CHAP. 1799. on the Aar or the St Gothard. The surface over which military operations were carried was by this conquest immensely extended, without any proportionate addition either to the means of offensive or defensive warfare. The Tyrol was a great central fortress, in which the Imperialists had often found shelter in moments of disaster; but no such advantage could be hoped for by the Republicans from their possession of the hostile or discontented cantons of Switzerland, while no avenue to the heart of Austria was so difficult as that which lay through the midst of the brave and indomitable inhabitants of Ch. i. 56. that almost inaccessible province.' 1 Th. x. 217. Arch. Nor had the invasion of the Roman and Neapolitan states, and the banishment of Napoleon to the sands of Egypt, contributed less to weaken the formidable powers with which, two years before, he had shattered the Austrian monarchy. Now was seen the sagacity with which he had chosen the line of the Adige for tenacious defence, and the wisdom of the declaration, that if he had listened to the suggestions of the Directory, and advanced to Rome, he would have endangered the Republic. Though the forces in the Peninsula were above 110,000, and were soon increased by the arrival of conscripts to 130,000 men, the Republicans were never able to meet the Imperialists in equal force on the Adige; and Italy was lost, and the retreat of the army from Naples all but cut off, while yet an overwhelming force, if it could only have been assembled at the decisive point, ex isted in the Peninsula. Notwithstanding the deficient state of their military The French preparations, and the urgent representations of all hostilities. their generals that the actual force under their command was greatly inferior to the amount which the commence March 1, 1799. XXVII. 1799. Directory had led them to expect, the French Go- CHAP. vernment, led away by ill-founded audacity, resolved to commence hostilities. The Austrian Cabinet having returned no answer to the peremptory note, in which the Directory required the sending back of the Russian troops, Jourdan received orders to cross the Rhine, which was immediately done at Kehl and Huningen, and the Republicans advanced in four columns towards the Black Forest. A few days after, Bernadotte, with 10,000 men, took possession of Manheim, and advanced against Philipsburg, which refused to capitulate, notwithstanding an angry summons from the Republican general. Upon receiving this intelligence, the Archduke passed the Lech, and advanced in three columns towards Bibe- 1 Jom. xi. rach, Waldsee, and Ravensberg, at the head of 37,000 95, 96. Th. infantry and 15,000 cavalry; while Starray, with Arch. Ch. 13,000 men, was moved upon Neumarckt, and 6000 i. 140. men were thrown into the fortifications of Ulm.' x. 227, 229. in the Gri and 6. While the hostile armies were thus approaching each other, in the space between the Rhine and the Operations Danube, the contest had commenced, on the most sons. extended scale, in the mountains of the Grisons. During the night of the 5th March, Massena march- March 5 ed upon Sargantz, and having summoned the Austrian general, Auffenberg, to evacuate the district, his troops advanced at all points to cross the Rhine. The left wing, under OUDINOT, afterwards Duke of Reggio, "a general," said Napoleon, "tried in a hundred battles," was destined to make a false attack on the post of Feldkirch, so as to hinder Hotze, who commanded at that important point, from sending any succour to the centre at Coire, and the right at Reichenau; the right wing, under Dumont, was destined to cross at that place, and turn the position of Coire by the upper part of the stream, while XXVII. 1799. Arch. Ch. 37. Jom. xi. Th. x. 230, 231. The French are at first successful. ance, CHAP. Massena himself, in the centre, was to force the passage opposite to Luciensteg, and carry the intrenchments of that fort. Subordinate to these principal attacks, Loison, with a brigade, was to descend from the valley of Urseren upon Disentis, and support the attack of Dumont; while Lecourbe, who lay at Beli. 141, 142. linzona, received orders to penetrate by Tusis, over Dum. i. 36, the summit of Bernhardin and the defile of snowy 100, 101. the Via-mala, into the Eugadine, and open up a communication with the Italian army on the Adige.' These attacks were almost all successful. The March 6. Rhine, yet charged with melting snows, was crossed under a murderous fire; and, after an obstinate resistthe fort of Luciensteg was carried by the intrepidity of the French chasseurs, who scaled an almost inaccessible height which commanded it, and 800 men, with five pieces of cannon, were made prisoners. Meanwhile Dumont, having forced the pass of