Suvorov's Swiss Campaign: Over the Alps, 1799

In mid-September 1799 Suvorov brings about 27,000 men, including more than 3,500 Cossacks, into Switzerland, and the main army assembles at Taverne in Ticino. The Austrians have sent nothing of the promised supplies, and only 650 mules arrive, far too few. Suvorov decides to use the Cossacks' horses to carry provisions and ammunition for the next eight days. The march begins short of supplies.

Location precision: The army assembled at Taverne but the camp's site is unrecorded; the pin marks the village.

The advance goes through a blizzard of rain and snow. On 24 September, at Airolo, a French battalion of General Lecourbe's division halts the Russians. They leave six hundred dead on the ground before they can penetrate, late in the evening, into the Val Tremola. Suvorov stays in the front line all along.

Location precision: The fight is placed 'at Airolo' without an exact spot; the pin marks the village.

The retreating French partially demolish the Devil's Bridge, a stone crossing in Uri near Andermatt. In the ambush that follows, more than nine hundred Russians are killed before the rest repair the bridge by makeshift means and cross under constant artillery and musket fire, finally forcing the French back. The bridge was heavily damaged in the battle, and in the 1890s the Russian Empire commissioned the Suvorov monument just south of it.

Visitor guidance: The bridge and the Suvorov monument lie in the Schöllenen Gorge near Andermatt.

On the evening of 26 September Suvorov's troops reach Altdorf near the southern end of Lake Lucerne. He writes a rhyming note in German that has remained famous: 'So we have with sabers and bayonets – Saved Switzerland from their ruin.' He does not know that Masséna is routing Korsakov's forces in the Second Battle of Zurich in the same hours. The lake, patrolled by a small French flotilla, is under French control.

Location precision: The sources give Altdorf as the arrival point, not a specific site; the pin marks the town.

Marching over rocks has worn out the soldiers' inadequate footwear, yet Suvorov will not stop. He hopes to bypass the French and reach Schwyz from the village of Muotathal. The Allied army, about 20,000 Russians and 2,000 Austrians, crosses the Kinzig Pass from south to north on 27–28 September. The trail climbs to 2,073 metres.

Location precision: The columns started from different villages; the pin marks the pass itself, not one column's path.

Suvorov's 18,000 exhausted men reach Muotathal and find the way to Schwyz closed. On 29 September he calls a council of war with his general staff and says: 'To go back is dishonorable. I have never retreated.' The army turns east again. The fighting on the stone bridge across the Muota River is particularly bloody, and it has since been called Suworow-brücke. The French later found original Russian records in Muotathal.

Location precision: The council and the bridge fight are placed at Muotathal without exact spots; the pin marks the village.

On 6 October the Russians begin the climb to the Panix Pass, at 2,407 metres. All the artillery has to be abandoned and three hundred mules are lost. At the top, Suvorov has the wood of the Cossacks' spears burned to light a fire and prepare tea for the troops. On 7 October the army arrives at the first Pigniu chalets.

Location precision: The pin marks the pass; the exact trail across the snow is not recorded.

Suvorov arrives in Chur on 10 October, also taking with him 1,400 French prisoners. He is left with 14,000 men, of whom only 10,000 are barely able to march and fight. The army then heads through Balzers, Vaduz and Feldkirch to Altenstadt. On 22 October Tsar Paul withdraws from the coalition and recalls Suvorov. The Swiss campaign is over.

Location precision: The sources name Chur as the arrival point; the pin marks the town.