Battle of Solferino

On 24 June 1859, in the low hills south of Lake Garda in Lombardy, the armies of France and Piedmont-Sardinia defeated the Austrian Empire in the decisive battle of the Second Italian War of Independence. Italians call it the battle of Solferino and San Martino. It was the last great battle in which all the opposing armies were commanded in person by their monarchs: Napoleon III, Victor Emmanuel II and Franz Joseph. The slaughter hastened the end of the war, and the suffering of the wounded inspired the founding of the Red Cross.

The war of 1859, which pitted Piedmont-Sardinia and its French ally against Austria, was part of the long struggle for the unification of Italy. The allies won the early battles, took Milan and pushed east. On 22 June some 96,000 French and 37,000 Piedmontese troops moved forward from the Chiese towards the Mincio river, while on 23 June Franz Joseph sent his two armies, about 57,000 and 45,500 men, back west across the Mincio. Neither side expected to meet where it did, and the two forces collided the next morning around the villages of Medole, Solferino and San Martino.

Each army numbered roughly 130,000 to 140,000 men, though not all were engaged. Without a coordinated plan on either side, the fighting broke into three separate actions. In the south, near Medole, the French IV Corps under General Niel engaged from about 4 a.m. and, though outnumbered, held a long thin line and kept much of the Austrian 1st Army from helping the centre.

In the centre, the main French effort struck the Austrians dug in on the heights at Solferino and the nearby villages. Napoleon III committed the Imperial Guard, and by early afternoon Solferino's cemetery and town were surrounded. In the late afternoon French reserves attacked Cavriana and took it at about 6 p.m., breaking the Austrian centre and forcing both Austrian armies to retreat.

In the north, the Piedmontese fought all day for San Martino against an Austrian corps under Ludwig von Benedek. The village changed hands several times, and Benedek kept fighting even after he was ordered to withdraw. Only a fourth Piedmontese assault, at about 8 p.m., secured the hills.

The fighting lasted more than nine hours. Austrian losses were given as 2,386 killed, 10,634 wounded and 9,290 missing; the allies lost 2,313 killed, 12,102 wounded and 2,776 captured or missing. There were reports of wounded men being shot or bayoneted by both sides. The Austrians fell back to the Quadrilateral fortresses, effectively ending the campaign.

Shocked by the bloodshed, and anxious about Prussia and Catholic opinion at home, Napoleon III agreed the Armistice of Villafranca with Austria on 11 July 1859. Piedmont gained Lombardy but not Venetia, and Count Cavour resigned. Two years later, in 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed. After Solferino, Franz Joseph gave up commanding his armies in person.

The Swiss Henry Dunant, who was staying in nearby Castiglione delle Stiviere, toured the field after the battle. He is said to have carried wounded soldiers of both sides in his carriage to the town's main church, where local women cared for them. His book A Memory of Solferino started the campaign that led to the International Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions. Castiglione now houses a Red Cross museum, and ossuaries at Solferino and San Martino hold the bones of thousands of the dead.

Our 1815 map shows Lombardy and Venetia under the Habsburg monarchy, and the 1878 map shows the unified Italy that followed.