general Moreau wrote, by the telegraph, to the French minifter of war, as follows: "The right wing of the army, commanded by general Lecourbe, attacked the enemy on the twenty-firft of Floreal (eleventh of May), in their pofition at Memmingen. They were completely beaten. Memmingen has been taken, more than two thoufand prifoners have been made, and a great number of dead were left on the field of battle." The accounts of the Auftrians ftate, that the advantage in this action was on their fide. However this may be, general Kray, leaving a confiderable body of troops, under general Mereveldt, to keep up the communication with general Reufs in the Voralberg, retreated to Ulm, for the protection of his magazines there. At Ulm he was joined by general Sztarray, with the troops under his command, and fix thousand Bavarian and Wirtemburg auxiliaries, under the orders of the baron de Deux-Ponts. The main body of the imperial army was pofted at Phuel, half a league from Ulm.This city had a garrifon of ten thoufand men, commanded by general Petrarfch and major Davidovich. General Sztarray, with additional troops, railed the number of the garrifon, which came under his command, to the number of eighteen thousand. The gates were guarded by the auxiliaries. The French were alfo concentrated on the territory of the imperial city of Ulm, near Rheineck, little more than a league from Ulm. In this fituation of the two armies, it feemed that the French were defirous of giving battle to general Kray, who, on the other hand, was defirous to avoid it, until the rein forcements promifed, and part of which were on their way, fhould arrive from Auftria. Six battalions of infantry, of the garrifon of Vienna, were on their march, and to be folk wed by fix more, and five fquadrons of cuiraffiers. The garrifons of the cities in Auftria, Bohemia, and Moravia, we repairing partly to the Danube, and partly to the Adige, on each of which rivers there was to be formed a body of referve. As no inviting circumftances for an attack were prefented to either party, both generals contented themselves with mutual obfervation, while terror and confternation prevailed throughout the circle of Suabia. But this state of inaction and repofe, if it comforted the Auftrians with the hope of fuccours, was ftill more advantageous to the caufe of the invaders, who laid the whole of Franconia and Suabia under fevere contribution, intercepted the fupplies, and took or destroyed not a few of the Auftrian magazines, fupported themselves at the expense of the Germans, kept the grand Auftrian army in check, and on a conftant alert, and prevented generał Kray from fending any confiderable detachment to Italy. In the mean time, the plan of co-operation, concerted between Buonaparte and Moreau, began to be pretty clearly developed. While Moreau ftill made a fhew of directing the main force of his army to the countries on the left bank of the Rhine, he began to detach part of his troops towards the Lake of Conftance: whither he afterwards withdrew with the main body, with an intention to remain on the defenfive, and favour, as much as poffible, the operation of the campaign in Italy General General St. Sufanne, with the divifion of the French army under his command, had always remained on the left bank of the Danube, in the neighbourhood of Geiligen, which was his head-quarters. While the attention of the Auftrians was occupied by a great deal of manœuvring and fkirmishing in that quarter, and other demonftrations of a defign to penetrate into the heart of Germany, and to the capital, ftretched off, by degrees, along the courfe of the Iller, by Memmingen and Kampten, to the Lake of Conftance. By cutting off prince Reufs from general Kray, and keeping the commander-in-chief fo long in check, he had already enabled divifions or detachments, from his army, to get poffeffion of Aufburgh, Lindau, Bregentz, Fieldkirk, and other pofts, which might be confidered as the keys of the Grifons and the Tyrol, through which countries it would now be in his power to communicate with Buonaparte, by this time defcending from the fummit of the Alps into the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. For nearly two months Moreau had fought nothing farther than to amufe general Kray by marches and countermarches, by threatened fieges, and fham irruptions, to alarm the Auftrians for the fafety of the hereditary states, and prevent them from paying any attention to the affairs of Italy. After the battle of Maringo, he was at liberty to act with more enterprize and vigour. The armiftice in Italy did not extend to Germany; and the last, and one of the most important articles in the convention, as above observed, prevented either party from fending detachments to that quarter. This condition was evidently in favour of the Auftrians; but there were other circumftances equally encouraging to the French commander. A fmall body of men remained, organized, at Dijon, after the departure of Buonaparte, and its numbers had been fince very confiderably increafed. This body had already made a movement from Dijon towards a point from whence it could go to the affiftance of either army, and now it received orders to repair to the banks of the Iller; and the very fuccefs and fplendour of Buonaparte's enterprize, raifed the fpirits of Frenchmen to