The town's defences comprised both a castle on a bluff and earthworks on rising ground, and were held by a small mixed force, consisting of units of both the Austrian and Piedmont-Sardinian armies.

Bonaparte ordered Meynier to hold Dego, while he took Laharpe's division west to fight Colli's Sardinians.

Vukassovich's force was heavily outnumbered, and was unable to defend for long before it was driven out, leaving Dego definitively in French hands.

[4] The second day surprise made Bonaparte anxious that Beaulieu might intervene from the east, so the French general reorganized his forces and sent out strong patrols on 16 April.

[6] On 21 April, The French beat Colli at the Battle of Mondovì and soon afterward the Sardinian government sued for peace.