Battle of Castelfidardo

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Castelfidardo


caption=Battle of Castelfidardo
date=18 September 1860
place=Castelfidardo, Marche, Italy
result=Piedmont victory
combatant1=Piedmont army
combatant2=Papal army
commander1=General Cialdini
commander2=General de Lamoricière
strength1=60,000 men
strength2=10,000 men

The Battle of Castelfidardo was fought on 18 September 1860, at Castelfidardo, a small town in the Marche region of Italy, the Piedmont army acting as the driving force in the war for Italian unification won a famous battle against papal troops.

As a result of this battle, the extent of the papal states was reduced to the area of what is today known as Lazio.

The battle is remembered for being bloody, and for the highly disparate numbers of troops - less than 10,000 papal soldiers to 60,000 Piedmonts. The papal army was composed of volunteers from many different European countries, amongst whom the French and Belgian nationals constituted a Franco-Belgian battalion. Among the French volunteers were a notable number of nobles from western France: after the battle, whilst consulting the list of dead and wounded members of the papal army, the Piedmont general Cialdini is reported to have said, in an example of rather black humour, "you would think this was a list of invites for a ball given by Louis XIV!"

The Franco-Belgian battalion gave rise to a papal Zouave corps.

References

"This article draws heavily on the article in the French-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of November 19, 2006.