The Battle of Feldkirch (23 March 1799) saw some French corps led by André Masséna attack a weaker Austrian force under Franz Jellacic.

The War of the Second Coalition combat occurred at the Austrian town of Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, located 158 kilometres (98 mi) west of Innsbruck.

On a flimsy pretext, a French army invaded Switzerland in January 1798 and forced the country into an uneasy alliance marked by occasional revolts.

The ostensible reason for the French Directory to order the invasion of Switzerland was that the Confederation was maltreating the people of the Canton of Vaud.

Meanwhile, Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg's 15,000-man division was detached from the Army of the Rhine and began advancing on Bern from the north.

On 5 February 1798, Brune officially took command of the still-separated divisions of Schauenburg and his former unit, now under Philippe Romain Mesnard.

But in the Jura Mountains on the Swiss frontier, there were only a few places like Fort de Joux and Salins-les-Bains guarding the region of Franche-Comté.

[7] French aggression in Switzerland, Ottoman Egypt, Holland, Malta, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and the Papal States caused the formation of the Second Coalition against her.

Attacking early, King Ferdinand IV of Naples briefly drove the French from Rome in November 1798.

Masséna was in Switzerland with 30,000 men, Brune defended Holland with over 20,000 soldiers, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan held Alsace with 37,000 troops, Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer had 58,000 men in northern Italy and Jacques MacDonald (who succeeded Championnet) counted 30,000 soldiers in central and southern Italy.

[9] The Directory ordered Masséna to seize the Vorarlberg and Graubünden (Grisons, Rhätien) and advance on the County of Tyrol.

Jourdan was instructed to cross the Rhine River, transit the Black Forest and link its right wing with Masséna's left.

The Austrians had 75,000 men in northern Italy under Paul Kray, 18,000 troops in the Tyrol led by Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, 26,000 soldiers in the Vorarlberg and Graubünden under Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze and 80,000 men led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen on the Lech River in southern Germany.

Charles Antoine Xaintrailles's left flank division, including Oudinot's brigade, defended the Rhine from Lake Constance to Basel.

[11] Hotze had 20,000 troops at Bregenz and Feldkirch while Franz Xaver von Auffenberg held Chur with 4,500 men.

Though war had not been declared, Jourdan notified Masséna that he would cross the Rhine on 1 March and be near Lake Constance by the 6th.

Marching from the Saint Gotthard Pass, Louis Henri Loison's brigade was mauled by an Austrian-Swiss force near Disentis.

[16] On 9 March 1799, the French Directory realized that having many independent armies was a bad idea and subordinated Masséna to Jourdan.

[17] By 19 March Jourdan's army was coming abreast of Masséna, with its right flank division under Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino on Lake Constance.

Masséna had scouted the Austrian defenses, which were entrenched, but he believed that Hotze's absence provided him with an opportunity.

[16] Masséna accelerated his planned assault by one day by attacking on 23 March 1799 and thus losing the effect of the feint on Bregenz.

[20] In the early going the French troops captured about 500 prisoners and seemed to be on the verge of victory, but the heavy defensive fire and rocks thrown at them finally turned them back.

[22] For his distinguished actions, Jellacic received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa on 6 April 1799.