The Battle of Chiusella River or Battle of Romano (26 May 1800) saw the vanguard of a French Republican army led by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte attack a Habsburg Austrian division led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant (FML) Karl Joseph Hadik von Futak.

In May 1800, Bonaparte's Reserve Army crossed the Great St Bernard Pass into the Aosta Valley in northwestern Italy.

Hadik's battle report finally helped convince the Austrian army commander General der Kavallerie Michael von Melas that the main French threat was coming from the Aosta Valley.

Guarding the mountain passes leading into northwest Italy was FML Konrad Valentin von Kaim with 31,000 men, while there were 20,000 more soldiers in various Italian garrisons.

[8] After desperate fighting between 6 and 19 April, Melas split the French Army of Italy in two, isolating Massena and Soult in Genoa.

[10] Bonaparte returned to France from Egypt on 9 November 1799[11] and immediately conspired to overthrow the unpopular French Directory.

[11] He succeeded in the Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799)[12] and on 25 December, Bonaparte became First Consul, a position in which he exercised dictatorial power.

To mask this from Coalition spies, various strategems were employed, so that the Austrian government did not appreciate that the Reserve Army was a major threat to its operations in Italy.

[15] The army's Chief of Artillery was General of Brigade (GB) Auguste de Marmont who commanded 48 guns.

[15] Bonaparte intended for the Reserve Army to march to Geneva and use the Great St Bernard Pass to enter northwestern Italy.

[17] On 13 May 1800, Moreau informed Bonaparte that he could only spare GD Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey leading a smaller corps.

GD François Watrin's division captured the town while GB Jean Rivaud's cavalry brigade harassed the retreating Austrians.

On 19 May, the French encountered Fort Bard which proved to be a formidable obstacle defended by a bristling array of cannons.

Lannes used difficult footpaths to get his infantry and some cavalry past the fort, but it was impossible use the paths to move artillery.

Led by Generalmajor (GM) Auguste-François Landres de Briey, the 800 Austrian defenders suffered 300 casualties and lost 14 guns.

The group of generals was sufficiently alarmed to draw their swords, but the Austrian cavalry charge collapsed when it was hit by disciplined volleys from the squares.

[1] Digby Smith estimated that the 12,000 French suffered 1,700 casualties while the 5,000 Austrians lost 348 killed, wounded, and missing, plus 216 horses.

After receiving Hadik's report and after a dragoon officer disclosed to him that he had seen Bonaparte at Romano, Melas finally realized that the main French threat was coming from the Aosta Valley.

In fact, Lannes' efforts were only a diversion and Bonaparte was about to move toward Milan, where he would sever part of Melas' communications with Austria.