Chapter IV.
The First Italian Campaign - Napoleon's Way Of Making War
But Napoleon had much to occupy him besides his separation from
Josephine. Extraordinary difficulties surrounded his new post. Neither
the generals nor the men knew anything of their new commander. "Who is
this General Bonaparte? Where has he served? No one knows anything about
him," wrote Junot's father when the latter at Toulon decided to follow his
artillery commander.
In the Army of Italy they were asking the same questions, and the
Directory could only answer as Junot had done: "As far as I can judge, he
is one of those men of whom nature is avaricious, and that she permits
upon the earth only from age to age."
He was to replace a commander-in-chief who had sneered at his plans
for an Italian campaign and who might be expected to put obstacles in his
way. He was to take an army which was in the last stages of poverty and
discouragement. Their garments were in rags. Even the officers were so
nearly shoeless that when they reached Milan and one of them was invited
to dine at the palace of a marquise, he was obliged to go in shoes without
soles and tied on by cords carefully blacked. They had provisions for
only a mont
