di Levante, and covered on that fide, the approaches to Genoa. Upon this long and irregular line from Genoa to the Great St. Bernard, there were not more than forty thoufand men. From the Var to Genoa there were scarcely twenty-five thoufand, almoft all infantry. Á reinforcement of fifteen thousand men, from Switzerland, or from the interior, were on the march to join the army of Italy. Others were likewife promifed; but thofe which arrived, were few in number, and fo great was the void in the ranks of the French army, produced by an epidemic fever, and by the defertion, that Maflena, in the month of April following, had not more than thirty-five thoufand men in the whole of the extent of the county of Nice, and of the flate of Genoa. The privations, diftreffes, and miferies, in which the foldiers were left, during the rigours of winter, were felt more fenfibly, and fuffered with more impatience, during the idlenefs of winter-quarters, than they would have been amidst the toils of marches, and the tumults of action. Several infurrections broke out among the troops that occupied the territories of Genoa. Companies of infantry, and even whole battalions returned into France with arms and baggage. Buonaparte and Maffena exhaufted their oratorial exhortations in vain. Nothing but fevere examples, and fome hundreds of thoufands of livres extorted from the wretched Genoa, could ftop this contagious malady of infubordination and defertion, which, no lefs than the fever before mentioned, threatened to leave the mountains of Liguria, and the frontiers of France, without defenders. On the Upper Rhine, general Moreau had, by the end of February, made the neceffary difpofitionsTM for the immediate commencement of the campaign. The force under his conand was estimated at one hundred and thirty thousand men: without taking into the account the army of referve at Dijon, under the immedia e orders of Buonaparte, which, it was univerfally believed, was deftined to fupport and co-operate with that of Moreau. Neither the Auftrians, nor any of the politicians of Europe, penetrated the first confuls defigu of marching his army, by the almoft impracticable route, which he actually took, into Italy. The cavalry of general Moreau amounted to twenty thoufand; and he had eight regiments of light artillery, with thirty-two field-pieces, and fixteen arquebuziers to each regiment. His head-quarters were at Strafburg. The right wing of his army extended to the Helvetic Rhine, and he had a confiderable body of troops affembled in the environs of Rheineck. To this quarter he fent a numerous park of artillery, with a corps of pontonniers, fo that there was was every appearance that this wing of his army was to pass the Rhine at this point. The force and the pofition of this army an This however was, if not certainly forefeen, fhrewdly conjectured by two French generals, royalifts, in London, who, when the writer of this, about the middle of March, put the queftion, how it could be poffible for all the invention of Buonaparte to contrive means of fending relief in time to Genoa? replied, that this was not neceffary; that it was poffible, by a wider cordon, to blockade and besiege the befiegers. nounced nounced it to be the primum mobile, of the campaign. His left wing, and his rear, were protected by the forts of the Rhine, Holland, and the neutrality of Pruffia; and the direction of the whole army towards Vienna rendered it formidable to the emperor. An official note from Buonaparte, communicated to the Helvetic government, the rejection of peace by the enemies of France, and at the fame time exprefied a hope of his being able to force them to accept it. Buonaparte, in his perfonal demeanor, began now to aflume a military air, which indeed he had fuftained pretty much ever fince his elevation to the fupreme authority. He reviewed, in the Champde-Mars, all the troops that were in Paris and its vicinity. The French, as well as the imperalifts, every where moved out of their cantonments. Skirmishes between parties of huffars, advanced-pofts on both fides furprized, cannonading from one fide of the Rhine to the other, and the proclamations of the oppofite generals, announced an approaching and terrible campaign. The communication between the Auftrian army of Italy and that of the archduke was ftill maintained by the corps commanded by general Davidovich, which occupied Chiavenna and Bellinzona, and firetched towards the country of the Grifons. Unfortunately we have it not in our power to embellish our narra tive of the prefent campaign with the active fervices of that brave, wife, and virtuous prince, who was obliged to quit the army from ill health, and perhaps fome other circumstances. But a better choice of a commander, to fupply, as far poffible, his place, could not have been made, than that of general Kray, who took the chief command of the army, on the eighteenth of March. But it was remarked, even at this early ftage, as a bad omen, that there was not a good understanding between the general and the minifter at war, count Lherbach; who were both of them quick in their tempers, and of difpofitions equally obftinate and imperious. General Kray received a reinforcement of one thousand Wirtemburghers, and as many Palatines, who were deftined to fupport the Auftrians pofted between Raftadt and Kehl. The different corps of the Wirtemburgh, Palatine, and Mayence, militia were ftationed behind the Auftrian army of the Rhine, at the entrance of the defiles of Suabia, between the river Enz, the Necker, and the Mayne, between Widbad and Pfoutzheim, as far as Heideberg, and from thence, by the Odenwald towards Efchaffenburg on the Mayne, and be tween Frankfort and Mayance, along the Nidda. The Bavarian troops assembled at Doncwert. The first column, Neither the Bavarian troops in the pay of England, nor the Wirtemburgers, nor the militia of Suahia, the Electorate, and Mayence, all of them alfo in the pay of England, are to be confounded with the Palatines, Wirtemburgers, and Mayencers, who were furnished as contingents of the empire; and of whom the firft were ftationed between Philipsburg and Rastadt, and the last on the Nidda, between Frankfort and Mayence. under