The Battle of Modena (12 June 1799) saw a Republican French army commanded by Jacques MacDonald attack a Habsburg Austrian covering force led by Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.

The outnumbered Austrians were defeated but in an accidental encounter, MacDonald was painfully wounded by two saber cuts.

Modena is a city in northern Italy about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Bologna.

In the battles of Magnano and Cassano, the Austrians and allied Russian Empire forces swept the French from much of northern Italy in April 1799.

MacDonald collected the French occupying forces in south and central Italy into an army and marched north to retrieve the situation.