Ordered by Emperor Francis II to relieve Mantua at once, Feldmarschall Wurmser and his new chief-of-staff Feldmarschal-Leutnant (FML) Franz von Lauer drew up a strategy.

Leaving FML Paul Davidovich and 13,700 soldiers to defend Trento and the approaches to the County of Tyrol, Wurmser directed two divisions east then south down the Brenta valley.

From Bassano, Wurmser would move on Mantua, while Davidovich probed the enemy defenses from the north, looking for a favorable opportunity to support his superior.

[citation needed] Bonaparte posted General of Division Claude Vaubois with 10,000 men on the west side of Lake Garda.

More importantly, his spy Francesco Toli had penetrated Austrian headquarters and forewarned Bonaparte that Wurmser had left Davidovich at Trento.

At the Battle of Rovereto on 4 September, the French routed Davidovich's outnumbered troops, inflicting 3,000 casualties at a cost of 750 killed and wounded.

Leaving Vaubois to observe the fleeing Austrians in the upper Adige valley, the French army commander decided to take a bold but risky course of action.

[9] On 7 September, Augereau's 8,200 soldiers overwhelmed the 2,800 to 4,000 Austrians of Wurmser's rear guard at Primolano (6 km north of Cismon del Grappa), capturing 1,500 men and their commander Oberstleutnant Alois von Gavasini.

Overwhelmed by repeated attacks and pursued by Colonel Joachim Murat's cavalry, the rearguard collapsed and Bajalics was captured.

Masséna advanced southwest from Vicenza while Augereau moved south to Padua to close the Austrian escape route to the east.

The next day, the Austrian field marshal, assisted by a local guide, crossed a bridge that Sahuguet failed to destroy and led 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry to Mantua.

On 15 September, Wurmser awaited the French on the east bank of the Mincio River in line of battle, with his right flank on the San Giorgio suburb and his left on La Favorita Palace.

But the Austrian line gave way before the attacks of Masséna on the center and General of Brigade Louis André Bon (leading Augereau's division) on the right.

The French had failed to make the link between their armies in Italy and Germany, and Bonaparte was, in a sense, back to square one, still faced with the problem of reducing Mantua, which now had a much more powerful garrison.