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Suvorov’s Swiss campaign

The march of Suvorov’s army from Italy into Switzerland across the Alps: having fought its way over the St. Gotthard Pass and the Devil’s Bridge, the army, surrounded by Masséna’s superior forces, broke out over the snowbound Pragel and Panix passes.

Date
10 (21) September 1799 – 27 September (8 October) 1799exact date · duration: 17 daysJulian calendar (Old Style); the Gregorian date (New Style) is in brackets
Place
Gotthard Passtoday: Gotthard Pass, Switzerland · Western and Central Europe
Route
Taverne → Gotthard Pass → Devil’s Bridge → Altdorf → Muotathal → Glarus → Panix Pass → Ilanz → Chur
Participants
Russian Empire, French First Republic, Alexander Suvorov, Pyotr Bagration
Threads
Russia at the turn of the 19th century, French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
Also known as
Переход Суворова через Альпы

Suvorov was marching to join Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov’s corps, but Masséna had defeated it at Zurich before the main forces arrived. Trapped in the Muota valley, the army threw back the French, fought its way through to Glarus and then crossed the Panix Pass into the Rhine valley.

The campaign cost about 5,000 dead and all the artillery, but the army escaped capture and brought out about 1,400 French prisoners. The end of the campaign is usually dated to the arrival at Chur on 27 September (8 October) 1799; other sources give 1 (12) October.

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Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Suvorov's Swiss campaign
  2. Wikipedia (Russian): Швейцарский поход Суворова
  3. Duffy C. Eagles over the Alps: Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland, 1799. — Chicago: Emperor's Press, 1999.
  4. Wikidata: Q3558438