Battle of Voltri 1796
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 10 April 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 | 44.4278, 8.7528 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Voltri was fought on 10 April 1796 in Voltri, Italy, during the War of the First Coalition. The battle saw two Habsburg Austrian columns under the overall direction of Johann Peter Beaulieu attack a reinforced French brigade under Jean-Baptiste Cervoni. After a skirmish lasting several hours, the Austrians forced Cervoni to withdraw west along the coast to Savona. Voltri is now part of the western suburbs of the major Italian port of Genoa. The battle was the opening engagement of the Montenotte campaign and the broader Italian campaign of 1796-1797, which would ultimately end the war a year later.
In the spring of 1796, Beaulieu was installed as the new commander of the combined armies of Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in northwest Italy. His opposite number was also new to the job of army commander. Napoleon Bonaparte arrived from Paris to direct the French Army of Italy. Bonaparte immediately began planning an offensive, but Beaulieu struck first by launching an attack against Cervoni's somewhat overextended force. After the action, the Austrian commander found himself in a position in which it was difficult to march to the support of his right wing.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Voltri (revision 1370592699), 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
- Raid on Genoa 1793 · 14 km
- Siege of Genoa (1800) 1800 · 14 km
- Siege of Genoa (1331) 1331 · 14 km
- Relief of Genoa 1625 · 14 km
- Battle of Genoa (1795) 1795 · 15 km
- Siege of Genoa (1522) 1522 · 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 Castiglione 1796
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
Browse more: battles in Italy · Europe · Early modern battles