an enthufiafm, which nothing could withftand, that was not in its nature impoffible. The victories, the conquefts, and the pofitions of the French at this time, were indeed fuch as might have infpired a lefs fanguine and volatile nation with confidence in government, political and military, and the genius of France under proper direction.Switzerland was in their hands, and formed a moft important point of communication between the armies in Italy and Suabia. They were in poffeffion of both fides of the Lake of Conftance. All Suabia was in their hands. A corps of troops, in Switzerland, was ready to attack the Grifons. A detachment of twenty-five thousand men, from the Milanefe, was marching through the Valtelline for the fame purpofe.The right wing of Moreau's army, threatened the Auftrian pofitions in the Tyrol, upon the north-weft: in a word, the French armies, from the fhores of the Mediterranean to the Danube, and even the Lower Rhine, formed but one compact force, without any points to interrupt their correfpondence, and without any obftacle to their entire cooperation. operation. On the whole, general Moreau being now without any alarm for the army of relerve, or any restraint impofed upon his operations, by a concern for its prefervation, but, on the contrary, ftrengthened by its co-operation on the fide of the Grifons and the Tyrolefe, was now at liberty to unfold the enterprize of his character, after a difplay of the most confummate prudence. He prepared to crofs the Danube, and, if poffible, to bring general Kray to a decitive action. For this laft purpose, on the eighteenth of June, he fent the right wing of his army, under Lecourbe, over the river below Ulm, between Dillingen and the celebrated village of Blenheim: by this movement, threatening to cut off general Kray from his magazines at Donawert and Ratisbon, as well as from his expected reinforcements. The main body croffed at a point nearer to Ulm. The motives or views of general Moreau, in this ftep, he explains in a letter addreffed to the chief conful, bearing date the twenty-fecond of June: "He had obferved," he fays, "that the Auftrian army kept clofe to its camp at Ulm, which gave it the advantage of cafy openings on both fides of the Danube, while it confequently prevented the French from making any confiderable progrefs in Germany. General Moreau had made a movement, in order to induce the enemy to give battle near Blaubeuven, which he declined. Fearing that general Kray might avail himfelf of that movement, in order to advance upon Memmingen, connect himfeif with the Tyrol, and fead down a corps of troops into Italy, that might have very much embarraffed the chief conful, he determined to make general Lecourbe execute feveral manœuvres on the Leck, in the hopes that he fhould thereby force general Kray to march to protect Bavaria; but he continued to manœuvre in the French rear. Imagining that an opportunity was prefented of gaining a confiderable advantage, he made an attack on Moreau's left wing, on the fifth of June, but was fo bravely oppofed by general Richenpanfe and other officers, that he was obliged to retreat with precipitation, and repafs the Danube. General Moreau then formed the project of compelling him to withdraw, or come to a battle." In the execution of this defign, a feries of actions took place for four fucceffive days, on the famous plains of Blenheim or Hockftat; in which the Auftrians loft, in killed, wounded, and prifoners, not lefs than five or fix thoufand men; and the French, at leaft, as was computed, half that number. The Auftrian divifions, under the generals Sztarray and Nauendorf, being cut off from the main army, general Kray was reduced to the neceffity of leaving Ulm to the protection of a garrifon. The blockade of Ulm was now carried on by general Richenpanfe. General Kray, after feveral very fevere actions on the left fide of the Danube, retreated, with his reduced army, to Ingols fladt. To give a detailed account of all the manoeuvres and actions, through which the French croffed the Rhine, eftablished themfelves on the left bank, and drove the main Auftrian army from their entrenched camp, near Ulin, would carry us far beyond our bounds, and would indeed be be the subject of no fmall volume. One circumstance we fhall notice, as curious and interefting in itfelf, and characteristic of that courage and genius which was difplayed by the French in this campaign, and throughout the whole of the war. The paffage of the Rhine was both difficult and dangerous, as the French had neither bridges nor boats, the Auftrians having deftroyed the former, and funk the latter. After feveral actions, on the eighteenth of June, in which the Auftrians were compelled to fall back upon Ulm, general Lecourbe made feveral demonftrations, on that day, on the bridge of Dillingen: but, in confequence of the reports made by his reconnoitring parties, he determined, ferioufly, to attempt the bridges of Grenheim, Blenheim, and Hockstadt. Eighty naked fwimmers to be armed with muskets and knapsacks, which were fent after them, in two fmall boats, took poffeffion of the villages of Gren fheim and Blenheim, and made themfelves mafters of fome pieces of cannon, which were manned by artillerymen, who had paffed over on ladders placed on the wrecks of the bridge. All of them maintained