In July 2018 I attended the International Napoleonic Society conference in Vienna. Before the conference I first travelled to Innsbruck where I visited the Tyrol Panorama Museum.

This panorama depicts the battle of Bergisel, where Tyrolean rebels led by Andreas Hofer fought Bavarian troops allied to Napoleon. It is an impressive piece of work (people who have visited Waterloo will be familiar with the panorama format.

The canvas is vast at 1000 square metres and dates from 1896. The audio guide was at pains to point out the Tyrolean uniforms depicted were very much a late 19th century interpretation.

The Vienna conference included a visit to the battlefields of Aspern and Wagram. I was struck by the symbolism of the Austrian war memorial in Aspern. It shows the Austrian lion mortally wounded – not a great advert for Austrian military prowess one might think – but look closer, and you can see the wounded lion sits atop a crushed Napoleonic eagle.

The next image shows the famous granary at Essling which the French held as a stronghold. This was poignant for me as the French commander was General Jean Boudet – not perhaps a household name, but it was his division which won the day at Marengo in 1800. I translated his campaign journal from 1800 (published on the Napoleon Series website. You can access it for free here: https://www.napoleon-series.org/military/battles/1800/Italy/Marengo/MarengoBoudet.pdf

We traveled from Aspern onto Lobau Island. At the battle of Wagram the French army crossed over this heavily wooded island and crossed the various branches of the Danube. It must have been a significant undertaking.

From Lobau we visited the Wagram Museum. There were some reenactors there depicting Austrian uniforms.

We also visited an archaeological dig on the battlefield. I hope to discuss this in more detail in a separate post. The archaeologists had recently discovered another grave just before our arrival. This poor soul has a bayonet resting on his leg – and someone else’s leg!

This summer I presented a paper at the International Napoleonic Society (INS conference, held at the Palais Eschenbach in Vienna, Austria.

The subject of my paper was the ‘Marengo Spy’ – the role of the Italian double agent, Carlo Gioelli as described in my latest book. I very much hope the paper will be published by the INS in due course. I was also awarded a Fellowship of the INS by President J. David Markham.

Below are some photographs from the conference.

Terry

I went to the battlefield of Marengo for one final visit in June 2017. This view shows the farmhouse at Marengo as it would have appeared to Austrian troops after they fought their way across the Fontanone Brook. I was there in the morning and the weather was perfect – just as it was described in the battle.

One can see what a formidable obstacle this farmhouse presented, but imagine if you will Rivaud’s infantry battalions drawn up in front of this farm, firing volley after volley into the advancing Austrians.

I will show some other photographs of the farm in future posts. But one can imagine the fate of the wounded who gathered inside only to fall victim to Austrian shellfire.

The fire-fight in front of this farm was described as the most intense of the wars of the French Revolution.

In June 2017 I visited Martigny, a town in the Swiss Valais. Sitting at the foot of the mountains, Martigny is where Napoleon’s soldiers began the climb up towards the Great Saint Bernard Pass in 1800 – destination Italy, and ultimately the battlefield of Marengo.

Having taken the train from Geneva along the north of Lake Leman, I had followed the army’s route, stopping for a few nights in Lausanne (now home of the excellent Olympic Museum). From Lausanne I took the train to Martigny, via Montreux, entering the Rhone Valley at Villeneuve, still following the route of Napoleon’s army 217 years before.

Martigny is an interesting place. It has been important since Roman times, and was a staging post on the old Via Francigena, the pilgrim route from Canterbury to Rome. In 1800 the town became something of a base camp for the army. Walking around the town today the various camps and parks are signposted, as are Berthier’s headquarters and the Maison St Bernard, the house where Napoleon stayed from 17 to 20 May 1800.

This house was particularly interesting to me. It is where the French historian Edouard Gachot claimed Napoleon met a spy called François Toli. Gachot visited the house in 1898 and claimed to have seen various documents which proved this story. I am somewhat sceptical, so much so, I decided to visit the monastery at the mountain pass to consult their archives and search for the document Gachot says he found. According to a document written by one of the monks, Napoleon stayed in his room the whole time he was in the house, seeing no one but his private secretary, Bourrienne. Great silence reigned. There is no mention of a captured spy being brought to this house in the monk’s documentation or in Bourrienne’s memoirs.

I will write about the pass and the monastery in a future blog, but for now, I include some photos of my visit.

T.

“This way to victory” The route and camps of the army are all over town.

My new book was released last week ‘Marengo’, published by Pen and Sword.

The book has a rather long subtitle: ‘The Victory That Placed the Crown of France on Napoleon’s Head’ – this is a reference to a famous quip by General of Brigade Kellermann, who complained he did not receive enough praise and promotion after the battle – a battle in which the charge of his heavy cavalry had ‘placed the crown on Napoleon’s head’ – in Kellermann’s opinion.

Although it was four more years before Napoleon was made emperor of the French Republic (‘given the imperial dignity’ is how they described it at the time), the manner of his victory at Marengo, and the results of the battle and lightning campaign (all of north-west Italy re-conquered in a matter of weeks), startled the world. Marengo confirmed Napoleon’s military genius, and reinforced the idea that providence (or a lucky star) was guiding his career. In short, it was Marengo that gave Napoleon his legitimacy.

The thing is, the full story of this battle has never really been told. The accounts we have read in the past are heavily Franco-centric and heavily edited. Almost like the director’s cut of a movie, whole parts of the battle were cut from the official accounts. So, for nearly twenty years I collected every scrap of evidence I could find. I visited the battlefield in Italy three times. While I searched through the French Army archives at Vincennes, I had colleagues trawl through the Austrian military archives in Vienna. I analysed maps of the battlefield, aerial photography, local history accounts – as much as I could find. And as new material materialised, was translated and analysed, the full story of the battle was painstakingly restored.

In this new account you get to meet the Austrians. You understand why things went wrong for them after such a successful year in 1799. You realised they were not surprised by Napoleon marching his army over the Alps, and even find out about their own operations scouting the Great St Bernard Pass in the early months of 1800, looking, waiting for signs of the French advanced through Switzerland.

Most critically you will learn about the Italian double spy, Carlo Gioelli – an incredible story of treachery, intrigue and daring. At last we understand the full intelligence picture behind the campaign, and how secret intelligence influenced key decisions in the lead up and during the battle.

While I doubt this will be the last written about this pivotal battle, my hope is this book will reset the debate on Marengo. Any future work will need encompass the full range of sources presented here.

I commend to you my work. Pen and Sword have an introductory discount on the book if you order directly with them: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Marengo-Hardback/p/14967

 

I am an author specialising in the Napoleonic Wars, and also the history of espionage and ‘secret war’. Like many people I am fascinated by the past; not to escape the present, but to understand why things are as they are today.

On this site you can follow my latest research projects, and find out more about my books.