Battle of Castiglione 1796
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 5 August 1796 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1796 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Italy | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | French Revolutionary Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 45.3833, 10.4833 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Castiglione saw the French Army of Italy under General Napoleon Bonaparte attack an army of the Habsburg monarchy led by Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser on 5 August 1796. The outnumbered Austrians were defeated and driven back along a line of hills to the river crossing at Borghetto, where they retired beyond the Mincio River. The town of Castiglione delle Stiviere is located 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of Lake Garda in northern Italy. This battle was one of four famous victories won by Bonaparte during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The others were Bassano, Arcole, and Rivoli.
Castiglione was the first attempt by the Austrian army to break the French Siege of Mantua, which was the primary Austrian fortress in northern Italy. To achieve this goal, Wurmser planned to lead four converging columns against the French. It succeeded insofar as Bonaparte lifted the siege in order to have the manpower sufficient to meet the threat. But his skill and the speed of his troops' march allowed the French army commander to keep the Austrian columns separated and defeat each in detail over a period of about one week. Although the final flank attack was prematurely delivered, it nevertheless resulted in a victory.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Castiglione (revision 1377767288), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Solferino 1859 · 7 km
- Battle of Calcinato 1706 · 9 km
- Battle of Lonato 1796 · 9 km
- Battle of Calcinato (1201) 1201 · 12 km
- Battle of Casaloldo 1509 · 15 km
- Battle of Volta Mantovana (1848) 1848 · 15 km
Other battles of the French Revolutionary Wars
- Action of 22 August 1795 1795
- Action of 24 June 1795 1795
- Battle of Genoa (1795) 1795
- Battle of Groix 1795
- Battle of the Hyères Islands 1795
- Action of 9 September 1796 1796
- Battle of Borghetto 1796
- Battle of Caldiero (1796) 1796
- Battle of Calliano 1796
- Battle of Ettlingen 1796
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
Browse more: battles in Italy · Europe · Early modern battles