The Battle of Modena (12 June 1799) saw a
Republican French army commanded by
Jacques MacDonald attack a
Habsburg Austrian covering force led by
Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. The outnumbered Austrians were defeated but in an accidental encounter, MacDonald was painfully wounded by two saber cuts. The action occurred during the
War of the Second Coalition
The War of the Second Coalition () (1798/9 – 1801/2, depending on periodisation) was the second war targeting French Revolution, revolutionary French First Republic, France by many European monarchies, led by Kingdom of Great Britain, Britai ...
, part of a larger conflict known as the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
.
Modena
Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025.
A town, and seat of an archbis ...
is a city in northern Italy about northwest of
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
.
In the battles of
Magnano and
Cassano, the Austrians and allied
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
forces swept the French from much of northern Italy in April 1799. MacDonald collected the French occupying forces in south and central Italy into an army and marched north to retrieve the situation. Bursting out of the
Apennine Mountains
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains ( ; or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; or – a singular with plural meaning; )Latin ''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which would be segmented ''Apenn-inus'', often used with nouns s ...
, the French divisions of
Jean-Baptiste Olivier and
François Watrin mauled Hohenzollern's division at Modena. MacDonald swung west to fight the Coalition forces. The next action would be the
Battle of the Trebbia (1799) from 17 to 19 June.
See also
*
Capture of Brescia
*
Battle of Cassano
*
Battle of Bassignana
*
First Battle of Marengo
*
Battle of the Trebbia
*
Second Battle of Marengo
*
Battle of Novi
References
*
*
Italian campaign (1799–1801)
Battles of the War of the Second Coalition involving Austria
Conflicts in 1799
History of Modena
Military history of Emilia-Romagna
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