Army of Naples

On 6 December 1798, Joubert occupied Turin, forcing King Charles-Emmanuel to abdicate, giving up all his continental possessions and retreating to Sardinia.

King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, returning from Naples, ordered a massive attack on the French, but retired to Palermo at the same time.

The army in Rome received reinforcements from Joubert, raising its strength to 29 battalions and 21 squadrons - a force of 24,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 2,000 artillery for a total of 28,000 men, including the garrisons of Ancona and Castel Sant'Angelo.

Finally, the eleven battalions and three squadrons of the far left under Guillaume Philibert Duhesme had orders to push back the enemy at Pescara then follow the river of the same name up to Popoli and there rejoin Lemoine.

To remedy this, Championnet directed a column of 800 men under the orders of battalion leader Maréchal to take the route that goes from Tivoli and Vicovaro around Celano Lake to Sulmona.

There was a small battle between his troops and those of the enemy on the 27th and 28th of December at the crossing of the Garigliano, but the Neapolitans fled in disorder after the first clash, abandoning all their artillery.

Each wing was made up of eight battalions and ten squadrons, while the center occupied Capua and the bridgehead built in haste on the right side of the river.

The San-Antonio redoubt and all of its fortifications fell, but the artillery assault from the walls, which the French were ill-equipped to answer, was so deadly and constant that MacDonald was forced to pull back.

General Rey, whose small infantry column was reinforced at Fondi by that of François Étienne de Kellermann, took the gorges of Itri and pushed the Neapolitan forces that had been defending it back to Gaeta.

Inspired by this success, Rey decided to try to take the city, which was defended by 4,000 soldiers armed with seventy cannons, twelve mortars and amply supplied with ammunition and food and who had access to the seven small ships docked in the harbor.

On January 5, headquarters got news that Lemoine, on his way to Venafro, was being harassed by rebelling peasants - he had only fought one battle against Neapolitan soldiers.

Lemoine, master of Popoli, had waited there several days in hope of news of Duhesme, but because the number of angry peasants grew daily, he moved on to Sulmona and there rejoined Maréchal's column and the 200 men sent to meet him on the 4th.

Meanwhile, after taking Civitella del Tronto, Duhesme marched on the Vomano and on Scuzzano, where he fought two battles against Micheroux's troops.

On the 23rd, it arrived in front of the city, strategically important due to its location at the mouth of the river of the same name and because it controlled access to the only road through Abruzzo that artillery could use.

Adjutant General Jean-Charles Monnier, who stayed near Pescara, was nonetheless fortunate enough to get into the city while Duhesme and Brigade Chief Chariot dealt with the insurgents.

Sessa Aurunca was the main meeting place for the insurgents, who had received orders to and did wage a war of extermination against the French.

Nonetheless, Championnet, whose forces were almost out of munitions and food, refused Mack's offer to give him Capua under the condition of an armistice, in spite of being in such a critical situation.

Championnet met with Pignatelli's envoys in Terano at a time when the situation was turning against him and he regretted not making a deal with Mack.

The divisions of Naselli and Roger de Damas, kept at sea by unfavorable winds, meant to land at the mouth of the Garigliano.

On the 11th of January General Bonnamy, representing Championnet, as well as the princes of Miliano and the Duke of Gesso, agents of the viceroy, agreed to a treaty by which the French were bound to stop at Capua and to pay two and a half million within fifteen days, and the enemies of France must leave the ports of the kingdom, etc.

Captain Ordonneau failed in a second attempt, but Chief of Staff Thiébault attacked for a third time and succeeded thanks to Duhesme's trick of faking a retreat that drew the Neapolitans into an ambush.

At dawn, Fort Saint-Elme, shooting its cannons at the Lazzaroni, gave the signal to march to five columns that meant to enter the city from different directions.

Rusca and Broussier, placed to the left with two thirds of Duhesme's division in two columns, entered by way of the outlying part of Capua and the bridge of the Madeleine and reunited, pushing back the masses in front of them by way of the Fort of El-Carmine, whose walls they had order to scale but which gave up without resistance.

He had to use the roads at the foot of Saint-Elme's Fort in order to take a stand at the Castel dell'Ovo and he was held at bay by two Neapolitan columns.

An honor guard given to San Gennaro, something some Lazzaroni saw with their own eyes, produced an incredible effect and the angry cries changed to "Long live the French!"

A Te Deum was sung in all the churches and the general in chief gave a proclamation calling all Neapolitans to freedom and reassuring them of the benevolence of the French government The order of battle for the army in December 1805 was:[1] The regiments and detachments which served as part of the Armée de Naples included: Cavalry Infantry Auxiliary Troops Artillery