The invasion of Naples was a military campaign of the War of the Third Coalition in 1806. It began when a French army led by Marshal André Masséna marched from Northern Italy into the Kingdom of Naples, an ally of the Coalition against France ruled by King Ferdinand IV. The Neapolitan army was defeated at Campo Tenese and rapidly disintegrated. The invasion was eventually successful despite some setbacks, including the prolonged Siege of Gaeta, the British victory at Maida, and a stubborn guerrilla war by local peasants against the French. Total success eluded the French because Ferdinand withdrew to his domain in Sicily, where he was protected by the Royal Navy and a British Army garrison. In 1806, Emperor Napoleon appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte to reign over the newly formed Napoleonic kingdom of Naples in Southern Italy.
The proximate cause of the invasion was Ferdinand's double-crossing of Napoleon. Wanting to keep things quiet in southern Italy, Napoleon and Ferdinand signed a convention that specified that the French would evacuate Apulia. In return, the Kingdom of Naples would stay neutral in the impending War of the Third Coalition. When the French occupying force marched away, Ferdinand admitted British and Russian armies into his kingdom. In December 1805, Napoleon's armies crushed the armies of Austria and Russia. When the Russian force in Naples was recalled, the British expedition withdrew, exposing Ferdinand's kingdom to French retribution.
Background
Strategy
To defend his possessions in northern Italy, Emperor Napoleon maintained 94,000 men in the Army of Italy in early 1805. The main army under Marshal André Masséna numbered 68,000 men, the satellite Kingdom of Italy contributed 8,000, and 18,000 watched the border of the Kingdom of Naples under the command of General of Division Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr. However, after accounting for fortress garrisons, military depots, and the sick, only 60,000 troops were available in the field. There were 48,000 in the main army, 2,000 performing internal security functions, and 10,000 under Saint-Cyr. Against these numbers, the Austrian army in Italy under Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen could deploy 90,000 men. Charles decided on a cautious strategy in the autumn campaign because he was anxious about events in Bavaria.
Among other things, the Treaty of Amiens of 1802 stipulated that Great Britain must abandon the island of Malta while France had to evacuate the part of the Kingdom of Naples that it occupied. The British politicians soon repented of their actions and refused to give up Malta. Consequently, the French army kept its grip on Apulia in the "heel" of Italy with its strategic ports, Taranto, Bari, and Brindisi. The Neapolitan army of King Ferdinand IV numbered only 22,000 soldiers. Fearful that Saint-Cyr's army might invade his domain, the king agreed with Napoleon to remain neutral during the War of the Third Coalition. The treaty was signed in France on 21 September 1805 by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and Ferdinand's minister Gallo. The accord required the Kingdom of Naples to dismiss all foreign officers from its army and not allow foreign troops to land in its territory. In return, the French agreed to evacuate Apulia. The treaty was ratified in Naples on 3 October.
Anglo-Russian expeditions
Notified of the terms of the treaty and its ratification, Saint-Cyr immediately evacuated Apulia, and his corps marched north to join Masséna's army in northern Italy. Almost at once, Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina reneged on the treaty and treacherously summoned two Coalition expeditionary forces to Naples. Lieutenant General James Henry Craig sailed from Malta with 7,500 British soldiers while General Maurice Lacy of Grodno (1740–1820) led 14,500 Russian troops aboard ship at Corfu. Another authority gave lower numbers, 6,000 in Craig's force and 7,350 in Lacy's corps. The British and Russians landed at Naples on 20 November 1805. By this time, Masséna was in pursuit of Archduke Charles' army. Since Saint-Cyr moved one-third of his command to help besiege the Austrian garrison of Venice, only 10,000 Franco-Italian troops observed the Neapolitan border.
