Battle of Solferino, 1859 ⚔️ Napoleon III and the Fate of Italy ⚔️ DOCUMENTARY

This video was made in collaboration with PMF Productions. Visit their channel and give them the credit that they deserve. It is before dawn on the 24th of June 1859. A Franco-Sardinian army of 130,000 men breaks camp and begins marching east. Commanded by Emperor Napoleon III of France and King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Sardinia, these allies are fighting the Austrian Empire to achieve Italian liberation. They believe their enemy is more than 20 kilometers away, regrouping behind the Mincho river, but they are wrong. The previous day Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph ordered his 140,000 soldiers to cross the river and begin a counter-offensive. The two armies are on a collision course, with the fate of Italy at stake. The largest and European battle in nearly half a century is about to begin. I highly recommend the Rebellion in the North, an excellent series that takes a detailed look at the great northern rebellions throughout the medieval and early modern period. Since the Roman occupation, England was mostly dominated by a power base ruling from the south, yet the northern regions, remote and culturally distinct, were, for much of recorded history, staunchly independent, restless, and prone to rebellion. And you can see this excellent series with HistoryHit's exclusive offer available to fans of HistoryMarch. Click the link below to visit HistoryHit and use the code HISTORYMARCH when you sign up to get 50% off your next three months. Go where history is made, with HistoryHit. For countless generations, Italy has been divided by internal strife and dominated by foreign powers. At the turn of the 19th century, however, the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte swept away the Austrian occupiers and unified the people of Italy for the first time since the fall of Rome. Although the collapse of the French Empire in 1814 resulted in the restoration of the old order, the desire for liberation was never fully extinguished. In the decades that followed, Italian nationalists struggled to free their lands from Austrian rule. As revolutions erupted across Europe in March of 1848, a new opportunity arose. When a popular uprising broke out in neighbouring Lombardy, Piedmont Sardinia, the most powerful of the Italian states, moved to support its brothers. Early successes and a swell of Italian national pride gave hope to the insurgents. But within three months, the uprisings were crushed by an Austrian army under the formidable Marshal Radetzky. In the wake of this defeat, King Charles Albert of Sardinia was forced to abdicate in favour of his ambitious son, Victor Emmanuel II. The new king, supported by his determined prime minister, Count Cavour, recognised that if Sardinia ever hoped to challenge Austria's powerful army, a strong ally would be needed. So in 1855, Victor Emmanuel elected to join France in the Crimean War, hoping to ingratiate himself with its new emperor, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon. By coincidence, Napoleon III had also fought on behalf of Italian liberation as a young exile, when he and his older brother were living in Rome. The subsequent death of his brother, while escaping a failed uprising, reinforced a long-standing desire to aid Italian independence. During the tumultuous year of 1848, Louis Napoleon returned to France in the aftermath of King Louis-Philippe's overthrow. On the strength of his famous name and natural charm, he was elected president and became Emperor of France four years later. Eager to support the Italians in their struggle against Austria and to expand his influence, Napoleon promised to fight with Sardinia if war broke out. But to ensure public support, it was important for the two allies not to appear as aggressors, so they sought to provoke Austria into making the first hostile move. In late April 1859, they succeeded. Emperor Franz Joseph overreacted to an unprompted Sardinian mobilization by issuing a draconian ultimatum to demobilize and authorizing his army to move into Piedmont. To his utter dismay, France promptly declared its support for Sardinia. War has begun. At the outbreak of hostilities, the French armies were scattered and stationed far from Piedmont. This left a window of opportunity in which Austria could have overwhelmed the greatly outnumbered Sardinian army if they acted quickly. On the 29th of April, Franz Joseph ordered Field Marshal Juli to do just that. But the Marshal was cautious and indecisive. He advanced sluggishly over the next ten days, squandering this brief window of opportunity. By the time Juli committed to a full-scale offensive towards Sardinia's capital, the French army had already arrived. Unwilling to confront this combined force, Juli retreated across the Po where he began setting up a defensive line. The Allies, now concentrated and holding a numerical superiority, formulated a daring plan to outflank Juli's position. On the 28th of May, Napoleon took 90,000 men and advanced rapidly north. To quickly bypass the Austrian defenses, he leveraged railways to transport tens of thousands of soldiers, something never before seen in warfare. Plagued by confusion and indecision, Juli hesitated in the face of this Allied advance. On June 2nd, he finally ordered a retreat behind the Ticino River to counter the approaching enemy. But his hope of slowing the Allies was shattered when an Austrian commander mistakenly abandoned a vital fortress that guarded a key river crossing. Seizing