But these difficulties were enormous.

The position of the French Army of Italy in March, 1796, was precarious.

Its detachments, echelonned near the coast from Savona to Loano, and thence to Nice, or inland to the Col di Tende, comprised in all 42,000 men, as against the Austro-Sardinian forces amounting to 52,000 men.[36] Moreover, the allies occupied strong positions on the northern slopes of the Maritime Alps and Apennines, and, holding the inner and therefore shorter curve, they could by a dextrous concentration have pushed their more widely scattered opponents on to the shore, where the republicans would have been harassed by the guns of the British cruisers.

Finally, Bonaparte's troops were badly equipped, worse clad, and were not paid at all.

On his arrival at Nice at the close of March, the young commander had to disband one battalion for mutinous conduct.[37] For a brief space it seemed doubtful how the army would receive this slim, delicate-looking youth, known hitherto only as a skilful artillerist at Toulon and in the streets of Paris.