Well, I’ve hit another interesting situation. The first quotation is from the work I’m translating. I was impressed by the comment of the 18th Demi-brigade counterattacking cavalry, in some unspecified manner. It was so unusual that I thought I’d check the regimental history. I found it very surprising that such an unusual event was recounted in the general history, but not in the regimental history.

Society of Miltiary and Civilian Writers, Guerres de la Revolution française et du premier empire, (Paris: Plon, 1900) p.

When the Austrian right, engaged with General Bon by Tenco, head the cannon on the side of Saint-George, they feared, with reason, that they would be cut off by the capture of this suburb; and its general ordered a retreat, from which General Bon profited to resume his advantages and to vigorously follow the shaken troops. The 4th Demi-brigade, which had advanced first, killed a great number of Austrians and took many prisoners. While this occurred, General Victor overwhelmed the troops that covered Saint-George and entered into the suburb pell-mell with them. This circumstance gave rise to a wonderful feat of arms. A battalion of the 18th was charged by two squadrons of Austrian cavalry. Not only did the brave soldiers sustain, with much resolution, this impetuous charge, but they pressed, in their turn, the horsemen with such vigor, that all of them were not either killed or wounded laid down their arms and were taken prisoner.

Labouche, Lt., Historique du 18me Régiment d'infanterie de ligne (Pau: 1891) pp. 101-102,

Sahuguet s'engage le premier à droite et se main¬tient dans ses positions vers la Favorite. Augereau s'avance pendant ce temps en remontant le Mincio et arrive vis-à-vis de St-Georges. Wurmser, pressé par Sahuguet et voyant arriver Augereau, dégarnit son centre. Bonaparte s'en aperçoit et ordonne à Masséna de l'attaquer. Victor, avec les carabiniers des 4e et 29e légères, le 8e bataillon des grenadiers et la 18e de ligne. est chargé de l'attaque de St-Georges; cette attaque commence à deux heures et demie. La brigade Rampon (29e de ligne et 32e un moment en réserve, va se placer à la droite de Victor : La 18e ayant ainsi la brigade Pijon à gauche et la brigade Rampon à droite, s'avance dans Tordre suivant : le 1er bataillon, en colonne serrée sur la chaussée, le 2e déployé sur son flanc droit, le 3e déployé sur son flanc gauche. Les trois compagnies de tirailleurs de la 1e couvrent ces dispositions. Les feux par bataillons et demi-bataillons s'exécutent à la voix. La 18 e manœuvrant ainsi, comme à une parade, aborde le village, y entre à la suite des Autrichiens qui la chargent sans succès et qui nous laissent un grand nombre de prisonniers. Rien ne l'arrête, et nos braves soldats, marchant dans le plus grand ordre et au pas de charge, culbutent partout les Autrichiens et les forcent à rentrer dans la place de Mantoue.

You’ll note that the regimental history doesn’t mention anything about the regiment being attacked by cavalry, though it does mention taking a lot of prisoners. Odd situation.

Oh, I used ABBYY’s PDF Transformer to convert the regimental history PDF on Google into MS Word so I could cut this section out and present it here. I did have to touch up the converted passage to correct some letters that the software mis-converted into other symbols. For those of you who are interested in such software I would recommend this software.

George