Battle of Solferino 1859 -Napoleon III
" What a terrible thing War is " (attributed to) Napoleon III
The village of Solferino, is located in the province of Mantua, Lombardy, in the north of Italy, and lies some 10 km south of Lake Garda. Also the site of a battle that took place on 24th June 1859, the highlight of the Second Italian War of independence, and a key date for the overall Italian Unification process. The armies of the Austrian Empire were defeated by the French along with their allies, the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia.
Solferino was the largest European battle since the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1814. Two emperors, Napoleon III and Franz Joseph, were with their forces at Solferino,as was King Victor Emmanuel II. Certainly from the French side, the railways became important for mobilisation and the moving of supplies. French colonial forces also took part. Exact figures of those who fighting vary, One contemporary claim was that the French and their allies had 155,000 men present whilst the Austrians had 170,000. DUNANT
The fighting began at around daybreak. Neither the French nor the Austrian soldiers received food. The French received morning coffee and the Austrians got a generous slug of brandy. The fighting lasted until about 4pm when a fierce storm broke out and the Austrians left the field. Perhaps as many as 19,000 men died on each side. CHAPONNIÈRE This total would probably include the casualties who died from untreated wounds and disease in the immediate following days. Most likely the final total would be 30,000 with a majority dying during the aftermath of the battle.OXFORD
A young Swiss businessman, Henri Dunant arrived in the area on 24th June 1859 and reached the battlefield at some point after 4pm when the fighting came to an end. He wrote up some horrific recollections of the carnage in his work Un Souvenir de Solferino
"They disembowel each other with sabre of bayonet; there is no more quarter given, it is a butchery, a combat of wild beasts, mad and drunk with blood; even the wounded defend themselves to the last gasp; he who has no longer any weapons seizes his adversary by the throat, tearing it with his teeth.....the horses crush the dead and dying under their iron hooves."
Dunant organised some local civilians and tourists in the region to help care for the wounded of either side. Trying to locate water, dressings, anything to help the poor wretches who were suffering was difficult. The death toll was set to rise with the threat of sepsis to untreated wounds and cholera from unclean water. From this horror Dunant was to make a major contribution in establishing both the International Committee of the Red Cross (1863) and The Geneva Convention (1864) which Napoleon III backed
The French/ Piedmontese military advantage was not pursued. Napoleon III could have been genuinely moved by the number of casualties of war. He insisted that Austrian prisoners were well treated. The financial costs of pursuing the campaign and the risk of further casualties was another issue. The Austrians were defeated but not vanquished . They still held four forts in the region -The quadrilateral. The French people might not have supported a long expensive dreary campaign to dislodge the Austrians. Perhaps Napoleon III simply realised that the victory at Solferino was due to a strong element of chance and might not be repeated.
Empress Eugenie reported to Napoleon III that there was a mobilisation of Prussian forces. RIDLEY This appears to have begun before the battle of Solferino took place, and it is unlikely that Prussia would have attacked France. Other German states might also not be keen to see a further Austrian defeat. The shadow of uncle Napoleon I appears not to have been far away -his victories fighting in northern Italy, Arcola, Lodi, Marengo and Rivoli, may have motivated his nephew and but reminded other nations of the consequences of a French triumph in Italy. Napoleon III needed to be contained.
To the dismay of his Italian allies, Napoleon III agreed to meet Franz Joseph, at Villa Franca on 6th July 1859 and an armistice was agreed, which later became the Treaty of Zurich. The outcome was that the Austrians agreed to cede Lombardy to the French who were to then give the province to Piedmont. Venetia was not given up. Napoleon III laid plans for a federation of Italian states, which would have included Venetia. However this was not to happen. The Grand Duchies of Parma, Lucca, and Lucca joined Piedmont, which also took over Tuscany and Romagna. BIERMAN Napoleon III had simply not grasped the realities of Italian politics and in 1860 Garibaldi's campaign in the south of Italy began without French involvement.
Franz Joseph was also inclined to agree to Peace. Again probably to avoid imposing further unpopular taxes on his people, and not lose even more men,though he must have realised that the Austrian defeat would be exploited by Italian Nationalists.
But why was Napoleon III so concerned with Italian affairs ?
