Meanwhile, Giuseppe Garibaldi arrived in Marseille on October 7, to help the Republic which had succeeded the Second French Empire of Napoleon III , whose armies had defeated it in Rome in 1849 and at the Battle of Mentana in 1867. In mid-October, the general was charged by the provisional government to organize an army in the east of France (it is in Dole theOctober 13). This is a mission similar to that carried out between the Lombard lakes in 1848 and 1859, and to operations in Trentino in 1866: to act in a secondary area of operations but with a significant strategic role.