Standing Firm Against the Tide in Brescia in 1848

Revolutions are in themselves a civil war. Part of the history less familiar to many is the Revolution of 1848 - and what happened in Italy during it. Here is a small read of one critical junction city in northern Italy that just happened to have the division headquarters there as well a combat brigade. Many of us have seen the effectiveness of revolutionary tracts and messages and thoughts through the years - so we probably have a better grasp of what the Austrians were facing as it was building. The Italians had built up the revolutionary thought process using the French republican revolutionary thought. The critical item then was no one really knew how effective it was going to be. History is a bit slanted on what happened next - often saying that all the Italian battalions went over to the revolution - or the majority. And yet, though many did, it was not all. Those Regiments that did not would be in the thick of the fighting in 1848 and 49 in the war against Piedmonte-Sardinia and the revolutionaries. History was rewritten later after WW1 to reflect that. But it was a close thing. Most of the troops on outpost duty would have been the IR 17 Slovenes - who were highly reliable and crack troops. That would have left the garrison heavily outnumbered if the whole IR 38 BN had gone over. It would have been a disaster.