The French Army of Italy under its new commander Napoleon Bonaparte won a series of victories and occupied Milan on 15 May 1796.

[4] Using the French bridgehead at Düsseldorf to his advantage, Jourdan moved the bulk of his army south on the east bank of the Rhine as far as the Lahn River.

[7] In the Battle of Ettlingen on 9 July, Moreau compelled Archduke Charles to abandon the Rhine River and retreat.

[12] In the north, Jourdan left 28,545 soldiers under François Séverin Marceau to blockade Mainz and Ehrenbreitstein.

[13] The remainder of the Army of Sambre and Meuse, a total of 46,197 men, advanced east in pursuit of Wartensleben's 36,284 Austrian soldiers.

[15] In the Battle of Neresheim on 11 August 1796, Archduke Charles lashed out at Moreau's army, but his troops were repulsed mostly by Saint-Cyr's forces.

[17] Archduke Charles left Count Latour with 30,288 Austrians, plus the Army of Condé (5,000–6,000), to oppose Moreau and moved north with 28,000 troops.

The Austrian forces that tried to surround him were Count Latour with 16,960 men, Michael von Fröhlich with 10,906 soldiers on the upper Iller River and the Tyrol, Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf with 5,815 troops marching to occupy Ulm, and Franz Petrasch with 5,564 men on the Rhine.

Archduke Charles left 32,000 soldiers to watch the defeated Army of Sambre and Meuse and hurried south with 16,000 troops.

The Austrian left under Karl Mercandin with 7 or 8 battalions and 19 squadrons was supported by the Army of Condé (French Royalists) at Winterstettenstadt.

[26] The Austrian cavalry counterattacked, but the French steadily drove Baillet's troops back to Grodt and Ingoldingen where they held out until 5:00 pm.

[23] Desaix launched his assault after Saint-Cyr's initial success and pressed Kospoth's soldiers back to the Galgenburg (Gallows Hill) where they held fast.

[28] Saint-Cyr assigned Pierre Garnier de Laboissière's brigade the task of keeping the troops of Mercandin and Condé in check while he smashed the Austrian center.

Saint-Cyr launched his cavalry in pursuit, but the soldiers of Mercandin and Condé barely escaped across the Schweinhausen bridge, which spanned the Riss south of Biberach.

Latour reassembled his mauled forces at Ringschnait, but fearful of being attacked on 3 October, he retreated farther east to Erlenmoos.

The army commander called another meeting with Desaix, Saint-Cyr, and his chief of staff Jean Reynier at Donaueschingen on 9 October.

Moreau wanted to cross the Black Forest via the Kinzig valley but Desaix argued that Nauendorf and Petrasch probably blocked that pass.

Saint-Cyr's troops marched from Neustadt an der Donau through the Black Forest to Freiburg im Breisgau on 12 October, brushing aside elements of Petrasch's over-extended division.

Meanwhile, the army's wagon train passed through the Black Forest farther south, escorted by the brigades of Jean Victor Tharreau and Nicolas Augustin Paillard from Ferino's right wing.

[31] The Army of the Rhine and Moselle reached a place of relative safety when it reestablished contact with France near Alt-Breisach.