Bonaparte’s investigative system is the most widespread, accurate and cost effective legal system in the world, but it would never have happened except for the merest fluke in Piedmont, North Italy, on Saturday, 14 June, 1800.
The first Battle of Marengo was between a French army under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian army under General Michael von Melas. Bonaparte, wrongly believing that Melas would retreat to Genoa, sent General Louis Desaix to cut off his presumed retreat, but Melas attacked at 9 am. Bonaparte sent a message to Desaix: ‘For God’s sake, come back, if still you can.’
Archie Macdonell noted in Napoleon and His Marshals (Macmillan 1934, Prion 1996) that one of Bonaparte’s generals, Nicolas Soult, had been wounded and captured in a skirmish outside Genoa and was taken to an Austrian hospital at Alessandria near Marengo. Macdonell wrote:
All day long on June 14, 1800 Soult … listened to the sound of the guns at Marengo. He knew very well that the fortune of France was at stake, and that the First Consul, by coming over the St Bernard instead of making a frontal attack along the coast route, was staking everything on a single battle. For hours there was no news at Alessandria, but Soult’s expert ear told him all that he needed to know. The bombardment was getting fainter and fainter, and that could only mean that the First Consul was being driven back. A French victory meant that Melas was fatally cut off from Vienna. But the coin had two sides, and an Austrian victory meant that Bonaparte was fatally cut off from France.
By 2 pm that afternoon, Melas had forced the French to retreat for two miles. Macdonell: ‘In the afternoon of that thundery summer’s day the first Austrian wounded began to come in to Soult’s hospital with their stories of victory all along the line, and at 4 pm there was a terrible silence in the east.‘ Rumours shortly reached Paris that Bonaparte was probably dead and certainly finished.
But Desaix had arrived on the field at 3 pm and breezily advised the First Consul: ‘This battle is completely lost, but it is only two o’clock [sic]; there is time to win another.’
Macdonell: ‘[General Auguste Marmont, commanding the guns, had fought furiously all day until he had only five pieces left. Five more were brought up from reserve and Desaix had eight.’
The so-called (at least by the present writer) Battle of Chicken Marengo began at 5 pm with a 20-minute bombardment by Marmont’s artillery. Bonaparte’s monument, the reform of the investigative system, turned on what happened in a few minutes after 5.20 pm. Macdonell briskly reported:
The French counter-attack was, by chance, one of the most perfectly timed tactical operations by combined infantry, artillery, and cavalry in the whole history of warfare… Suddenly, through the dense smoke, [Marmont] saw, not 50 yards in front, a battalion of Austrian Grenadiers advancing in perfect formation to counter the counter-attack, and some of Desaix’s men were tumbling back in confusion. Marmont, whatever his faults might be, was a quick thinker, and he unlimbered his four guns and fired four rounds of canister at point-blank range into the compact battalion, and at that precise moment, while the Austrians were staggering under the blow and an Austrian ammunition-wagon was exploding with a monstrous detonation, Desaix went forward with a shout [and was killed by a bullet to his head], and young [Francois] Kellermann, son of old Valmy [Francois Christophe] Kellermann, came thundering down on the flank, through the mulberry trees and the tall luxuriant vines, with a handful of heavy cavalry. A minute earlier, or three minutes later, and the thing could not have succeeded, but the timing was perfect, and North Italy was recovered in that moment for the French Republic … at eight o’clock … the Austrian surgeons came rushing to their distinguished guest [Soult] with the news of the utter rout of their men.
Bonaparte rightly gets the credit for reforming the investigative system but without Desaix, Marmont and Kellermann, the system might still be a shambles of local variations and interpretations.
Bonaparte, who did not eat before a battle, was famished. His cook, Dunand, invented a meal from the materials to hand, a chicken, some tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, prawns, and a crayfish, all cooked in brandy flames. Today’s Pollo Marengo is essentially chicken, mushrooms and tomatoes.
Austria sued for peace; Bonaparte hastily showed himself in Paris, falsely claimed credit for the victory, and in the breathing space acquired by the Austrian capitulation applied his intellect and energy to drafting a code of civil law.
Our Corrupt Legal System is a print-on-demand book (rrp. AU$35). On request, Australian booksellers can get copies from www.bookpal.com.au. It takes a week or more.
Overseas booksellers get copies on request from local print-on-demand suppliers.
The simplest and cheapest way to get the book may be to order it from www.bookdepository.com, the largest UK online bookseller. They have it for AU$29.87, with free shipping worldwide. They usually ship within 48 hours.
Amazon have it for US$28, plus shipping.
On TT: Quentin Dempster launches this important new book, HERE
