page_title: First Italian War of Independence
section_title: The Piedmontese retreat towards Milan (27 July – 3 August 1848)
hierarchical_section_title: First Italian War of Independence / The second phase of the first campaign (May–August 1848) / The Piedmontese retreat towards Milan (27 July – 3 August 1848)
caption_attribution_description: Battaglia di Milano (5-6 agosto 1848), litografia
context_page_description: The First Italian War of Independence was part of the Italian unification or Risorgimento. It was fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia and Italian volunteers against the Austrian Empire and other conservative states from 23 March 1848 to 22 August 1849 in the Italian peninsula.
  The conflict was preceded by the outbreak of the Sicilian revolution of 1848 against the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. It was precipitated by riots in the cities of Milan and Venice, which rebelled against Austria and established their own governments.
  The part of the conflict which was fought by King Charles Albert against Austria in northern Italy was a Royal war and consisted of two campaigns. In both campaigns, the Kingdom of Sardinia attacked the Austrian Empire and after initial victories was decisively defeated, losing the war as a result. The decisive events of the first and second campaigns were the battles at Custoza and Novara, respectively.
  At the beginning of the royal war, the Kingdom of Sardinia was supported by the Papal States and the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, which then withdrew, having barely participated in the fighting at all.
context_section_description: At 8 am on 27 July 1848, a council of war at Goito, presided over by Charles Albert, decreed that it was necessary to open negotiations with the enemy for an eventual truce. A small Piedmontese delegation, which included colonel Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, was sent to the Austrian camp. Eusebio Bava however gave orders to the troops to deploy to the north of Goito, but not all of them obeyed. Following the recent defeat, there were many instances of indiscipline and demoralisation. The general Claudio Seyssel d'Aix di Sommariva, commandant of the 1st division at Custoza, ignored the orders, disengaged and set off with the Aosta Brigade in a southerly direction, towards the lower course of the river Oglio, along with general Vittorio Garretti di Ferrere (commander of the 2nd division), with the Casale Brigade.
  In the afternoon, the delegation sent to the Austrian camp returned and reported that Radetzky was willing to allow a truce, on the condition that the Piedmontese withdraw their army to the Adda and return Pescheria, Venetia, Osoppo (still in Venetian hands at this point) and the duchies of Modena and Parma (the latter had voted for annexation by the kingdom of Sardinia in the spring) to Austria. When he heard these conditions, Charles Albert exclaimed, "I would rather die!".
  At 9pm, a general retreat towards the Oglio began and at 12 on 28 July, the Piedmontese army collected itself beyond the river. Bava realised that the Oglio was not a viable defensive position and after ten hours of break he continued the march to the west. The Austrians followed the Piedmontese, since they did not want to lose contact and in order to give the impression of imminent danger, thereby speeding up the retreat and causing Charles Albert's troops to get strung out.
  On 31 July 1848, the whole Piedmontese army had crossed the Adda and was ready to resist. But only one day later, at Crotta d'Adda, the defensive line was collapsing. In the zone of the 1st division, in fact, the commandant Sommariva decided to abandon the right bank of the river, as a result of the impossibility of stationing artillery in the marshy land, a misunderstanding of the enemy's intentions and an overestimation of his own forces. Thus the Austrians were able to cross. Sommariva, who had already been responsible for the disengagement on 27 July, pulled back to Piacenza with all his forces, causing the isolation of the remainder.
  At this point, the defensive line on the Adda was lost and against the wishes of almost all his generals, Charles Albert wanted to concentrate his whole army in Milan, so as not to lose the dynastic advantages that he had acquired there. The provisional government of Milan had actually voted in a referendum to accept annexation by Piedmont on 8 June. There was, however, the danger of the proclamation in Lombardy of a republic, which would likely be followed by a sustained intervention from the Second French Republic. This outcome would have been unwelcome for the Kingdom of Sardinia as much as for Austria.
  The Piedmontese army marched north, reaching Lodi on 2 August, where the king relieved Sommariva and Di Ferrere of their commands as a result of their actions over the preceding week. On 3 August, at 12 o'clock, the advance guard of the Piedmontese army reached the outskirts of Milan.
caption: The Austrians approach Milan at the beginning of August 1848.
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