In 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, a young and ambitious French general named Napoleon Bonaparte took command of a struggling army in Northern Italy. Many doubted his ability to succeed, but he quickly proved them wrong. With incredible confidence and energy, Napoleon led his troops to a series of victories, changing the course of the war in Europe and earning the admiration of the French Republic. This marked the beginning of Napoleon’s legendary military career.
As the new year began, Napoleon faced familiar challenges. At just 27 years old, he was leading the French forces against the Austrians in Northern Italy. The French army was in poor condition, with soldiers lacking pay, proper uniforms, and even food. Medical care was also a major concern, as hospitals were ill-equipped, affecting the morale of the troops.
The Austrian garrison in Mantua, led by Field Marshal Wurmser, was in even worse shape. After four months of siege, many soldiers had died from disease and starvation. The remaining troops and civilians were surviving on horse meat, rats, and dogs. The Austrians needed to relieve Mantua by January 27th, or they risked losing the city and the war in Italy.
Napoleon received 7,000 reinforcements and prepared to face the advancing Austrian forces led by General Alvinzi. Despite being outnumbered and uncertain of the enemy’s plans, Napoleon had to act quickly. Alvinzi, with 14,000 reinforcements, aimed to relieve Mantua and divided his forces into six columns to attack the French at Rivoli.
Napoleon, initially unaware of the Austrian advance, was in the Papal States with Colonel Lan’s troops. Upon receiving news of enemy movements, he rushed back to his headquarters. Alvinzi’s plan, however, faced setbacks due to poor planning and harsh weather conditions.
Napoleon realized the Austrian plan and issued orders to reinforce his troops at Rivoli. General Joubert, the youngest of Napoleon’s commanders, was tasked with holding Rivoli until reinforcements arrived. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Napoleon’s strategic brilliance and the determination of his troops turned the tide in their favor.
In a fierce battle, the French managed to repel the Austrian forces. Napoleon’s calm leadership and the timely arrival of reinforcements helped secure a decisive victory. The Austrian army was forced into a retreat, and many were captured as they fled through the mountains.
With the Austrian threat at Rivoli neutralized, Napoleon turned his attention to Mantua. He moved quickly to confront Provera’s forces, who were unaware of Alvinzi’s defeat. After a series of engagements, Provera surrendered, and Mantua fell to the French on February 2nd. This victory marked a significant turning point in the campaign.
Following the victory at Mantua, Napoleon continued his campaign in Italy, pushing further into Austrian territory. His successes persuaded the French government to support him with more troops. By March, Napoleon was leading a large and confident army towards Vienna, forcing the Austrians to negotiate peace.
Napoleon’s first campaign in Italy was a remarkable success, showcasing his military genius and leadership skills. He transformed the French army and changed the balance of power in Europe. This campaign was just the beginning of Napoleon’s extraordinary career, as he went on to achieve even greater feats in the years to come.
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Research the key events of Napoleon’s campaign in Italy, focusing on the Battle of Rivoli. Create a timeline that highlights these events, including dates and significant outcomes. Use visuals and brief descriptions to make your timeline engaging and informative.
Divide into groups and role-play as different historical figures from the Battle of Rivoli, such as Napoleon, General Alvinzi, and Field Marshal Wurmser. Prepare arguments and hold a debate on the strategies and decisions made during the battle. Discuss what could have been done differently.
Study a map of Northern Italy during the time of Napoleon’s campaign. Identify key locations such as Rivoli, Mantua, and the Papal States. Analyze how geography influenced Napoleon’s strategic decisions and discuss how these locations impacted the outcome of the campaign.
Imagine you are a soldier in Napoleon’s army during the Battle of Rivoli. Write a diary entry describing your experiences, challenges faced, and your thoughts on Napoleon’s leadership. Share your entry with the class and discuss the different perspectives of soldiers during this time.
Create a poster that captures the essence of Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Rivoli. Include key facts, quotes, and imagery that represent the significance of the battle. Display your poster in the classroom and explain its elements to your peers.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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**Epic History TV: Napoleon’s First Campaign**
In 1796, at the height of the French Revolutionary Wars, a young French general took charge of a demoralized army in Northern Italy. It was his first command, and many expected him to fail. Instead, in just one month, he won his first brilliant campaign. With astonishing self-confidence, boldness, and energy, he led his army to victory after victory, transforming the war in Europe and winning praise from a grateful Republic. This is the story of Napoleon Bonaparte’s first campaign and the dawn of a new age.
