Battle of Borghetto

Part of French Revolutionary Wars

Date	30 May 1796
Location	Near Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy
Result	French victory

Belligerents

France

Austria

Commanders and leaders

Napoleon Bonaparte

Johann Beaulieu

Strength

28,000

19,000

Casualties and losses

500

572, 4 guns

The Battle of Borghetto, near Valeggio sul Mincio in the Veneto of northern Italy, took place during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. On 30 May 1796, a French army led by General Napoleon Bonaparte forced a crossing of the Mincio River in the face of opposition from an Austrian army commanded by Feldzeugmeister Johann Peter Beaulieu. This action compelled the Austrian army to retreat north up the Adige valley to Trento, leaving the fortress of Mantua to be besieged by the French.

In early May, Bonaparte's French army won the battles of Fombio and Lodi and overran the Austrian province of Lombardy. Beaulieu evacuated Milan except for a 2,000-man garrison that he left in the citadel. In mid-May, the French occupied Milan and Brescia. At this time, the army had to pause to put down a revolt in Pavia. At the village of Binasco, the French atrociously massacred the adult male population. Beaulieu pulled his army back behind the Mincio, with strong patrols west of the river. He urgently tried to put the fortress of Mantua into a state where it could sustain a siege.

The Mincio River exits Lake Garda at Peschiera del Garda and winds its way south for 30 kilometers. At a point 8 km before it arrives at Mantua, it veers to the east. The river was a maximum of 40 meters wide, but in May the snow-melt from the Alps made it difficult to ford. Between Lake Garda and Mantua there were only four bridges, from north to south, at Peschiera, Borghetto, Goito, and at Rivalta near the bend in the river. Near Peschiera and Borghetto there are a series of moraines that form ridges, which can conceal troop movements. In the area of Goito and Mantua, the terrain is flat. To the north, Lake Garda extends about 50 km to its northern tip at Riva del Garda. Other noteworthy locations are the towns of Castelnuovo del Garda six km east of Peschiera, Valeggio sul Mincio on a hill one km east of Borghetto, Salionze six km north of Valeggio, Campagnola two km southwest of Valeggio, and Villafranca di Verona eight km east of Valeggio.

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