under the orders of general baron de Deux-Ponts, formerly in the lervice of France, was compofed of Six battalions of infantry, confisting each of 400 men Three fquadron of light cavalry, 2400 300 120 Total 2900 This firft divifion was to be raised to three thousand five hundred men, by a levy of recruits. This corps was reviewed on the fourth of April, and, on the fifth, began their march to the camp of Ridlingen, on the Danube. quire freth renown, by new atchievements. The greater part of the Auftrian troops that had passed the dead of winter, in Alexandria, were now fent to the frontier of the ftate of Genea. General Bertier, on the twentieth of April, joined the army of 80 referve at Dijon, of which he took the chief command, until the arrival of Buonaparte. This army was at leaft fifty thoufand ftrong, well appointed, and in all refpects in moit excellent order. By this time, a detachment of eight hundred Auftrians had taken poffeffion of Mount Cenis. General Bertier, informed of this circumftance, on his arrival at Dijon, reviewed the army, and went directly to Bafle, where he had a conference with general Moreau. It was determined that military operations fhould be begun on the Rhine, on the week thereafter. Intelligence being received that the Auftrians had taken poffeffion of Mount Cenis, general Thureau, fet out from Briançon, proceeded to Exiles, from thence towards Suza, and coming up with the rear of the detachment, which the Auftrians had pufhied forward to Mount Cenis, he obliged them to retreat, and took a part of this fmall garrifon prifoners of war. The fecond divifion of the Bavarian troops paffed a review at Donawert, on the twenty-feventh of April, and had the fame deftination. The corps of the one thonfand Wirtemburghers allembled at Ridlingen, and, together with three regiments of emigrant Swils, were joined to the Bavarians. The particular deftination of the corps of Condé was not at that time known. They had been in the fervice of Ruffia, and had paffed into that of England. They received orders to march to the coaft of the Mediterranean. General Melas, who commanded the Auftrian army in Italy, fet out from Turin on the twenty-feventh of March, and, on the evening of the fame day, arrived in Alexandria, where he established his head quarters, and immediately iffued a proclamation to the army, announcing the opening of the campaign, and exhorting the troops to remember their former bravery, and to acVol. XLII. Maffena, commander-in-chief of the French, in Italy, confidering the miferable ftate of his troops, came to a determination to confentrate the whole of his forces on the river of Genoa. The general fyftem of war, adopted by the conful, was, to keep the whole of the troops together in a mafs on fome favourable points, whether for offence or defence.The reader already perceives his fecret defign, in eftüblithing what, for [N] a blind a blind to the enemy, he called the army of referve, though it was deftined to be the most active, at Dijon. From this central point he menaced at once Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; but thofe countries the most where his attack was not intended. The war in Germany he confided to the ftrong army under Moreau, while he, with the army under his command, fhould go to reconquer Italy, the theatre of his moft fplendid victories. But the first object, in his prefent career, was to arrive in time to fave Genoa, and the unfortunate army of Maffena, which defended that place; the most important in all Italy, to be preferved or to be conquered. The principal object and aim of the Auftrians, who, in the courfe of the laft campaign, had recovered all that they had loft in Italy, was to keep the French armies, in Switzerland and on the Rhine, in play, while they fhould push with all poffible vigour the fiege of Genoa : the poffeffion of which was alone wanting to render them complete mafters of all Italy. This object, which they confidered as now within their grafp, and foon to be accomplished, would have enabled them to bear with their whole united force on Switzerland, by the poffeffion of which, it would be in their power to force the French to keep on the defenfive, on the fide of the fouth as well as of the eaft. Such then, being the oppofite views of the two contending armies, it will be proper to begin our narrative of the campaign with the memorable fiege of Genoa. CHAP. СНАР. XI. Siege of Genoa.-Arrival of Massena there. -Situation of the French Troops, and of the Inhabitants of Genoa.—Changes in the Army, and in the civil Administration of the Genoefe Republic.The English Fleet blockades Genoa, while the Auftrian Army, under General Melas, befieges it by Land. -State of the Auftrian Army; and Military Skill and Addrefs of Melas in opening the Campaign.—Compofition and Pofition of the Army of Genca, or the right wing of the French Army of Italy.-Succeffes of the Außrians. -Revolution of Vado.-Viciffitudes and Progress of the Siege of Genoa.— Conference opened for the Evacuation of Genoa. A Treaty concluded.Genoa evacuated. A FTER the brilliant campaign of Massena, in Switzerland, he was judged by the first conful to be the fittest man for taking the command of the difcomfited army of Championet. From Switzer land he came ftraight to Paris, to receive instructions 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 becaufe 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 ftill 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 fhoes, 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 arrived on the ninth of February, and where he flued proclamations for re-establishing confidence among the troops and the inhabitants of the city and territory of Genoa, all in a ftate of infurrection. He made fome examples of military juftice among the former, and fet himself to calm the latter, first by modes of conciliation, but finally by force, which he was obliged to employ againft the revolted Ligurian peafants. The army, which had been ftated by the French minifter at fixty thousand men, was reduced to twenty-five thoufand, according to the account given of it by Maffena; and of thefe, according to the report of one of the [N2] generals |