In the spring of 1799 the Habsburg and Russian armies ousted the French from much of northern Italy after the battles of Magnano and Cassano and they placed the key fortress of Mantua under siege.

On 17 June, the leading French divisions bumped into a holding force led by Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz along the Tidone River.

On 19 June almost entire Macdonald's 33,500-strong army was concentrated and he ordered an attack which was poorly coordinated and repulsed at all points by the numerically inferior 22,000-strong Coalition forces.

[41] The subsequent Battle of Magnano on 5 April was a clear-cut victory by Kray over the French, with the Austrians sustaining 6,000 casualties while inflicting losses of 8,000 men and 18 guns on their foes.

Finding his strong position behind the Mincio River outflanked on the north by 12,000 Austrians, Schérer left 12,000 troops to hold the key fortress of Mantua, directed 1,600 more to defend Peschiera del Garda and retreated to the west on 12 April.

[43] On 27 April, the Coalition allies led by Suvorov were victorious over Jean Victor Marie Moreau's French army at the Battle of Cassano along the Adda River.

In order to accomplish this, he asked Moreau to march north and east to meet him near Piacenza, an impractical move that would place the Army of Italy in the midst of its enemies.

[48] As it moved north, the Army of Naples absorbed the divisions of Victor, Montrichard and Gaultier, bringing its total field force to 36,728 soldiers.

[10] On 9 June Suvorov received news from Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz that Victor and Montrichard reinforced MacDonald and that the French captured Pontremoli.

These were Klenau's command southwest of Ferrara, now reduced to 3,500 men,[50] Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen at Modena with 4,800 troops and Ott west of Fornovo di Taro.

[52] During the pursuit, MacDonald was set upon by a troop of French Royalist cavalry and suffered saber cuts on the head and arm before his own soldiers could finish off their enemies.

By this time Austrian military engineer Albert Johann de Best got the Piacenza citadel into a defensible state after eight days of work; two or three companies of the Fröhlich Regiment were assigned to garrison it.

That night, Suvorov's chief of staff Johann Gabriel Chasteler de Courcelles rushed toward Ott's position with 100 dragoons of the Karaczay Regiment plus a half-battery of horse artillery.

If Ott were forced back into the narrow Stradella position, it would be difficult for the Allies to form a line of battle and might even cause a rout.

As senior officer Victor should have assumed tactical control of the fight, but he stayed in Piacenza, resulting in poor coordination of the French effort.

Nevertheless, at 3:00 pm the French overran both Sarmato and its defending battery, forcing Ott's troops back to a position in front of Castel San Giovanni.

Ott had held on with the help of Chasteler, and then the arrival of Melas, Suvorov and Bagration in very rapid succession built up the allies to a decisively superior 30,656 Austrians and Russians in regular troops alone (this is the overall numbers[15]).

MacDonald was also aware of the presence of a force under Jean François Cornu de La Poype that was in position to threaten the Allied south flank.

An alert French staff officer, Pierre Edmé Gautherin brought the divisions of Rusca and Victor to the west bank of the Trebbia where they stopped and drove back Bagration's troops.

cried Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, and at that instant the line of retreating troops stopped, as a concealed battery spewed cannon shot into the French.

The Russians presently gained the upper hand and compelled Rusca to pull back to the east bank of the Trebbia, which his men accomplished while maintaining their ranks but hotly pursued by the allied cavalry.

Förster then put all his troops into action, leaving only one battalion in reserve, and attacked the opponent on the left bank of the Trebbia; seeing his flank exposed, Monrichard was forced to retreat.

In the meantime, Melas noticed the presence of strong enemy forces at the north end of the battleline and sent 12 artillery pieces to the west bank of the Trebbia to blast the French positions.

Montrichard was ordered to cross the Trebbia near Gragnano in the center while Olivier was instructed to crack the Allied line farther north near San Nicolò.

Hearing cannon fire, Liechtenstein went forward to check on the situation and found a crowd of Austrian troops running away from Olivier's assault.

In a scene of horror, thousands of dead and wounded soldiers littered the bed of the Trebbia while Piacenza's Austrian garrison blindly fired cannons into the night.

[64] During all 3 days, the 70-year-old commander almost did not leave his horse, showed the most vigorous activity; at night he gave dispositions and other orders, and therefore was in dire need of rest—he could hardly keep on his feet; and, in spite of this, the Field Marshal cheerfully congratulated the assembled generals for the evening "of their third victory" and said: "Tomorrow we will give a fourth lesson to MacDonald".

[80] They made excellent progress until were held up farther south at San Giorgio Piacentino behind the Nure River by a substantial French rearguard,[80] which was headed by Victor.

Intense musketry by 17th Light Demi-Brigade, the old Auvergne Regiment, held off the Bagration and Miller Jägers on the flanks but the combined grenadiers won a foothold in San Giorgio, and then with the help of the Russian main force they cleared the entire village.

One battalion of Warasdiner Grenz and one squadron of the Bussy Mounted Jägers tried to block MacDonald's retreat but were crushed on 24 June at Sassuolo south of Modena.