The First Battle of Reggio was an engagement during the Italian Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars that occurred in Late April 1797. The battle occurred when the Papal States general Flavio Panicucci invaded the Province of Modena of the Cisalpine Republic, a tributary state of the First French Republic. Using action-reaction tactics followed by a sudden attack, General Louis Gabriel Suchet destroyed the Papal army. Those that were not killed melted away into the surrounding lands.
Background[]
French general Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian Campaign of 1796-97 was aimed at driving for the gates of Vienna at Klagenfurt to knock the Austrian Empire out of the First Coalition, and while the main bulk of the French army was in the Rhineland fighting the Coalition, Bonaparte, Jean-Andre Massena, Jean Seruier, Barthelemy Catherine Joubert, Jean Lannes, Louis Gabriel Suchet, and other generals invaded Austrian Italy.
By April 1797 most of Austria's empire in Italy had been conquered. The Cispadane Republic and Transpadane Republic were founded on the wreck of the Austrian fortresses of Modena and Mantua, respectively, and France had military access from the Venetian Republic to further launch offensives into Austria. However, his progress was stalled when Pope Pius VI formed a Holy League consisting of Venice, the Papal States, and Austrian Empire against him. Venice betrayed their agreements, and the Papal States invaded French Italy.
General Flavio Panicucci's Papal army of 5,000 troops marched on the city of Modena, the capital of the Cispadane Republic, and threatened to conquer its small garrison. General Louis Gabriel Suchet, a rookie commander recently promoted to the rank, led his army of 9,000 French troops south from Mantua to relieve the city from this looming and imminent threat. Panicucci broke off his march to the city and withdrew to the town of Reggio, which was a French manufacturing plant. The French pursued and assaulted the town.
Battle[]
The Papal army prepared to defend the city with their Italian Militia, but Suchet was too quick for comfort. He sent his dragoon cavalry into the Papal right flank, devastating the militia there. The other Papal units turned to react to the threat, but fell under fire from the French National Guard. The French infantry moved in and created a meatgrinder, mowing down the Italian miltiamen as they turned to face either the cavalry or the National Guardsmen. The French enclosed a cauldron and the Papal troops were closed by a "V" shaped French line. Panicucci barely escaped, with only four of the general bodyguard unit riding off. Suchet's brilliant maneuvers won the day for France, leaving only 860 French and 4,170 Papal troops dead.
Aftermath[]
The victory was crucial in the defense of Modena, as the survivors of the Papal army deserted and melted away into the surrounding landscape of northern Italy. Suchet relieved a siege of Mantua later that month, defeating a Venetian army in battle that had a similar result to that of Reggio. The Second Battle of Reggio, fought in early May, was almost identical in cause and result to the first one.