Campaigns of 1796 in the French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars continued from 1795 , with the French in an increasingly strong position as members of the First Coalition made separate peaces . Austria and Great Britain were the main remaining members of the coalition . The rebellion in the Vendée was also finally terminated by General Hoche . Mignet ' s History of the French Revolution states : Italy . Bonaparte left Paris on 11 March for Nice to take over the weak and poorly supplied Army of Italy , arriving on 26 March . The army was already being reorganised and supplied when he arrived , and he found that the situation was rapidly improving . He was soon able to carry out the plan for the invasion of Italy that he had been advocating for years , which provided for an advance over the Apennines near Altare to attack the enemy position of Ceva . The Montenotte Campaign opened after Johann Beaulieu ' s Austrian forces attacked the extreme French eastern flank near Genoa on 10 April . Bonaparte countered by attacking and crushing the isolated right wing of the allied armies at the Battle of Montenotte on 12 April . The next day he defeated an Austro - Sardinian force at the Battle of Millesimo . He then won a victory at the Second Battle of Dego , driving the Austrians northeast , away from their Piedmontese allies . Satisfied that the Austrians were temporarily inert , Bonaparte harried Michelangelo Colli ' s Piedmontese at Ceva and San Michele Mondovi before whipping them at the Battle of Mondovì . A week later , on 28 April , the Piedmontese signed an armistice at Cherasco , withdrawing from the hostilities . On 18 May they signed a peace treaty at Paris , ceding Savoy and Nice and allowing the French bases to be used against Austria . After a short pause , Bonaparte carried out a brilliant flanking manoeuvre , and crossed the Po at Piacenza , nearly cutting the Austrian line of retreat . The Austrians escaped after the Battle of Fombio , but had their rear - guard mauled at Lodi on 10 May , after which the French took Milan . Bonaparte then advanced eastwards again , drove off the Austrians in the Battle of Borghetto and in June began the Siege of Mantua . Mantua was the strongest Austrian base in Italy . Meanwhile , the Austrians retreated north into the foothills of the Tyrol . During July and August , Austria sent a fresh army into Italy under Dagobert Wurmser . Wurmser attacked toward Mantua along the east side of Lake Garda , sending Peter Quasdanovich down the west side in an effort to envelop Bonaparte . Bonaparte exploited the Austrian mistake of dividing their forces to defeat them in detail , but in so doing , he abandoned the siege of Mantua , which held out for another six months ( Carl von Clauswitz mentioned in On War that the siege might have been able to be kept up if Bonaparte had circumvallated the city ) . Quasdanovich was overcome at Lonato on 3 August and Wurmser at Castiglione on 5 August . Wurmser retreated to the Tyrol , and Bonaparte resumed the siege . In September , Bonaparte marched north against Trento in Tyrol , but Wurmser had already marched toward Mantua by the Brenta River valley , leaving Paul Davidovich ' s force to hold off the French . Bonaparte overran the holding force at the Battle of Rovereto . Then he followed Wurmser down the Brenta valley , to fall upon and defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Bassano on 8 September . Wurmser elected to march for Mantua with a large portion of his surviving troops . The Austrians evaded Bonaparte ' s attempts to intercept them but were driven into the city after a pitched battle on 15 September . This left nearly 30 , 000 Austrians trapped in the fortress . This number rapidly diminished due to disease , combat losses , and hunger . The Austrians sent yet another army under József Alvinczi against Bonaparte in November . Again the Austrians divided their effort , sending Davidovich ' s corps from the north while Alvinczi ' s main body attacked from the east . At first they proved victorious over the French at Bassano , Calliano , and Caldiero . But Bonaparte ultimately defeated Alvinczi in the Battle of Arcole southeast of Verona . The French then turned on Davidovich in great strength and chased him into the Tyrol . Wurmser ' s only sortie was late and ineffectual . Germany . Meanwhile , Moreau and Jourdan crossed the Rhine and invaded Germany . Moreau was at first completely successful , having crossed the Rhine and defeated the Austrian forces there , he advanced into Bavaria and fought the Archduke to an inconclusive draw at Neresheim . Advancing to the edge of the Tyrol , he took Ulm and Augsburg , but Jourdan became separated from Moreau and was defeated by the Archduke Charles of Austria at Amberg and Würzburg , and both armies were forced to retreat separately across the Rhine by September ( including the Battle of Theiningen ) , ending with the Battle of Emmendingen in October and the same territorial conditions as the campaign had begun . At Sea . Spain signed the Second Treaty of San Ildefonso with France on 19 August , entering the war against Britain on the side of France in return for concessions in Italy . In response , Britain withdrew from Corsica in order to concentrate the Mediterranean fleet at Gibraltar against the combined threat . References . This article makes use of the out - of - copyright work " History of the French Revolution " by François Mignet ( 1824 ) :