was swollen to nearly 30,000 men. But, within six weeks, 4,000 Austrians died of wounds or disease in the crowded fortress. One historian notes that, The second attempt to relieve Mantua had therefore come to a rather sorry conclusion for the Austrians. Their army commander had managed to get himself shut inside the very place he was trying to liberate, losing more than 11,000 men in the process. The French had failed to make the link between their armies in Italy and Germany, and Bonaparte was, in a sense, back to square one, still faced with the problem of reducing Mantua, which now had a much more powerful garrison. Footnotes References Boycott-Brown, Martin. The Road to Rivoli. London: Cassell & Co., 2001. Chandler, David. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966. Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1998. Gachot, Eduoard Histoire militaire de Masséna. Le première campagne d'Italie (1795 à 1798) (1898) Napoleone Bonaparte, Memorie della campagna d'Italia, Roma, Donzelli editore, 2012, . Rickard, J (30 January 2009), Battle of Bassano, 8 September 1796. External links Peter Ott by Digby Smith, compiled by Leopold Kudrna http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_bassano_1796.html 1796 in Austria 1796 in France 1796 in Italy Conflicts in 1796 Battles of the War of the First Coalition Battles involving Austria Battles in Veneto Battles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe