Battle of Tarvis (1797)
The Battle of Tarvis was fought between the 21st and the 23rd of March 1797, near what is now Tarvisio in the far northeast corner of Italy, barely 12 km from the point where Italy, Austria, and Slovenia all meet. Three days of confused fighting in mountain passes left thousands of Austrian soldiers captive and opened the road toward Vienna itself. What was at stake was not just a single engagement, but the end of an entire war. How did three French divisions manage to trap an Austrian column between converging forces in a matter of hours? And how did that trap lead, within weeks, to a peace agreement that reshaped Europe?
On the 2nd of February 1797, the Siege of Mantua ended when Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser surrendered his garrison after a long and costly defense. In recognition of his resistance, Wurmser was allowed to march out with his staff and an escort of 700 soldiers. Another 20,000 Austrians were released on parole, bound by their word not to fight France until formally exchanged. The siege had consumed 16,333 men from the garrison through death, wounds, and disease. The French collected 325 Austrian artillery pieces inside Mantua's walls, plus 179 of their own guns that had been captured earlier and recovered.
Napoleon Bonaparte had already left Mantua days before the surrender, pressing the war southward against the Papal States. On the 3rd of February, a 9,000-man French column under General of Division Claude Perrin Victor crushed a 7,000-strong Papal States force at the Battle of Faenza, inflicting 800 killed and wounded and capturing 1,200 soldiers for a French loss of only 100 men. Bonaparte then compelled the Pope to sign the Treaty of Tolentino, extracting 30 million francs from the Papal States. With his southern flank secured, Bonaparte could concentrate on the real prize: driving the Austrian army out of northeast Italy entirely.
The French government in Paris had spent most of 1796 funneling reinforcements to the Rhine theater, where results had been poor. After that failure, it belatedly redirected resources to Italy. Generals of Division Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and Antoine Guillaume Delmas were transferred south with their troops, strengthening Bonaparte's hand before the decisive spring campaign.
Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, the new Austrian commander in Italy, had 50,000 troops at his disposal, but they were spread thin across a wide front. Bonaparte, commanding roughly 60,000 men, intended to concentrate and strike before Charles could consolidate. He divided his force: General of Division Barthélemy Joubert would guard and, if possible, advance through the County of Tyrol with about 20,000 men, while Bonaparte himself led the main body of some 32,000 eastward through Sacile toward Valvasone.
At the end of February the French advance opened with a crossing of the Brenta River. Bad weather halted operations temporarily, but on the 10th of March the army drove forward again. Masséna covered the left flank with 11,000 men, while Charles positioned his main force between Spilimbergo and San Vito al Tagliamento. On the 14th, Masséna encountered a small Austrian force under General-major Franz Joseph, Marquis de Lusignan.
The campaign's tempo quickened on the 16th of March when Generals Guieu and Bernadotte attacked across the Tagliamento River under artillery cover at the Battle of Valvasone, inflicting 700 casualties and taking six guns. The very next day, Bernadotte executed a sharp coup at Gradisca d'Isonzo, cutting off and forcing the surrender of a 2,500-man Austrian column along with three battalions of the Hoch und Deutschmeister Infantry Regiment Nr. 4, one battalion of the Splényi Infantry Regiment Nr. 51, 10 guns, and 8 colors. Charles' army was unraveling faster than he could stabilize it.
As Masséna pushed northeast toward Tarvisio, driving Lusignan's forces before him, Archduke Charles recognized that whoever held the Tarvis Pass would control the fate of his entire retreating army. He sent three separate columns to secure and hold the pass. The timing proved fatal. By the time those columns arrived, Masséna's forces were already blocking the exit.
On the 21st of March, Masséna's advance guard pushed General-major Joseph Ocskay von Ocsko's Austrians out of the town of Tarvis, closing the escape route. Later that same day, General-major Charles Philippe Vinchant de Gontroeul arrived with a second column and managed to drive the French back out of Tarvis. Masséna attacked again on the 22nd with a heavy assault that dispossessed Gontroeul of the town and forced him to withdraw toward Villach.
That withdrawal left Feldmarschall-Leutnant Adam Bajalics von Bajahaza's column stranded on the wrong side of the pass. Bajalics and General-major Samuel Köblös de Nagy-Varád fought on the 22nd against the combined divisions of Masséna, Guieu, and Sérurier pressing in from multiple directions. On the 23rd, with no exit available, they surrendered. By one account the French took 4,000 Austrian soldiers, 25 artillery pieces, and 500 wagons. A second source gives the count as 3,500 Austrians, 25 guns, and 400 vehicles. Among the units captured were the 3rd Battalion of the Klebek Infantry Regiment Nr. 14, the 4th Battalion of the Archduke Anton Infantry Regiment Nr. 52, and the Khevenhüller Grenadier Battalion. French losses across the three days of fighting stood at 1,200 casualties.
