BATTLE OF MARENGO

ANDRIEU, Bertrand: FRANCE, 1800, Lead-filled Bronze, 68 mm
Obv: Bust of Napoleon surrounded by standards over scene of Battle of Marengo    BONAPARTE PREMIER CONSUL DE LA REPUBLIQUE FRAN.SE
Exergue:  BATAILLE DE MARINGO LE XXV PRAIRIAL AN VIII.
Rev: Uniface
Signed:  ANDRIEU. F.
Lead-filled bronze cliché, part of boxed set
Ref: Forrer I, p. 52; Bolzenthal: "The Triumph of Modern Glyptography"; Bramsen 40; TN 77.3; Julius 801;  Weiss BW394

Prairial is the 9th month of the French revolutionary calendar.
The Battle of Marengo was a major engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars , fought on June 14, 1800, at the village of Marengo in Piedmont, northern Italy. Determined to throw the Austrians back from positions they had recently regained in Lombardy and Piedmont, Napoleon Bonaparte gathered an army at Dijon and crossed into Italy by way of the Great St. Bernard Pass. A surprise attack by the Austrians under Baron Michael Melas (1729-1806) at Marengo caught Bonaparte with his forces scattered. A French defeat seemed imminent until a division that Bonaparte had sent off under General Desaix de Veygoux returned in time to lead a successful counterattack. The French lost about 5,800 men, the Austrians 9,400. (From Encyclopedia.com)

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