Kunkel, and made himself master of the central point and important bridge of Reichenau, situated at the junction of the two branches of the Rhine, not only succeeded in maintaining himself there, but made prisoners an Austrian detachment which had resisted Loison at Disentis. The result of this movement was, that Auffenberg, who fell back slowly, contesting every inch of ground, towards Coire, found his retreat cut off up the Rhine; and, being surrounded there by superior forces, he had no alternative but to lay down his arms, with 2000 men and ten pieces of cannon, while a battalion he had stationed at Embs underwent the same fate. Jom. xi. 101, 102. Dum. i. 38, 39. Arch. Ch. i. 58, 62. March 7. While these successes were gained on the centre and right, Oudinot advanced against Feldkirch. Hotze instantly collected his troops and advanced to meet him, in order to preserve his communication with Auffenberg; but, after maintaining his XXVII. 1799. The Aus trians are with great Tyrol. ground for a whole day, he was at length driven back CHAP. to the intrenchment of Feldkirch, with the loss of 1000 men and several pieces of cannon. At the same time, Lecourbe, having broken up from Bellinzona, crossed the Bernhardin, yet encumbered with driven back snow, and arrived at Tusis by the terrible defile of loss into the the Via-mala, where he divided his forces into two columns, one of which moved over the Julian Alps, towards the sources of the Inn, while the other, under Lecourbe in person, began to ascend the wild and rocky valley of the Albula. The intention of the Republicans was to have supported this irruption by Dessoles, who received orders to debouche from the Valteline into the valley of the Upper Adige; but the march of the latter column across the mountains having been retarded by unavoidable accidents, General Bellegarde, who commanded the Austrian forces in that quarter, made preparations, by occupying all the passes in the neighbourhood, to envelope the invaders. Meanwhile Martinsbruck was March 14. attacked by Lecourbe without success; but although Laudon, in his turn, made an attack with his own troops, combined with its garrison, in all 14,000 men, upon the French forces, he was unable to gain any decisive advantage; and the Republicans, awaiting their reinforcements, suspended their operations for ten days. At length Dessoles having come up, and March 24. other reinforcements arrived, Lecourbe commenced a general attack on Laudon's forces, leading his division against Martinsbruck, while Dessoles and Loison were directed to cross the mountains into the Munsterthal and cut off their retreat. To arrive at that valley it was necessary for Dessoles's division to cross the highest ridges in Europe, amidst ice and snow, which might have deterred the most intrepid chasseurs. With undaunted intrepidity his soldiers ascend XXVII. 1799. ed the glaciers of the Wurmser Joch, which separates the sources of the Adda from one of those of the Adige. After having turned the fortifications on the summit, which the Imperialists occupied in perfect security, he descended by the wild and rocky bed of the torrent of Rambach, amidst frightful precipices, where a handful of men might have arrested an army, March 25. surprized the post of Taufers, which Laudon had fortified with care, and totally routed its garrison, after a desperate resistance, with the loss of 4000 prisoners and all its artillery. The situation of the Austrian general was now altogether desperate; for while Dessoles had gained this decisive success, Loison had seized upon Nauders, and Lecourbe had forced the post and passage of Martinsbruck, so that all the avenues by which his retreat could be effected were cut off, and he had no resource but to throw himself, with 300 men, into the glaciers of Gebatch, from whence, after undergoing incredible hardships, he at length reached the valley of Venosta, and joined General Bellegarde, who was marching to his relief. After this glorious victory, achieved with forces hardly half the number of the vanquished, and which cannot be appreciated but by those who have traversed the rugged and inhospitable ridges among which it was effected, Dessoles advanced to Glurus and the French found themselves masters of the upper extremity of the two great valleys of the Tyrol, the Inn, and the Adige; but here their advance was arrested by General Bellegarde, who had collected nearly 40,000 men to oppose their progress, and 114, 116. the intelligence of events in other quarters, which i. 99, 136. restored victory to the Imperial standards.1 ' Dum. i. 54, 56. Jom. xi. Arch. Ch. ; The intelligence of the first success in the Grisons reached Jourdan on the 11th, and induced him to move forward. On the 12th, he passed the Danube, |