Napoleon's Italian Campaign (1796)

Background. The Italian campaign of 1796–1797 was a series of military operations in Italy during the War of the First Coalition. After opening victories that knocked Piedmont-Sardinia out of the Coalition, the focus of Napoleon's war shifted in June 1796 to the long and difficult siege of Mantua, which the French would blockade while defeating four Austrian relief efforts from August 1796 to January 1797.

Wurmser's First Relief Attempt. The first relief of Mantua culminated in the Battle of Castiglione on 5 August 1796, where the French Army of Italy under General Napoleon Bonaparte attacked a Habsburg army led by Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser. The battle marked the end of four months of rapid French advances across Northern Italy, and the front lines remained anchored around Mantua until its fall in February 1797.

Second Relief and Bassano. The second relief of Mantua ended with the Battle of Bassano, fought on 8 September 1796 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 Castiglione and Bassano campaign orders of battle record the French and Austrian units engaged during these first two reliefs.

Alvinczi's Third Relief Attempt. On 2 November 1796, Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi launched the third attempt to raise the Siege of Mantua, crossing the Piave River with an army of 28,000 men and advancing west. The ensuing Battle of Arcole (15–17 November 1796) was fought between French and Austrian forces 25 kilometres southeast of Verona, and the Arcola campaign order of battle records the units engaged in this third relief.