**January 1797**: A new year but familiar problems for 27-year-old General Bonaparte, who is waging war against the Austrians in Northern Italy. He has the great fortress city of Mantua under siege, and after a narrow victory at Arcole, he is once again driven back by the Austrian armies trying to march to its aid. The French army of Italy is in a ragged state: troops have not been paid for weeks, their uniforms are disintegrating, their shoes are broken, and above all, they are hungry. One of Napoleon’s major concerns is the poor state of medical care for his men; hospitals lack everything, and the wounded are lying on the floors in dire conditions. Medical care affects morale, as troops want to know that if the worst happens, they will be looked after.
Conditions are much worse for the Austrian garrison of Mantua, commanded by Field Marshal Wurmser. In four months of siege, nine thousand soldiers have died from disease, wounds, or malnutrition. Survivors live off horse meat, and civilians resort to eating rats and dogs. Even these miserable rations will run out by the 27th of January, just a few weeks away. The clock is ticking; the Austrians must relieve Mantua by that date or lose the city and with it, the war in Italy.
Having received just 7,000 reinforcements, Napoleon prepares to meet Alvinzi’s advance. He will not only be outnumbered but also lacks knowledge of where his enemy will strike. Napoleon must hold one division back to cover Wurmser’s garrison, commanded once more by General Cervoni, who has recovered from a long illness.
Alvinzi has received 14,000 reinforcements and orders to relieve Mantua as soon as possible. He is eager to march, but heavy snow and the late arrival of equipment and supplies delay his advance until the 7th of January. The first columns on the move are Provera and Bellegarde, but their offensive is merely a diversion intended to draw Napoleon’s attention away from the main threat coming down the Adige Valley. Alvinzi has divided his force into six columns; their mission is to envelop and destroy Joubert’s division at Rivoli and clear the path to Mantua. However, Rivoli is a strong defensive position, and they must hit it hard and fast before the French can respond.
Napoleon, assuming any Austrian advance is still weeks away, has traveled to the Papal States with a column of troops commanded by Colonel Lan. They intend to put pressure on the Pope, who continues to stir opposition to France. However, as soon as he receives reports of enemy movement, Napoleon races back to his headquarters at Roverbella. By now, Alvinzi’s forces have also begun to advance, but serious planning failures quickly emerge.
Lucini’s first column on the right flank has orders to cross the slopes of Montebello and attack Joubert from the rear. It soon becomes clear that these orders are overly optimistic, devised by staff officers who have not seen the terrain. The peak of Montebello is over 7,000 feet high, its slopes covered in deep snow and ice, making progress treacherous. Meanwhile, the second and third Austrian columns reach the French outpost at Ferrara, where an initial attack is repulsed. Following their orders, they wait for Lucini’s column to appear before launching a second attack, but Lucini’s column is not yet in sight. Alvinzi’s plan relies on swift, bold action, but just 48 hours in, it is falling apart.
At Roverbella, Napoleon ponders the incoming reports. He knows Joubert’s forward outpost is under attack at Ferrara, that Massena has repulsed an Austrian attack on Verona, and Osiro faces a sizable Austrian force near Lagnago, poised across the Adige. Joubert’s scouts have detected an enemy column marching around his flank, and he has begun withdrawing his forces to Rivoli. The enemy’s plan has been unmasked, and Napoleon issues a flurry of orders. Massena is to march immediately to reinforce Joubert, while Osiro is to send him cavalry and guns. Joubert, the youngest and least experienced of Napoleon’s divisional commanders, is instructed to hold Rivoli at any cost and assured that help is on the way.
After a fierce battle, Joubert has extricated his troops overnight and taken up a defensive position around Rivoli. Napoleon arrives around midnight and immediately sets out with Joubert to inspect the enemy’s positions. The weather has cleared, and the moonlight is superb. They observe the lines of enemy fires filling the country between the Adige and Lake Garda. Until reinforcements arrive, Napoleon has just Joubert’s division, 10,000 men, to hold off 24,000 Austrians.
Alvinzi will help to even the odds by ordering Lucini’s first column to attempt a wide flanking march to cut off the French line of retreat. Napoleon decides the main road to Rivoli, which passes through a steep defile known as the Pontari, can be held by a single regiment supported by entrenched cannons. This leaves more manageable odds of 9,000 against 12,000 in the center. At 4 AM, General Vial’s light infantry brigade advances through the darkness, driving back the Austrian outposts and taking the San Marco Chapel. They are followed on their left by the rest of Joubert’s division, but the French push too far, leading to skirmishes and heavy fighting on the heights of San Marco.
