Battle of Magnano
Part of theFrench Revolutionary Wars
Engraving by Luigi Pizzi, 1799
Date 5 April 1799 Location nearButtapietra, present-dayItaly 45°21′51″N10°59′32″E / 45.3642°N 10.9921°E /45.3642; 10.9921 Result Austrian victory
Belligerents
French Republic	Habsburg monarchy
Commanders and leaders
Barthélemy Schérer	Pál Kray
Strength
41,000[1]	46,000
Casualties and losses
8,000	6,000
class=notpageimage| Location within Europe

War of the Second Coalition:
Italy

50km
31miles

12

Marengo

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Verona

   

  current battle

  Napoleon in command

  Napoleon not in command

In theBattle of Magnano on 5 April 1799, anAustrian army commanded byPál Kray defeated aFrench army led byBarthélemy Schérer. In subsequent battles, the Austrians and their Russian allies drove the French out of nearly all of Italy. This action was fought during theWar of the Second Coalition, part of theFrench Revolutionary Wars.

After theTreaty of Campo Formio, onlyGreat Britain remained at war with theFirst French Republic. However, a heavy-handed and acquisitive French foreign policy soon provoked Austria and Russia, and led to the formation of theSecond Coalition.^[2]

InSwitzerland, hostilities between France and Austria began in early March 1799. In Germany, the Austrians won theBattle of Stockach on 25 March.^[3] The next day, fighting occurred along theAdige River between the opposing forces ofGeneral of Division Schérer andFeldmarschall-Leutnant Kray. In theBattle of Verona, the French scored a success atPastrengo and fought a drawn battle near Austrian-heldVerona, but the Austrians managed to get across the Adige atLegnago.^[4] To defend Verona, Kray concentrated his army in its vicinity. Schérer's army faced north toward Verona, with the French-held fortress ofMantua to his southwest. The French general considered crossing the Adige below Verona to flank Kray out of Verona, but heavy rains thwarted his plan. By 5 April, the two armies confronted each other on a rain-sodden field near the hamlet of Magnano, south of Verona.

Schérer deployed 41,000 soldiers in the divisions of Generals of DivisionJoseph Hélie Désiré Perruquet de Montrichard,Claude Perrin Victor,Jacques Maurice Hatry, Antoine Guillaume Delmas de la Coste,Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier, andPaul Grenier. The French total included 6,800 cavalry attached to the divisions. Kray's 46,000-man army included his own division and the divisions of Feldmarschall-LeutnantsKarl Mercandin,Michael von Fröhlich,Konrad Valentin von Kaim, and Johann Zoph.^[5]

Schérer sent the divisions of Victor and Grenier to attack on the right flank.Jean Victor Marie Moreau led the divisions of Hatry and Montrichard to attack in the center. Serurier's division on the left flank struck northwest to Villafranca to protect Moreau's flank. Delmas, with the reserve, marched forward to fill the gap that opened between the French right flank and Moreau as the latter moved north.

Because Kray advanced at the same time as the French, Magnano is ameeting engagement. The Austrian commander appointed Mercandin to lead the left column, Kaim to direct the center column, and Zoph to command his right column.General-majorPrince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen led a reserve division on the right, while Kray held back a second reserve division under General-majorFranz Joseph, Marquis de Lusignan.

On the east flank, Victor and Grenier defeated the outnumbered Mercandin, who was killed. They pressed north toward Verona. Kray committed Hohenzollern's reserve to assist Zoph's right flank division. Serurier engaged in a back-and-forth struggle all day but he finally seized his objective. Moreau pushed back the Austrians in his front, but did not score a notable success. Delmas was late, but he engaged Kaim and drove him back.

One historian writes, "Schérer went into this battle without forming a reserve and was thus unable to react to crisis and opportunities effectively."^[6] By this point in the action, Schérer's divergent attacks had spread his troops across a wide front. Kray launched Lusignan's reserve at the so-far victorious French right wing. This attack sent Victor and Grenier reeling back to the south and opened a large gap in the French battle line. Kray sent troops against the exposed right flank of Delmas and drove him back also. During the disorderly retreat, the Austrians managed to cut off and capture one of Victor's demi-brigades.

The French lost 3,500 killed and wounded, includingGeneral of BrigadeJean Joseph Magdeleine Pijon, who was mortally wounded. In addition, the Austrians captured 4,500 soldiers, 18 guns, 40 vehicles, and seven colors. The Austrians suffered 4,000 killed and wounded, plus 2,000 captured. Mercandin and General-major Johann Kovacsevich were killed.^[7] After the French defeat, Schérer retreated to theAdda River, abandoning several defensible river lines. The city ofBrescia fell on 21 April. In late April, the discredited Schérer relinquished army command to Moreau.^[8] The victor, Kray, was quickly promoted toFeldzeugmeister. The next major action was theBattle of Cassano on 27 April.

• Battle of Verona (1799), 26 March 1799
• Battle of Cassano (1799), 27–28 April 1799
• Battle of Trebbia (1799), 17–20 June 1799
• Battle of Novi (1799), 15 August 1799

• Clausewitz, Carl von (2020).Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1. Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.ISBN 978-0-7006-3025-7
• Clausewitz, Carl von (2021).The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 2. Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.ISBN 978-0-7006-3034-9
• Chandler, David (1966).The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York:Macmillan.
• Eggenberger, David (1985).An encyclopedia of battles : accounts of over 1,560 battles from 1479 B.C. to the present. maps by Donald T. Pitcher. New York:Dover Publications.ISBN 0486249131.LCCN 85006817.
• Rothenberg, Gunther E. (2007).Napoleon's Great Adversaries: Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army 1792–1914.Stroud, Gloucestershire:Spellmount.ISBN 978-1-86227-383-2.
• Smith, Digby (1998).The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book: Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards and Artillery, 1792–1815.Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania:Stackpole Books.ISBN 1-85367-276-9.

• Battle of Magnano by J. Rickard
• Battle of Magnano by Enrico Acerbi
• Media related toBattle of Magnano at Wikimedia Commons

• Italian campaign (1799–1801)
• Battles of the War of the Second Coalition involving Austria
• Military history of Veneto
• 1799 in Italy
• 1799 in the Habsburg monarchy
• 1799 in France
• Conflicts in 1799

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