Battle of Tarvis

The Battle of Tarvis was fought during March 21-23, 1797 near present-day Tarvisio in far northeast Italy, about 12 kilometres west-by-southwest of the three-border conjunction with Austria and Slovenia. In the battle, three divisions of a First French Republic army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte attacked several columns of the retreating Habsburg Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. In three days of confused fighting, French divisions directed by André Masséna, Jean Joseph Guieu, and Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier succeeded in blocking the Tarvis Pass and capturing 3,500 Austrians led by Adam Bajalics von Bajahaza. The engagement occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

After Bonaparte's capture of the fortress of Mantua in early February 1797, he cleared his south flank by crushing the army of the Papal States. Reinforced with forces from the Rhine front, Bonaparte was determined to drive the Austrian army from northeast Italy. His offensive began in March and consisted of a secondary drive through the County of Tyrol by Barthélemy Catherine Joubert's left wing and an eastward thrust by Bonaparte's main army.

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