Mathias Rukavina von Boynograd[a] (1737 − 3 May 1817) was a Croatian general in the Habsburg monarchy imperial army service.

During the 1796 Italian campaign, he commanded a brigade in several battles against the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte.

André Masséna commanded 13,276 troops of the center, which was divided into divisions under Amédée Emmanuel Francois Laharpe and Étienne Charlet and a reserve led by Guilin Laurent Bizanet.

By coincidence, the Austrian commander Joseph Nikolaus De Vins fell sick and was replaced by Olivier, Count of Wallis on 22 November 1795, the day the French attack began.

[5] In the Battle of Loano, Massena's thrust cracked the Austro-Sardinian center while Augereau assaulted troops under Wallis on the coast.

Augereau's division was organized into brigades under Pierre Banel, Elzéar Auguste Cousin de Dommartin, Jean-Baptiste Dominique Rusca and Claude Perrin Victor.

Rukavina, "smiling down from the parapet", indicated the place where he intended to break through Victor's brigade and announced, "There is where I mean to pass".

Victor's troops rallied and punished the column with musket fire, but Rukavina and about half his men escaped.

[9] On 21 March an order arrived from Emperor Francis II instructing Beaulieu to send Rukavina with four battalions toward Ceva to assist the Sardinians.

[12] After being ordered to march to Sassello, Rukavina reported to Argenteau on 8 April that the road was so bad that it would take eight hours to return to Dego.

The local French commander Antoine-Guillaume Rampon soon rushed to the scene with a battalion of the 17th Light Infantry Demi-brigade.

Rukavina's troops slowly pressed back the French, allowing Argenteau's entire force to deploy by about 11:00 am.

To attack the peak, the Austrian infantry were compelled to move downhill from Monte Pra, cross a very narrow ridge in single file and then toil 50 yards (46 m) uphill against a stone redoubt.

Covered by the Freikorps acting as skirmishers and the fire of two cannons, Infantry Regiment Archduke Anton Nr.

[18] During the combat, Rukavina was struck in the shoulder by a musket ball and the commander of the Pellegrini battalion also became a casualty.

[21] Bonaparte directed Laharpe with 7,000 French troops to attack from Monte Negino while Masséna with 4,000 advanced from the south.

[25] Rukavina led a brigade that included 2,583 infantry and 80 cavalry in Michelangelo Alessandro Colli-Marchi's left wing at the Battle of Borghetto on 30 May.

[30] When the French temporarily lifted the siege on 1 August before the Battle of Castiglione, D'Irles sent Rukavina to Valeggio sul Mincio to deliver a message to Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, the army commander.

From July 1797 to October 1803, he commanded the military district of Dalmatia at Zadar (Zara) and was elevated to the rank of Feldmarschall-Leutnant on 10 April 1801.