The Battle of (the) Trebbia () was fought near the rivers of Tidone, Trebbia, and Nure in northern Italy between the joint Russian and Habsburg army under Alexander Suvorov and the Republican French army of Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald. Though French forces were moderately more numerous, the Austro-Russians severely defeated the French using the oblique order tactics, sustaining about 5,500 casualties while inflicting losses of 16,500 on their enemies. The Russian contingent was on the right flank of the coalition force and in the center, and it was the Russian units that played the main attacking role; the Austrians dealt with the French on the left flank, and they helped the Russians in the center. The War of the Second Coalition engagement occurred west of Piacenza, a city located southeast of Milan.
In the spring of 1799 the Habsburg and Russian armies ousted the French from much of northern Italy after the battles of Magnano and Cassano and they placed the key fortress of Mantua under siege. Assembling the French occupation forces of southern and central Italy into an army, Macdonald moved north to challenge his enemies. Rather than playing safe by moving along the west coast road, Macdonald boldly chose to move east of the Apennine Mountains, hoping to be supported by Jean Victor Marie Moreau's French army from Genoa. After brushing aside a much smaller Austrian force at Modena, Macdonald's army swept west along the south bank of the Po River. Suvorov swiftly concentrated his Russians and the allied Austrians of Michael von Melas to block the French move, eventually covering around in 36 hours in sweltering heat and heavy equipment. At the desire of Francis II, Suvorov did not receive the expected support from Paul Kray's Austrian corps, which was involved at Mantua. Battling through intense heat for four days (17–20 June), the weary Allied troops engaged the enemy immediately after their forced march (rapid military advance), pushing past the limits of exhaustion. The French units also gradually joined the battle, since they were on the march as well. Suvorov's task of defeating Macdonald was made easier by the latter's physical weakness, as Macdonald was still suffering from the wounds received at Modena and therefore was bedridden, that is why the French command was not as effective as it could have been. Nevertheless, Macdonald was still able to assess tactical situations and subsequently give orders.
Early on 17 June, Macdonald's leading divisions bumped into a 5,000-strong Austrian holding force led by Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz along the Tidone River. Suvorov was more than from the battlefield at this time, but that same day Ott was steadily and rapidly reinforced by the mass of Suvorov's Austro-Russian army and the French pulled back to the Trebbia. Suvorov attacked on the 18th: the equally numbered French managed to hold off the Allied drive but abandoned their positions on the west bank of the Trebbia. On 19 June, Macdonald's entire army of 33,500 was almost concentrated andwith up to 26,000 men fit for combatMacdonald ordered an attack which was poorly coordinated and repulsed at all points by the 22,000-strong Coalition forces. Realizing that assistance from Moreau was not forthcoming, that night Macdonald ordered the beaten French army to slip away to the south and west. The French also had more men to begin the battle with, 19,000 compared to the 12–15,000 of the Russians and Austrians (including latecomers from both the Allied and French sides); however, Suvorov's forced march helped to concentrate superior forces on 17 June. With the forced march to help Ott, a better concentration of forces on the battlefield, and generally his principle of "coup d'œil, speed, impetus",Duffy (1999), p. 17 Suvorov remained one step ahead of Macdonald from 17 to 19 June. On the 20th, along the Nure River, the Allies overran the French 17th acting as rearguard. Macdonald hoped for help from Moreau, but the latter only managed to achieve an indecisive victory over Suvorov's covering force on 20 June, more than from Suvorov. Instead of bringing a powerful reinforcement to the hard-pressed French in northwest Italy, only the crippled remains of Macdonald's army arrived to Moreau. During the Allied pursuit, 7,500 wounded Frenchmen left in Piacenza hospital were captured by Melas. Among them were generals: Salme, Olivier, Rusca. Thus, the total number of unwounded prisoners, wounded prisoners, and missing amounted to 14,500 French; the total number of bloody losses, inclusive of wounded prisoners, amounted to 9,500, of which only 2,000 French were killed, or up to 4,000 or 6,000 killed, as some estimates inflate. Among Suvorov, 1,000 were killed, 4,000 were wounded and 500 were captured/missing. Some authors estimate fewer than 1,000 killed among the Allies, and less than 2,000 killed among the French.
The Battle of the Trebbia, or "The Campaign of the Trebbia" as military historian Duffy titled it,Duffy (1999), p. 90 is one of the great victories in Alexander Suvorov's military career, along with the storming of Izmail. (The "campaign" applies to all operational movements from 17 to 20 June.) French general Moreau referred to the battle as a masterpiece of the military art, with Macdonald, the French general whom Suvorov defeated, sharing the same opinion. Military historians note that if Suvorov had no previous feats in his career, that the Trebbia campaign alone would make him a great commander.
Due to participation of some 3,000 soldiers of the Polish Legions, who were in the nominal service of the Cisalpine Republic, the Battle of Trebbia is commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription "TREBBIA 17 - 19 VI 1799". Macdonald's army also included one Cisalpine dragoon regiment and one Cisalpine hussar regimentDuffy (1999), p. 97 from the Lombard Legion.