the opportunity, French forces raced across the deserted bridge and attacked the Austrians, entrenched in the town of Magenta. After many hours of hard fighting, French soldiers drove the defenders from their forward positions and then charged into the town itself. The Austrians resisted bravely, but eventually gave way, losing over 10,000 men, twice that of the French. As an unnerved Juli began yet another retreat, the Allied armies entered Milan in triumph, to the cheering of enthusiastic crowds. However, intoxicated by success, the Allies failed to pursue the Austrians, who pulled back unharassed. When the Franco-Sardinian army was finally ready to resume, no one at headquarters was sure of the enemy's whereabouts. Although they lacked definitive information, the Allies believed that Juli was likely regrouping in the Quadrilateral, an area containing four powerful fortresses that would provide him with a strong defensive advantage. In spite of the risk, Napoleon ordered his men towards the region, hoping to deal a decisive blow. Indeed, the Austrians have retreated to the Quadrilateral, where a humiliated General Juli was summarily dismissed. Emperor Franz Joseph himself took command, and after briefly resting and reorganizing the army, ordered a surprise offensive. Believing that the French are strung out crossing the Chiesa river 30 kilometers away, he planned to pin them down with a frontal assault and outflank them from the south before they could concentrate. But the French were far closer than Franz Joseph and his advisors suspected. Incredibly, both sides have neglected to perform even minimal reconnaissance, resulting in the two armies being separated by only a few kilometers and oblivious to each other as darkness fell on the 23rd. Well before dawn on June 24th, the French army rose and prepared to continue their march towards the Mincio river. Napoleon has ordered the 1st and 2nd Corps to follow the steep ridgeline towards Solferino and Cavriana, respectively. 3rd and 4th Corps were to advance across the open plains towards Guidizzolo. The Sardinians planned to march through broken hilly terrain towards Pozzalenco. But when the sun rose and the mist cleared, the allied armies were shocked to find that the hills were already occupied by the enemy. Sporadic fighting broke out as the leading French units encountered Austrian outposts. Word was quickly passed to Napoleon, who climbed a church tower at Castiglione around 7.30am to verify the accounts for himself. Napoleon III, while not a military genius like his uncle, understood the importance of commanding the heights around Solferino. Any attack on either side would be easily outflanked and subjected to enfilading artillery fire. Furthermore, Solferino was the hinge point of the Austrian line, and a breakthrough there could split the enemy army and disrupt their coordination. Napoleon acted decisively, directing the 1st and 2nd Corps to attack Solferino, while the rest of the allied army was to protect the flanks and pin down the enemy. In the north, the Sardinians, who have made little contribution to the campaign so far, were eager for a chance to prove themselves. But their advance was slow, with units strung out for miles. Although they possessed a significant numerical superiority, they failed to take advantage of it by concentrating their forces. Instead, when they encountered an Austrian corps commanded by the talented General Benedeck, the Sardinians attacked piecemeal and were easily repulsed. It was not until mid-morning that they were able to capture portions of the critical San Martino hill, only to be driven out again by a ferocious Austrian counterattack. Isolated from the main battle, fighting in the north ground on like this for the rest of the day, with neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. On the southern flank, Contreaubert's 3rd Corps and Niel's 4th Corps had been marching since 2am, completely unaware that four corps of the Austrian 1st Army lay in their path. Around 5am, Niel encountered the leading units of this force at Medeli, beating them back over several hours of intense combat. Undeterred by this encounter, and not yet realizing the full strength of the enemy, Niel decided to push on to Guidizolo, stumbling into the bulk of the Austrian 1st Army, a force twice his size. The 4th Corps was now in a fight for its very survival, heroically driving back wave after wave of Austrian attacks, and against all odds, holding its ground. 3rd Corps meanwhile continued to move forward slowly, its objective split between helping the increasingly desperate 4th Corps, and guarding against a possible Austrian attack from Mantua. At the same time, fighting in the center had intensified after the early morning encounters. 