The Battle of Montenotte was fought on 12 April 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between the French army under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian corps under Count Eugène-Guillaume Argenteau. The French won the battle, which was fought near the village of Cairo Montenotte in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. The modern town is located in the northwestern part of Italy. 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. This action was part of the Montenotte Campaign.

Eugène-Guillaume-Alexis, comte de Mercy d'Argenteau or Eugen Gillis Wilhelm Graf Mercy d'Argenteau or Eugen Gillis Alexis Argenteau joined the Austrian army in 1760 and fought in the Seven Years' War. In 1784 he became the commander of an Austrian infantry regiment. He led the unit during the Austro-Turkish War at the 1789 Siege of Belgrade and was promoted to general officer. After the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition, he was loaned to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. He fought at Saorgio in 1794 and Monte Settepani and Loano in 1795. His division faced Napoleon Bonaparte and was badly defeated in the Montenotte campaign in April 1796. During the War of the Third Coalition he led several divisions at Caldiero in 1805. He retired from the army in 1808 but became inhaber (proprietor) of an Austrian infantry regiment from 1809 until his death.