The Battle of Arcole (15-17 November 1796), or Arcola, was a three-day battle fought between Napoleon Bonaparte's French Army of Italy and an Austrian army under József Alvinczi. Part of Napoleon's Italian Campaign, the battle foiled Austria's third attempt to relieve the siege of Mantua and helped lead to France's success in the broader War of the First Coalition (1792-1797).
The battle, which involved a daring attempt by General Bonaparte to outflank the Austrian army, was mostly centered around the bridge at Arcole, about 25 kilometers (16 mi) southeast of Verona. It was a hard-fought clash that included such dramatic moments as Bonaparte personally leading a charge across the bridge, and it ultimately ended in a French victory.
In October 1796, the siege of Mantua entered its fourth month. Situated in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, Mantua was one of four crucial fortresses collectively known as the Quadrilateral, that guarded the Alpine passes and the entrances to the Po River and Lake Garda (the other three fortresses being Peschiera, Legnago, and Verona). As such, Mantua held the key to Austria's control of northern Italy, making it vital that the French Republic capture it.
The siege was being carried out by the 41,400 men of the French Army of Italy, commanded by the 27-year-old General Napoleon Bonaparte. Since the siege had begun in June, Bonaparte had already fended off two Austrian attempts to relieve it. The first had come in late July when a 50,000-man Austrian army led by Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser advanced down Lake Garda. Wurmser had divided his army into two corps, each one marching down an opposite side of the lake; Bonaparte, therefore, was able to defeat each corps before they had a chance to link up, beating the first at the Battle of Lonato (3 August) and the other at the Battle of Castiglione (5 August).
Wurmser retreated north to Tyrol to regroup and launched a second attempt to relieve the siege at the end of August. This, too, ended in failure when Wurmser was again defeated by Bonaparte at the First Battle of Bassano (8 September). Rather than cutting his losses and retreating after this defeat, Wurmser elected instead to press on to Mantua. The French pursued, and after a hard-fought battle outside the city on 15 September, Wurmser was forced behind Mantua's walls alongside 14,000 of his men. The French then resumed their siege of Mantua, with Wurmser's army now trapped inside.
Far from alleviating the suffering of the 16,000-man Mantua garrison, Wurmser's presence had only made things worse. Mantua's resources, which were already depleted, now buckled under the strain of 14,000 additional mouths to feed, as the overcrowded garrison accelerated the spread of disease. Within six weeks of Wurmser's defeat, 4,000 Austrians had died of wounds, disease, or malnutrition, and a further 7,000 were hospitalized. By 10 October, there was only 38 days' worth of food left, forcing Wurmser to launch increasingly desperate sorties to forage for supplies; one such sortie cost 1,000 Austrian casualties. On 16 October, Bonaparte called on Wurmser to surrender, telling him that "the brave should be facing danger, not swamp plague" (Roberts, 118). Wurmser refused.
