Manfredo Fanti was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 general.

Biography

Manfredo Fanti was born at Carpi (Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna

Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....

) and educated at the military college of Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

.

In 1831 he was implicated in the revolutionary movement organized by Ciro Menotti

Ciro Menotti

Ciro Menotti was an Italian patriot.-Biography:Menotti was born in Migliarina, near Carpi, then part of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.A member of the Carboneria since 1817, he was a fervent democratic and patriot...

, and was condemned to death and hanged in effigy, but escaped to France, where he was given an appointment in the French corps of engineers. In 1833 he took part in Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...

's abortive attempt to invade Savoy, and in 1835 he went to Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 to serve in Queen Christina

Maria Christina of Austria

Maria Christina of Austria was Queen consort of Spain as the second wife of King Alfonso XII of Spain...

's army against the Carlists. There he remained for thirteen years, distinguishing himself in battle and rising to a high staff appointment.

But on the outbreak of the war between Piedmont and Austria in 1848 he hurried back to Italy, and although at first his services were rejected both by the Piedmontese government and the Lombard provisional government, he was afterwards given the command of a Lombard brigade. In the general confusion following on Charles Albert

Charles Albert of Sardinia

Charles Albert was the King of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849. He succeeded his distant cousin Charles Felix, and his name is bound with the first Italian statute and the First War of Independence...

's defeat on the Mincio and his retreat to Milan, where the people rose against the unhappy king, Fanti's courage and tact saved the situation. He was elected member of the Piedmontese chamber in 1849, and on the renewal of the campaign he again commanded a Lombard brigade under General Ramorino.

After the Piedmontese defeat at Novara

Battle of Novara (1849)

The Battle of Novara or Battle of Bicocca was one of the battles fought between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia during the First Italian War of Independence, within the era of Italian unification...

 (March 23) peace was made, but a rising broke out at Genoa, and Fanti with great difficulty restrained his Lombards from taking part in it. But he was suspected as a Mazzinian and a soldier of fortune by the higher Piedmontese officers, and they insisted on his being courtmartialled for his operations under Ramorino (who had been tried and shot). Although honorably acquitted, he was not employed again until the Crimean expedition of 1855.

In the second of the Italian Independence wars

Italian Independence wars

The Wars of Italian Independence were three wars fought between Italian states and the Austrian Empire between 1848 and 1866, ending with the conquest of the entire Italian Peninsula...

, in 1859, Fanti commanded the 2nd division, and contributed to the victories of Palestro

Battle of Palestro

The Battle of Palestro was fought on 30/31 May 1859 between the Austrian Empire and the combined forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and France. The Franco-Piedmontese forces were victorious...

, Magenta

Battle of Magenta

The Battle of Magenta was fought on June 4, 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence, resulting in a French-Sardinian victory under Napoleon III against the Austrians under Marshal Ferencz Gyulai....

 and San Martino

Battle of Solferino

The Battle of Solferino, , was fought on June 24, 1859 and resulted in the victory of the allied French Army under Napoleon III and Sardinian Army under Victor Emmanuel II against the Austrian Army under Emperor Franz Joseph I; it was the last major battle in world...

. After the peace of Villafranca he was sent to organize the army of the Central Italian League (composed of the provisional governments of Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna), and converted it in a few months into a well-drilled body of 45,000 men, whose function was to be ready to intervene in the Papal States on the outbreak of a revolution.

He showed statesmanlike qualities in steering a clear course between the exaggerated prudence of Baron Ricasoli

Bettino Ricasoli

Bettino Ricàsoli, 1.º Barone Ricàsoli, 1.º Conte di Brolio was an Italian statesman.-Biography:...

, who wished to recall the troops from the frontier, and the impetuosity of Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

, his second-in-command, who was anxious to invade Romagna prematurely, even at the risk of Austrian intervention. Fanti's firmness led to Garibaldi's resignation. In January 1860 Fanti became minister of war and marine under Cavour, and incorporated the Leagues army in that of Piedmont.

In the meanwhile Garibaldi had invaded Sicily with his Redshirts, and King Victor Emmanuel decided at last that he too must intervene; Fanti was given the chief command of a strong Italian force which invaded the Papal States, seized Ancona and other fortresses, and defeated the Papal army at Castelfidardo

Battle of Castelfidardo

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....

, where the enemy's commander, General Lamorciere, was captured. In three weeks Fanti had conquered the Marche and Umbria and taken 28,000 prisoners. When the army entered Neapolitan territory the king took the chief command, with Fanti as chief of the staff.

After defeating a large Neapolitan force at Mola and organizing the siege operations around Gaeta

Siege of Gaeta (1860)

The Siege of Gaeta was the concluding event of the war between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It started on November 5, 1860 and ended February 13, 1861, and took place in Gaeta, in today's Southern Lazio .-Background:...

, Fanti returned to the war office at Turin to carry out important army reforms. His attitude in opposing the admission of Garibaldi's 7,000 officers into the regular army with their own grades made him the object of great unpopularity for a time, and led to a severe reprimand from Cavour. On the death of the latter (June 7, 1861) he resigned office and took command of the Seventh Army corps.

His health, however, had now broken down, and after four years suffering he died in Florence in 1865. His loss was greatly felt in the war of 1866.