A recent acquisition by Heritage Malta of one of General Napoleon Bonaparte’s letters to General Louis Desaix (1768-1800) appears to have stirred fresh interest in the brief French rule after Bonaparte took Malta in June 1798.
The acquired letter, dated April 19, 1798, informs Desaix that his commander-in-chief planned to sail from Toulon later in the month.
Different elements of an enormous fleet, carrying men from 10 diverse Mediterranean nations, were to set sail from Toulon, Marseilles, Corsica, Genova and Civitavecchia on their way to Malta before proceeding to Egypt.
The acquired letter, bought for £52,500 (Sotheby’s publicised estimate was £2,000 to £3,000), was one of seven known letters Bonaparte had dispatched to General Desaix in the spring of 1798, instructing him to sail to Malta from Civitavecchia, which had recently become French.
Desaix, who had previously commanded the army of the failed English invasion, had received, until his death in 1800, 54 military missives from Bonaparte.
These dispatches, archived by the army, have been published off and on since 1859.
Malta mentioned twice as meeting point
In the letter, which is to be housed in the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa, Malta is mentioned twice as a meeting point (point de reunion). The communique provides information on the make-up of Desaix’s Italian fleet, including two papal galleys.
This monument to General Louis Desaix in his hometown of Clermont-Ferrand was erected in 1848 in honour of his heroic death in the battle of Marengo in 1800, which the French army won under Bonaparte.Bonaparte orders Desaix to sail from Civitavecchia hugging the Italian coast – via Naples, Messina and Syracuse – to reach Malta.
This was in consideration of Bonaparte’s awareness that Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson, with his British small but faster fleet, was chasing the crossings of the French flotilla made up of 300 vessels, including 13 warships led by the flagship L’Orient.
Prudence, warns Bonaparte, was more vital than adventure. He alerts Desaix to expect orders in four days.
In this letter, there are no details of the Maltese landing, which were eventually issued in a pertinent order to Major General Berthier outside Grand Harbour on June 9, the eve of the landing itself.
An elusive grand convoy
For obvious reasons, this same letter did not mention Egypt as the ultimate destination as this was still a secret, so much so that Nelson with his own fleet had tentatively arrived in Egypt before Bonaparte and returned to water his ships in Sicily, thus allowing the French to make it to Aboukir and disembark 34,000 soldiers; 24,000 infantry men commanded by Generals Desaix, Reynier, Kleber, Menou and Bon; 3,000 cavaliers under General Dumas and over 3,000 artillery men commanded by General Dommartin.
On April 20, Bonaparte was worried Desaix wasn’t going to make it to Malta on time
With these record-breaking numbers, some 300 women – mostly wives and prostitutes − and 167 scholars, besides 1,230 horses and armaments for the Oriental Campaign, were all taken ashore in time before the port battle of Aboukir on August 1, in which most of the French vessels were sunk by Nelson’s fleet, finally having traced the elusive convoy.
Other Bonaparte letters to Desaix
Desaix’s first letter in connection with this campaign was despatched by Bonaparte on April 2, wherein he complains that the Italian fleet was not ready to sail by April 19.
Bonaparte instructs Desaix to procure armaments from Rome and speed up preparations as fleets in Toulon, Marseilles and Genova were ready to move. Desaix’s missing target dates could have been the reason why Bonaparte left Toulon on May 19 instead of sometime in April.
In a second letter dispatched on April 9, Bonaparte still complains of not receiving news from Desaix. He gave the general instructions on army divisions that were to remain in Rome, then also under French rule.
Bonaparte was losing patience. On April 20, he was worried Desaix was not going to make it to Malta on time. He advises the general to exploit coastal winds and sail south close to land.
In another letter on May 2, the commander-in-chief informs Desaix that General Reynier’s division had left Toulon. Desaix’s last letter before the meeting in Malta was forwarded on May 18; Bonaparte informed him that he was leaving on the morrow as he was held back by strong winds.
Final orders on the Malta operation featured General Desaix – having made it to Malta on time – as one of four generals who were trusted with landing their divisions on June 10.
Desaix in Marsa Scirocco
Desaix landed in the south-east at Marsa Scirocco, Vaubois in St Paul’s Bay (from where he proceeded to take Mdina), Baraguey d’Hilliers in St Julian’s and Reynier in Gozo.
These landings had been planned according to a map which was prepared by military engineer Georges Grognet de Vasse, who incidentally later was to design the island’s famous rotunda of the basilica in Mosta.