On 2 and 3 May 1815 King Joachim Murat's Neapolitan army attacked an Austrian army under Feldmarschall-Leutnant Bianchi at Tolentino, in central Italy, and on the evening of 3 May it retreated. Within three weeks Murat had lost his kingdom of Naples. On 3 May 1808 French troops in Madrid had shot prisoners from the rising of the day before.
Battle of Tolentino
3 May 1815 · 211 years ago
A marshal on a throne
Joachim Murat, one of Napoleon's marshals, commanded in Spain in 1808 as the Emperor's lieutenant and became King of Naples on 15 July 1808.1
In 1814 Murat allied himself with Austria against France. In March 1815 he turned against the Austrians, and on 30 March he opened the war with a proclamation calling on the Italians to fight for their independence. The historian Silvio de Majo writes that it was later seen as the starting point of the Risorgimento, though at the time it won few followers.2
Two armies and a king
The Austrians sent two forces against him: General Neipperg's troops followed Murat, while Feldmarschall-Leutnant Bianchi's army marched by way of Florence to get ahead of him. Murat gathered the divisions of Livron, Pignatelli-Strongoli and Ambrosio at Macerata, while General Carascosa's division held off Neipperg.3
Bianchi accepted battle against a stronger enemy, write both the unsigned account in the Austrian military journal of 1819 and Commandant M.-H. Weil. Their counts of his force differ: the journal gives him 9,809 infantry, 933 cavalry and 28 guns, Weil 12,304 men in all.4
Two days at Tolentino
On 2 May the divisions of Ambrosio and Livron marched out of Macerata and attacked the Austrians, who held their ground.5
On 3 May thick fog covered the valley in the first hours of the morning. On the Neapolitan right General d'Aquino's troops advanced in squares; under Austrian attack they broke and fled. Among the Neapolitans who fell was the young Duke of Caspoli, son of the Duke of Rocca Romana, mortally wounded near the King.6
Why Murat turned back
That evening couriers brought Murat news from the Abruzzi, behind him: Antrodoco was lost and Aquila was in Austrian hands. He ordered a retreat. Colletta, who fought in Murat's army, writes that the news made him decide to pull back into his kingdom; Weil, that he had already ordered the withdrawal when the couriers met him.7
The sources judge the battle differently. Weil writes that Murat retreated "sans avoir été réellement battu" ("without having really been beaten"; our translation). The Austrian journal ends its account by saying that the Austrians utterly defeated Murat's power (our translation). De Majo calls Tolentino the decisive defeat, and the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani's entry on Bianchi an Austrian victory.8
Counting the cost
The Austrian journal gives Austrian losses as 3 officers and 207 men killed, 22 officers and 435 men wounded, 2 officers and 118 men taken prisoner and 33 men missing; Weil repeats these figures and prints a total of 27 officers and 793 men.9
The journal puts the Neapolitans' killed and wounded at about 1,720, and Weil at 1,722 put out of action on 2 and 3 May. Both add prisoners taken during the retreat, whose number, Weil writes, grew hour by hour.10
The end of a kingdom
On 20 May Generals Carascosa and Colletta, negotiating for Murat, concluded the convention of Casalanza with Bianchi and Neipperg. Murat left Naples by sea, by way of Ischia, for France.11
In October he landed at Pizzo in Calabria with a small band of followers, was captured and was shot there on 13 October 1815. Napoleon's own last campaign is told in our article on Waterloo.12
Second Battle of Fredericksburg, 1863: Sedgwick takes Marye's Heights
3 May 1863 · 163 years ago
While Lee fought Hooker at Chancellorsville, Union troops under Sedgwick attacked the Confederate lines on Marye's Heights above Fredericksburg, Virginia. Jubal Early's outnumbered defenders were driven off and regrouped southwest of the town.
Read the full story of Second Battle of Fredericksburg, 1863: Sedgwick takes Marye's Heights ›Also on this day
1808: In Madrid, French troops shot prisoners taken in the rising of 2 May. An order of the day from Murat, dated 2 May and signed "Joaquin", printed in the Gazeta de Madrid, declared "Pero la sangre francesa vertida clama venganza" ("But the French blood that has been shed cries out for vengeance"; our translation) and ordered that all taken with arms during the rebellion be shot. That evening Murat wrote to Napoleon: "Trente de ces coquins, pris les armes à la main, ont été fusillés; une autre trentaine que nous tenons en prison le sera demain" ("Thirty of these rascals, taken with weapons in hand, have been shot; another thirty or so whom we hold in prison will be tomorrow"; our translation).13
