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  The night had passed without special incident and the morning began quietly, although 18 March had been designated as the date of revolt according to rumours. Such silence had not occurred in Milan for a long time. However, as soon as the hour came when the shops used to open, people came running past the post and put posters with big letters on the street corners. They were about the news coming from Vienna last night. Habitually, many people crowd around news posters in Milan, but on the 18th of March huge crowds collected around every single poster. Near us, the crowd grew larger every minute, but it remained peaceful. Being careful, I let the big gate close. Suddenly, the crowd was running around chaotically and with a great noise, doors and windows were slammed shut. My returning orderly reported that the tricolour had been raised at the City Hall and that the Podesta (Mayor) accompanied by the Councillors had just gone to the Government Buildings. I had to expect the revolutionary spirit to explode at any minute, and I admit that the burden of responsibility resting on my shoulders nearly overwhelmed me.

  However, as the bell rang at midday I was relieved of my dangerous post by an old corporal of my company. The brave man did not foresee that he had but a few hours to live: the black-hearted treachery would make a sad end of him and his comrades. He died loyal to his duty, defending his post to the last drop of blood.3

  Milan in 1848

  As Bruna related, at about the same time that he and his men were relieved, a large group of citizens, led by vocal Republicans, had appeared outside the City Hall, demanding a Civic Guard, and immediate instatement of the Imperial Concessions. Mayor Casati, alarmed by the sheer size and menacing attitude of what was rapidly becoming a mob, realised immediately that he could either take the lead, or be regarded as a traitor. Within minutes, he was leading the massive demonstration, perhaps up to 20,000 people, some armed with a variety of weapons, towards the Governor’s Palace, a tricolour at its head.

  The detachment on guard at the building, in the east of the city, south of the Porta Orientale, commanded by a corporal, consisted of one Gefreiter, and ten men from IR Paumgarten. This small unit attempted to halt the multitude. Only two men survived4. The mob, for now it was unquestionably one, stormed into the building and began to loot it. Although some attempts were made by Casati and others to stop the looting and simple wanton destruction, it was out of control. Most of those employed there wisely disappeared. Only one man remained – Vice Governor O’Donnell.

  Casati found O’Donnell in the Council Chamber. Both men must have reflected on their dealings earlier that day. Now, a group of radical republicans also entered the Chamber. One of their number, Enrico Cernuschi, presented O’Donnell with three major demands; the formation of a National Guard, the authority over the police was to be vested in the Municipality, and the existing police force was to be disbanded. Although the terrified O’Donnell pleaded that he had no authority to grant such measures, Cernuschi and the others dragged him out onto the balcony, where he was forced to sign and declare each one, in front of the great mass of people outside, who wildly cheered the declarations.

  After this, taking O’Donnell as a hostage, Casati, with a large crowd, began to make his way back to City Hall. On the way, however, they came upon an Austrian patrol, which fired upon them, causing several casualties, and the majority of the people stampeded. Casati was forced to make his headquarters in a private residence, the Casa Vidiserti.

  Already, barricades began to appear in the city centre. The Alarm Gun sounded in the castle at 13:00, a command to all troops of the garrison to move to their designated Alarm Positions.5 Most units were able to reach their assigned areas without much difficulty, but the number of barricades would continue to multiply. In the city centre, with narrow streets, at most, a little under two metres wide, these barricades would become serious obstacles to movement by the troops. Furthermore, soon, any movement would take place under a hail of projectiles of all kinds. One major advantage to the insurgents was that the Castle, though strong, unlike many Italian cities did not dominate Milan from a height. The Cathedral most certainly did, but was obviously unsuitable for artillery.

  Casati and Radetzky exchanged correspondence via intermediaries, the Marshal believing Mayor Casati to be at City Hall. He threatened to bombard the city, with Casati consequently asking the citizenry to cease arming themselves. Both men were playing for time. In the meanwhile, disorder grew.

