Under the overall leadership of the Austrian commander in chief Joseph Nikolaus De Vins, Montferrat launched an offensive in mid-August 1793 to recapture the Duchy of Savoy from the French.

Because the French were preoccupied with the Siege of Lyon, the Piedmontese recovered most of the Maurienne and Tarentaise Valleys, but they were stopped just short of Albertville and the reconquest of Savoy.

In September, Kellermann launched a counteroffensive in which he adroitly switched his troops between valleys in order to drive back the Piedmontese.

King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia looked with disfavor on the French Revolution but refused to get involved in the troubles of his large neighbor.

Historically, many Frenchmen looked covetously upon the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice, Piedmont-Sardinian lands which were located on the French side of the Alpine crests.

[2] The French government created the Army of the Midi on 13 April 1792[3] and ordered its commander General Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-Fézensac to invade Savoy and Nice by 15 May 1792.

Victor Amadeus finally got an agreement for 8,000 Austrian soldiers under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Leopold Lorenz von Strassoldo[2] to help defend the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont when needed.

[5] He negotiated a satisfactory treaty with the Swiss, but hostile politicians in the National Convention secured his arrest on 9 November on baseless charges.

Aghast at the ease at which his western lands had fallen, Victor Amadeus requested that Habsburg Austria send him a commander-in-chief.

[9] Chépy proposed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs that every general condemned to death should have his head struck off and hung upside down with a sign posted on his corpse, "This monster sold himself to the enemies of the country..." Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles and Philibert Simond, the representatives on mission with the Army of the Alps, opened Kellermann's mail and discovered that the commander preferred regular troops to the volunteers, wanted to hire Swiss mercenaries, and was willing to withdraw from some positions so that he could drill his raw troops.

[12] As early as 8 July, the representative Edmond Louis Alexis Dubois-Crancé wanted Kellermann to lead his army to Lyon, but the commander insisted on a written order.

The general was reluctant, pointing out that moving against Lyon would cause him to remove troops needed to defend the Alpine border.

The Austrian commander-in-chief wanted the Duke of Montferrat to move against Savoy, but he expected to direct the day-to-day operations from Turin.

To complicate the situation, the Piedmontese officer corps loathed De Vins' chief of staff, the Austrian General-major Eugène-Guillaume Argenteau.

Farther north, another Piedmontese detachment violated Swiss neutrality by crossing the Great St Bernard Pass and moved into the Arve valley, capturing Sallanches and driving the French back to Carouge near Geneva.

[15] Despite the crisis, the all-powerful political agents were obsessed with the internal revolt and would not allow Kellermann to leave the Siege of Lyon for more than four days at a time.

Kellermann hastened back to Savoy, leaving the Siege of Lyon to be carried out by Dubois-Crancé[15] and General Jean-Baptiste Louis Philippe Demuy.

The representative on mission Pierre Jacques Dherbez-Latour tried to dictate military instructions, but Kellermann and General of Brigade Louis Joseph Marie Rogon de Carcaradec stopped his interference by threatening to resign.

Kellermann exploited the Strategy of the central position by planning to operate first against Montferrat while holding back Cordon's force.

During the Piedmontese invasion, a detachment of French soldiers withdrew up a side valley leading south from the Maurienne and was holding Valloire.

One badly-trained French gun crew rammed the round shot home before the powder charge and ruined the cannon.

By a strenuous effort the French hauled some mountain guns up to Saint-Alban-d'Hurtières from which they opened a surprise cannonade on the Piedmontese below, causing them to panic.

On 29 September, Le Doyen's troops captured the southern exit of the Col de la Madeleine, cutting communications between Montferrat and Cordon.

Kellermann planned to attack Montferrat on 2 October, with the main column marching up the Tartenaise toward Moûtiers, Le Doyen coming across the Col de la Madeleine from the southeast, and Chambarlhac moving from Beaufort in the north.

On 12 September 1793, the Committee of Public Safety dismissed Kellermann and appointed the ex-doctor General of Division François Amédée Doppet to succeed him in command.

[20] On 12 October, the French government also ordered the arrest of Dubois-Crancé for not subduing Lyon quickly enough, but that politician managed to talk his way out of it.