Caldiero, Second Battle of

(1805)

   Fought between October 29 and 31, 1805, the Second Battle of Caldiero was an indecisive Austrian victory over Marshal Masséna’s 43,000 Franco-Italian troops in northeast Italy during the War of the Third Coalition. Austria’s 48,000 men under Archduke Charles were based along the Adige River. Napoleon ordered Masséna to prevent Charles from reinforcing the Austro-Russian armies in Germany. Charles planned a brief action followed by a retreat. The French assault on October 29 reached the entrenched fortifications around Caldiero village, east of Verona. Charles’s planned counterattack early the next day was abandoned because of fog, while Massena’s renewed assault was unsuccessful. The Austrians advanced around 2 P.M ., but failed to break the French center. Charles planned another attack on October 31 to cover his withdrawal, but dawn revealed that Masséna had evacuated the battlefield, so Charles retreated toward Hungary.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Schneid, F. C. Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns: 1805-1815. Wesport, CT: Praeger, 2002;

    Simone, L., et al. Caldiero 1805 Verona: Regione del Veneto, 2005.

   DAVID HOLLINS