their pofitions with extraordinary courage, while a number of miners and bridgebuilders were employed, under the enemy's fire, in repairing the bridges, over which a force was pafled to oppofe the reinforcements which the enemy were marching towards the points, where the object of the attack could be no longer doubtful. The 94th demi-brigade paffed over after the fwimmers, and boldly fupported themfelves until other parties came to affift them. After the retreat of the Auftrian main army, frem Ulm, general Mo reau took poffeffion of Munich, and laid the Bavarian territories under heavy contributions. The elector was compelled to pay to Moreau a great part of the fubfidy of 500,000%. which he had received from Great Britain. After the retreat of the Auftrian army from Suabia, the French alfo took poffeffion of the principal places in the duchy of Wurtemburg, which, as well as Bavaria, was laid under fevere contribution, and treated altogether as an enemy's country. The duke and duchefs of Wurtemburg, with their family and fuite, retired to Anfpach. The French, at the fame time, by the occupation of Ell-Wangen, became mafters of the whole electorate of Treves. In the mean time, the divifion, under the active and indefatigable Lecourbe, drove the Auftrians from Coire, and the whole of the country of the Grifons. Thus general Moreau, by transferring the feat of the war to Bavaria and the frontiers of Auftria, and by preffing clofer and clofer on the flank and rear of the Antrians in the Tyrol, prepared the way for driving the imperalifts out of that country, left they fhould be altogether furrounded by the army under Moreau, and detachments from that of Buonaparte, through the Valtelline. Still farther to aggravate the evil plight of the Auftrians, an army of thirty thoufand ftrong, French and Batavians, was on its march from the Lower to the Upper Rhine, and ready to pafs by Mentz and Duffeldorf, into Franconia. In thefe circumftances, the Auftrians folicited an armiftice, which, at the defire or advice of Buonaparte, to Moreau, was, on the fifteenth of July, granted. This truce led led to a negociation, which was conducted, on the part of the emperor, by count St. Julian, who, on the twenty-eight of July, figned, at Paris, the preliminaries of peace, on the bafis of the treaty of Campo Formio. On the part of the French, they were figned by the minifter for foreign affairs, the ex-bishop Talleyrand. We have already feen the overbearing weight of thofe circumftances which induced the Auftrian government to requeft a fufpenfion of arms. The fame circumftances urged the neceflity of carrying the preliminaries into a definitive treaty of peace. But if the emperor had grounds for apprehenfion, there were fome alfo that tended to keep up his fpirits, and revive the pride and ambition inherent in his family. A ftrong difpofition to repel the aggreffive and the intolerable oppreffion of the French, whofe exactions were greater in this than they had been in any former campaign, began to manifest itself in all the hereditary ftates, particularly in Hungary. And the emperor, being pressed by the British court to accept freth pecuniary fupplies, had concluded a treaty, on the twentieth of June, by which he became indebted to Great Britain, in the fum of two millions fterling, not liable to intereft before the expiration of fix months from the adjustment of a peace between him and the French. It was alfo ftipulated that the war fhould be carried on with all poffible vigour: and, that neither party fhould conclude a peace that did not also comprehend the other. His imperial majefty, faithful to this engagement, endeavoured for fome weeks to include the British nation in a treaty of general peace; and a temporary correfpondence was opened between the French government and the British court: but it was not productive of a formal negociation. The emperor, therefore, refused to ratify the preliminaries that had been figned by the count St. Julian, alleging withal, that the count, in that act, had exceeded his powers. The French government, towards the end of Auguft, informed the generals of its armies, that the emperor, having refused to fubfcribe to the conditions of the prelimina ries of peace, which had been figne ed by his plenipotentiary at Paris, the government was under the ne ceffity of continuing the war. The armiftice was of courfe broken off, and would cease to have effect, on the feventh of September, at one in the afternoon. The general officers, and chiefs of corps, were inftructed to profit by this interval, to pafs the troops in review, and to difpofe every thing in fuch a manner, that they might be able to march and fight as foon as they fhould receive orders. The emperor alfo iffued a proclamation, on the fixth of September, announcing the rupture of the armistice; which, he faid, had been discontinued by the French, unexpectedly, and without cause. In order to give an incontrovertible proof to his own fubjects, and to all Europe, how much he had their welfare and protection at heart, he had refolved to repair in person, with his royal brother, the archduke John, to his army in Germany. His imperial majefty declared, at the fame time, that he was unalterably difpofed to accept with pleafure any reasonable propofitions, and conditions of peace. The re folution |