  At 19:00, the Marshal ordered the retaking of City Hall. Colonel Döll, with three companies of his regiment, IR Paumgarten, and two 6 pounder cannon, Captain Baron Buirette, moved off in heavy rain. A fourth company, 10/IR Paumgarten, Captain Ritter von Hennuy, moved to cover the San Nazaro Road, behind the great municipal building, in order to surround it completely. Second-Lieutenant Friedrich von Fischer was leading a platoon in Colonel Döll’s column, and describes the beginning of the attack:

  At the head of the main column, formed with three companies, we had the 2 guns which were deployed on the little Ponte Vetro Square, and shot diffusely against the long road. I don’t remember what the precise objective of those shots was, but I think that we fired simply to terrorise the eventual defenders.

  After some time the fire of the two guns ceased, and the entire column, with the exception of my platoon which was left with the guns, rushed toward the road. A few seconds passed, and then the command was cried out: “turn right” and the whole column ran back to Piazza Ponte Vetro and rallied at the sides of the guns, in the little road which leads in Piazza Castello.

  The column, as soon as it arrived at the Broletto (City Hall), had been met with a rain of every kind of projectile: rifles, stones, woods: ten soldiers were left on the ground, wounded more or less seriously; the losses would have been even more disastrous, if we had not retreated so hastily.

  When the column finished its redeployment on the rear, Colonel Döll approached me and ordered me to try to penetrate the Broletto with my platoon. He used those words: “This is an action for few people and not for large groups”.

  I divided my platoon in two lines: the first line advanced on the left, the second one on the road, along the houses. I ordered the soldiers to keep an eye open on every window of the surrounding houses, and to shoot anyone who would show himself. Thus we marched toward the Broletto.

  The closer we came to the Broletto, the more we were made the object of savage shootings. When we reached the municipal palace we were met with the same tremendous fire which had had forced the main column to fall back. But my soldiers were flattening themselves against the houses and so the stones, the wood, and the furniture fell in the road. On the other hand, the darkness made it impossible for the insurgents to aim precisely with their guns, so I did not suffer much loss at all.6

  After a four hour struggle, the assailants crossing barricades, and with the infantry pioneers, and finally, the field guns smashing in the gates, the building was stormed, its defenders, under the direction of 70 year old Teodoro Lecchi7, fighting back with such weapons as they possessed, including about 60 firearms. Some 300 of the occupants were captured, many of them members of the Milanese nobility. Later, a crowd appeared outside the building, but finding it strongly occupied, they moved off. The prisoners were taken to the Castle. Unfortunately for Radetzky, neither Mayor Casati nor any of the prominent leaders of the uprising were at the Town Hall, since they had been scattered and driven elsewhere, as related above. The chance of immediately cutting off the head of the revolt had misfired. Even had Casati been taken prisoner, however, the spontaneous nature of the uprising, and its initial lack of organisation, may well have ensured its survival until other potential leaders appeared.

  Around midnight, the struggle in the streets fizzled out, as the citizens returned to their homes. A heavy rain fell on the city through the night. The respite gave the troops the chance to demolish a number of barricades. Each of the city gates was occupied, and two cannon placed there, to prevent help from the outside reaching the insurgents.

  Day
2

  March 19th

  Sunday dawned to the incongruous noise of church bells, cannon, and small arms fire. The bells would continue to ring during much of the struggle, in the hope of hindering Austrian communications. The weather had cleared, and it would prove to be the only day without rain for the remainder of the revolt. At around 05:00, 9/Kaiser Jäger, Captain Bentieser, were ordered by Major-General Rath into the gallery and onto the roof of the Cathedral, from where they could fire down on both rooftops and streets. This they did with considerable effect throughout the day.

  During the course of the day, I and II/IR Prohaska, and I and II/IR Geppert were summoned to Milan. Of the former, scattered in small garrisons north of Milan, 10 companies were able to respond. The remaining two were prevented doing from doing so by an insurrection in Como. Of the latter regiment, I Battalion was able to comply, but only three companies of II Battalion from Monza could, once again due to another local rebellion.