Background Coalition successes The War of the Second Coalition in northern Italian began with the inconclusive Battle of Verona on 26 March 1799 between the Habsburg army of Paul Kray and the Republican French Army of Italy under Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer. The subsequent Battle of Magnano on 5 April was a clear-cut victory by Kray over the French, with the Austrians sustaining 6,000 casualties while inflicting losses of 8,000 men and 18 guns on their foes.Smith (1998), p. 151 The defeat was a crushing blow to French morale and prompted Schérer to plead with the French Directory to be relieved of command. Finding his strong position behind the Mincio River outflanked on the north by 12,000 Austrians, Schérer left 12,000 troops to hold the key fortress of Mantua, directed 1,600 more to defend Peschiera del Garda and retreated to the west on 12 April. Two days later, Alexander Suvorov arrived at Vicenza with an Imperial Russian army and assumed command of the combined Austro-Russian forces.Duffy (1999), p. 47
On 27 April, the Coalition allies led by Suvorov were victorious over Jean Victor Marie Moreau's French army at the Battle of Cassano along the Adda River. The next day at Verderio, Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier's division was surrounded and in the fighting that followed the French lost 252 men killed before the 2,700 survivors gave up. The defeats caused Moreau to fall back, leaving 2,400 men to hold the Milan citadel.Smith (1998), pp. 152-153 On 6 May the garrison of Peschiera capitulated to Kray while on 11 May Pizzighettone and 1,500 French soldiers surrendered to Konrad Valentin von Kaim. On 12 May, Suvorov's subordinate Andrei Grigorevich Rosenberg through the blame of Konstantin Pavlovich suffered a minor setback in the Battle of Bassignana,Smith (1998), pp. 154-155 but then Suvorov's troops were victorious at the First Battle of Marengo (Battle of San Giuliano) on 16 May. Ferrara, Ravenna and Milan all capitulated to Austrian besieging forces on 24 May.Smith (1998), p. 156
Meanwhile, 30,000 Allies under Suvorov moved up the north bank of the Po River toward Turin. On the morning of 26 May, Josef Philipp Vukassovich's advance guard seized Turin with its arsenal and over 300 cannons plus large stocks of ammunition. Pascal Antoine Fiorella and his 3,400-man French garrison withdrew to the citadel where they were besieged.Duffy (1999), pp. 8082 Early June found the Allied main body of 47,087 troops under Suvorov, Rosenberg and Michael von Melas camped near Turin. Karl Joseph Hadik von Futak with 9,900 Austrians watched the Swiss mountain passes. Kray's 19,760-man corps was engaged in the Siege of Mantua, covered by 6,122 Austrians under Johann von Klenau at Ferrera. Finally, Suvorov summoned the 19,458-strong corps of Count Heinrich von Bellegarde from Switzerland to Milan where they arrived on 5 June. To face this array, Moreau counted about 25,000 soldiers in the divisions of Paul Grenier, Claude Victor-Perrin, Pierre Garnier de Laboissière at Genoa, Paul Louis Gaultier de Kervéguen at Florence and Joseph Hélie Désiré Perruquet de Montrichard at Bologna. But the Allies were aware that Jacques MacDonald had a strong French occupation force in southern and central Italy.Duffy (1999), p. 84
MacDonald's offensive
On 14 April 1799, the French Directory ordered MacDonald to help the French forces in northern Italy. Accordingly, he assembled the Army of Naples and moved north, leaving southern Italy in the hands of local forces. MacDonald reached Rome on 16 May and Florence ten days later. From there, the safest course was to use the west coast road to reach Genoa, keeping the Apennine Mountains between him and the Allies. However, MacDonald believed that the coast road was unusable for his artillery beyond Lerici and feared that Austrian columns might interfere with the operation. But perhaps the real reason was that MacDonald wished to make a theatrical entrance to the campaign by smashing his way through the Coalition allies. In order to accomplish this, he asked Moreau to march north and east to meet him near Piacenza, an impractical move that would place the Army of Italy in the midst of its enemies. After his passage across the Apennines, MacDonald hoped to crush some of the Austrian covering forces.Duffy (1999), p. 87 As it moved north, the Army of Naples absorbed the divisions of Victor, Montrichard and Gaultier, bringing its total field force to 36,728 soldiers.
On 9 June Suvorov received news from Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz that Victor and Montrichard reinforced MacDonald and that the French captured Pontremoli. Ott commanded 5,000 soldiers that belonged to Bellegarde's corps, but were acting independently near Parma. Immediately, Suvorov ordered Ott to conduct a staged withdrawal to Stradella, but to hold that position at all hazards. The Russian commander quickly made up his mind to move east to confront MacDonald. With the exception of Kaim's division, the Austro-Russian army marched to Asti, reaching there on 11 June. The Allied troops reached the Bormida River near the French-held fortress of Alessandria on 13 June. That day, Suvorov got definite news of MacDonald's offensive. Until then, Suvorov had not realized the French's true intentions. The French command had been spreading false information that MacDonald's army was being prepared to embark and land in Genoa to join Moreau. It took foresight to discern the enemy's true intentions. Meanwhile, a French squadron put in at Genoa on 2 June to drop off French reinforcements. Intelligence indicated that Moreau was about to descend from the mountains. Suvorov ordered Bellegarde's corps to march on Alessandria to keep an eye on Moreau while the rest of his army concentrated against MacDonald.Duffy (1999), p. 85