Murat and his Neapolitan army, after his colonel Guglielmo Pepe had unsuccessfully held off the Austrians at Carpi, now found themselves facing them on their own soil. On May 2nd, they attacked Tolentino, in central Italy. It was a massacre: the Neapolitan squares were practically dismantled by Austrian fire, but then came a Neapolitan counterattack. Finally, (unfounded) rumors of popular uprisings in Calabria and Abruzzo reached them, and Murat gave the order to retreat. In a matter of hours, what had been a fine and well-organized army the day before became a disintegrating force due to desertions and disobedience.
