CHA P. XI. Siege of Genor. — Arrival of Massena there.- Situation of the French Troops, and of the Inhabitants of Genoa.-Changes in the Army, and in the civil Adminiftration of the Genoeje Republic.-The English Fleet blockades Genoa, while the Auftrian Army, under General Melas, befeyes it by Land. -State of the Auftrian Army; and Military Skill and Address of Melas in opening the Campaign.-Composition and Pofition of the Army of Genoa, or the right wing of the French Army of Italy.-Successes of the Aufirians. -Revolution of Vado.—Viciffitudes and Progrefs of the Siege of Genna.Conference opened for the Evacuation of Genva.-A Treaty concluded.Genoa evacuated. A FTER the brilliant campaign of Mallena, in Switzerland, he was judged by the first conful to be the fittest man for taking the tommand of the difcomfited army of Championet. From Switzerland he came ftraight to Paris, to receive inftructions refpecting the difficult and painful talk he had undertaken. He then proceeded through Lyons to Toulon and Marfeilles, in order to take measures for revictualling the army, and the city of Genoa. At Lyons, and in the fouth of France, he found the cavalry, with the heavy artillery, which had been fent back about the beginning of autumn, both be caule forage was fearce, and as being of no great utility in the defence of a place environed by mountains. He was not a little furprized at the wretched condition of thofe remains of the campaign of 1799, and fill more when he came acquainted, at Toulon, with the negligence, and the roguery of the army contractors. There he made fuch regulations as might remedy part of the evil. He made purchafes of grain and of foes, which he fent off, by fea, to his army. But when he was informed that general Champoniet had died, at Antibes, of the fame epidemic diftemper that raged in the army, he went immediately to Genoa, where he ar rived on the ninth of February, and where he illued proclamations for re-establishing confidence among the troops and the inhabitants of the city and territory of Genoa, all in a state of infurrection. He made fome examples of military juftice among the former, and fet himfelf to calm the latter, firft by modes of conciliation, but finally by force, which he was obliged to employ against the revolted Ligu rian pealants. The army, which had been stated by the French minifter at fixty thoufand men, was reduced to twenty-five thousand, according to the account given of it by Malena; and of thefe, according to the report of one of the [N2] generals generals who ferved under him not above a half was fit for active duty. The horror, excited by the hofpitals, was fuch, that not a few of the fick foldiers remained at their own quarters, and chofe rather to die there, then fuffer themfelves to be carried into fuch a doleful and dreadful manfion. There were others who, no longer able to fupport themfelves under multiplied and long continued privations, threw themselves into the ftreets from their windows. The lotes were not lefs that arofe from defertion. Numbers of officers were to be feen, in fmall-bodies, remaining at their pofts alone, and abandoned by their men. Whole bodies of the foldiery went off without their commanders, and without orders: and there were general officers too who left the army, without taking leave or obtaining permillion. And thus, on the whole, according to the account of the general officer we have alluded to, and whofe evidence is worthy of all report, the French army of Italy in the intermediate winter, between the campaigns of 1799 and 1800, loft, by ficknels and defertion, near thirty thousand men. In this fituation of affairs Maffena perceived the neceflity of new modelling his army. He lent back to France fome officers, and among thefe even fome general officers, on the pretext of recruiting. While he was under the neceflity of getting rid of fome of his generals, he called to Genoa others in their room, from the army of Italy, in whom he could confide, in which number was generals Soult, Audinot, Gazau, Thureau, and others.In the midt of that want and ination in which the people and the army vegetated in Liguria, what gave general Maffena particular pain, was his inability to throw provisions either into Gavi or Savona. But fome hips laden with grain being arrived at Genoa, in the courte of trade, on the twentyfirst of March, he loft no time to take advantage of this circumftance. He revictualled Gavi for three months, and repaired the works. He next turned his attention to the fate of the marine. He armed and fitted out fome privateers, for efcorting the convoys of provifions that were coming along the coaft, and for bringing grain from Corfica. He also made feveral changes in the civil adminiftration of the Ligurian republic. In the midft of general Massena's efforts to palliate to many irrepara ble evils, all of a fudden, and at once, the English fleet, under lord Keith, appeared, on the fifth of April, in the gulf, off Genoa, for the blockade of which it was drawn up in all the regular forms; while on the other hand the army of general Melas, approached clofe to the city by land, and extended its front along the whole line of the French army. The French generals themselves admit that the opening of the campaign, by general Melas, was entitied to the highest praife, on account of the addrefs with which he concealed the im menfe force which he had in Italy. Being well acquainted with the weak ftate of the republican army, he contented himself, during the winter, with watching its movements, by means of a fimple and flight cordon; while he difpofed his own throughout Piedmont, Lombardy, the Venetian ftate, the Bolognefe, the march of Ancona and Tufcany. Thus Thus divided, the Auftrian army according to local circumftances, and the genius and combinations of the chief commander. But the divifions of his army, being extended on a line of fixty miles, to draw. them clofe together was a very dif ficult matter. had the appearance of weaknefs; but it pofleffed all the means of being eafily recruited, and provided with all things neceliary for action. The reinforcements which it received, from time to time, during its long repofe, were in like manner difperfed over an immenfe extnt of country, and were fcarcely to be perceived. On the whole, the French were perfuaded that it would be late in the feafon before the Aufirians could take the field. They even flattered themselves that they fhould be beforehand with the enemy, at the very time when the different corps, that were to compole the Auftrian armies, were on their march to the general rendezvous. Cities, towns, and villages, all at once, as by a fpontaneous movement, fent forth companies, regiments, and battalions, for the formation of an active army. In a few days, general Melas was enabled to alleinble ten thousand men before Bobbio, ten thousand