It was in fact during the Italian campaigns of the 1790s that proved to the detriment of France’s enemies, Napoleon’s mastery of movement. This ability to execute nearly super-human movements of troops, especially those that were under-fed, under-equipped and generally outnumbered, rested first on Napoleon’s charisma. His ability to rouse the common soldier to Marshal alike is evidenced in his speech to his Army of Italy in early 1796 when he says “Soldiers! You are hungry and naked; the government owes you much but can give you nothing.  The patience and courage which you have displayed among these rocks are admirable, but they bring you no glory—not a glimmer falls upon you. I will lead into the most fertile plains on earth.  Rich provinces, opulent towns, all shall be at your disposal; there you will find honour, glory, and riches. Soldier of Italy! Will you be lacking in courage or endurance?”

Throughout the Italian campaign, Napoleon masterfully moved his beleaguered and very motley army across the breadth and width of the country to stymy and outmaneuver his Austrian and Piedmontese enemies. The actions in Italy also showcased another hallmark of Napoleon’s warfighting methodology that would carry over for posterity. That of divide and conquer.  Napoleon with his much weaker in every category Revolutionary army, recognized that when faced with multiple foes or even that of a single larger army, that if you could split the forces and then concentrate on each in turn, your odds of victory would increase exponentially. Napoleon himself speaks to the importance of this concentration of force when he says “The principles of war are the same as those of a siege. Fire must be concentrated on a single point and as soon as the breach is made the equilibrium is broken and the rest is nothing.”

To give his armies the necessary strength and lethality coupled with their mobility, Napoleon set about reorganizing his forces beginning in 1796 which carried over for the remainder of his career. Consul Bonaparte (then First Consul following a coupe d’état in 1799 followed by Emperor in 1804) added a cavalry division to each army corps, as well as artillery to the existing infantry thus creating a corps d’armée. This mini army would then have greater mobility, while being able to engage and hold larger armies as well as provide tactical support to other corps. The creation of the self-sustaining corps was integral to Napoleon’s war fighting philosophy which he spoke about in 1809 when he said “Here is the principle of war - a corps of 25,000-30,000 men can be left on its own. Well handled, it can fight or alternatively avoid action, and maneuver according to circumstances without any harm coming to it, because an opponent cannot force it to accept an engagement but if it chooses to do so it can fight alone for a long time.”

Napoleon’s creation and leveraging of the corps system would not have been possible without his prodigious intellect. This ability to assimilate information, especially that of martial matters, was so prodigious that even his detractors would remark that “The intellect of Bonaparte was most remarkable. It would be difficult, I think, to find, among men, a more powerful or comprehensive mind.” Napoleon’s penchant for digesting history, especially that of the military exploits of his heroes Frederick the Great and Julius Caesar, paid immense dividends in his leadership methods throughout his career. This along with his incredible work effort (of which he is said to have worked up to twenty hours a day on some occasions) and keen intellect, allowed for Napoleon to analyze the chaos of the battlefield, sift through the unnecessary and arrive at a singular, critical point of solution. He spoke directly to this when he said “There are in Europe many good generals, but they see too many things at once. I see only one thing, namely the enemy’s main body. I try to crush it, confident that secondary matters will then settle themselves.”