and ditch, and ravines behind the French line made any retreat difficult.

The battle

Opening (about 3:20 am). Kray's columns struck the French picket lines. At first light the Austrians saw that they were attacking a strong position that the French had prepared. Ott's and Bellegarde's divisions made early gains but were slowed on the steep, vine-covered slopes.

Joubert's death and Kray's repulse. In the morning Joubert was mortally wounded while leading a counterattack by the 26th Light Demi-Brigade. French counterattacks drove Kray's wing back to the foot of the heights. About 9 am Kray renewed the attack on Suvorov's orders and was again repulsed. Partouneaux's counterattack went too far down onto the plain and was scattered by Allied cavalry, and Partouneaux was captured. Kray then massed about 40 guns to bombard the crest.

Bagration at Novi (about 10 am). Bagration's command attacked Novi itself. The Russians pushed through the outer suburbs but were stopped by the town wall. French skirmishers in the vineyards and Quesnel's brigade held the heights, while Gardanne's men and Watrin's division counterattacked the Russian flanks. Miloradovich's troops reinforced Bagration, but the Russian attacks in the centre failed.

Melas's march (about 11:30 am). Suvorov ordered Melas to advance. Melas declined a frontal attack on Novi and moved east instead, sending Nobili south towards Serravalle. Suvorov is reported to have praised the column as moving 'with the speed of an arrow', although Melas was criticised for slow progress.

The afternoon. About 3 pm another Allied attack was repulsed. Rosenberg's grenadiers were driven back under fire and Suvorov ordered them to withdraw; Lusignan's grenadiers failed in three frontal attacks against Watrin. Between 3 and 4 pm Kray attacked again on the Allied right.

Collapse (about 5 pm). Loudon and Mittrowsky threatened envelopment and Watrin's division was beaten. Saint-Cyr's 106th Line counterattacked and briefly halted the Austrians, but Lusignan was wounded and captured. About 5:30 pm the French position gave way. The Paar grenadiers drove Colli's 68th Line from the crest, and the Russians and Austrians entered Novi. The French army was split in two and the halves did not reunite for three days. Allied cavalry pursued the retreating French through Pasturana, where Bellegarde's force blocked the road.

Evening. Grouchy was wounded and captured. Pérignon was taken prisoner after three wounds, including a sabre cut above the left eye. Colli and about 2,000 others were captured with 21 guns. Near midnight the Russians returned to Novi and began looting, and Suvorov had the drums beaten to stop them.

Aftermath

The Allies held the field and the French hold on the Ligurian coast was badly weakened. Joubert was dead, and Moreau took over the army. Pérignon, Grouchy, Colli and Partouneaux were taken. Suvorov reported more than 6,000 French dead, about 5,000 prisoners and 39 guns, and French losses of about 20,000 by their own admission, figures that modern casualty estimates do not support. The estimates range from some 9,600 to 12,000 for the French, with Duffy at 6,500 killed and wounded, and 6,500 to 9,000 for the Allies.

The French right escaped partly because Saint-Cyr broke through at Arquata Scrivia with Watrin's division, and Suvorov brought up Rosenberg's corps but did not pursue. On 25 August new instructions from the Emperor ended his plans to take Liguria and sent him to command a Russian army in Switzerland, to join Korsakov's for an invasion of France through the Jura. Archduke Charles had meanwhile withdrawn north too early, and Suvorov arrived too late; Masséna defeated Korsakov at the Second Battle of Zurich on 26 September. The article says the Coalition planners wasted the advantage Novi gave them, with a change of strategy that ended badly.

Wargaming it

Novi suits a big divisional game, about 1:40 figure scale, or a smaller one on the Bagration–Novi sector alone. The French start on strong ground and the Allies have to attack uphill for most of the day, so the game is mostly about whether Suvorov can feed his formations in fast enough. The terrain shapes everything: steep vineyard slopes, the walled town, and the ravines behind the French that cut off retreat.

Timing is the second lever. The Allied attacks arrive in sequence, and the historical story is one of repulses until Melas's and Kray's flanking threats came together in the afternoon. A scenario can give the French defenders the chance to hold if the Allied commander launches his assaults too early and without support, and reward the Allied player for coordination. Joubert's death early in the day is a good scenario rule: remove the French commander, and a fresh commander takes over with limited authority.

What-ifs are easy to find. Joubert had said he would not wait for Championnet's army; a game could add it. Melas's flank march and Nobili's move on Serravalle are the key flank pressures, and the French right wing has to decide when to hold and when to pull back through Arquata Scrivia.

Maps and pictures