The plan which Bonaparte explained to Roland in his study one day was still working in his mind.
He expected to recover Italy by a single battle, but that battle must be a great victory.
Moreau, as a reward for his co-operation on the 18th Brumaire, received the command he had so much desired.

He was made commander-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine, I with eighty thousand men under him.

Augereau, with twenty-five thousand more, was on the Dutch frontier.

And Massena, commanding the Army of Italy, had withdrawn to the country about Genoa, where he was tenaciously maintaining himself against the land forces of the Austrian General Ott, and the British fleet under Admiral Keith.
While the latter movements were taking place in Italy, Moreau had assumed the offensive on the Rhine, and defeated the enemy at Stockach and Moeskirch.

A single victory was to furnish an excuse to put the Army of Reserves under waiting orders.