Napoleons First Italian campaign

Battle of Montenotte
Rampon at Monte Negino
1796 Apr 11

Battle of Montenotte

Cairo Montenotte, Italy

The French won the battle, which was fought near the village of Cairo Montenotte in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. On 11 April, Argenteau led 3,700 men in several assaults against a French mountaintop redoubt but failed to take it. By the morning of the 12th, Bonaparte concentrated large forces against Argenteau's now-outnumbered troops. The strongest French push came from the direction of the mountaintop redoubt, but a second force fell on the weak Austrian right flank and overwhelmed it. In its hasty retreat from the field, Argenteau's force lost heavily and was badly disorganized. This attack against the boundary between the Austrian and Sardinian armies threatened to sever the link between the two allies.