Napoleon had not wanted to start the battle so early, but the combat escalates. The Austrians attack the plateau in force, and the French 85th Demi Brigade is outflanked and routed. The 29th light on its right is forced to retreat, and it looks like the French line is crumbling. However, the 14th on their right fights tenaciously in an intense infantry battle across broken ground, vineyards, and walled gardens. When the Austrians overrun a French battery, an officer demands, “Will you let them take your guns?” The troops mount a ferocious charge that routes the Austrians and reclaims the battery.
By 9 AM, Massena’s troops have begun to arrive, stabilizing the buckled French line. However, the French have only faced half of Alvinzi’s six columns. One by one, the others now join the action. The situation becomes desperate as the French are outnumbered, surrounded, and under heavy attack. Napoleon’s staff look anxiously to their commander, wondering what miracle can save the army.
Sensing victory, General Alvinzi and his staff ride forward to urge his infantry on. Napoleon remains calm; he knows Alvinzi’s center columns are near exhaustion and that they have no cavalry and little artillery support. He identifies Royce’s column as the most immediate threat and orders Joubert to send every man and gun he can spare for a counter-attack. General Leclerc and a 21-year-old Captain LaSalle charge with the entire French cavalry, just a few hundred horsemen. Under this onslaught, the lead Austrian troops are driven back into the gorge, colliding with the rest of the column.
The final straw is the devastating explosion of an ammunition wagon, breaking Austrian morale. Survivors flood back down the road to safety. Napoleon now turns his full attention to the center, where the exhausted Austrian columns have become spread out and disordered. The sudden appearance of French cavalry, supported by infantry and guns, sparks panic and a mass rout. By 1 PM, the bulk of the Austrian army is in headlong retreat, leaving Lucini’s first column isolated. He begins a fighting withdrawal, but the arrival of General Rey’s brigade triggers a rout. Fewer than half of his 4,000 men escape.
Through tenacity, courage, and good fortune, the army of Italy has turned a grim situation into an astonishing triumph. French casualties are modest, while Austrian losses are devastating. Over the next few days, 5,000 more Austrians are captured as they struggle back through the mountain passes. Napoleon will not be there to see it; he receives news that Provera has crossed the Adige and is marching on Mantua. It is a chance for him to strike one more blow against the enemy and seal the fate of Mantua.
Leaving Joubert in command at Rivoli with orders to renew the attack at dawn, Napoleon races south with Massena’s division. Provera has no clue of the disaster that has engulfed Alvinzi’s army, nor that the French now gather for him. He pushes on to Mantua, shadowed by Ogerow, who captures his rear guard of 2,000 men. With just 7,000 left, Provera’s only hope is to break through the French siege lines. First, he tries to attack San Giorgio, but formidable French defenses and powerful cannon fire stop him cold.
The next day, he launches a coordinated attack with Wurmser against French forces at La Favorita, but Napoleon has now arrived with Massena’s division from the north. Wurmser’s weak, starving men are forced back into the citadel, while a determined charge by the 57th Demi Brigade smashes into Provera’s flank. Facing impossible odds, Provera surrenders with his entire force.
Wurmser’s last hope of rescue has been crushed. He puts off the inevitable for two agonizing weeks until, with all food exhausted, he finally accepts terms for Mantua’s surrender on the 2nd of February. He and an escort will return to Austria, and his 16,000 remaining troops become prisoners. Austrian losses in the campaign reach a staggering 44,000 men. After eight months, the siege of Mantua is over—a victory that will soon be celebrated on the streets of Paris. However, it is General Cervoni, not Napoleon, who takes the formal Austrian surrender, as his commander-in-chief has already departed to take on his next opponent, the Pope.
From Rome, Pope Pius VI has once more been agitating against the French, and so Napoleon marches south with 9,000 men to explain the new realities of power in Italy. At Fianza, General Victor’s division sweeps aside papal forces, and Ancona is taken without a fight. The subsequent Treaty of Tolentino forces the Pope to give up Romagna, as well as 30 million francs and a hundred works of art.
Belatedly, Napoleon’s victories persuade the Directory to back him in force. French armies stuck on the Rhine are ordered to send him reinforcements. The 34-year-old commander, another rising star of the French army, is congratulated on his brilliant winter crossing of the Alps. His name: General Jean Bernadotte.
