In three days of confused fighting, French divisions directed by André Masséna, Jean Joseph Guieu, and Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier succeeded in blocking the Tarvis Pass and capturing 3,500 Austrians led by Adam Bajalics von Bajahaza.

After Bonaparte's capture of the fortress of Mantua in early February 1797, he cleared his south flank by crushing the army of the Papal States.

His offensive began in March and consisted of a secondary drive through the County of Tyrol by Barthélemy Catherine Joubert's left wing and an eastward thrust by Bonaparte's main army.

The main French army soon drove the archduke's forces into headlong retreat while Joubert battled with Wilhelm Lothar Maria von Kerpen in the Tyrol.

[1] General of Division Napoleon Bonaparte was not present for the capitulation, having left a few days earlier to press the war against the Papal States.

But after a significant lack of success in the Rhine theater, the French government in Paris belatedly decided to send reinforcements to Italy.

Although the new Austrian commander in Italy, Feldmarschall Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen had 50,000 troops, they were distributed over a wide front.

The French commander posted General of Division Barthélemy Joubert with about 20,000 troops to protect the Tyrol against a possible Austrian attack in that quarter.

[6] Meanwhile, about 300 kilometres (186 mi) to the west, Joubert and 18,000 men clashed with Feldmarschall-Leutnant Wilhelm Lothar Maria von Kerpen's 12,000 troops on 20 March at St. Michael,[7] near present-day Salorno, Italy.

Kerpen's Austrian force included five battalions in two regular infantry regiments plus elements of a third, three squadrons of dragoons, and 5,000 Tyrolese militia.

[5] In the first clash on 21 March, Masséna's advance guard pushed General-major Joseph Ocskay von Ocsko's Austrians out of Tarvis, blocking the escape route.

Later that day, General-major Charles Philippe Vinchant de Gontroeul appeared with another column and drove the French from Tarvis.

Bajalics and General-major Samuel Köblös de Nagy-Varád battled on 22 March against the divisions of Masséna, Guieu, and Sérurier.

[9] With too few troops available for an offensive, Bonaparte changed his center of operations to Klagenfurt and ordered the independent columns of Joubert, Bernadotte, and Victor (from the Papal States) to join him there.

On the 18th, a French army under General of Division Lazare Hoche defeated Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz von Werneck's forces at the Battle of Neuwied.

Moreau's army finally lurched into action on 20 and 21 April when it drove back the troops of Feldmarschall-Leutnant Anton Count Sztáray de Nagy-Mihaly in the Battle of Diersheim.

The French general repulsed an attack by General-major Johann Ludwig Alexius von Loudon at Neumarkt on 21 March.

Dropping off Antoine Guillaume Delmas' 5,000-man division to guard his supply line, Joubert pressed forward to Klausen where he again defeated Kerpen on 22 March.

With the Tyrolese militia turning out in droves to fight the French invaders, Joubert was compelled to fall back to Brixen.