Battle of Montenotte

Battle of Montenotte
Part of the French Revolutionary War
Colonel Rampon defending Monte Legino Redoubt near Montenotte, by René Théodore Berthon (1812)
Date 11 and 12 April 1796 Location near Cairo Montenotte,[note 1] Italy 44°24′00″N 8°16′00″E / 44.4000°N 8.2667°E / 44.4000; 8.2667 Result French victory
Belligerents
French Republic	Habsburg monarchy Kingdom of Sardinia
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon Bonaparte André Masséna Amédée Laharpe Antoine Rampon	Eugène Argenteau Mathias Rukavina
Strength
9,000, 18 guns	6,000, 12 guns
Casualties and losses
~200[1]	3,500[2] 12 guns

The Battle of Montenotte was fought on 12 April 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between the French army under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian corps under Count Eugène-Guillaume Argenteau. The French won the battle, which was fought near the village of Cairo Montenotte in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. The modern town is located in the northwestern part of Italy. On 11 April, Argenteau led 3,700 men in several assaults against a French mountaintop redoubt but failed to take it. By the morning of the 12th, Bonaparte concentrated large forces against Argenteau's now-outnumbered troops. The strongest French push came from the direction of the mountaintop redoubt, but a second force fell on the weak Austrian right flank and overwhelmed it. In its hasty retreat from the field, Argenteau's force lost heavily and was badly disorganized. This attack against the boundary between the Austrian and Sardinian armies threatened to sever the link between the two allies. This action was part of the Montenotte Campaign.

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