Battle of Millesimo The Battle of Millesimo , fought on 13 and 14 April 1796 , was the name that Napoleon Bonaparte gave in his correspondence to one of a series of small battle s that were fought in Piedmont , Northern Italy between the armies of France and the allied armies of Austria and of the Kingdom of Sardinia - Piedmont . Background . In late March 1796 , General Bonaparte took command of the French Army of Italy , which consisted of around 40 , 000 men under arms . After being attacked near Genoa on 10 April by the left wing of the Austrian army , under Feldzeugmeister Johann Beaulieu , Bonaparte initiated the Montenotte Campaign . The French advanced through the Cadibona Pass to defeat the isolated right wing of the Austrian army , commanded by Feldmarschal - Leutnant ( FML ) Eugène - Guillaume Argenteau , at the Battle of Montenotte on 12 April . The French then moved further inland , intending to capture Dego and increase the separation between the Austrian army and that of its ally , Piedmont - Sardinia . Battle . After his victory at Montenotte , Bonaparte swung the main weight of his offensive to the west against FML Michelangelo Colli ' s 21 , 000 - strong Sardinian army . To keep Beaulieu ' s Austrian army from interfering , the French commander sent André Masséna ' s division to seize Dego to the north . On 13 April , General of Division Pierre Augereau attacked FML Giovanni di Provera ' s weak Austrian Auxiliary Corps east of Millesimo and defeated him . To cover the withdrawal of his command , Provera retreated to Cosseria Castle with part of the Austrian " Gyulai " Freikorps and two grenadier companies of the Austrian " Strassoldo " Infantry Regiment # 27 . Colonel Filippo Del Carretto ' s newly arrived Sardinian 3rd Grenadier battalion soon joined Provera . Bonaparte ordered the partly ruined hilltop castle to be taken . Augereau and General of Division Meynier ' s divisions mounted repeated assaults , but the allied garrison resisted stoutly . After leading the last attack of the day , Colonel Barthélemy Joubert wrote , Nothing more terrible could be imagined than the assault , where I was wounded passing through a loophole ; my carabiniers held me up in the air , with one hand I grasped the top of the wall . I parried the stones with my saber , and my whole body was the target for two entrenchments dominating the position ten paces off . That evening , Augereau invested the castle while Bonaparte regrouped his forces . Early the next morning Augereau summoned the castle to surrender , whereupon Provera capitulated . By that time his men were out of food , ammunition , and water . The report that Bonaparte wrote to the French government regarding the actions that took place around Millesimo , and which he called " The Battle of Millesimo " is confusing , and perhaps even deliberately misleading , as it is probable that Bonaparte did not want to reveal at the time how serious French casualties had been , and how close he had been to having his plans seriously compromised . There was , in fact , no real battle at Millesimo itself , but rather a confused action on 13 April , in which a number of small enemy units were driven back , followed by a short but very costly siege of the castle of Cosseria , which was defended by only about a thousand Austrians and Piedmontese under Provera and Del Carretto . It was only after the defenders had been forced to surrender the castle on 14 April , due to lack of ammunition , food and water , that the French advance inland could continue in safety . Bonaparte later admitted to the Piedmontese chief - of - staff , Colonel Joseph Costa that the siege of Cosseria had been a mistake and had been due to his impatience . It was probably because he wanted to cover up this mistake that Bonaparte ' s report of the " Battle of Millesimo " was so misleading . Results . The French lost 700 men in their fruitless attacks on 13 April . Provera ' s 988 men suffered only 96 killed and wounded , but the remainder became prisoners of war . The French Adjutant General Jean Quenin and Colonel Pierre Banel , and the Sardinian Del Carretto were killed . Louis Suchet received promotion when his colonel was killed in the attack . Losses in the brief action earlier in the day are not known . The surrender of the castle allowed the French offensive to continue . On 14 April , Massena won the Second Battle of Dego . Soon after , Bonaparte launched his army in a relentless westward drive against Colli ' s Austro - Sardinian forces .