  As the day continued, with a constant shower of projectiles of every sort, as well as boiling water and turpentine from above, and more firearms from various sources being used against them, the soldiers faced mounting numbers of barricades, of all shapes and sizes. I/IR Reisinger was, that morning, ordered to reopen communications with a police station near the Scala Theatre. The regimental history clearly relates the great difficulties involved in coping with the multitude of barricades in the narrow streets and alleyways.

  Street fighting in Milan 1848 (Adam Brothers)

  On the 19th, at 9 AM, one and a half companies, and two 6 pounder guns, were sent against the Theatre La Scala, in order to establish contact with the police station at the Contrada St. Margherita. The detachment easily overcame several barricades at the Church of St. Giuseppe in the Contrada Andegari, and expelled the insurgents from three large barricades, at the place of the aristocrat’s Casino, and on the flanks of the La Scala Place. Communications with the police station were re-established, and the insurgents withdrew to the Contrada del Giardino where several barricades were blocking the connection over the Corso di Porto to the Mint (Zecca). In order to clear the way, an attack was launched, and the first two barricades were removed. At the third, though, an intensive shower of stones greeted the troops; they, nevertheless, courageously continued the attack until they reached a fourth, very large barricade, constructed out of a multitude of materials. This, and a hail of stones from the second floor of the Casa Poldi, made further progress impossible. The two guns opened up a lively fire, with canister, at the windows of the roofed building; as the ammunition was soon exhausted, however, nothing could be achieved against this redoubtable and strongly garrisoned building. The command returned to the castle.8

  At the church of San Maria Segreta, a firefight left an officer and two Hungarian grenadiers wounded. The military was finding that movement in the narrow, crooked winding passageways of the centre of the city was becoming increasingly difficult. Each time a barricade was demolished, it would, if the troops moved on, be immediately rebuilt. These were built of every conceivable material – indeed, in one was found a grand piano! As discussed, they also were of every possible shape and size. The total number of them eventually reached, perhaps, 1,700. 9

  As troops, in columns of one or two companies, with two to three guns, attempted to dismantle the barricades, they found it increasingly difficult. The fighting was particularly heavy in the northeast of the city, especially around the Seminary and the Mint, near the Porta Orientale. 38 year old Count Luigi Torelli narrated the death of Giuseppe Broggi, a noted marksman who was killed there.

  Amongst the people gathered in the Taverna House, Giulini was the man who I knew best. He was the man who had sent my letters back in Piedmont and now was the most persistent in asking me (to come). When I had accomplished this duty, I went back to the San Babila barricade, and decided to stay there. The defenders were not many, being in total fifteen ill-armed men; indeed, some defenders brought with them old shotguns, while others were armed with better rifles, which had been taken from the disarmed guards.

  The fighting, however, had reached a lull, and many curious men began to intermingle with the fighters: however, suddenly, they heard the voice of the gun from Porta Orientale. The curious rapidly disappeared, while the fighters again took position around the barricade: I was carrying my big pistols, which I thought safer than the shotguns. I don’t know, because the fighting was resumed after such a long lull, but it was rumoured that the cause was an infamous marksman, who, armed with an excellent Swiss carbine, went to the Serbelloni House, moving from San Babila and the bridge, in order to harass the troops with his carbine.

  This house, which merited the title of a grand palace, was on a corner of the Porta Orientale Avenue, and was in a special position from where it was possible to aim at the distant troops. So, this brave marksman, named Broggi, took position in the house, and began to fire against the Austrian troops; the fire must have been somewhat accurate, because they resumed the fighting. But, they no longer fired against the barricade, since it was now impossible from their present position, but instead did great damage to the road and to the houses. However, after some time, they advanced, and two of their guns appeared shortly afterwards, in a parallel position at that part of the barricade near Bagutta Road. We tried to answer their fire, but they were too distant, and so our efforts proved useless. Luckily, their fire was also useless, because the barricade offered us a stupendous shelter.

