Siege of Venice (1813–1814)

The Franco-Italian forces

During the retreat, Eugene had taken care to leave some garrisons in the most important fortresses of Veneto and Friuli he had assigned several forces to the protection of the strongholds of Osoppo and Palmanova in the Friulian plain while he had also decided to strengthen the defences of the city of Venice.^{[10][11][12][13]} These measures, already thought out and prepared in the first half of October, anticipating the retreat of Napoleon's forces, clashed with the harsh reality of the war and the constant shortage of men that afflicted Eugene's army and, more generally, all the other French armies the three additional battalions promised to Palmanova were assigned to the fortress only when the army, now in retreat, stopped near the town while in Venice, where they should have been collected 12,000 men, the desired figure could not be reached even with the reinforcements drawn from the main army.^[10][11][12] However, numerous supplies had been stored in the city, so that it was possible to withstand a siege of over 6 months and numerous defensive works had been set up: in addition to the works already present in the lagoon, floating batteries, launches and gunboats had been placed in all the canals accessible to the enemy; all the entrances had been barricaded with floating poles and buoys and warships protected the access to the harbour mouths. In total, over 330 gun mouths of all kinds had been set up.^[14]

The governor of the Illyrian Provinces, Fouché, had been warned in time by the viceroy Eugene and had managed to leave Venice before the blockade was established and to reach Bologna.^[15] The command of the militias present in Venice was then entrusted to general Jean-Mathieu Séras at his disposal he had in total about 8,000 men, of whom over 2,000 were sick, disabled or unfit to fight. Of the remainder, a significant portion were close to retirement or unfit for long-term service (i.e. isolated soldiers, without equipment or just recovering from convalescence). The last forces assigned to the defense of Venice arrived in Treviso on 1 November and moved towards Mestre only the following day.^[16] On 3 November, this brigade entered Venice while General Schilt, responsible for the Tagliamento department, having withdrawn to Mestre, headed towards the fort of Marghera.^[16][17]

Séras divided his forces into four districts:

• The first district, commanded by Brigadier General Dupeyroux, extended from the Adige to the mouth of Malamocco and included the fort of Cavanella, the works of Brondolo, Chioggia, the forts of San Felice, Ca' Roman, San Pietro and the coast of Pellestrina
• The second district, which extended from the mouth of Malamocco and the Lido , from the islands of Sant'Erasmo and Treporti , from the villages of Burano , Mazzorbo and Torcello to the forts, redoubts and other defensive works at these different points, was placed under the command of Rear Admiral Duperré , who was also responsible for the maritime defence of the lagoon;
• The third district, commanded by Brigadier General Schilt, included only the fort of Marghera, on the mainland facing Venice;
• The fourth district, commanded by Brigadier General Daurier, included Venice itself, Murano, Campalto, Carbonera, Tessèra , San Secondo, San Giorgio in Alga and Sant'Angelo.^[18]

The Coalition Forces

At midday on 3 November, part of General Starhemberg's vanguard entered Mestre, exchanging some cannon fire with the defenders of the place. It was followed the next day by the division of Lieutenant Field Marshal Marchal, to whom General von Radivojevich shortly afterwards entrusted the blockade of Venice.^[19][d] Officially, the role of commander of the siege forces of Venice was entrusted to the Lieutenant Field Marshal on 6 November, although he had already begun to prepare his forces in the previous days, having arrived near the lagoon already on 4 November.^[21]

Initially Marchal had the following forces at his disposal:

• The Rebrovich brigade, which was to cover the southern part of the lagoon. Its headquarters was located at Piove di Sacco. Its forces were distributed as follows: 1 battalion at Cavarzere and Adria , to monitor the Cavanella fort; 1 battery on the Pontelongo canal; 1 battalion with 2 guns at Piove di Sacco; 1 and a half squadrons between Piove di Sacco and Battaglia Terme and between Boara Pisani and Badia Polesine.
• The Mayer brigade, which would have taken care of the central part of the lagoon. It was positioned in Mestre, where it had 3 battalions, a cavalry squadron and 1 6-pounder battery.^[22][e]

Furthermore, the Fölseis brigade, which was mainly responsible for the Legnago blockade, contributed to occupy some strategic positions and to maintain communication between the various detachments. Fölseis's forces occupied Bevilacqua, 3 battalions, 2 squadrons, and 1 6-pounder battery (in the context of the Legnago blockade); they positioned themselves with 2 battalions between Monselice and Este waiting for the arrival of Nugent's reinforcements from Trieste while 2 companies guarded Rovigo and another Rotta Sabbadina. They left a position battery in reserve.^[22] In addition to this, a battalion and a squadron remained in reserve in Padua, ready to support both brigades if necessary.^[22] Obviously, as the months passed and the main front moved, the brigades at Marchal's disposal changed in number and other army units were also added.^[f]

