Battle of Lonato 1796
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 3 August 1796 – 4 August 1796 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1796 | Wikidata P580 (start 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 | 45.4667, 10.4833 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Lonato was fought on 3 and 4 August 1796 between the French Army of Italy under General Napoleon Bonaparte and a corps-sized Austrian column led by Lieutenant General Peter Quasdanovich. A week of hard-fought actions that began on 29 July and ended on 4 August resulted in the retreat of Quasdanovich's badly mauled force. The elimination of Quasdanovich's threat allowed Bonaparte to concentrate against and defeat the main Austrian army at the Battle of Castiglione on 5 August. Lonato del Garda is located near the SP 668 highway and the Brescia-Padua section of Autostrada A4 to the southwest of Lake Garda.
On 29 July, the Austrians advanced out of the Alps to capture the towns of Gavardo and Salò on the west side of Lake Garda. The Austrians followed up this success by surprising and seizing the French base at Brescia on 30 July. An Austrian brigade captured Lonato del Garda on the 31st but was ejected from the town by a French counterattack after tough fighting. Also on the 31st, a French division briefly recaptured Salò, rescued a small band of compatriots, and fell back. This series of combats and other battles east of Lake Garda compelled Bonaparte to raise the siege of Mantua.
Leaving only one division to observe the main Austrian army to the east, Bonaparte assembled overwhelming force and recaptured Brescia on 1 August.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Lonato (revision 1377306939), 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 Calcinato 1706 · 6 km
- Battle of Calcinato (1201) 1201 · 6 km
- Battle of Castiglione 1796 · 9 km
- Battle of Solferino 1859 · 13 km
- Battle of Peschiera 1796 · 16 km
- Battle of Lake Benacus 268 · 17 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 Castiglione 1796
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
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