in front of Tortona, thirty thoufand at Acqui and Alexandria, to advance with this great force against Maffena, and, at the fame time, to leave behind Lim, in the plains of Piedmont, the whole of his cavalry, a fine park of artillery, and twenty thousand infantry. The aftonishment, excited by all these circumftances, was great and univerfal. Maffena adopted the only meafure that was prudent and practicable in his fituation. He contracted his lines; he formed mafies, which, though altogether difproportioned to the numerous bodies to which they were oppofed, might yet make an impreffion, and divide the enemy, by darting upon them at points favourable to an attack, and obtaining different advantages, The bufinefs of covering the city of Genoa was undertaken by Malfena himself, at the head of one of his divifions; but the right wing of general Melas's arany, which bore principally on Vado and Savona, took Vado on the fecond day of the fiege, and, by this movement, ifolated the right wing of the army under the orders of Maffena. It will here be proper, before entering more particularly into the fiege of Genoa, to give fome account of the manner in which the army of Genoa, being the right wing of the French army of Italy, was compofed, and alfo of the different points or posts in which the different divifions were ftationed.—The commander-in-chief of this army was Mullena. His head-quarters were at Genoa. The officers of his ftaff were as follows: Audinot, general of divifion, was the first general of the flaff; major-general Ardneux, adjutant-general. Thiebault, Reille, Gautier, and Campana, adjutants-general, employed by the commander-in-chief. Degiovani, Ottovi, and Nerco, adjutants-general, employed by the staff. Aubernon, infpector-general. La Martilliere, commander-inchief of the artillery. S-bille, commander of the naval force. Moré, commander of the corps of engineers. The first divifion of the army, confifting of four thousand two hun [N3] dred of that day the French were driven as far back as Ruha, which they entered in the evening. At Bergodi-Sernoni, the Auftrians made an attempt to break the French line, but were repulied by general Panifot of the fecond divifion; as they also were on the heights of Cordi bona, where the French firmly maintained their ground. The fecond day of the fiege, the fixth of April, was more terrible. A general attack on the right of the French line was made by general Otto, who fell on the first divifion, with ten thoufand' men, in front of Bobbio. His object was to cut his way through the French line, and prefs on directly to Genoa. The principal attack was made at Monte Coruña, The firft divifion was. forced to give way, and to fall back towards Novi and Monte Jaccio, as far as Quinto, where he rallied, and made a fuccefful ftand for the defence of the city. The fecond divifion, which was that of the cen tre, was alfo attacked, though with fomewhat lefs fury. General Gazau, who commanded, thought it prudent, however, to retire behind the Scrivia, towards fome mills on that river. While thefe events were paffing in the first and fecond divi. fions, the third commanded on that day by general Gardanne, fuftained a terrible conflict. Of the thirty thousand men whom general Melas had allembled in the province of Acqui, twenty thou and marched under his command to Savona: where the third divifion, though but weak, with food the flock, till the arrival of general Soult, who d played attonithing valour. He fucceed d in throwing fix hundred men and provifions into Savona; but could not fave Vado, as has been been already related, nor prevent commander-in-chief to Genoa was triumphant. On the fame day, the fecond divifion retook Rongo di Fornari, Cazella, and Savigone, which the Auftrians had taken on the day before; and the third divifion, being that on the left, fet to rights and restored the line from Voraggio to Campani. the divifion under Suchet from being cut off, as alfo already noticed, and entirely feparated from the army of Genoa. On the fame day, a frigate, from lord Keith's fleet, came within cannon-fhot of Geno, and, after firing forty rounds on the quarter of Conignor, again withdrew. The object of this cannonade was, no doubt, to effect a rifing among the numerous inhabitants of that quarter: however, they remained quiet, The third day of the fiege, the feventh of April, was more aufpicious to the French. The Auftrians having come within the fight of Genoa, by the occupancy of Monte Jaccio, of which they had gained poffeffion the preceding evening, lighted up fires in the night, and founded the tocfins in all the adjacent country, in order to alarm the inhabitants of Genoa. and, on their first appearance, to damp their fpirits, by an impreffion of terror on their imagination. Maffena perceived how neceffary it was for him, in thefe circunftances, to gain fome victories over the Auftrians, in fight of the Genoefe, in order to do away the impreffions that had been made on their minds, by the first advantages obtained by the Auftrians. He therefore formed a plan, and gave orders for an attack on that part of the Auftrian army and his measures were fo well concerted with the generals Darnaud, Miolis, Pelitot, Hector, and others, that they overthrew the Auftrians at Monte Jaccio, at Panefi, at St. Alberto, and at Scofera; and general Miolis gain took poffeffion of Monte Coruna. The Auftrians on this day loft fifteen hundred prifoners, among whom was the baron d'Afpres; and the return of the April 8. The whole of this day was taken up, on both fides, in general and particular difpofitions of the forces. General Melas ma le difpofitions for new attacks. Maf-· fena, in the general difpofitions which he made, divided his right wing into two bodies: the fit of which, under the orders of Miolis and d'Arnaud, was charged with the defence of Genoa; the fecond, under the orders of Gazau, Gardanne, and Sout, were to keep the country. The particular difpofitions that refpected the first divifion, under general Miolis were all the instructions that were neceffary for defending the approaches to the city of Genoa; and the orders given to the commindant of marine, were to follow with the flotilla, as far, at leaft, as was poffible, the movement projected by the commander-in-chief, in order to defend the tranfports against the fmall craft of the Engl fh. This was not the blockade of a fingle place abandoned to itself. It was the right wing of the French army of Italy completely cut off, which, while it maintained its ground, and defended and fupported itfell, gave time to the left wing and the centre to let themfelves in motion, and to undertake, with the whole energy of which they were fufceptible, fome decifive enterprize. The enemy lamielf, numerous and frong as he was, was not in a condi{N+] tion |
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