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March 1796 – General Napoleon Bonaparte gets the command
in chief of the army of Italy. – 9
March 1796 – Marriage with Joséphine
de Beauharnais in Paris. – 11
March 1796 – Departure for the army. – 27
March 1796 – Arrival at Nice, assumption of command
and first proclamation to the army: Soldiers, you are
naked, mal nourished... I wish to lead you into the most fertile plains
of the world
. – 29
March 1796 – Bonaparte gets the commander of a battle
who refused to march on arrested. He and the main chiefs of the mutiny
will go to the war council.
2 April 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte reaches Menton: the Campaign in Italy begins. – 10 April 1796 – Beginning of the offensive against the Austrian army. – 12 April 1796 – Battle of Montenotte. – 13 April 1796 – Battle of Millesimo. – 14 April 1796 – Entry in Cosseria. – 15 April 1796 – Victory of Dego . – 21 April 1796 – Battle of Mondovi. Napoleon Bonaparte enters the city in the evening. – 22 April 1796 – Bonaparte declares on his agenda that he reprouves the looting committed by a few French soldiers. – 28 April 1796 – In Cherasco, Bonaparte signs an armistice with the envoys of the King of Sardinia without reporting it to the Directory. – 29 April 1796 – Letter to Josephine asking her to join him.
7 May 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte enters Piacenza after passing through Po River. – 9 May 1796 – An armistice is signed with the duke of Parma. – 10 May 1796 – Victory of Lodi. Bonaparte is appointed as corporal by his soldiers. – 11 May 1796 – He requests the Directory to constitute a commission in charge of choosing the works of art to be taken from Italian museums. – 14 May 1796 – He writes to the Directory refusing to share his command with François Kellermann. – 15 May 1796 – Bonaparte enters Milan. In Paris, the envoys of the King of Sardinia sign a peace treaty, whose clauses are more severe than the clauses of the armistice (loss of Savoy and Nice in particular). – 16 May 1796 – Bonaparte orders the communes of Lombardy to submit to the French Republic within twenty-four hours. – 17 May 1796 – The duke of Modena gets an armistice. – 18 May 1796 – Bonaparte announces the leaving for Paris of twenty paintings to the Directory including a few of Correggio and Michelangelo. – 24 May 1796 – Insurrection of the Milanese population. – 25 May 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte represses the movement. The village of Binasco is burnt. Proclamation to the inhabitants of Lombardy to to threaten them with terrible reprisals. – 26 May 1796 – The municipality of Pavia is shot down for having refused to surrender the city, which is left to be looted. – 27 May 1796 – Entry in Brescia. – 29 May 1796 – Bonaparte indicates to the Republic of Venice that the French army will be entering into its territory soon. – 31 May 1796 – Bonaparte personally commands the repression against the farmers of Tortona.
1st June 1796 – Jean Lannes sets fire to the village of Arquata. – 3 June 1796 – Entry of the French in Verona. – 6 June 1796 – An armistice is signed with the Kingdom of Naples. – 7 June 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte meets with the Pope Pius VI's envoy. – 11 June 1796 – Proclamation to the army, against looting. – 12 June 1796 – Entry of the French army in the Papal States. – 16 June 1796 – Letter to the governor of Novi, enjoining him to cooperate. – 21 June 1796 – Bonaparte announces the dispatch of paintings, in particular of Raphael, to the Directory. – 23 June 1796 – Signing of an armistice in Bologna with the Holy See. – 27 June 1796 – Livorno is occupied. – 30 June 1796 – Godefroy Redon de Belleville, consul of the French Republic in Livorno, gets the shops belonging to English, Russian and Austrian subjects sealed. Insurrection of Lugo.
2 July 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte announces a fresh dispatch of silverware, jewellery and liquid assets to the Directory. – 6 July 1796 – Lugo is recaptured and punished. – 25 July 1796 – Pierre-Louis Roederer, in the Journal de Paris, demands for a control of tax collections and the use of the levied contributions in enemy country, without quoting the name of Bonaparte. – 26 July 1796 – Offensive of Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, the new Austrian chief general. – 28 July 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Josephine, who has just arrived recently, and returns to the army. – 29 July 1796 – The Austrians recapture Brescia. – 30 July 1796 – Bonaparte lifts the siege of Mantua in order to reach right in front of the ranks of Wurmser. – 31 July 1796 – The Austrians recapture Mantua; they march over Castiglione.
3 August 1796 – Victory of André Masséna at Lonato. – 5 August 1796 – Victory of Charles Pierre François Augereau at Castiglione.
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September 1796 – Victory of Roveredo. – 8
September 1796 – Victory
of Bassano. – 14-15
September 1796 – Battle of San Giorgio di Mantova. – 17
September 1796 – Creation of the Cispadane Republic,
comprising Modena, Reggio, Bologna and Ferrara. – 19
September 1796 – Lazare
Carnot to Napoleon Bonaparte : Our hopes were surpassed
by the victory of Bassano. Such glory for you, immortal Bonaparte!
.
– 20
September 1796 – Charles-Maurice
de Talleyrand-Périgord returns from America. – 25
September 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte creates the company
of guides (136 men), core of the future imperial guard.
2 October 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte offers peace to the Emperor of Germany, Francis II. – 8 October 1796 – Bonaparte proclaims the independence of the States of the Duke of Modena. – 9 October 1796 – Genoa accepts to shut its ports to the British and pay a tribute, thereby getting a treaty with France. – 10 October 1796 – Naples also undertakes to pay. – 25 October 1796 – The commissioners of the government receive orders to get silverware from the churches of Italy sold, in aid of the French army.
1st November 1796 – New Austrian offensive. – 6 November 1796 – Masséna fails in Bassano... – 12 November 1796 –... and Bonaparte in Caldiero. – 17 November 1796 – Victory of Arcole, after three days of battle.
5 December 1796 – Proclamation of the constitution of the Cispadane Republic. – 6 December 1796 – The city of Carrara tries to revolt, repression is immediate. – 27 December 1796 – The patriots of Bergamo and Ferrara come to an understanding and form a Cisalpine Republic.