  However, this new fighting had a sad outcome, because poor Broggi died. The struggle had lasted a whole hour, and then the firing ceased: at that moment, a young man arrived, who, if I am not mistaken, was called Rusca. I didn’t know him, and after that day, I never saw him again. He had in his hands a carbine, spotted with blood. ‘’What’s happened?”, I asked. He replied, “Poor Broggi died: a ricocheting cannonball struck him, cutting him in two”. Rusca, who was near Broggi when he died, ran towards him only as far as the grim corpse, and took the carbine. Our grief was great, since Broggi was a fine marksman, while our soldiers were only brave men, but not trained to use arms. Rusca went to the Municipality, to tell the story of Broggi’s death; shortly afterwards, since all was quiet, I joined him, in order to collect some news about the fighting in the other parts of the city.

  Also on this day, the revolution began to assume a more organised nature. Carlo Cattaneo, an influential progressive reformer, who had always advocated reform within the Empire, found himself in a situation where the institutions he wished to reform seemed to be getting swept away. Having decided to join the revolutionary groups, it was Cattaneo who advised that the Mayor and the other leaders move their headquarters to the Casa Taverna, a house safer and more suitable for defence, some 500 metres north of the Cathedral. This was immediately done. In addition, largely due to the efforts of a courageous young woman, Luigia Battistotti-Sassi, the paramilitary Finanzieri in the city joined the side of the revolutionaries.

  As the fighting continued unabated, Radetzky decided to abandon the claustrophobic labyrinth of the centre of the city, and establish a cordon around it, in an attempt to deny food, weapons, and ammunition to the uprising. In addition, it was proving difficult to keep troops in these areas supplied. This movement took place overnight. Brigade Wohlgemuth established a cordon to the north of the Inner City, roughly from the Castle to the Porta Orientale, whilst that of Clam covered the south and east, towards the Porta Tosa. Captain Bentieser’s Kaiser Jäger company, in the Cathedral, running short of both food and ammunition, receiving the order to withdraw, was able to fight its way out. A tricolour was soon flying from the roof, put there by none other than Torelli, with two of his friends.

  Whatever the purpose of the Austrian withdrawal from the central districts, it was, to the populace, a clear retreat, and served to encourage the insurrection, and to allow it to develop the first real steps towards organisation and a co-ordinated effort. Initially, there was some doubt amongst the populace that the Austrians were pul
ling back. Once the tricolour was seen on the Cathedral, however, there could be no question. Radetzky had made a bad mistake.

  Day 3

  March 20th

  Dawn broke murky and wet, and it would continue to rain until nightfall. The revolt took on an entirely different aspect on this eventful Monday. Up to now, the vague direction of events had been in the hands of Casati and his colleagues of the City Council. Much more was needed, and many of the fighters in the streets were clamouring for a change. There were calls for a republic to be declared. Carlo Cattaneo, realising the potential divisiveness of this, cleverly advocated the setting up of a new Council of War, to control the fighting, whilst leaving the City authorities intact. It was an excellent short-term measure, and was quickly adopted. The Council of War consisted of Cattaneo himself, and three other men, Enrico Cernuschi, one of those who had been crucial in the initial sparking off of the conflict, Giorgio Clerici, and Giulio Terzaghi.

  At noon, an emissary from Radetzky, an Ottochaner officer, Major Baron von Ettinghausen, appeared at the Casa Taverna under a flag of truce. He brought proposals for a ceasefire. A debate ensued on the subject, with Casati being in favour of the measure, supported by others who considered it may give a breathing space for the Piedmontese to arrive. Cattaneo and his supporters were completely against any such measure, and the proposal was rejected. Ettinghausen, upon departing, said, in Italian, “Farewell, brave and valiant gentlemen.”

  Earlier that morning, the main police station was stormed, and a number of weapons captured. The much-hated Chief of Police, Luigi Bolza, was taken prisoner, and dragged before the Council of War. Blamed for the deaths and injuries in the city, of the previous September as well as of the January Tobacco Riots, Bolza’s life hung by a thread. To demands for his death, Cattaneo said, “Should you kill him, you would do a just thing; should you not kill him, you would do a Holy thing.” Bolza, remarkably, given the circumstances, was spared.