Crossing the Alps: Napoleon and his Predecessors

The Alps are intimidating mountains. Steep and rocky, they are such a difficult place through which to transport the heavy equipment of war, and such a dangerous place for armies, that they’ve been considered nigh well impenetrable. Few generals have tried to maneuver their troops through the Alps. Those who have done so are famous for it.

Hannibal Barca, the great Carthaginian general, did it in 218 BC. He managed to not only bring his soldiers through, but what at the time was the ultimate war weapon: elephants. Credited as saying “We will find a way, and if there is no way, we will make a way,” Hannibal left behind a bronze stele that stated he brought 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants over the Alps when he arrived in Italy during the Second Punic War. Although pro-Roman writers including Polybius and Livy claimed that Hannibal lost half of his men while coming through Great Saint Bernard Pass, modern historians think otherwise. They suggest that a little as 500 men succumbed to the cold, the hazards of avalanches, and from attacks by local tribes. They also believe that the general passed through the Lesser Saint Bernard Pass, which is further to the west Charlemagne, the great Frankish king who united Europe, also crossed the Alps. In 772 AD, Pope Adrian I begged Charlemagne to chase the Lombards out of Papal towns in Northern Italy. Charlemagne crossed through the Alps using the Great Saint Bernard Pass. Although he brought nothing so big as an elephant, he did have an army of between 10,000 and 40,000 troops. The chroniclers of the time hailed Charlemagne as the new Hannibal.  He besieged the Lombards in Pavia, eventually destroying their control of Italy and giving power back to the papacy. This earned him the title of King of the Lombards.
Charlemagne Crossing the Alps to Defeat the Lombards, by Paul Delaroche Napoleon Bonaparte crossed the Alps in 1800. He had just returned from his military campaign in Egypt when he found that the Austrians had retaken Italy. He decided to launch a surprise assault on the Austrian army and chose the shortest route, which went through Great Saint Bernard Pass, so that his army of over forty thousand men, his heavy field artillery, and his baggage trains could reach Italy before his enemy knew they were coming.

Since the pass was too steep and rocky for wheeled vehicles, the artillery was dismantled at Bourg St. Pierre, the last settlement on the Swiss side of the pass.  Chests, specially made in the nearby villages of Villeneuve and Orsires were packed with the ammunition and iron fittings and loaded on to mules. Teams of soldiers carried the disassembled caissons and the gun barrels. The Army began their passage on May 15. The passage took five days to reach the hospice at the top of the pass, where the prior, father Berenfaller, offered Napoleon a meal in the great reception hall while the monks distributed food to his troops.
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On the other side of the St. Bernard Pass, the artillery was reassembled in the village of Etroubles then moved with the Army into the Aosta valley, where they had to lay siege to Fort de Bard, losing the element of surprise. Eventually, the French beat the Austrians at Marengo on June 14.
Napoleon was determined that people made the connection between himself, Hannibal and Charlemagne. The painting that Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon’s favorite painter, created to commemorate the event features the names of Napoleon’s two famous predecessors carved into the rocks beneath Napoleon’s horse’s hooves. David wanted to make it clear that Napoleon was not just following in the footsteps of his predecessors, but joining them on the list of generals who had conquered the Alpine crossing. The painting, which remains so popular and recognizable today that it is an important icon in popular culture, was reproduced several times, with variations in color and detail, but all of the versions show the French general astride a rearing horse, with the artillery struggling uphill in the background. And while the image is a noble one, it is not at all historically accurate, an explanation of which must wait for another blog post. 
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer who lives high in the mountains of central New Mexico. This summer she hiked around Mont Blanc, crossing the French, Swiss, and Italian borders, and rode a bus through Saint Bernard Pass. The scenery inspired her, and she's now writing a first draft of an historical novel for middle grade readers set in the year that Napoleon crossed the Alps. You can read more about her and her books on her website..