| Combat of Bobbio | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Italian campaigns during the war of the Second Coalition | |||||||
 Bobbio – view from Monte Penice | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Russia Austria | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Mikhail Veletsky |
 Jean La Poype | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Heavy, incl. 100+ captured[3][1][4] | ||||||
The combat of Bobbio occurred on 21 June [O.S. 10 June] 1799 near Bobbio town in the course of the war of the Second Coalition. In the combat Russian regular battalion from the Jung-Baden regiment and Austrian dragoons from the Karaczay regiment (the commanders of the regiments themselves did not participate in action), together with the Russian Cossacks, fought and won under the command of the Russian Major General Mikhail Mikhailovich Veletsky against the mixed Franco-Ligurian militia of the French General Jean François Cornu de La Poype.[3][1]
In order to strengthen Étienne Macdonald, Jean Moreau proposed to secure the left flank of Macdonald's army from the Apennines, Moreau agreed to send 3,300+ troops from Ligurian Legion of Genoa, under the command of La Poype, along the Trebbia valley to Bibbio. Moreau had about 14,000 left, and Macdonald would have 35,600 men.[1]
Macdonald was not worried about an outcome of the battle of the Trebbia, which was taking place before. He counted Alexander Suvorov to be smaller in number than he was and expected any minute Moreau's troops and La Poype to come out on the flank and rear of Field Marshal Suvorov.[1]
During Macdonald's retreat on 20 June, La Poype's enterprise ended in failure. On 16 June, with 3,300+ Ligurian legionaries, he reached the city of Bobbio, but remained inactive. Having received Macdonald's order to advance, he set out on June 19, but not along the Trebbia valley as necessary, an advantageous direction, but along the Nure; he moved slowly and only on June 20 approached San Giorgio Piacentino. La Poype's movement attracted Suvorov's attention, so that on June 21 he sent back 2 Cossack regiments to cover the army's supply trains. But La Poype did not even think about attacking. Having learned of Macdonald's fate, he withdrew to Bobbio, which at that time was already occupied by Veletsky, sent by Suvorov earlier. La Poype thought to defeat the Russians, taking advantage of the numerical superiority of his militia; but Veletsky himself, with a regular battalion, assaulted and routed him. The Ligurian remnants saved themselves, scattering along the mountain paths in small parties.[1]
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