Decision in Lombardy: The Battle of Solferino, June 24 1859

Before dawn on June 24, 1859, near the small northern Italian town of Solferino, the largest battle on the European continent since the Napoleonic Wars was fought. The crucial encounter of the Second War of Italian Unification raged all day and into the evening, across an 18-kilometer front. This underappreciated battle featured nearly 300,000 men of all arms, led for the last time by their three sovereigns. Today, the Battle of Solferino-San Martino is known as the birthplace of the Red Cr...