Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Battle of Arcole was fought from the 15th to the 17th of November 1796, near the village of Arcole, approximately 25 km southeast of Verona in northern Italy. It was part of the War of the First Coalition during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Napoleon Bonaparte commanded the French Army of Italy, while Austrian forces were led by Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi, with Feldmarschall-Leutnant Paul Davidovich commanding a separate corps operating in the Adige valley.
The battle was Austria's third attempt to relieve the siege of Mantua, where Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser was trapped with a garrison of 23,708 soldiers. Alvinczi planned a two-pronged offensive to break through the French lines and free Wurmser's force.
Bonaparte grabbed a flag and stood within about 55 paces of the defended bridge to inspire his troops. His aide-de-camp Jean-Baptiste Muiron was killed at his side, and an unnamed officer had to drag Bonaparte out of the line of fire. The general ended up in a muddy ditch.
French losses totaled 3,500 dead and wounded plus 1,300 captured or missing. Austrian killed and wounded numbered roughly 2,200, but 4,000 men and 11 guns were captured by the French.
Arcole is widely regarded as the beginning of the Napoleonic legend. French artists and newspapers rapidly turned Bonaparte's actions at the bridge into a celebrated story, making him a household name in France. The legend born at Arcole persisted until Napoleon's final downfall in 1815. One of the frigates seized in Venice afterward was named the Muiron, after the aide killed at Arcole, and it was aboard this ship that Bonaparte later escaped from Egypt to France in 1799.