Battle of Bassano

The church of San Giovanni on the outskirts of Bassano, Bonaparte's headquarters during the battle

Date	8 September 1796
Location	Bassano, Venetia, present-day Italy
Result	French victory

Belligerents

First French Republic

Habsburg Austria

Commanders and leaders

Napoleon Bonaparte

Dagobert von Wurmser

Strength

20,000

11,000

Casualties and losses

400 killed, wounded or missing

600 killed or wounded,
3,000 captured,
30 cannons, 8 standards,

The Battle of Bassano was fought on 8 September 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, in the territory of the Republic of Venice, between a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces led by Count Dagobert von Wurmser. The engagement occurred during the second Austrian attempt to raise the Siege of Mantua. It was a French victory. The Austrians abandoned their artillery and baggage, losing supplies, cannons, and battle standards to the French.

The first relief of Mantua failed at the battles of Lonato and Castiglione in early August. The defeat caused Wurmser to retreat north up the Adige River valley. Meanwhile, the French reinvested the Austrian garrison of Mantua.

Ordered by Emperor Francis II to relieve Mantua at once, Feldmarschall Wurmser and his new chief-of-staff Feldmarschal-Leutnant (FML) Franz von Lauer drew up a strategy. Leaving FML Paul Davidovich and 13,700 soldiers to defend Trento and the approaches to the County of Tyrol, Wurmser directed two divisions east then south down the Brenta valley. When he joined the large division of Johann Mészáros at Bassano, he would have 20,000 men. From Bassano, Wurmser would move on Mantua, while Davidovich probed the enemy defenses from the north, looking for a favorable opportunity to support his superior. Lauer predicted that the French, having suffered recent losses, would be unable to react in time. Unknown to the Austrians, the French government desired that General Bonaparte cross the Alps to join the army of General Jean Moreau in southern Germany.

...
Wikipedia