千人隊
In 1860, the academy contributed to the Italian Unification with seventy students out of 170 Bergamasque Hunters of the Alps taking part in Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, aimed at invading the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and annexing its territory to the incipient Kingdom of Italy in 1861. In 2011, the academy took part in the celebration of the 150° anniversary of the Italian Unification: for the occasion, the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, visited Bergamo, a town that Garibaldi hailed as "La" "Città dei Mille", because of the major role the Alpine city played in the Expedition of the Thousand.