180] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



generals who served under him not 

 above a half was fit for active duty. 

 The horror, excited by the hospitals, 

 was such, that not a few of the 

 sick soldiers remained at their own 

 quarters, and chose rather to die 

 there, than suffer themselves to be 

 carried into such a doleful and 

 dreadful mansion. There were 

 others who, no longer able to sup- 

 port themselves under multiplied 

 and long - continued privations, 

 threw themselves into the streets 

 from their windows. The losses 

 tvere not less that arose from deser- 

 tion. Numbers of officers were to 

 be seen, in small bodies, remain- 

 ing at their posts alone, and aban- 

 doned by their men. Whole bodies 

 of the soldiery went off without 

 their commanders, and without 

 orders : and there were general 

 officers too who left the ai-my, 

 without taking leave or obtaining 

 permission. And thus, on the 

 whole, according to the account of 

 the general officer we have alluded 

 to, and whose evidence is worthy 

 of all report, the French army of 

 Italy in the intermediate winter, 

 between the campaigns of 1799 and 

 1 800, lost, by sickness and desertion, 

 near thirty thousand men. 



In this situation of affairs Mas- 

 sena perceived the necessity of new 

 modelling his army. He sent back 

 to France some officers, and among 

 these even some general officers, on 

 the pretext of recruiting. While 

 he was under the necessity of get- 

 ting rid of some of his generals, he 

 called to Genoa others in their 

 room, from the army of Italy, in 

 whom he could ronfide, in which 

 number was generals Soult, Audi- 



not, Gazau, Thureau, and others 



In the midst of that want and ina- 

 nition in which the people and the 



army vegetated in Liguria, what 

 gave general Massena particular 

 pain, was his inability to throw 

 provisions either into Gavi or Sa- 

 vona. But some ships laden with 

 grain being arrived at Genoa, in 

 the course of trade, on the twenty- 

 first of March, he lost no time to 

 take advantage of this circumstance. 

 He revictualled Gavi for three 

 months, and repaired the works. 



He next turned his attention to 

 the state of the marine. He armed 

 and fitted out some privateers, for 

 escorting the convoys of provisions 

 that were coming along the coast, 

 and for bringing grain from Corsica. 

 He also made several changes in 

 the civil administration of the Li- 

 gurian republic. 



In the midst of general Massena's 

 efforts to palliate so many irrepara- 

 ble evils, all of a sudden, and at 

 once, the English fleet, under lord 

 Keith, appeared, on the fifth of 

 April, in the gulf, off Genoa, for 

 the blockade of which it was drawn 

 up in all the regular forms ; while 

 on the other hand the army of ge- 

 neral Melas, approached close to 

 the city by land, and extended its 

 front along the whole line of the 

 French army. The French gene- 

 rals themselves admit that the open- 

 ing of the campaign, by general 

 Melas, was entitled to the highest 

 praise, on account of the address 

 with which he concealed the im- 

 mense force which he had in Italy. 

 Being well acquainted with the 

 weak state of the republican army, he 

 contented himself, during the win- 

 ter, with watching its movements, 

 by means of a simple and slight 

 cordon ; while he disposed his own 

 throughout Piedmont, Lombardy, 

 the Venetian state, the Bolognese, 

 the march of Ancona and Tuscany. 