Buoyed by news of the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, Craig and Lacy readied their troops for a march into northern Italy. They were dumbfounded to discover that the poorly managed Neapolitan army could not support any offensive move. Without the help of a large body of allied soldiers, Craig and Lacy felt they could only assume a defensive posture. They deployed their troops at the frontier with the British behind the Garigliano River, the Russians on their right in the Apennine Mountains, and a small Neapolitan force under General Roger de Damas on the Adriatic coast in the east. The Neapolitan kingdom called for conscription, but military service was so unpopular that the army's size only increased by 6,000 men. The authorities even used the dubious expedient of pressing jailed convicts into the ranks. In the meantime, a reinforcement of 6,000 Russians landed.
Napoleon's great victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 brought about the end of the Third Coalition. Czar Alexander soon ordered Lacy to request an armistice and withdraw from Naples. When Craig was informed, he decided that the prudent course was to withdraw the British contingent. These events made the Neapolitan government panic because it knew the kingdom would soon face the French emperor alone. The king understood all too well that he had double-crossed Napoleon. At first, Lacy was willing to interpret his instructions with some latitude. Yet when the Russian general proposed to take up a defensive position in Calabria in the "toe" of Italy, he was rudely rebuffed by the royal court. Insulted, Lacy determined to carry out his czar's orders to leave Naples. Craig first offered to defend the fortress of Gaeta, but its governor, Prince Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal, refused his men's entrance. The British general then suggested that he be allowed to land his troops at Messina. The Neapolitan government rejected this proposal and replied that if he landed his soldiers in Sicily, they would be treated as enemies. Nevertheless, he sailed to Messina after Craig embarked his corps at Castellammare di Stabia on 19 January 1806. There, his men waited on their naval transports until the king and queen came to their senses and allowed them to land on 13 February.
Forces
Army of Naples
In January 1806, Saint-Cyr's corps of observation was redesignated the Army of Naples under the nominal command of Joseph Bonaparte, though Masséna was the actual military leader. Napoleon had persuaded his elder brother to accept Naples's crown, and Joseph somewhat reluctantly agreed. Upset with being demoted to second-in-command, Saint-Cyr was recalled early in the campaign. The army was divided into three wings; the right wing and center were concentrated at Rome, and the left wing assembled at Ancona on the Adriatic. General of Division Jean Reynier led 7,500 soldiers of the right wing, Masséna personally commanded the center with 17,500 troops, and General of Division Giuseppe Lechi directed 5,000 men of the left wing. General of Division Guillaume Philibert Duhesme was on the march from Austria with a 7,500-man division, and 3,500 more were due to arrive from northern Italy. Altogether, Masséna's army would number more than 41,000 men. While the Franco-Italian army was in good fighting trim, it suffered from poor administration. The troops were badly paid, fed, shod, and clothed. This led the soldiers to steal from the country's inhabitants, actions that would have consequences.
A month after the invasion in March 1806, the Army of Naples was reorganized into three corps. The I Corps under Masséna consisted of two French infantry divisions under Generals of Division Louis Partouneaux and Gaspard Amédée Gardanne and two French cavalry divisions led by Generals of Division Julien Augustin Joseph Mermet and Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne. Partouneaux's division included the 22nd and 29th Line Infantry Regiments in General of Brigade Edme-Aime Lucotte's 1st Brigade and the 52nd and 101st Line in General of Brigade Louis François Lanchantin's 2nd Brigade. All regiments had three battalions. Gardanne's division had three battalions each of the 20th and 62nd Line in General of Brigade Louis Camus' 1st Brigade and one battalion each of the Corsican Legion and the 32nd Light Infantry Regiment plus the three-battalion 102nd Line in General of Brigade François Valentin's 2nd Brigade. Espagne's division was made up of a Polish regiment and the 4th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiment in General of Brigade Louis-Pierre Montbrun's 1st Brigade and the 14th and 25th Chasseurs à Cheval in General of Brigade Christophe Antoine Merlin's 2nd Brigade. Mermet's division comprised the 23rd and 24th Dragoon Regiments in the 1st Brigade and the 29th and 30th Dragoons in General of Brigade César Alexandre Debelle's 2nd Brigade. All cavalry units had four squadrons. The corps artillery included six 6-pound cannons, two 3-pound cannons, and five howitzers.
