Zürich, Battle of

In the French Revolutionary Wars, defeat of two Russian armies by the French June 1799 in the mountains near Zürich, Switzerland, forcing the Tsar to withdraw from the coalition against the French.

The French had invaded Switzerland and created the Helvetian Republic 1798, and in response the Archduke Charles Louis of the Holy Roman Empire led a coalition army into Switzerland and defeated the French under Marshal André Masséna. Shortly after, the Archduke became ill and the Russian General Alexander Korsakov entered Switzerland with 30,000 Russian troops to take over command of the coalition troops there.

At the same time the Russian Marshal Alexei Suvarov, based in northern Italy, set out across the St Gotthard Pass to join Korsakov, bringing another 40,000 troops. Masséna sent a corps of troops to harass Suvarov in the mountains, then turned his main strength on Korsakov, defeating him and scattering his army. He then turned and attacked Suvarov, who retreated, harassed by French ambushes and short of supplies. Suvarov returned to Italy leaving about 14,000 casualties behind him.