The Battle of Caldiero took place on 30 October 1805, pitting the French Armée d'Italie under Marshal André Masséna against an Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen.

By mid October, Marshal André Masséna, a seasoned French general, who had fought the Austrians in Lombardia before during the campaign of 1796–1797, was waiting for developments on the main theatre of operations in Bavaria.

After heavy fighting, the divisions of Guillaume Philibert Duhesme and Gaspard Amédée Gardanne cleared the town of San Giorgio and part of the heights of Veronetta.

The French mauled Rosenberg's division and forced Johann Maria Philipp Frimont out of San Michele after street fighting.

[7] Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen, himself acutely aware of the dire consequences of the fall of Ulm, was planning to move towards Vienna, in order to reinforce the remains of the Austrian army and link up with the Russians.

However, in order to avoid having Masséna's men on his heels, he decided to suddenly turn and face the French, hoping that by defeating them he would ensure the success of his march towards inner Austria.

The Austrian forces were divided into three main groups: to the right, Joseph Anton von Simbschen occupied the heights of Colognola and the ravine of San Zeno, where his cavalry was massed; in the centre, General Count Heinrich von Bellegarde covered the Verona road, holding the entrenchments north of the road as well as Monte Rocca and Ponterotta, to the south of the road; the left was formed by Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen's forces, which extended the Austrian line to Chiavighette and had the detached division of General Joseph Armand von Nordmann cover the Adige in front of Chiavica del Christo.

General Gardanne was to form the apex of the army, deploying his forces on both sides of the Verona road, supported by Partouneaux's reserve, Jean Louis Brigitte Espagne's cavalry and a part of Julien Augustin Joseph Mermet's dragoons.

Taking with him the cavalry he had available, Simbschen made the first move against Molitor, descending the slope of the Colognola heights and approaching Ca dell'Ara.

A furious Austrian counterattack regained the position only to see Gardanne receive further reinforcements, one of Duhesme's brigades, which helped retake Caldiero.

It took a considerable effort from the combined forces of Bellegarde and Reuss-Plauen to drive the French out of Caldiero, but Gardanne sounded the charge and regained control of the village after fierce hand-to-hand combat.

However, Duhesme saw the situation on his left rapidly deteriorating and was thus forced to send Mathieu Herbin's brigade in support of Gardanne's assault of Caldiero.

[9] To the extreme right, Verdier was operating the flanking maneuver as ordered, when he learned that Davidovich had crossed the Adige at Bonavigo and was on the right bank with a part of his troops.

When it arrived near Venice, Saint-Cyr had sufficient strength to blockade the port and prevent the Austrian garrison from harassing Massena's communications.

[15] Archduke Charles steadily retreated, fighting a rear guard action at San Pietro in Gu near the Brenta River on 4 November in which one battalion of the Kreutzer Grenz Infantry Regiment Nr.

Another brigade of the Tyrol army under Prince Louis Victor Rohan-Guéméné became separated in the retreat and slipped away to the south where it made a dash for Venice.

[19] On 24 November Rohan's 4,400 troops were caught between the divisions of Jean Reynier and Saint-Cyr at the Battle of Castelfranco Veneto and forced to surrender.

[20] John managed to escape to the east with about 20,000 soldiers[19] and fought a successful rear guard action against Nicolas Bernard Guiot de Lacour's dragoons near the upper Isonzo at Bovec on 19 November 1805.

Farther east on the following day, Louis Davout's III Corps advance guard crushed Merveldt's column at the Battle of Mariazell.

Accordingly, he directed Massena to reorganize his army as the VIII Corps, sweep east, and send Mermet's and Pully's heavy cavalry to Graz.

[24] The battle was a significant strategic victory for the French as it allowed them to closely follow and continually harass the Austrian army as it fell back towards inner Austria.

Masséna thus delayed Charles, preventing him from joining the army of the Danube and directly influencing the main theatre of the war.