The Battle of Arcole or Battle of Arcola was fought between French and Austrian forces 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast of Verona during the War of the First Coalition, a part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle saw a bold maneuver by Napoleon Bonaparte's French Army of Italy to outflank the Austrian army led by József Alvinczi and cut off its line of retreat. The French victory proved to be a highly significant event during the third Austrian attempt to lift the siege of Mantua. Alvinczi planned to execute a two-pronged offensive against Bonaparte's army. The Austrian commander ordered Paul Davidovich to advance south along the Adige River valley with one corps while Alvinczi led the main army in an advance from the east. The Austrians hoped to raise the siege of Mantua where Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser was trapped with a large garrison. If the two Austrian columns linked up and if Wurmser's troops were released, French prospects were grim.
Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet
Bonaparte at the Bridge of Arcole, by A.-J. Gros, (1797), Château de Versailles.
This engraving shows Bonaparte crossing the Arcole bridge. Actually the incident occurred about 55 paces short of the span.
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succeeded it. They were only loosely allied and fought without much apparent coordination or agreement; each power had its eye on a different part of France it wanted to appropriate after a French defeat, which never occurred.
War of the First Coalition
The British evacuation of Toulon in December 1793
Lord Howe's action or The Glorious First of June. Oil painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1795), National Maritime Museum.
Strategic situation in Europe in 1796