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Battle of Rivoli
I have not heretofore attempted to give you any
detailed description of the different battles, the occurence
of which I have had to mention in the course of the
two campaigns with which I have dealt; but the
batttle of Rivoli, at which we have now arrived possess
as a special interest, not merely because in itself
the greatest and most decision of all fought by Bonaparte
in his first Italian campaign ^that was then crowned with
final success, but because of its particular tactical features.
In it you will find illustrated on the field of battle, that is today in Tactics,
the same general prinicple that has so far received such
conspicuous illustration ^ in the strategy of the campaign, viz: The
placing of a central mass, concentrated, in such wise as to beat, in
detail, several hostile detachments, each inferior to
the said central mass, though in the aggregate
possessed of a superiority to it that should have
been decisive. This principle is really as fruitful