Adjusting the Record: Napoleon and Marengo, Part II

Napoleon had, in fact, been fortunate to win the battle of Marengo at all. The morning and early afternoon engagements were indisputably lost by the out-numbered French, and it was only the arrival of Boudet’s division in the very nick of time—the gallantry of Desaix—and the initiative displayed by Marmont and Kellermann, that enabled a considerable victory to be snatched from the very jaws of disaster.

They, rather than Napoleon himself, were the true heroes of the day. Until the arrival of Desaix, it had been a sheer battle of attrition allowing of scant subtlety. The First Consul had, it was true, made wise use of his slender reserves during the late morning phase, and doubtless his inspiring presence helped sustain his men in the firing line, but he was completely responsible for the near-fatal decisions to detach Desaix and Lapoype, for being duped by Melas, and in the final analysis, for risking the destruction of his numerically inferior troops at the very climax of the campaign. The best that can be said for him is that he hung on grimly until help came.