Reynier's II Corps included his own division plus a second division under General of Division Jean-Antoine Verdier. Reynier's all-French division counted the 1st Light and 42nd Line in the 1st Brigade and the 6th Line and 23rd Light in the 2nd Brigade. All regiments had three battalions. Verdier's division comprised the three-battalion 1st Polish Legion and the 1st Battalion of the 4th Swiss in the 1st Brigade and the three-battalion French 10th Line in the 2nd Brigade. Corps artillery had three 6-pound cannons, four 3-pound cannons, and five howitzers. Corps cavalry consisted of the French 6th and 9th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments with four squadrons each.
Duhesme's III Corps comprised Lechi's infantry division and General of Division Jean Henri Dombrowski's cavalry division. Lechi's division was composed of three brigades. Three battalions each of the French 14th Light and 1st Line made up the 1st Brigade, two battalions each of the Italian 2nd and 4th Line Infantry Regiments formed the 2nd Brigade, and two battalions each of the Italian 3rd and 5th Line composed the 3rd Brigade. Dombrowski's cavalry division also counted three brigades. The Italian Napoleone and Reine Dragoons were in the 1st Brigade, the French 7th and 28th Dragoons made up the 2nd Brigade, and the Italian 1st and 2nd Chasseurs formed the 3rd Brigade. Corps artillery deployed six 6-pound cannons and two howitzers.
Neapolitan army
The Neapolitan army was divided into two wings. The left wing under Roger de Damas consisted of 15 battalions and five squadrons, while Marshal Rosenheim's right wing had 13 battalions and 11 squadrons. Damas' infantry contingent included three battalions each of the Princess Royal and Royal Calabrian Regiments, two battalions each of the Royal Ferdinand, Royal Carolina, and Prince Royal Regiments, and one battalion each of the Royal Guard Grenadiers, Royal Abruzzi, and Royal Presidi Regiments. The left wing cavalry counted two squadrons each of the Prince Nr. 2 and Princess Regiments and one squadron of the Val di Mazzana Regiment.
The infantry of Marshal Rosenheim's right wing was made up of two battalions each of the Royal Carolina Nr. 2, Albanian, and Royal Sannita Regiments and one battalion each of the Prince Royal Nr. 2, Abruzzi, German, Marie, Sammites, Apulia Chasseurs, and Calabria Chasseurs Regiments. The right wing cavalry comprised three squadrons each of the Val di Mazzana, Royal, and King's Regiments and two independent squadrons. In addition to the two wings, there was the Duke of Hesse's garrison at Gaeta, which included 3,750 regular infantry.
Campo Tenese
On 8 February 1806, French columns crossed the border, encountering no resistance and throwing the Neapolitan royal court into an uproar. Queen Carolina fled from Naples to Sicily on the 11th. She had been preceded by Ferdinand, who departed on 23 January, even before the invasion. On the Adriatic littoral, Lechi's division seized Foggia after one week. The Italian general eventually turned west, crossed the Apennines, and reached Naples. Masséna's column quickly arrived before Gaeta, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Naples, where Hesse refused to surrender. Since the powerful fortress dominated the coast road, the French commander left Gardanne's division to blockade the place and advanced to Naples with his other infantry division. On 14 February, Masséna seized Naples and Joseph made a triumphant entrance to the city the next day. Ferdinand had left behind large quantities of gunpowder and at least 200 cannons. Reinforced by Verdier's division from Masséna's main body, Reynier's column reached Naples at the end of February after marching on less-traveled roads. Joseph assumed control of the army at this time. He placed all troops in the vicinity of Naples under Masséna, his mobile force under Reynier, and the troops on the Adriatic side under Saint-Cyr. Joseph ordered Reynier to rapidly march to the Strait of Messina. Receiving word that the Neapolitan army was standing to fight to the south, Reynier left Naples and advanced to the attack with approximately 10,000 troops.