As far as the British were concerned, Vice-Admiral Fremantle's squadron was to collaborate from the sea.^[25] The British forces, initially divided to contribute to the capture of all the other fortresses on the Adriatic coast, such as Zara or Ragusa,^[26] were concentrated towards Venice only later. Initially their contribution to the blockade of Venice was rather poor, if not completely absent in the early stages of the siege, something which Hiller complained about, requesting an active participation of the Adriatic fleet of the Royal Navy.^[27]

1813: The encirclement of the lagoon

Although General Marchal's forces had completed their movements already on 13 November and occupied the entire hinterland surrounding the lagoon, following the orders of Hiller and Marchal, the city of Venice could not yet be considered isolated.^[28][29] Not only did the small contribution of the English navy leave Napoleon's fleet still free to move in the other Adriatic but the strong presence of Eugene's divisions south of the Adige, in the area of Rovigo, a few kilometres from Chioggia, still left a corridor uncovered which allowed the Venetian garrison to communicate with the rest of the army.^[30] The northern part of the lagoon, however, would soon be covered by a detachment of Nugent's forces, which had arrived by sea from Trieste with the support of the English navy. Captain Zuccheri, in command of a company, was instructed to reach the port of Cortellazzo on the mouth of the Piave aboard the ship Elizabeth, to capture the fort and to establish a base at Cavazuccherina, while the rest of Vice-Admiral Rowley's fleet, together with General Nugent, headed towards Romagna and Polesine, where he intended to create a bridgehead for the rest of the army. Favoured by the wind, Zuccheri's men accomplished their mission without suffering any losses and on 14 November they were already marching towards the Sile.^[31]

In the meantime, the first news about the arrival of the Austrians had already caused the adoption of some measures by General Séras: first of all, on November 6, Austrian diplomats were forbidden to enter the city while in the following three days, after the sighting of Habsburg troops in Piove di Sacco, the forts of Marghera and Cavanella and the city of Chioggia were reinforced with a total of1,000 men. The situation, in reality, was much more complicated than Séras could have foreseen: the city's coffers, which he had to use to pay the soldiers and sailors, were already running low. The Austrians' first advances were not long in coming. On November 15, after several days without news from the Cavallino fort , Séras sent a company to verify whether the redoubt had indeed been captured: the men of Cavallino, after having reconnoitered Cortellazzo in the previous days, were attacked by the English and the Austrians, capitulating without even a fight. In this case, it was the terrible weather conditions that prevented the timely arrival of reinforcements, who found the fort already occupied by coalition troops.^[32] In reality, despite the first encouraging successes and the excellent work of Nugent in the Polesine, the Aulic Council, in particular General Bellegarde, was dissatisfied and pressed General Hiller to quickly obtain a capitulation given its commercial importance, they feared that Venice could end up in the hands of the English.^[33]

Soon, the main problem for the garrison of Venice became Nugent's forces the Austrian general, who had managed to conquer several important positions between the mouths of the Po and the Adige, was rapidly closing the corridor that led from Cavanella to Chioggia and which allowed the viceroy to send messages to Séras via Legnago. With the city now almost entirely surrounded by both land and sea, the only way to maintain contact with the lagoon city was to keep this communication route open.^[34] Further demonstrations by Starhemberg towards Boara and Rovigo convinced Eugene that the Austrians were actually attempting to take over the area, cutting off Franco-Italian communications between Legnago and Venice and simultaneously opening Austrian communications with Nugent, who until then had remained separated on the other side of the Po. In an attempt to prevent this from happening, Eugene sent the entire Marcognet division to protect the lower Adige.^[35][36][37] Although for a short time the sending of the Marcognet division had been a sufficient deterrent, the situation did not remain unchanged for long in the first days of December the forces under the command of Marchal attacked the lower Adige twice. They were repelled on 3 December at Rovigo but found victory at Boara Polesine, forcing Marcognet's French to retreat to Castagnaro.^[38][39] The Austrian success quickly led to the occupation of the area, definitively severing the connections between Eugene and Venice and allowing Nugent to finally come into contact with the rest of the Austrian army.^[40][41]

