By 1796 Prussia and England had abandoned the coalition leaving Austria alone against France. There were two main theatres of campaign, one in Germany and one in Italy under the command of Bonaparte. This was regarded as the poorer of the two campaigning armies, essentially a ragtag mob, and he was not expected to do well. The authorities regarded him with not a little wariness as he was a rising star and was perceived as a growing threat by those in the top echelons of leadership. However, they needed a general of his quality in charge and this campaign saw him roar forth as an unstoppable, raging bull.
His energy and leadership skills led to a retraining of his new army, making them far more battle-ready and disciplined. In addition, during the campaigning in northern Italy, he allowed his troops free reign to loot, pillage and live off the countryside. This made him popular with them and incredibly popular back in France where war booty was restoring wealth back to a country impoverished by revolution and war6. Furthermore, Napoleon was now recognised as a general and tactician of almost unparalleled brilliance. His armies stunned the Austrians with victory after victory and soon he had thrown them out of Italy altogether - bringing it under French control. He was never far from the action himself, earning his nickname 'the little corporal'. All this had been achieved with a smaller army than their enemy, by a combination of inventive tactics, swift manoeuvering, daring and not a little hard fighting.
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