1st Corps drove back the enemy from their initial line, and after hard fighting, were able to capture the hills in front of Solferino. What they then saw before them was a veritable fortress. Every hill was entrenched with dozens of cannons, while the town convent and walled cemetery were packed with thousands of soldiers. Their task was made even more difficult when General Mac Mahon was unable to commit 2nd Corps to the attack. Not only was he concerned by enemy troops massing along his front, but moving towards Solferino would also widen a dangerously large gap to his south. Aware that such a rift would've threatened the cohesion of his line, Napoleon promptly ordered all available cavalry and artillery to close the gap. However, it would take more than an hour for these reinforcements to arrive. Even then, the line remained critically thin when Mac Mahon left to join the attack on Solferino. Had Franz Joseph seized the initiative and launched a full-scale attack to overwhelm the vulnerable French forces in the south, Austria could have achieved a much-needed victory. The Emperor, however, was young and inexperienced. In the chaos of an unexpected battle, he became cautious, and did nothing. By contrast, General Schwarzenberg decided to mount an attack against the weak French line in front of him. But without additional support, his effort was insufficient. The advance was soon checked by over 40 rifled cannon of 2nd Corps that decimated his forces. Eventually, French cavalry arrived and charged down his remaining men, who fled with heavy losses. With the Austrian attack repulsed and 3rd Corps finally arriving to support Niel, Mac Mahon was able to turn his full attention back to Solferino, where fighting continued to rage. Barrage's 1st Corps had pushed forward numerous times, only to be forced back by a hail of fire from the entrenched defenders. Napoleon himself joined 1st Corps, bravely encouraging his men near the front line, even as several of his staff officers were seriously wounded around him. 2nd Corps and its fearless Algerian warriors arrived around 11am to support the intense struggle for the well-defended ridge. Nevertheless, Austrian forces continued to hold their ground, pouring devastating volleys into the packed French ranks. With the French unable to make progress, Napoleon determined that reinforcements were needed to drive home the faltering attack. He had no choice but to commit the infantry of his Imperial Guard, who until now had been held in reserve. Around 1.30pm several batteries of French artillery opened a devastating cannonade, as nearly 40,000 soldiers surged onto the fortified heights. The Austrians resisted desperately, as the French viciously clawed their way forward. In the face of this unrelenting onslaught, the defenders buckled and began to retreat. Finally, the convent, cemetery and village of Solferino fell into French hands. Around the same time, Macmahon's two divisions overran San Cassiano and Monte Fontana, solidifying control of the hard-won heights. With the Austrian centre on the verge of collapse, Franz Joseph resolved to organise a final counter-strike in the hope of salvaging the battle. He ordered Forward Field Marshal Wimfen's entire First Army, in a monumental effort to break through to Castiglione. Around 3.30pm Austrian horsemen crashed into the French Guard cavalry and initially made considerable progress, until General Sollet, commanding the Guard artillery, positioned 42 guns in a grand battery, whose overwhelming fire drove off the attackers. To the south, Niel was also under severe pressure from this attack. But despite their fatigue from many hours of continuous combat, IV Corps was able to withstand the latest assault. Even after the successful French defence in the south, the Austrian First Army remained a formidable force, its soldiers still eager to fight. But Marshal Wimfen was unduly discouraged by the failure of the initial assault, and ordered his army to retreat. Austrian General Benedek's successful stand in the north was not enough to counteract the collapse of the centre, and the retreat of Wimfen. Franz Joseph was finally convinced that defeat was inevitable. At 5pm, the distraught Emperor ordered a full retreat. As the beaten Austrians were pulling back, a violent storm rolled over the battlefield, unleashing a torrent of rain. Soldiers on both sides were drenched and exhausted after 12 hours of combat in the blistering heat. Fighting slowly died off across the bloodstained landscape, with the allied armies unable to launch an effective pursuit against their fleeing enemy. Napoleon III had achieved a great victory, but was deeply shaken by the heavy cost. The French have lost nearly 1,700 killed and 9,000 wounded, the Sardinians over 5,500 as a result of their repeated unsuccessful attacks. However, the Austrians have incurred far greater losses, with 22,000 men killed, wounded, or captured. While the Austrian army remained a significant force on paper, and Prussia was mobilising to assist them, the morale of the soldiers and high command was broken. Franz Joseph had had enough. Within days of the battle, he agreed to a ceasefire, followed quickly by Napoleon's surprisingly lenient peace terms. Lombardy was awarded to France, who then ceded it to Pierremont Sardinia. France in turn was granted Nice and Savoy. Austria temporarily retained control of the Venetian provinces, but its domination of the region was over. Within a year of the Battle of Solferino, most of Italy was annexed to Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. On March 17th, 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed. Napoleon III had achieved his greatest military success, and accomplished his long-standing desire to see an independent Italy. Ironically, his weakening of Austria as a result of this victory would ultimately allow Prussia to rise as the greatest power in Europe, leading to his own downfall in 1870, during the disastrous Franco-Prussian War. If you've made it this far into the video, thank you for watching, and if you'd like to support our work like all these amazing people do, head over to our Patreon page, where you can get ad-free early access to our videos, for as little as $1. Or you can support us by subscribing to our channel and leaving a comment as a sacrifice to the algorithm. As always, we'll see you in the next one.