thumb|270px|Ponte Novu. The destruction dates to World War II. The retreating Germans solved Paoli's problem of stopping the enemy at the bridge by simply blowing it up.
The '''Battle of Ponte Novu''' took place on 9, French forces under the Comte de Vaux, a seasoned professional soldier with an expert on mountain warfare on his staff, and the native Corsicans under Carlo Salicetti. The 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.<ref></ref>

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 principle 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 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 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.<ref name=rambles></ref>

==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 Genovese but whom Paoli had managed to employ now that the Genovese no longer needed their services. This unit though working for Paoli 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 the French everywhere 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 unwisdom 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 hunted by the French.<ref></ref>

{{Conflitto
|nome del conflitto = Battaglia di Ponte Novo
|parte di = 
|immagine =
|didascalia = 
|data = 8 e 9 maggio 1769
|luogo = '''Ponte Nuovo'''<br />Castello di Rostino<br />Corsica settentrionale
|casus = indipendentismo corso
|mutamenti_territoriali = annessione francese dell'intera Corsica
|esito = vittoria francese
|schieramento1 =  <small>Regno di Francia</small>
|schieramento2 = 22px<br/ >Indipendentisti corsi<br/>22px mercenari prussiani
|comandante1 =  Luigi XV<br /> Maresciallo conte De Vaux
|comandante2 = 22px Pasquale Paoli 
|effettivi1 = 5.000 francesi
|effettivi2 = da 1.200 a 2.500 indipendentisti corsi
|perdite1 = da 400 a 800 morti
|perdite2 = da 500 a 1.000 morti
|note=
}}

thumb|left|200px|Ponte Nuovo, il ponte genovese luogo della battaglia
La '''battaglia di Ponte Nuovo''' (in corso ''battaglia di Ponte Novu'', in francese ''bataille de Ponte Novu''), si è svolta dall'8 al corsi di Carlo e le  armate del re di Francia Luigi XV. Guidati dai granatieri francesi per la strada di Corte, capitale della nazione corsa, questa battaglia sancisce la fine della seconda e ultima fase della guerra in Corsica tra truppe francesi e indipendentisti.

Il ponte genovese che collega le due rive del Ponte Nuovo, luogo di affronto diretto tra le truppe paoliste composte dai corsi e dai mercernari prussiani, le armate francesi rallentarono le avanzata dei corsi a Boccheciampe d'Oletta. Il ponte fu distrutto durante la corsi. Il 13 giugno 1769 Pasquale Paoli sciolse le milizie rimaste e si imbarcò per la Gran Bretagna da Porto Vecchio, l'indipendenza corsa era ufficialmente finita.