Battle of Lodi

General Bonaparte gives his orders, in The Battle of Lodi, by Louis-François, Baron Lejeune

Date	10 May 1796
Location	Lodi, present-day Italy
Result	French victory

Belligerents

France

Habsburg monarchy

Commanders and leaders

Napoleon Bonaparte

Johann Beaulieu
Karl Sebottendorf

Strength

15,500 infantry
2,000 cavalry
30 guns

9,500
14 guns

Casualties and losses

1,000

3,200 killed or wounded
2,000 captured
14 guns
baggage

The Battle of Lodi was fought on 10 May 1796 between French forces under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian rear guard led by Karl Philipp Sebottendorf at Lodi, Lombardy. The rear guard was defeated, but the main body of Johann Peter Beaulieu's Austrian Army had time to retreat.

French Army: General Napoleon Bonaparte (15,500 infantry, 2,000 cavalry)

Austrian-Neapolitan Army: Beaulieu (not present)

The French advance guard caught up with Josef Vukassovich's Austrian rear-guard at about 9 am on 10 May and after a clash followed them towards Lodi. Vukassovich was soon relieved by Gerhard Rosselmini's covering force near the town. The town's defences were not strong, the defenders were few, and the French were able to get inside and make their way towards the bridge. The span was defended from the far bank by nine battalions of infantry arrayed in two lines and fourteen guns. The Austrian general in command at Lodi, Sebottendorf, also had four squadrons of Neapolitan cavalry at his disposal, giving him a total of 6,577 men, who were mostly completely exhausted after a hasty forced march. Sebottendorf decided that it was inadvisable to retire in daylight, and opted to defend the crossing until nightfall.

One eye-witness (a grenadier called Vigo-Roussillon) stated that the Austrians had men attempting to destroy the bridge, but that the French stopped their efforts by bringing up guns to fire along its length. It should have been fairly easy to prevent a French crossing because the bridge was wooden, and could have been burnt. It was about 200 yards long, and was a very simple structure consisting of piles driven into the river bed every few yards, with beams laid to form a roadway.

The French advance guard was not strong enough to try to cross the bridge, so several hours passed while further French forces came up. During the afternoon, a violent cannonade began, as French guns arrived and were positioned to fire across the river. It has been suggested that Bonaparte was personally involved in directing some of the guns, and that his troops began to refer to him as le petit caporal (the little corporal) because of this, but there seems to be little, if any, contemporary evidence to back this up.

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Wikipedia