On 23 March 1849 Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky's Austrian army defeated the Piedmontese army south of Novara, commanded in practice by the Polish general Wojciech Chrzanowski. That night King Charles Albert of Sardinia abdicated in favor of his son, and the next day an armistice ended the war. On 23 March 1945 British troops began crossing the Rhine.
Battle of Novara
23 March 1849 · 177 years ago
A war resumed
The armistice agreed in August 1848, after the Piedmontese retreat from Lombardy, was denounced by Piedmont on 12 March 1849 and ran out on 20 March.1
This time King Charles Albert did not take the supreme command himself. The Polish general Wojciech Chrzanowski held the effective command, while the king kept it in name. The Enciclopedia Italiana and the historian Bolton King both trace the choice of a foreigner to the quarrels among the Piedmontese generals over the lost campaign of 1848.2
Historians judge Chrzanowski differently. Bolton King, writing in 1899, blamed his indecision for the defeat; Alan Reinerman and Jolanta Pekacz note that his conduct was later severely criticized but find his task very difficult, given the low morale and persistent defects of the Piedmontese army.3
Four days of campaign
Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky crossed the Ticino from Pavia on 20 March and invaded Piedmont. On 21 March his troops met the Piedmontese at La Sforzesca, where they held, and at Mortara, where they were beaten. Chrzanowski then drew his army, about 50,000 men, back to a position on a low ridge south of Novara.4
The fight for La Bicocca
Before noon on 23 March the head of the Austrian II Corps, under D'Aspre, attacked the Piedmontese left. The fight turned on the farm of La Bicocca, which changed hands several times. The king's second son, the Duke of Genoa, drove the Austrians out of it, but Chrzanowski called him back. Charles Albert spent the day where the fire was heaviest.5
From about 3 p.m. Austrian reinforcements came up, the III Corps first. At about half past five a fresh Austrian corps arrived from Confienza on the Piedmontese right; the Vienna account of 1854 names it as Count Thurn's IV Corps, the Enciclopedia Italiana as the I Corps. Around six Radetzky ordered a general advance, and La Bicocca was lost for good. Darkness and heavy rain ended the fighting, and the beaten army crowded back into Novara.6
A king abdicates
That night a Piedmontese general went to the Austrian lines to ask for an armistice. The Austrian terms, which according to Giuseppe Talamo included the occupation of the Lomellina and the fortress of Alessandria, were more than Charles Albert would accept. Late that night he abdicated in favor of his son, the Duke of Savoy, who became King Victor Emmanuel II.7
Within hours the former king left Novara as the Count of Barge, passed through the Austrian lines without being recognized, and went into exile, where he died within months.8
Date and aftermath
On 24 March Radetzky met the new king at Vignale, where the terms of the armistice that ended the war were settled. The battle was fought on 23 March 1849, the date the Austrian and Italian accounts agree on.9
First Battle of Kernstown, 1862: Stonewall Jackson's only defeat
23 March 1862 · 164 years ago
At Kernstown near Winchester, Virginia, Stonewall Jackson attacked Union troops under Nathan Kimball, opening his Shenandoah Valley campaign in the American Civil War. Misled by faulty intelligence, Jackson was beaten, yet his attack kept Union forces tied down in the Valley.
Read the full story of First Battle of Kernstown, 1862: Stonewall Jackson's only defeat ›Also on this day
1945: on the evening of 23 March, after a heavy artillery barrage, Field Marshal Montgomery's 21 Army Group began crossing the Rhine near Rees and Wesel; British commandos went into Wesel that night, and the airborne landings followed on 24 March.10
