Campaigns of 1799 in the French Revolutionary Wars By 1799 , the French Revolutionary Wars had resumed after a period of relative peace in 1798 . The Second Coalition had organized against France , with Great Britain allying with Russia , Austria , the Ottoman Empire , and several of the minor German and Italian states . While Napoleon ' s army was still embroiled in Egypt , the allies prepared campaigns in Italy , Switzerland , and the Netherlands . Egypt . Napoleon had consolidated his control of Egypt for the time being . Soon after the beginning of the year , he mounted an invasion of Syria , capturing El Arish and Jaffa . On 17 March , he laid siege to Acre , and defeated an Ottoman effort to relieve the city at the Battle of Mount Tabor on 17 April . However , his repeated assaults on Acre were driven back by Ottoman and British forces under the command of Jezzar Pasha and Sir Sidney Smith . By May , with plague rampant in his army and no sign of success against the city , Napoleon was forced to retreat into Egypt . In July , Turkey , with the help of the British navy , mounted an invasion by sea from Rhodes . Napoleon attacked the Turkish beachheads and annihilated their army at Aboukir . In August , Napoleon decided to return to Europe , hearing of the political and military crisis in France . Leaving his army behind with Kléber in command , he sailed through the British blockade to return to Paris and resolved to take control of the government there in a coup . Netherlands . In August , the allies mounted an invasion of the Netherlands ( which at that time was a French vassal state , the Batavian Republic ) with a combined Anglo - Russian army under the Duke of York , who landed at the northern tip of Holland . This army fought a series of battles ending in the defeat at on 6 October . That town passed from British - Russian to Batavian - French hands several times until the former finally fled , losing 2536 men and 11 guns ; the Batavian - French losses stood at 1382 . The Battle of Castricum persuaded the Duke that his position was untenable . After a chaotic retreat , in which two field hospitals were " forgotten " , he reached an agreement with the French commander , Brune . The British and Russians were allowed to withdraw , without paying reparations , and retaining captured bounty . As thanks , Brune received a number of magnificent horses from the Duke . By 19 November all the British and Russian troops had been embarked and the whole unhappy episode was over . Italy . By January , the French army had pursued the Neapolitan army from Rome to Naples , taking the capital . French general Schérer attacked the Austrian army under Kray , but was heavily defeated at Magnano near Verona on 5 April . Russian general Suvorov , taking over the allied campaign , pursued the French to Cassano , defeating them and recapturing Milan and Turin . In June , Suvorov won the Battle of Trebbia against a reinforcing army under MacDonald , pushing the French back into the Alps and Genoa . Gen . Moreau was briefly appointed to command the French forces , followed quickly by General Joubert , who was severely defeated at Novi , a few miles south of Marengo . Joubert was killed there amongst the French skirmishers while reconnoitering the enemy lines . By the end of the year , French forces had almost been driven from Italy and Suvorov was ordered to Switzerland . Germany . The French offensive relied on coordinated attacks by the Army of the Danube , the Army of Mayence , and the Army of the North . Southwestern Germany . On 1 March 1799 , the Army of Observation , in an Order of Battle of approximately 30 , 000 men in four divisions , crossed the Rhine River at Kehl and Basel . The following day , the it was renamed the Army of the Danube . The major part of the imperial army , under command of the Archduke Charles ' , had wintered immediately east of the Lech River , which Jourdan knew , because he had sent agents into Germany with instructions to identify the location and strength of his enemy . This was less than distant ; any passage over the Lech was facilitated by available bridges , both of permanent construction and temporary pontoons and a traverse through friendly territory . In March 1799 , the Army of the Danube engaged in two major battles , both in the southwestern German theater . At the intensely fought Battle of Ostrach , 21 – 2 March 1799 , the first battle of the War of the Second Coalition , Austrian forces , under the command of Archduke Charles , defeated Jourdan ' s Army of the Danube . The French suffered significant losses and were forced to retreat from the region , taking up new positions to the west at Messkirch ( Mößkirch , Meßkirch ) , and then at Stockach and Engen . At the second battle , in Stockach , on 25 March 1799 , the Austrian army achieved a decisive victory over the French forces , and again pushed the French army west . Jourdan instructed his generals to take up positions in the Black Forest , and he himself established a base at Hornberg . From there , General Jourdan relegated command of the army to his chief of staff , Jean Augustin Ernouf , and traveled to Paris to ask for more and better troops and , ultimately , to request a medical leave . The Army was reorganized , and a portion placed under the command of André Masséna and merged with the Army of Helvetia . Following the reorganization and change in command , the Army participated in several skirmishes and actions on the eastern part of the Swiss Plateau , including the Battle of Winterthur . After this action , three forces of the imperial army united north of Zürich , completing a partial encirclement of Massena ' s combined Army of the Danube and Army of Switzerland . A few days later , at the First Battle of Zürich , Massena was forced west , across the Limmat River . In late summer , 1799 , Charles was ordered to support imperial activities in the middle Rhineland ; he withdrew north across the Rhine , and marched toward Mannheim , leaving Zürich and northern Switzerlad in the hands of the inexperienced Alexander Korsakov and 25 , 000 Russian troops . Although the highly capable Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze remained in support , his 15 , 000 men were not able to counter Korsakov ' s poor defensive arrangements . Three weeks later , at the Second Battle of Zürich , the Russian force was annihilated , and Hotze was killed south of Zürich . This left Massena in control of northern Switzerland , and closed forced Suvorov into an arduous three week march into the Voralberg , where his troops arrived , starving and exhausted , in mid - October . Switzerland . In March , Masséna ' s army occupied Switzerland , preparing an attack against Tyrol through Vorarlberg . However , the defeats of French armies in Germany and Italy forced him to return to the defensive . Taking over Jourdan ' s army , he pulled it back into Switzerland to Zürich . Archduke Charles pursued him and drove him back at the First Battle of Zurich . When Charles left Switzerland for the Netherlands , the allies were left with a smaller army under Korsakov , who was ordered to unite with Suvorov ' s army from Italy . Masséna attacked Korsakov , crushing him at the Second Battle of Zurich , and forcing Suvorov to retreat with considerable loss . Russia abandoned the Second Coalition soon after this debacle .