Battle of Magnano

Overview

In the Battle of Magnano on 5 April 1799, an Austrian army commanded by Pál Kray defeated a French army led by Barthélemy Schérer. In subsequent battles, which are united under the heading of Suvorov's Italian campaign, the Austrians and their Russian allies drove the French out of nearly all of Italy. This action was fought during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. In terms of troop numbers and casualty ratios, the battle became nearly identical to the Battle of Verona on 26 March the same year during the same Italian campaign; however, this time all the figures favored the Austrians.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Austrian victory at Magnano on 5 April 1799 delivered a significant early blow to French forces in northern Italy during the War of the Second Coalition. Kray's army inflicted roughly 8,000 casualties on Schérer's force of 41,000 while sustaining around 6,000 of its own — a casualty ratio that favored the Habsburgs. The battle set the conditions for the broader Suvorov Italian campaign that followed, in which combined Austrian and Russian forces drove the French out of nearly all of Italy. Magnano mirrored the Battle of Verona fought just ten days earlier in force sizes and loss figures, but where Verona's outcome is unspecified, Magnano resulted in a clear Austrian success. Together these engagements established Austrian operational momentum that the subsequent allied campaign would sustain across the peninsula.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)