The situation in Venice continued to deteriorate coalition propaganda took hold, and desertions by Italian soldiers, often from territories under firm Austrian control, began to take their toll. Furthermore, after the recent Austrian victories, the grip of the Habsburg forces on Venice strengthened to the point that communication with the mainland was no longer possible. In the northern part of the lagoon, at Treporti, coalition forces attempted two sorties on 2 December and 14 December, but were repelled on both occasions. On 12 December, Dupeyroux attempted a sortie, leading about a hundred men together with Lieutenant Saint-Priest against the enemy position at Conche the operation failed, with the loss of Ensign D'Heureux, mortally wounded. A sortie by the Cavanella garrison was more successful, in which eight men and an officer were captured.^[42][43][44] Rebrovich's men also occupied the Torre delle Bebbe, opposite the French position at Brondolo, not far from Chioggia.^[43]

1814: The slow progress of the Coalition

The year 1814 opened with encouraging news for the French on 6 January some enemy trenches near, Treporti were destroyed and on 7 January a sortie by the garrison of Cavanella was successful, managing to widen the blockade line. However, Dupeyroux failed in his attempt to drive the Austrians from Torre delle Bebbe, despite having attacked the position with over 500 men and 4 gunboats.^[45][46] Further bad news arrived by sea on 17 January a part of General Csivich 's forces, who were besieging Palmanova, temporarily headed towards Grado, attacking the garrison there. The defenders of the fort, left without provisions, embarked that same night, abandoning the fortress, and arrived in Venice two days later.^[45][46][47] Schilt's sortie to Marghera was more fortunate after having chased the enemy from some trenches, the general managed to capture about fifty oxen and bring them inside the fortress. Still regarding the situation of the city's supplies, during the whole month of January, several Italian and French ships, containing cargoes of grain and provisions, docked in Venice.^[45][46]

On 1 February, however, the Italian flotilla of Ancona was reached and stopped in Venice General Barbou, in charge of the fortress of Ancona, recognized that his situation was untenable and took the decision not to compromise the fleet, moving it away from the city in the Marche. A few days later, Dupeyroux attempted for the umpteenth time a sortie against the enemy entrenchments, being again repulsed. At the same time, the forces deployed against Cavanella were increased but there were no clashes between the two sides.^[48] Towards the end of the month, numerous posters were put up by the coalition forces, announcing the recent disasters of the viceroy's forces and promising a return to the previous regime. The propaganda had a notable effect on the Italian soldiers, whose desertions increased considerably during this period. General Séras' forces, already depleted by the disease spreading among his men, were so reduced that he deemed it imprudent to allow further sorties and decided to adopt a much more defensive approach, limiting himself to trying to maintain possession of the positions his soldiers had been occupying for months. Furthermore, among the lower classes of the population the first signs of an approaching revolt emerged but the commander quickly managed to calm the spirits of the city population by acting firmly and publicly punishing some of the rebels.^[49]

After a relatively quiet February, in March the Allies attempted to attack the fortresses defended by the Franco-Italians again. Two attempts were made against the fort of Cavanella on 8 and 13 March 800 Austrians with 5 guns were twice repelled by the garrison protecting the fort. A third attempt on 21 March against the same fort again failed. The fort of Cavallino was also attacked and was skillfully defended by the Franco-Italians on 19 March, the Austrians were repelled and the blockade to which the fortress was subjected was slightly relaxed. Séras, however, sensed that the enemy's efforts on Cavanella would not stop; indeed, that General Marchal would attack again. Since the fortress was too far from other Allied positions to be supported in the event of an attack, Séras had the artillery and ammunition moved from Cavanella to Chioggia during the night between May 22nd and 23rd, eluding the Austrians positioned opposite Brondolo. The commander's predictions soon proved correct: Marchal had ordered Pulszky's brigade, divided between the Bebbe tower and the mouth of the Adige, to concentrate and attack the Sant'Anna fort . Despite the defenders' strenuous resistance, the fort fell. At this point, Cavanella's forces, completely isolated, decided to abandon the fortress and head towards Chioggia, fighting their way through the Austrians with bayonets. Despite their numerical superiority, the Austrians were forced to let them pass. Pulszky later settled in Fossone, opposite Brondolo.^[50][51][52]

On 1 April, the gun emplacement of two boats, which was located in the Tresse canal, after being attacked by 300 men with three guns, was forced to retreat during the fighting.^[50] A few days later, on 6 April, Dupeyroux, seeing himself pressed more closely, feared that the two Italian frigates, the Principessa di Bologna and the Piave, which were in the port of Chioggia, would soon be in danger and could be captured by the English. Taking advantage of the temporary distance from the English fleet, he sent them back to Venice, where they went to position themselves at the mouth of the San Marco canal, positioning themselves alongside the ships of the line Castiglione, Regenerateur and Saint-Bernard. The English then strengthened the maritime blockade of Venice, bringing to this place the three vessels, the Aigle, the Lizard, and the Terrible, and several light ships under the command of Rear-Admiral John Gore.^{[51][52][53][54]}