Battle of Caldiero (1805)

The Battle of Caldiero took place on 30 October 1805, pitting the French Armée d'Italie under Marshal André Masséna against an Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. The French engaged only some of their forces, around 33,000 men, but Archduke Charles engaged the bulk of his army, 49,000 men, leaving out Paul Davidovich's corps to defend the lower Adige and Franz Seraph of Orsini-Rosenberg's corps to cover the Austrian right against any flanking maneuvers. The fighting took place at Caldiero, east of Verona, On 18 October, Masséna won a bridgehead on the east bank of the Adige River in the Battle of Verona. At dawn, the French launched their attack from Verona against Josef Philipp Vukassovich's division. After heavy fighting, the divisions of Guillaume Philibert Duhesme and Gaspard Amédée Gardanne cleared the town of San Giorgio and part of the heights of Veronetta. The French lost 77 dead and 246 wounded, while the Austrians suffered 246 killed and 906 wounded. Archduke Charles was so unhappy with Vukassovich's performance that he replaced him with Franz Seraph of Orsini-Rosenberg.

News that Emperor Napoleon I demolished the main Austrian army in the Ulm Campaign finally reached Masséna on 28 October and he issued orders for an immediate offensive against the Austrian army in northern Italy. Crossing the Adige river with the divisions of Duhesme, Gardanne, and Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor and leaving behind Jean-Mathieu Seras' division to cover Verona, Masséna planned to move forward into Austrian-controlled territory. On that day, the divisions of Duhesme and Gardanne advanced on the left against Rosenberg, while Molitor's and Louis Partouneaux's divisions moved forward against the town of Veronetta. Seeing a mass of French troops approaching, the Austrians abandoned Veronetta and fell back to San Michele. The French mauled Rosenberg's division and forced Johann Maria Philipp Frimont out of San Michele after street fighting. By the end of the day, Masséna's troops closed up to the main defense line of Archduke Charles. The French counted losses of 527 killed and wounded, plus 157 captured. Again, Austrian casualties were heavier, numbering 1,926 killed and wounded, with 1,114 prisoners.

Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen, himself acutely aware of the dire consequences of the fall of Ulm, was planning to move towards Vienna, in order to reinforce the remains of the Austrian army and link up with the Russians. However, in order to avoid having Masséna's men on his heels, he decided to suddenly turn and face the French, hoping that by defeating them he would ensure the success of his march towards inner Austria.

Battle plans

left|thumb|140px|alt=André Masséna commanded the French army.|André Masséna

Archduke Charles had already made preparations for a French attack, occupying the strategic village of Caldiero, through which passed the main Lombardian road ('the Verona road') and deploying no less than 58 cannons and 24 mortars. The Austrian forces were divided into three main groups: to the right, Joseph Anton von Simbschen occupied the heights of Colognola and the ravine of San Zeno, where his cavalry was massed; in the centre, General Count Heinrich von Bellegarde covered the Verona road, holding the entrenchments north of the road as well as Monte Rocca and Ponterotta, to the south of the road; the left was formed by Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen's forces, which extended the Austrian line to Chiavighette and had the detached division of General Joseph Armand von Nordmann cover the Adige in front of Chiavica del Christo.

To the extreme right, Verdier was operating the flanking maneuver as ordered, when he learned that Davidovich had crossed the Adige at Bonavigo and was on the right bank with a part of his troops. Verdier promptly abandoned his initial plan of crossing at Perzacco and instead decided to cross the river right away at Zevio. However, instead of striking at the back of Nordmann's force, as he had hoped Verdier found himself facing the bulk of Nordmann's troops, which soon forced the French back across the river. A third source puts Austrian losses higher than 5,500 and says that the French under-reported their casualties as 2,000 when they must have been at least 5,000.

On 30 October, as a result of the defeat at Caldiero, the Austrians also lost a further 5,000 men and 70 officers (among which there were three superior officers) with their weapons and effects. These men were stationed at Cara Albertini under the command of General Hillinger and were forced to surrender. Although the French had agreed to release the prisoners, the 5,000 men would not be released. Another source gives no casualties or date for the action but wrote that Hillinger was "annihilated".

