shot in the left shoulder. After his recovery, he was sent to the Army of the Rhine under the Archduke Charles to serve on his staff. On 11 May 1796, was awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresia and was promoted to Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant-Colonel). Italy and Bavaria In September 1796, Weyrother transferred to Northern Italy, where he fought in the Battle of Bassano under Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Bassano on 6 November 1796. He then joined the renewed effort to relieve the Mantua, serving on the staff of Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi, helping to plan the campaign, which ended in a narrow defeat by Bonaparte at the Battle of Arcole. His own plan for the Battle of Rivoli provided for three widely separated striking forces and unrealistically called for one flanking column to march across mountainous terrain in January. His plans were compromised by Napoleon's chief spy, Toli, who obtained a copy of the plan for the advance in January 1797, which ended in a decisive Austrian defeat at the Battle of Rivoli and the consequent surrender of the fortress of Mantua. One of a group of three, known as "Thugut's Benjamins" (trusted assistants to the Foreign Minister Johann Amadeus Francis de Paula, Baron of Thugut, during the campaign of 1799, Weyrother served as chief of staff to Feldzeugmeister Pál Kray, where he distinguished himself at Legnago (26 March), Magnano (5 April) and, now serving as liaison officer with the Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov, at Novi on 15 August. He then planned the epic march of the Russian troops under Alexander Suvorov across the Saint Gotthard Pass. Promoted to Oberst (colonel) on 5 February 1800, Weyrother was given command of Infanterie-regiment Nr. 7 Schröder, which was part of the army in Germany under Pál Kray, but a further wound and the strains of campaigning led to his leaving the army to recuperate. Recalled in the autumn of 1800, Emperor Francis II assigned him to be chief-of-staff to the 18-year-old Archduke John of Austria, the new commander of the army in Bavaria, and his Adlatus (chief adviser) Franz von Lauer. Believing Jean Moreau's French army to be in retreat, Weyrother organised an aggressive pursuit through heavily forested terrain by four non-mutually-supporting columns. Instead, Moreau stood his ground, sprang an ambush, and enveloped the Austrian left flank. The resulting Battle of Hohenlinden turned out to