Because the neutral Republic of Genoa had refused to loan the French money, the representative-on-mission Antoine Christophe Saliceti asked the French army commander Barthélemy Louis Joseph Scherer for 6,000 men to advance in order to intimidate the civic authorities [REF].
On 10 April 1796, Pittoni's column advanced with four squadrons of the Mészáros Uhlans, two battalions of the Reisky Regiment, and one battalion each of the Terzi, Nádasdy, and Szluiner Regiments.