Strategic aftermath

Archduke Charles began his retreat on the morning of 1 November, leaving a rearguard under Frimont to delay the French. Frimont's mixed brigade, consisting of four battalions and 12 squadrons, was only lightly engaged in the battle. Reinforced by infantry and an additional cavalry regiment, the rear guard put up a lively fight when pressed by d'Espagne's cavalry and the 22nd Light Infantry Regiment.

Archduke Charles steadily retreated, fighting a rear guard action at San Pietro in Gu near the Brenta River on 4 November in which one battalion of the Kreutzer Grenz Infantry Regiment Nr. 5 was destroyed by Molitor's division. Another clash occurred at Valvasone, east of the Tagliamento River on 11 November, where Charles fended off the French pursuit. During the withdrawal, d'Espagne trailed the Austrians with his own light cavalry division, Antoine Digonet's brigade of Verdier's division, Seras' infantry division, and Pully's cuirassiers. D'Espagne managed the pursuit effectively, making Charles believe that he was being closely followed. In fact, Masséna's main body was a three-day march behind the Austrians. Charles crossed the Isonzo River on 13 November.

At the beginning of the war, Archduke John of Austria was assigned to command the army in the Tyrol and the Vorarlberg. He was directed to detach forces under Franz Jellacic and Franz Xaver von Auffenberg to the Danube army. Auffenberg's division was mauled at the Battle of Wertingen and later surrendered at the Battle of Ulm. Jellacic was required to guard the south flank of the Danube army near Lake Constance. Marshal Pierre Augereau's VII Corps ran him to earth in the Vorarlberg. Jellacic surrendered with his infantry on 14 November in the Capitulation of Dornbirn, his cavalry having gotten away. Another brigade of the Tyrol army under Prince Louis Victor Meriadec de Rohan-Guéméné became separated in the retreat and slipped away to the south where it made a dash for Venice. On 24 November Rohan's 4,400 troops were caught between the divisions of Jean Reynier and Saint-Cyr at the Battle of Castelfranco Veneto and forced to surrender. John managed to escape to the east with about 20,000 soldiers Marshal Michel Ney's VI Corps was repulsed at Scharnitz on 4 November with 800 casualties. However, that day, another brigade broke through a pass farther west at Leutasch, capturing about 600 Austrian line infantry. At Weyer on 7 November, Auguste Marmont's II Corps overtook and captured two battalions belonging to Maximilian, Count of Merveldt's corps. Farther east on the following day, Louis Davout's III Corps advance guard crushed Merveldt's column at the Battle of Mariazell. Ney occupied Innsbruck on 7 November and Marmont was heading for Leoben in Styria. Armed with this new information, Charles instead directed his troops' march on a more easterly path toward Ljubljana (Laibach). Massena suspended his pursuit of Charles on 16 November.

Commentary

The battle was a significant strategic victory for the French as it allowed them to closely follow and continually harass the Austrian army as it fell back towards inner Austria. Masséna thus delayed Charles, preventing him from joining the army of the Danube and directly influencing the main theatre of the war. but Frederick C. Schneid called it "indecisive".

Napoleon was more critical of Andre Masséna: ‘(He) has behaved indifferently. He made bad dispositions and got himself beaten at Caldiero’.

Bibliography

Fierro, Alfredo; Palluel-Guillard, André; Tulard, Jean – Histoire et Dictionnaire du Consulat et de l'Empire, Éditions Robert Laffont,
Pigeard, Alain – Dictionnaire des batailles de Napoléon, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2004,
Rothenberg, Gunther E. Napoleon's Great Adversaries, The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army, 1792–1814. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1982
Schneid, Frederick C. Napoleon's Italian Campaigns: 1805–1815. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1998.
Thiers, L. A. Histoire du Consulate et de l'Empire, vol. VI. Paris, 1845–1862.
Hollins, David - 'That Other Battle in 1805: Second Caldiero' in: Bamford, Andrew (ed.) - Glory is Fleeting, Helion Publishing, 2021

References

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