Thirty kilometres at the rythm of the march from Scravaion to Colla di San Giacomo: the route crossed by the French colonel Barthélemy Catherine Joubert (Pont-de-vaux, 14 April 1769 – Novi Ligure, 15 August 1799) at the age of the First Campaign of Italy was beaten by the team of twelve Napoleonic re-enactors enrolled in the Demi-Brigade 51 “de Bataille” and 59 “Marengo”. The initiative set up to celebrate the French triumph at the Battle of Loano (23 – 24 November 1795) was managed, last weekend, by the teacher Andrea Puleo (European School of Napoleonic Re-enactors).
Joubert’s parable on the battlefield was embellished by the rapid succession of promotions: sergeant (1791), lieutenant (1792), brigadier general emerged from the vanguard of André Masséna at the first battle of Dego (21 September 1794). Between the 18th and 19th centuries the agreement of millennial monarchies hostile to the new French Republic bloodied Europe. Joubert, leader of the French forces of Italy, was shot to death by the Austro-Russian rival (Novi Ligure, 15 August 1799) under the orders of Suvorov.
The French army, extended to the Polish and Italian troops, placed on the hills around Novi, fought the enemy on the area of seven kilometers from S. Antonio di Basaluzzo to Barbellotta: The French debacle closed the event marred by the news of 12 thousand fallen on the battlefield open to 90 thousand soldiers.
We are for the Mayor Gianfranco Ludovici: the First Citizen laid the commemorative stele of Joubert on the municipal ground of Basaluzzo and, thus, dampened the querelle.
Instead, Novi prefers to celebrate the debacle inflicted on the French by the Austro-Russian coalition commanded by General Suvorov and Joubert’s last breath exhaled at Durazzo Palace.