On May
12th Napoleon III, already preceded into Italy by one hundred twenty
thousand of his men, debarked at Genoa, and on the 14th was at
Alessandria, where, near the mouth of the Tanaro, the allied armies met.
The Austrian troops covered a long tract, from Novara to Vercelli, then
extended down the line of the Sesia as far as the Po, and thence reached
the mouth of the Tanaro. Gyulai, seeing the enemy concentrated on the
right bank of the Po, believed that Napoleon. III intended crossing that
river in the direction of Piacenza--as Napoleon I had crossed in
1796--and so massed his troops to the south. At this juncture a portion
of his army encountered the French and Sardinians at Montebello, where
the extreme right wing of the allies was posted. The Austrian General
met with such a determined resistance that he imagined this must be the
centre of the enemy, and felt convinced that he had guessed the latter's
intention; he therefore caused his army to pursue its march southward.
By this movement Vercelli was abandoned by the Austrians and it was
immediately reoccupied by the Sardinians.
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