After the fall of Napoleon I and the subsequent Congress of Vienna 1815, the provinces of Lombardy and Venetia became part of the Austrian Empire. However Italian nationalism had been fermenting since 1831 when pro nationalist rebellion broke out within the Papal States.Louis Napoleon ( the future Napoleon III) and his brother Napoleon Louis joined a rebel posse, Louis Napoleon nearly lost his life in a particular skirmish. RIDLEY The two brothers had to go on a run when the uprising failed. Louis Napoleon/Napoleon III was thus connected to Italian nationalism.
Not surprisingly the 1848 year of European revolutions, which impacted both Paris and Vienna,stimulated the Italian nationalist movement -Risorgimento or 'Resurgence'. Rebellions broke out against Austrian rule in Venetia and Lombardy, and were particularly successful in Milan and Venice. Italian nationalist rebellions broke out in the Papal States, Kingdom of Naples, elsewhere. The Kingdom of Piedmont declared war on Austria. But by the end of the year the rebellions faltered, and Austria triumphed.
In 1848 Louis Napoleon became president of France, in 1852 he gained the title of Emperor Napoleon III. The Italian nationalist movement therefore had one of the key European Powers as a potential ally. Yet many in the movement became frustrated by what they saw as a lack of French action in confronting Austria. However, Napoleon III had to keep the more conservative French citizens on his side, who feared that a widespread Italian revolution would damage the Papacy or re-ignite another European Year of Revolutions. They were also unlikely to want to bankroll a long costly war with the Austrian empire.
The Crimea War saw both France and the Italian kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia on the winning side against Russia. Austria and Prussia were neutral.Napoleon III of France and Victor Emanuel II of Piedmont, concluded the Treaty of Plombières 1858, in which France agreed to go the aid of Piedmont if Austria declared war on them.
Strangely, Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie narrowly escaped assassination on 14th January 1858 when a group of Italian nationalists hurled bombs at their carriage outside the Old opera house when they were due to attend a performance of Auber's Gustav III. The leader of the gang was Felice Orsini who had fought alongside Napoleon III as a youth during the uprising in the Papal States. It has been suggested that Napoleon III lived in fear of being assassinated by Italian nationalists and this led to his decision to assist Piedmont. BRESLER
The calculating Prime Minister of Piedmont, Cavour, started calling for Italian nationalists outside the kingdom to mobilise in Piedmont. When these fellows congregated, Austria issued an ultimatum, demanding that they disband, which of course Piedmont ignored. War was then declared, giving Napoleon III the pretext to lead an army to Piedmont in defence of his ally and both countries invaded Lombardy. An Austrian army under the leadership of Franz Joseph headed to confront them, and the Austrians were defeated at Magenta on 4th June 1859. But as stated above, the battle of Solferino some three weeks later decided how far Napoleon III was prepared to go.
On 14th August 1859 Napoleon III organised a victory march in Paris to celebrate the Italian campaign. The only real gain was that the Savoy, including Nice, the birthplace of Garibaldi was ceded to France.
* Mussolini managed to gain this territory back from France for a short space of time during World War 2.
Picture Credit
Adolphe Yvon: Bataille de Solférino in the public domain courtesy of Wikipedia
Books
Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire, John BIERMAN,Cardinal 1988
Napoleon III : A Life Fenton BRESLER Harper Collins, 1999
Henry Dunant-The Man of the Red Cross Corinne CHAPONNIÈRE ,Bloomsbury Academic,2022
The Origins of the Red Cross , Henry DUNANT English translation -Project Gutenberg
Napoleon and Eugenie, Jasper RIDLEY Constable and Company, 1979
The Decline & Fall of the Habsburg Empire 1815-1918, Longman, Alan SKED 1989
Napoleon III-The Pursuit of Prestige, William H.C. SMITH, Collins & Brown Limited 1991
The Shadow Emperor-A Biography of Napoleon III, Alan STRAUSS-SCHOM St Martins Press 2018
The Campaign of Magenta & Solferino 1859 The Decisive Conflict for the Unification of Italy, Harold CARMICHAEL-WYLLY C. B. , Leonaur/Oakpast Ltd, 2009
Websites
Henri Dunant's Humanitarian Vision Web article from the University of OXFORD
Youtube
Please note that any mistakes or schoolboy errors in this post are the responsibility of the writer and should not be attributed to any source or group cited above.
Worthing, England
24th June 2026
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