While the drama at Tarvis unfolded, roughly 300 km to the west Joubert's column was fighting its own campaign through the mountains of the Tyrol. On the 20th of March, Joubert's 18,000 men clashed with Feldmarschall-Leutnant Wilhelm Lothar Maria von Kerpen's force of 12,000 near present-day Salorno, Italy. Kerpen commanded five infantry battalions, three squadrons of dragoons, and 5,000 Tyrolese militia. Joubert routed them, inflicting 300 killed and wounded and capturing 3,500 prisoners while suffering 200 French casualties.
Kerpen fell back and kept fighting. Joubert defeated him again at Klausen on the 22nd of March, and once more at Mittenwald on the 28th. But the terrain worked against the French. Tyrolese militia turned out in large numbers to resist the invaders, and Joubert was eventually forced to fall back to Brixen. Kerpen attacked Brixen on the 31st of March without breaking through, and attacked again on the 2nd of April after being reinforced to 12,000 men by Loudon's brigade, again without success.
Despite holding Brixen, the French position in the Tyrol remained uncomfortable. Delmas withdrew from Bolzano on the 4th of April under continuing pressure. Joubert then marched his column toward Villach to join Bonaparte, but continuous skirmishing with the Tyroleans slowed him badly. His column did not reach Villach until the 8th of May, well after the war had effectively ended. Total French losses in Joubert's Tyrol campaign may have reached as high as 8,000 men.
After Tarvis, the French advance moved with striking speed. Bernadotte pursued the portion of Charles' army retreating toward Ljubljana. General of Division Charles Dugua occupied the port of Trieste with a cavalry column. On the 29th of March, divisions under Masséna, Guieu, and a newly appointed General of Division Louis François Jean Chabot, who had replaced the ailing Sérurier, captured Klagenfurt.
Bonaparte reorganized his supply lines and ordered his scattered independent columns, including those of Joubert, Bernadotte, and Victor, to converge on Klagenfurt. General of Brigade Louis Friant was left to hold Trieste with 1,500 soldiers. On the 31st of March, Bonaparte wrote directly to Archduke Charles requesting an armistice, partly to buy time for General of Division Jean Victor Marie Moreau's separate army to launch its own offensive in Germany. To keep pressure on Charles and mask French exhaustion, Bonaparte ordered his men to keep advancing.
On the 7th of April, French forces seized Leoben, only 75 miles from Vienna. That same day the Austrians agreed to a five-day suspension of hostilities. After a further five-day truce on the 13th, Bonaparte proposed opening peace negotiations on the 16th of April, though he had no formal authority to do so. The Austrians, aware that a French Rhine offensive was imminent, signed the Preliminaries of Leoben on the 18th of April. Those terms were largely confirmed by the Treaty of Campo Formio on the 17th of October 1797, formally ending the War of the First Coalition.
Continue browsing
Common questions
When and where was the Battle of Tarvis (1797) fought?
The Battle of Tarvis was fought between the 21st and the 23rd of March 1797 near present-day Tarvisio in far northeast Italy, approximately 12 km west-by-southwest of the three-border junction with Austria and Slovenia. It was the final major engagement of the War of the First Coalition.
Who commanded the French and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tarvis?
Napoleon Bonaparte commanded the French army, with divisions led by Generals André Masséna, Jean Joseph Guieu, and Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier. The retreating Austrian army was commanded by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, with Feldmarschall-Leutnant Adam Bajalics von Bajahaza leading the column that was ultimately trapped and captured.
How many Austrian soldiers were captured at the Battle of Tarvis?
Sources give slightly different figures: one account records 4,000 Austrian soldiers, 25 artillery pieces, and 500 wagons surrendered on the 23rd of March 1797; another gives 3,500 Austrians, 25 guns, and 400 vehicles. French casualties across the three days of fighting totaled 1,200 men.
What happened after the Battle of Tarvis in the 1797 campaign?
After Tarvis, French forces captured Klagenfurt on the 29th of March and seized Leoben on the 7th of April 1797, placing them only 75 miles from Vienna. Bonaparte proposed peace negotiations on the 16th of April, and the Austrians signed the Preliminaries of Leoben on the 18th. Most terms were confirmed by the Treaty of Campo Formio on the 17th of October 1797.
What role did General Masséna play at the Battle of Tarvis?
André Masséna commanded the French division that drove toward Tarvisio from the west, pushing General-major Lusignan's forces before him. His troops seized the town of Tarvis on the 21st of March, briefly lost it to a new Austrian column, retook it on the 22nd, and then joined with Guieu and Sérurier to surround and compel the surrender of Bajalics' trapped Austrian column on the 23rd.
How did the fall of Mantua set up the Battle of Tarvis?
On the 2nd of February 1797, Feldmarschall Wurmser surrendered Mantua after a siege that cost the garrison 16,333 men. The fall secured Bonaparte's southern flank and freed him to drive northeast into Friuli with roughly 60,000 troops, beginning the offensive that culminated at Tarvis six weeks later.