Montenotte, Battle of

The Battle of Montenotte is fought on April 12, 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 win the battle, which is fought near the village of Cairo Montenotte in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont.

The modern town is located in the northwestern part of Italy.

On 11 April, Argenteau leads thirty-seven hundred men in several assaults against a French mountaintop redoubt but fails to take it.

By the morning of the 12th, Bonaparte concentrates large forces against Argenteau's now-outnumbered troops.

The strongest French push comes from the direction of the mountaintop redoubt, but a second force falls on the weak Austrian right flank and overwhelms it.

In its hasty retreat from the field, Argenteau's force loses heavily and is badly disorganized.

This attack against the boundary between the Austrian and Sardinian armies threatens to sever the link between the two allies.

This action is part of the Montenotte Campaign.