On February 7, 1800, the Consulate held a national
vote, on the Constitution of the Year VIII.
(The revolutionary calendar began in 1792, the year of the
proclamation of the republic, so 1800 was the Year VIII.)
More than 3 million people voted in favor of Napoleon and the
new constitution; only 1,500 voted against it. The other two
Consuls had very little power, and Napoleon Bonaparte,
at age 30, had France in the palm of his hand.

He moved into the old royal palace of the Tuileries and
proceeded to reorganize the French Government and fill the
empty treasury. He also mapped out a plan to defeat Austria
once and for all, while making sure French possessions in
Germany, Switzerland, and Italy were secure.

In a bold move, he took 22,000 men across the Alps. Fighting
snow, ice avalances, and winds, he marched horses, troops,
and supply sleds across the Great St. Bernard pass in norhtern
Italy. Finally, exhausted, hungary, and frozen, his army
arrived at Marengo. He had been planning to take the
Austrians by surpise, but 35,000 Austian troops took him by
surprise instead.

Napoleon had sent one of his divisions, commanded by
General Dsaix, on another mission. Now his badly outnumbered
men were taking a beating from the Austrians. By the
afternoon of June 14, 1800, it looked as if Napoleon had lost
the Battle of Marengo in a sea of mud.

Then miraculously, Desaix appeared with his 5,000 men.
"It is three o'clock," he said. "The battle is lost. But we
have time to win another."

The Austrians, who thought the fighting was over, were
completely unprepared for the renewed French attack.
They fled, and the Battle of Marengo became a last-minute
French victory for Napoleon.

Not only was Marengo a military victory that broke up the
Second Coalition, it was a political victory as well.
If Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated there, as he almost
was, his life, and the course of history, might have been
very different.
Taken from an Essay on Leadership
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.


Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
- Napoleon Bonaparte


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