Battle of Ponte Novu The Battle of Ponte Novu took place on May 8 and 9 1769 between royal French forces under the Comte de Vaux , a seasoned professional soldier with an expert on mountain warfare on his staff , and the native Corsican s under Carlo Salicetti . It was the battle that effectively ended the fourteen year - old Corsican Republic and opened the way to annexation by France the following year . The Corsican commander - in - chief , Pascal Paoli , was trying to raise troops in the vicinity but was not present in person . He trusted the defence to his second - in - command , Salicetti . His forces included a company of Corsican women under a female captain named Serpentini . Ponte Novu is a Genovese bridge over the Golo River in north central Corsica in Castello - di - Rostino commune . The battle opened the route through the rugged mountains to the Corsican capital of Corte . The battle is important as it marked the end of the Corsican War and paved the way for the incorporation of Corsica into France . Voltaire , in his " Précis du Siècle de Louis XV " , admiringly wrote about the battle : " The principal weapon of the Corsicans was their courage . This courage was so great that in one of these battles , near a river named Golo , they made a rampart of their dead in order to have the time to reload behind them before making a necessary retreat ; their wounded were mixed among the dead to strengthen the rampart . Bravery is found everywhere , but such actions aren ' t seen except among free people . " Strategy . The French strategy The French strategy was to disembark at Bastia , follow the current course of Route N193 ( built over the old road ) up the Golo River valley and over the passes to Corte , seizing the strategic center of Paoli ' s political power . The Corsican strategy The Corsican strategy was to block the passage at Ponte Novu , a choke point where the road had to cross the river on the bridge . To do this Paoli stationed substantial forces on either side of the bridge . Gaffori was posted to the north above the road at Lento and Grimaldi at Canavaggia . These forces were intended to prevent a build - up before the bridge . To that end the militia was placed on the road before the bridge as well . Paoli had his headquarters at Rostino above the bridge . Tactics . Tactically the battle was something less than a model . Different historians give rather different pictures of the battle , but there are some elements in common . The bridge was actually being held by a unit of Prussian mercenaries which formerly had worked for the Genoese but whom Paoli had managed to employ once the Genoese no longer needed their services . Though working for Paoli , this unit opened fire on Corsican troops trying to retreat over the bridge under pressure from the French . A slaughter resulted from the crossfire , the river ran red and the rest of the Corsican army retreated in disorder . Bodies began showing up downstream . The circumstances under which the Corsicans were trying to cross the bridge and the reasons why the Prussians opened fire and continued with a sustained fire are not clear . The accounts vary on this point but the courage and loyalty of the Corsican troops and their officers are clearly in question , with a suggestion of divisiveness regarding the French . Politically Corsica was not of one mind ( as it is not today ) . Paoli found it necessary to enforce unity by burning the farms and executing the relatives of dissidents to Corsican rule , and everywhere the French were rewarding the cooperation of the Corsicans . In the most flattering account , the Corsicans began the attack , splitting their forces to send 2000 men across the bridge against a much superior force , hence their reputation for bravery . Discovering the foolishness of their choice , they attempted to retreat across the river but for an unknown reason were met by the volley fire of the Prussians . Apparently , the shooters believed they were stopping an unauthorized retreat . Fortifying themselves as best they could , the majority of the 2000 died in the crossfire . Seeing their defeat , the confused troops on the other side retreated in disorder , pursued by the French . A less flattering version accuses Grimaldi of treachery and Gaffori of cowardice . Grimaldi , it asserts , was paid by the French to take no action and Gaffori feared to do so alone . Seeing the French come up with fixed bayonets , the militia before the bridge ran for their lives , attempted to force the bridge and were fired upon by the Prussians in self - defense . The stories are not compatible , but Napoleon himself testified to the defense behind the rampart of the slain before the bridge and he is known to have gone over the battlefield with Paoli in 1790 . One can only presume that Paoli had stationed his best and most loyal troops along the opposite bank and that , seeing the rout , they ran forward over the bridge to rescue the situation . This possibility places the Prussian unit in a very bad light . There appears to be no possibility , in this version , that they kept up a sustained fire by mistake , but evidence of collusion with the French , though a logical circumstance , did not survive . Paoli at his headquarters was then faced with a general rout . It must have been at this time that the coat he brought to England , if genuine , was shredded by French musket balls . Militarily it is striking that he did not tour the front line or station himself behind it as did both Napoleon and Wellington in all their battles . The more inexperienced troops were left to feel that they were acting on their own . In summary , it is probably safe to say that Corsica was not sufficiently unified for Paoli to make an effective defense , his top officers defected , his troops lacked motivation , and he relied on mercenaries of dubious loyalty to save the day against numerically superior and skilled French veterans and professional officers .