On the 10th of March, with 70,000 confident, seasoned troops under his command, Napoleon goes on the offensive. He sends Joubert to invade the Tyrol, Massena to advance up the Piave Valley, while he leads the bulk of the army on the most direct road to Vienna. The enemy is scattered and demoralized; even the appointment of a new commander, the emperor’s own brother Archduke Charles, fails to restore morale.
Charles, regarded as a military prodigy, fights a delaying action at the Tagliamento River, but it ends in disaster when Bernadotte surrounds and captures 2,000 Austrians, 10 guns, and 8 standards. The French pursuit continues with Massena covering Napoleon’s northern flank. He arrives at Tarvis in time to block the Austrian retreat. In three days of fighting, the French take another 3,000 prisoners.
Napoleon continues to advance while proposing to Archduke Charles that they open peace negotiations. The Austrians accept, and two days later, both sides agree to an armistice. Talks begin at Leoben. After five years of conflict, Napoleon’s dazzling advance into Austria has brought the war of the First Coalition to an end.
So ends Napoleon’s first campaign, almost exactly a year after it began, 380 miles away on the shores of the Mediterranean. Negotiations at Leoben become the basis for the Treaty of Campo Formio, signed five months later. The Austrian Netherlands, roughly modern Belgium, is ceded to France, and the Venetian Republic, invaded and systematically looted by Napoleon’s troops, is divided between France and Austria.
Thus ends the 1,200-year history of the serene Republic of Venice. The famous horses of Saint Mark are among its many treasures dispatched to the Louvre in Paris to join its rapidly expanding Italian collection. The French part of Venice joins its other Italian client states to form a new Cisalpine Republic, with Bonaparte as the author of its Constitution.
This is an illustration of how far the 27-year-old general has come in just a year, having waged one of the most brilliant military campaigns in history—many would say his best. He now dictates terms to kings and popes, summons new states into being, and nurtures his status as the most celebrated military commander in Europe. He has achieved all this thanks to formidable intelligence, relentless hard work, and inspiring leadership, which he has used to forge a unique bond of trust with his men. He has had luck along the way and has been ably served by a group of brilliant officers, many of whom will be with him for years to come.
For Napoleon still has many extraordinary things to achieve; his Italian campaign is just the first chapter in one of the most astonishing lives in history.
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A big thank you to PMF Productions for their help creating this series and charting Napoleon’s movements across Northern Italy. We highly recommend their YouTube channel featuring their own detailed series on Napoleon’s Italian campaigns. Big thanks also to our collaborator History March for creating the Rivoli Battlefield map used in this episode. You can enjoy many more excellent military history videos on his own YouTube channel. Thank you also to artist Keith Rocco for kind permission to use his artwork in this series. You can find more of Keith’s brilliant Napoleonic art via the link in our video description. And thanks most of all to the Epic History TV Patreon supporters who make this channel possible. Visit our Patreon page to find out how you can support our work, help choose future topics, and get ad-free early access to new videos.
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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while removing any inappropriate or sensitive content.
Napoleon – A French military leader and emperor who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. – Napoleon’s strategies and leadership skills were crucial in many of his military victories.
Italy – A country in Southern Europe that was a significant battleground during the Napoleonic Wars. – Napoleon’s campaign in Italy showcased his military genius and helped him gain fame and power.
Rivoli – A battle fought in 1797 during the War of the First Coalition, where Napoleon’s forces defeated the Austrians. – The Battle of Rivoli was a decisive victory that solidified Napoleon’s control over northern Italy.
Army – An organized military force equipped for fighting on land. – Napoleon’s army was known for its discipline and innovative tactics.
Austrian – Relating to Austria, a country that was a major opponent of France during the Napoleonic Wars. – The Austrian army was one of the main adversaries Napoleon faced during his campaigns.
Victory – The act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, game, or other competition. – Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz is often considered his greatest triumph.
Campaign – A series of military operations intended to achieve a particular objective, confined to a particular area, or involving a specified type of fighting. – Napoleon’s Italian campaign was a turning point in his military career.
General – A high-ranking officer in the army, responsible for leading troops in battle. – As a general, Napoleon demonstrated exceptional strategic and tactical skills.
Forces – Military troops, especially when combined into a fighting unit. – The French forces under Napoleon’s command were well-trained and highly motivated.
Leadership – The action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this. – Napoleon’s leadership was instrumental in the success of his military campaigns.
